I followed up on the medium.com link, and it follows a circle jerk of citationless news articles with the only relevant information that it was a British study and commissioned by Nickelodeon. Yes, that Nickelodeon. Apparently, this research was conducted to mark the start of the sitcom Wendell & Vinnie, a show I've never even heard of.
Supposedly, and I have to say supposedly because there isn't an actual link to the 'research' with a method section I can scrutinise, it used a self-report questionnaire wherein people either decided they were mature or immature. Men were more likely than women to describe themselves as immature. The majority of maturity failings weren't actually maturity issues, such as enjoying video games or finding farts funny. Because, well, it was commissioned by Nickelodeon.
Here's the full list of maturity issues:
1. Finding their own farts and burps hilarious
2. Eating fast food at 2:00am
3. Playing videogames
4. Driving too fast or ‘racing’ another car at the lights or on the motorway
5. Sniggering a bit at rude words
6. Driving with loud music
7. Playing practical jokes
8. Trying to beat children at games and sport
9. Staying silent during an argument
10. Not being able to cook simple meals
11. Re-telling the same silly jokes and stories when with the lads
12. Don't like talking about themselves / having proper conversations
13. Hating books/reading because of short attention span/they're boring
14. Doing crazy dance moves
15. Mum still doing their washing
16. Having their Mum still make them breakfast/any meal
17. Wearing trainers to night clubs
18. Owning a skateboard or BMX
19. Not eating vegetables
20. Changing jobs regularly
21. Getting too excited over stag do’s
22. Sometimes trying to do wheelies/stunts on their bike
23. Driving a modified car or one with a loud exhaust/boy racer
24. Showing off about how girls are attracted to them
25. Wearing pyjamas, specifically cartoon pyjamas
26. Using dodgy chat-up lines
27. Showing off about protein shakes/weight-lifting/how much they ‘lift’
28. Littering
29. Wearing saggy-crotched jeans
30. Having a cartoon bedspread
There was some other stuff that groks with other research and anecdotal evidence, but if you want to zero in on a psychological construct as broad as 'emotional maturity', you maybe need a more rigorous research methodology than that. My conclusion? It's a fake study. For parody. Because Nickelodeon.
Just because it's the top result on Google doesn't mean it's true.
