Early Adolescence (12 to 18)

- The period of adolescence between the ages of about 12 to 18, marked by the onset of puberty,
changing gender roles, more autonomous relationships with parents, and more mature relationships with
peers.

-It is a critical phase of development, a period of accelerated growth and change. Behavior patterns
adopted in these years can have lifelong consequences, both positive and negative.
-It is a time of opportunity and risk. A positive school environment is critical to ensuring this age groups
learning, social, and physical needs are met.
- Early adolescence is the time between childhood and adolescence, while adolescence is the time
between childhood and adulthood.
Meeting Their Needs
- Young adolescents need a nurturing, secure environment at school and at home, with special adult
guidance. If problems are not prevented in these years, there may be significant economic and social
consequences such as:

increased dropout rates,

teen pregnancy and motherhood,
substance use and abuse, and
life-long violent behaviors.

- School reforms in the United States have shown positive benefits for student achievement in this
age group. Students thrive in small settings, with close teacher contact and high parental involvement.
- This is the age group when girls often lose their self-esteem and self-confidence.
- Young adolescents benefit from smaller schools, stable relationships among students and teachers,
intellectual stimulation, and significant parental involvement. They deserve our best efforts to help them
become healthy, constructive adults.
- With one foot in childhood and the other in adolescence, the early adolescent faces a set of
changes that can be scary and confusing. In no other period of an individual's life, except in infancy, are
there so many changes in such a short period of time. Changes take place in the early adolescent's
physical size and strength, thinking and reasoning, feelings and emotions, and relationships with family
and friends.
- When parents understand why early adolescents behave the way they do, they can more easily
relax and keep a sense of humor during this critical time of transition for their child.

Developmental Tasks:
- Accepting ones physique and accepting a masculine or feminine role; establishing new
relationships with age-mates of both sexes; gaining emotional independence from parents and other
adults; achieving assurance of economic independence; selecting and preparing of an occupation;
developing an intellectual skills and concepts necessary for civic competence; desiring and achieving
socially responsible behavior; preparing for marriage and family life; and building conscious values in
harmony with adequate scientific world picture.
 Physical Maturation
- It is a highly regular process, but children differ tremendously in the timing of their growth spurts.
Growth spurts, occurs when the body produces large amounts of growth hormones, usually around
puberty. It is when your say feet get bigger in a small amount of time or you grow way taller and start to
thin out this usually happens right before puberty.
- Adolescence is the period between puberty and adulthood.
- The exact age a child enters puberty depends on a number of different things, such as genes, nutrition,
and gender. During puberty, endocrine glands produce hormones that cause body changes and the
development of secondary sex characteristics.

In girls, the ovaries begin to increase production of estrogen and other female hormones.
In boys, the testicles increase production of testosterone.

- The adrenal glands produce hormones that cause increased armpit sweating, body odor, acne, and
armpit and pubic hair. This process is called adrenarche. The child will often need an underarm
deodorant or antiperspirant during this time.
PUBERTY IN GIRLS
Breast development is the main sign that a girl is entering puberty. The first menstrual period (menarche)
usually follows within about 2 years.
Before the first menstrual period, a girl will normally have:

An increase in height
An increase in hip size
Clear or whitish vaginal secretions
Pubic, armpit, and leg hair growth

Menstrual cycles occur over about 1 month (28 to 32 days). At first, the menstrual periods may be
irregular. A girl may go 2 months between periods, or may have two periods in 1 month. Over time,
periods become more regular. Keeping track of when the period occurs and how longer it lasts can help
predict when the next menstrual period will occur.

After menstruation starts, the ovaries begin to produce and release eggs, which have been stored in the
ovaries since birth. About every month after menstruation starts, an ovary releases an egg, called an
ovum. The egg travels down a Fallopian tube, which connects the ovary to the womb.
When the egg reaches the womb, the lining of the womb becomes thick with blood and fluid. This
happens so that if the egg is fertilized, it can grow and develop in the lining to produce a baby. (It is
important to remember that fertility comes before emotional maturity, and pregnancy can occur before
an adolescent is prepared for parenthood.)
If the egg does not meet with sperm from a male and is not fertilized, it dissolves. The thickened lining
falls off and forms menstrual blood flow, which passes out of the body through the vagina. In between
the menstrual periods, there may be a clear or whitish vaginal discharge. This is normal.
During or just before each period, the girl may feel moody or emotional, and her body may feel puffy or
swollen (bloated). Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) may begin to develop, especially as the girl gets older.
 In girls, puberty is usually finished by age 17. Any increases in height after this age is uncommon.
Although a girl has reached full physical maturity at this time, her educational and emotional maturity
continues to grow.

