Adolescence Final
Adolescence Final
Adolescence Final
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ADOLESCENCE
● Adolescence ranges from 12 to 18 years of age
Physical Development
Welcome to the teen years! This is time time in physical development where growth begins to pick
up. In adolescence, there is a huge change called puberty. With this change, there is a higher
growth spurt and it varies within males beginning at age 12 and females at the age of 10 (Mossler,
2014). The growth seems pretty significant, due to the lack of growth in previous years. The height
of adolescents increases about five inches in a year (Mossler, 2014). What is also important to
understand is some differences in male and female puberty. In females, there is an increase in the
hormone estrogen which will help to develop breast tissue, widen the hips, and fat will become more
prominent around the hips (Mossler, 2014). This can be the body preparing for things such as
pregnancy later in life so that the body does not react poorly to being pregnant. In men, the
hormone testosterone increases which will cause the men to develop coarse skin, increased size in
adams apple, and voice change (Mossler, 2014).
Photo Retrieved from https://pxhere.com/en/photo/180040 Language
Development
Much of the development that
occurs in language is based upon
the learning that occurred in
middle childhood. Adolescents
learn how to assess and express
their feeling and express their
emotions through language
(Mossler, 2014). Another thing
that we see in adolescence, is that
they are learning concepts of
rhythm in speech. Being able to
understand differences in tone
and rhythm, helps them to express
sarcasm and irony (Berk, 2013).
Are we not lucky as parents to
finally get to deal with teenage
sarcasm?
Cognitive Development
Much of the development that occurs in this domain in adolescence, will follow them into adulthood.
In these years the child falls into the formal operations of cognitive development according to
theorist Jean Piaget. He believed that children in adolescence are using logical thought processes
(Berk, 2013). This means that they are able to communicate effectively and use problem solving skill
to find solutions to problems they face. This can be seen as hypothetico-deductive reasoning, which
is when a child creates a hypothesis for a problem, and produce logical solutions for it (Berk, 2013).
While the development is essential to the adolescents, they can have thoughts of confusion and
self-consciousness because if it. This can cause what is called cognitive distortion. This can happen
in two different ways. The first is the concept of imaginary audience. When a child feels that they
are the main attraction or main point attention, imaginary audience is what is happening (Berk,
2013). The other concept that can occur is the personal fable. This is where issues of self-esteem
can become an issue. Personal fable is assumed that others are observing and talking about said
child (Berk, 2013). With the huge change in hormonal structure, children in this age group tend to
have issues with these concepts and it cause them to feel negatively about themselves.
Social/Emotional Development
During adolescence, social and emotional aspects of development are more structured. Around this
time, individual differences in self-esteem become more apparent and the way these kids value
certains aspects of life is increasing with their age (Berk, 2013). These kids are really starting to
understand what matters to them and that emotionality give them the ability to set goals and
ensure they do their best to make themselves feel like an effective piece of society. We also see
that prosocial behavior becomes very important for this age of development. Positive social
behaviors that occur between peers, teacher, and parents provides examples to these kids of how
to act around others (Bojczyk, Shriner, & Shriner, 2012). The influences of other around them can
play a major role in their overall social development, so it is important for us as adults to keep
positive actions and reactions consistent.
Moral Reasoning/Self-Regulation
As we enter into this stage, moral reasoning and self-regulation increase to a point where these
kids can effectively keep back aggression and use their logic to understand effective decision
making. On aspect of aggression that does seem to increase during this development is more
relational development. These kids tend to create cliques and within those cliques, we see that
children will talk about each other in a negative way and that is usage if an indirect relational
aggression (Berk, 2013). Unfortunately this seems to be something that occurs in many children in
adolescence but overtime, these children will learn for experience and realize that this is not the
best way to handle situations. Children are always learning through their family and caregivers that
are around them consistently, but in adolescence this becomes more apparent. As they are
beginning to gain their own self-concept and understanding of what they want to be in the world.
They take what they have seen from family and fellow peers and create their own social schemas.
Social and cultural Factors
As mentioned, socially speaking these children are learning from those around them. If parents are
acting a certain way to each other, like fighting for example. It sets a precedent for those
adolescent children and makes that behavior seem appropriate towards others. This can also be
associated with culture. At this point in time, cultural background and rituals have been established
and these have helped the children to create their self-concept.
https://content.ashford.edu/
Bojczyk, K. E., Shriner, B. M., & Shriner, M. (2012). Supporting children’s socialization: A
Mossler, R. (2014). Child and adolescent development ( 2nd ed.). [Electronic version]. Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/