In her 2009 article, Jennifer L. Temple points out that
knowledge on caffeine’s effect on children and adolescents is very poorly
misunderstood and underwhemingly studied.
She points out that they are an abundance of caffeine drinks on the
market today and some are even marketed directly toward children, some as young
as four years old. In her article she reviews, among other things: tolerance and addiction to caffeine, and
caffeine self-administration. One thing
that I found particularly interesting about the article is that Temple states
that caffeine is the most commonly used psychoactive substance worldwide. I
guess it makes sense but it is eye opening to see because in everyday life, I
do not really think of caffeine as a psychoactive substance, even though it is
because it affects the nervous system.
Another interesting fact in the article was that children and
adolescents are the fastest demographic of caffeine drinkers at an increase of
70% over the last 30 years. I have no facts to back this up, but I’m willing to
guess that the recent development of a Starbucks every three blocks has
something to do with the spike of adolescent caffeine use. Temple does write
that caffeine use in children has led to physiological tolerance and stresses
for more research to look at the other affects caffeine has on adolescents. I
think that it is important to understand if caffeine use at an early age can
have an effect on somebody down the road or even lead into trying harder
stimulants once they have developed tolerance to caffeine.
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