PUBERTY IN BOYS
The first sign of puberty in boys is enlargement of both testicles. Afterwards, boys will normally
experience:

Faster growth, especially height

Hair growth under the arms, on the face, and in the pubic area
Increased shoulder width
Growth of the penis, scrotum (with reddening and folding of the skin), and testes
Night time ejaculations (nocturnal emissions or "wet dreams")
Voice changes

The testes constantly produce sperm. Some sperm can be stored in a structure called the epididymis.
Sometimes the stored sperm are released as part of the normal process to make room for new sperm.
This can occur automatically during sleep (nocturnal emissions) or following masturbation or sexual
intercourse. Nocturnal emissions are a normal part of puberty.
- Adolescence is the time between the beginning of sexual maturation (puberty) and adulthood. It is
a time of psychological maturation, which a person becomes "adult-like" in behaviour.
- Adolescence is considered to be the period between ages 12 and 18. The adolescent experiences
not only physical growth and change, but also emotional, psychological, social, and mental change and
growth.
Cognitive/ Formal Operational Thinking
- Means that for the first time in his or her life she has the mental capacity to think as well as adults
and the ability to solve all classes of problems.
- It is a period when people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as
logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning also emerge during this stage.
- Formal operational thinking requires for the brain to develop; time alone is not sufficient to
guarantee that formal operational thinking will develop and one should not assume that all adolescents
and adults fully developed formal operations.
- It provides ways of thinking about problems and information that can be comparable to any adults
problem/situation or information.
(This simply tells us that formal operational thinking of adolescence can be comparable to any adults way
of thinking about the same situation that doesnt mean that the number of experiences an adult has
engaged in during his or her life time doesnt make a significant difference in adolescences ability and
efficiency of solving problems.
- Kinds of Formal Operational Thinking:

1. Propositional Reasoning- it is not tied to a personal past or present experience. It includes reasoning
about hypothetical problems. Example: everyday experience to the things for which they have no
experience.
2. Deductive Reasoning- the use of a premise to create conclusions. The use of general ideas to create
specific ideas.
3. Hypothetical Deductive Reasoning- the use of hypothetical facts rather than reasoning.

Emotional Development
- It should be started at an early age as soon as children start kindergarten and preschool so that
their interaction with others will help develop them in both social and intellectual ways.
- Emotional development and intellectual development normally go hand in hand to help the child
develop socially because it is the interaction amongst both children and adults that creates a health
emotional state.
- Some people lacking in emotional development are the complete contrast and suffer when their
routine is interrupted. This is typically seen in children with autism who cope better when regular routine
is kept.
- Descriptions of adolescence often refer to new levels of emotional variability, moodiness, and
emotional outbursts.
- Clearly, adolescents are more aware than younger children of gradations in their emotional states
and are able to attribute them to a wider range of causes.
- However, some researchers have questioned whether adolescence really brings the peaks and
valleys of emotional intensity that are stereotypically linked to this time of life.
- In a subsequent study using similar methods, daily emotions were monitored in relation to
childrens pubertal status. (Richardson & Larson, 1993)
- Both boys and girls with a mature body shape at each age reported more frequent thoughts and
feelings about love.
- Pubertal development was slightly related to increased feelings of anger in girls, but in general,
physical maturation was not closely linked to patterns of specific emotions in girls.
- In boys, the relationships between pubertal development and emotions were much stronger. Those
boys who were more mature reported more experiences of feeling frustrated, tense, and hyper.
- They also reported a more positive mood, a greater ability to focus their attention, and more
feelings of strength. Thus, in boys, pubertal changes were associated with both positive moods and a
restless irritability.
- Adolescent girls are likely to have a heightened awareness of new levels of negative emotions that
focus inward, such as shame, guilt, and depression; boys in contrast, are likely to have a heightened
awareness of new levels of negative emotions that focus on others, such as contempt and aggression.
(Stapley & Haviland, 1989; Ostrov, Offer & Howard, 1989)
- These differences are often expressed in terms of internalizing problems, such as feelings of
hopelessness or worthlessness, in which the adolescents conflicts are directed inward on the self, and
externalizing problems, such as aggression and delinquency.
- Eating disorders- It is an example of internalizing problems, turning ones frustration,
anger, or fear inward on the self.
- Anorexia- is characterized by fear of gaining weight, and perceptions of ones body as overweight
in general specific areas.
- They take an obsessive,determined position in rejecting most foods, accompanied by dieting,
fasting, and/or excessive exercise.
- Bulimia- it involves spurts of binging and overeating followed by the use of different strategies to
prevent the absorption of food, such as induced vomiting, the use of laxatives, or strenuous exercise.
- - It has an incidence of between 1 to 3% in the female adolescent population and is experienced
somewhat more commonly by males than is anorexia.
- The origins of eating disorders are not fully understood. Many authors implicate the cultural
infatuation with thinness as a stimulus of this condition.
- The combination of parent, peer, and media idealization of thinness coupled with a tendency for
girls to experience body dissatisfaction during puberty lead teens to restrict their food intake and engage
in faddish diets.
- Delinquency- is an example of externalizing problems, related to difficulties in controlling or
regulating ones impulses.
- Delinquent offenses- are actions for which an adult could be prosecuted. In addition, there are
offenses such as truancy, running away, or under-age drinking, which can involve adolescents with the
legal system.

