A recent study showed that adolescence now ends at age 25. With the findings, child psychologists can now work with these “children” until that age. According to the study, young people were experiencing an inferiority complex as a result of pressure to leave the home by age 18 or achieve other key milestones by that age.

Psychologists have decided there are three stages of adolescence. Early adolescence ranges from ages 12 through 14. Middle adolescence spans ages 15 through 17. Anyone aged 18 through 25 is classified as late adolescent.

Being the layperson I am, phase one has a three-year span, phase two has a three-year span and phase three covers eight years. Does this make sense?

Researchers feel the brain has not completed development until midway into the 20s and, in some cases, into the 30s. Amazing.

Psychologists suggest we should not rush kids through adolescence but rather allow them to develop over the natural course of things. Really?

Now they are telling us we shouldn’t rush kids to make decisions, get a driver’s license or a job, or try to reach any of those traditional milestones that help strengthen our children in preparation for adulthood.

Aren’t these the same psycho-babblers who told us in the ‘80s we shouldn’t score the games our kids play, no one wins or loses, no grades at school, everyone gets a trophy?

Now we’re finding out that implementing these practices actually set our kids back and made it worse on them.

Since when was 18 years old too young to get a job and help pay for your car or insurance? Since when was 18 or 16 or 14 too young to get a paper route?

I know some lefty is going to call me a stuck-up, Bible-thumping conservative who doesn’t believe in science and can’t understand the concept of cognitive brain development.

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, I agree with the study. According to the study, the adolescent brain “reorganizes itself” several times during the teenage years. The new scanner device they have been using shows the brain actually uses different physical areas as it develops to process information and make decisions.

If this is true, why do we allow “children” who are still developing to drink at age 18 or 21? Do they have the mental capacity to make that decision rationally? Not according to this study. Why do we let them sign contracts or operate dangerous machinery? Why do we force them to go to college and amass a mountain of debt before their brain has developed?

An even bigger question goes to some social issues. Why do we allow 12-year-olds to decide they want an abortion and obtain one facilitated by a stranger without their parents ever knowing? Why do we let 7-, 9- or 15-year-olds decide they are gay, lesbian or transgender? How do they make that kind of life-altering decision when their brain, according to the experts, isn’t capable of making that decision yet?

When it comes to hypocritical logic, the left takes the cake. They constantly beat verbally on the conservative, Bible-thumping right for not having the same respect for science that they do. However, they pick and choose what they want to believe.

We need to deal with the climate-change issue. Recent studies and scientists say there has been no real change in the temperature of the planet in more than 40 years. That’s science.

“A woman’s right to choose to terminate the fetus.” What they mean is a woman’s right to kill a human. Yes, that’s proven by science. They now say a “fetus” can survive outside the womb at 21 weeks, and that all of the human traits are either formed or are forming at 8 weeks. Scientific fact.

If these “kids” need to live at home longer because they don’t have the mental capacity to make adult decisions until they are 25, then how in God’s creation (or your deity of choice) do you allow “children” to decide their sexual orientation and in some cases to get a sex change or gender-reassignment surgery in their early teens? It’s becoming more and more common. They don’t have the capacity to make that decision. Scientific fact.

If the progressive left wants us to adhere to scientific standards, shouldn’t they have to do the same? They’re not being truthful. They are using the same information President Obama uses when he says, “The private sector is doing well,” “It’s all Bush’s fault, “The economy is doing well,” “It’s all the Republicans’ fault.” Do I really need to go on?

If “children” ages 18 through 25 do not have sufficient brain development to make career decisions and live independently, how can children younger than that make life-altering decisions regarding sexual orientation and abortion?

I doubt there’s enough “science” to explain that one to me.

Joe Messina is host of The Real Side (TheRealSide.com), a nationally syndicated talk show that runs on AM-1220 KHTS radio and SCVTV [here]. He is also the current president of the Hart School Board. His commentary normally publishes Mondays.