Membership in the peer group

- Researchers found that the peer group a child belongs to has differential effects on deviant,
aggressive, and pro-social behavior.
- The findings imply that being a part of the popular group may have some benefits, but also may
increase risky behavior and social aggression. Children who are part of the cool group are more likely to
be influenced by their friends than children who are friends with peers who are kind, nice, and well-liked.
- Acknowledging that by early adolescence, peer groups have a significant influence on children's
behavior, researchers at the University of Western Ontario sought to determine whether some peer
groups are more influential than others. Specifically, they contrasted the effects of two types of peer
group status on youngsters' deviant, aggressive, and pro-social behavior.
- Peer groups are an important influence throughout one's life, but they are more critical during the
developmental years of childhood and adolescence. There is often controversy about the influence of a
peer group versus parental influence, particularly during adolescence.
- Recent studies show that parents continue to have significant influence, even during adolescence,
a reassuring finding for many parents. It appears that the power of the peer group becomes more
important when the family relationships are not close or supportive.
- For example, if the parents work extra jobs and are largely unavailable, their children may turn to
their peer group for emotional support. This also occurs when the conflict between parents and children
during adolescence, or at any time during a child's development, becomes so great that the child feels
pushed away and seeks closeness elsewhere.
- It is for this reason that many children and adolescents drift from one group to another as they
"find themselves," or work toward formation of their relatively permanent Aggression in Peer Groups
- Although bullying and teasing have long been part of peer group interactions, these negative
behaviors have increased over the last decade, resulting in school violence in many instances. As
children and adolescents feel marginalized from their peers, anger builds to a point of rage at times.
- It is at those times that violence erupts within the school or community setting.
Influence of peer groups
- Peer groups can also have a positive influencea fact many parents have known for years. Studies
support parent's perceptions that the influence of friends can have a positive effect on academic
motivation and performance. Conversely, experimentation with drugs, drinking, vandalism, and stealing
may also be increased by interaction with the peer group.
Interventions
- It is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people (usually family and friends) to get
someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other
serious problem.
- Since schools are often the site of negative peer interactions, school personnel have a unique
opportunity for effective intervention. Many schools have peer-mediation programs, in which students are
encouraged to resolve conflicts on their own without the use of violence or aggression. School counselors
also organize groups within the school to handle various problems, including providing social skills
training and empathy training.
Risks
- Peer groups often provide an example for negative and harmful behaviors. Cluster suicide is one
such example. When a teen realizes that someone he or she knew has attempted or has committed
suicide, the teen may see suicide as a viable option for him- or herself as well. For this reason, schools
and local media should exercise caution when reporting such tragedies. Care must be taken not to
portray the suicide glamorously or mythically.
- Depression
Different types of depression:
Depressed mood
Depressive syndrome
Major depressive disorder
- First, one can speak of depressed mood, which refers to feelings of sadness, a loss of hope, a
sense of being overwhelmed by the demands of the world, and general unhappiness.
- Almost everyone experiences this kind of depression at some time or another, describing it as the
blues, or feeling down in the dumps, or feeling low.
- Related symptoms include worrying, moodiness, crying, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping,
tiredness, loss of interest in or enjoyment of activities, and difficulty concentrating.
- Depression may range from mild, short-lived periods of feeling sad and discouraged to severe
feelings of guilt and worthlessness.
- A depressed mood may be predictive of more serious emotional disorders, but it is not in itself a
clinical diagnosis.
- The second use of the concept of depression is the notion of a depressive syndrome. This term
refers to a constellation of behaviours and emotions that occur together.
- The syndrome usually includes complaints about feeling depressed, anxious, fearful, worried,
guilty, and worthless. Roughly 5% of the normal population experiences this syndrome.
- The third use of the concept of depression is its central role in clinical diagnosis. For a diagnosis
of major depressive disorder, the adolescent will have experienced five or more of the following
symptoms for at least two weeks.
 - Factors associated with adolescent depression:
Adolescents face a number of challenges that make them vulnerable to depression. At present, no single
theory is accepted as the explanation of depression.
Parental loss or rejection has been found to increase an adolescents vulnerability to depression.
(Robertson & Simons, 1989)
Sexual Relationships
- Research about adolescent sexuality has traditionally emphasized sexual intercourse. Most studies
have focused on whether teenagers have had intercourse, how often, and with how many partners. Such
simple measures of sexual behavior, narrowly defined as coitus, do not properly acknowledge the varied
dimensions of adolescent sexual development. (Miller and Benson 1999)
- During adolescence, sexual interests and behaviors increase, partly as a result of biological
changes, and partly as a result of social, cultural, and historical contexts.
- The adrenal gland produces sex hormones (DHEA) that is the same in males and females. The
amount of this hormone that is absorbed in the blood reaches a peak between the ages of 10 and 12, a
time when both boys and girls begin to be aware of sexual feeling toward others.
- Most young people are involved in a variety of romantic relationships during adolescence, including
dating, feelings of tenderness and love, and deepening commitments.
- Components of both gender identity and sexual orientation are formulated during this period of
life.
- Some adolescents are reticent about sexual behaviour, while others are sexually permissive and
regularly active in sex play, from petting to intercourse.
- Sexual Orientation
- Self Labelling
- It may begin with experiences in early childhood when boys or girls recall feeling different
from their peers.
- These feelings typically captured in retrospective studies of gay or lesbian young adults, may
include a general sense that they did not share the same interests as others of their same sex.
- Disclosure

It may be a prolonged process in which young people carefully decide which individuals can be trusted
with this information, or it can be a very open, obvious statement of personal identity.
Reports of adolescents who are openly gay suggest that disclosure is a very stressful situation, one that
is commonly accompanied by negative reactions from parents and friends and by acts of open hostility
from peers.

- Sexuality, as opposed to sex, includes a wide range of attitudes, emotions, expectations, sexual
orientation, and both coital and non-coital behaviors. Although sexual behavior can be distinct and
separate from romantic or emotional relationships, they often develop together, and are frequently
dependent on each other. (Miller and Benson 1999)
- A wide range of factors influence and are affected by the timing and frequency of adolescent
sexual activity (Kirby 2001).
- Neighborhood characteristics, socioeconomic status, parent's marital status, sibling characteristics,
sexual abuse, and biological factors all have been shown to be related to teenage sexual behavior (Miller,
Benson, and Galbraith 2001).
 - Living in neighborhoods with low socioeconomic status (Ramirez-Valles, Zimmerman, and
Newcomb 1998), high disorder or hazards (Upchurch et al. 1999),
- Or in predominantly African-American neighborhoods (Sucoff and Upchurch 1998), is associated
with higher risk sexual behavior whereas high neighborhood monitoring and high neighborhood religious
practice are associated with lower sexual risk behavior.
Psychosocial Crisis- Group Identity Vs. Alienation
- Group Identity the positive pole of the psychosocial crises of early adolescence in which the
person finds membership in and value convergence with a peer group.
- Alienation withdrawal or separation of people or their affections from an object or position of
former attachment

A period of feeling alone and lonely may help teens appreciate how good social acceptance feels and how
important it is for their well being.

- The assessment of the importance of certain content areas in relation to others influences the use
of resources, the direction of certain decisions, and the kinds of experiences that may be perceived as
most personally rewarding or threatening.
- Both the content and evaluation components of identity may change over the life course.

Central Process: Peer Pressure

- Refers to demands for conformity to a group norms and a demonstration of commitment and
loyalty to group members.
- Peer pressure is often used with a negative connotation, suggesting that young people behave in
ways that go against their beliefs or values because of a fear of peer rejection.
- However peer pressure can have an alternative meaning, one that highlights the emerging role of
the peer group in the radius of significant others.
- Affiliating with a Peer Group provides the context within which the crises of group identity
versus alienation is resolved
- Peer Pressure in Specific Areas time spent with peers, school, and family; academic achievement;
drug use; engaging in misconduct; sexual activity; religious participation; community service; or
preference in dress, music, or entertainment
- Conflicts Between Belonging and Personal Autonomy peer groups do not command total
conformity; most depend on the unique characteristics of their members to lend definition and vigor to
the roles that emerge within them
- Ethnic Group Identity knowing that one is a member of a certain ethnic group; recognizing
that aspects of ones thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by ethnic membership; and taking the
ethnic-group values, outlook, and the goals into account when making life choices.

Prime Adaptive Ego Quality: Fidelity to others

- A capacity that truly pledge ones loyalty to a group or to sustain ones faithfulness to the promises
and commitments one makes to the others.

Core Pathology: Dissociation

 - A sense of separateness, withdrawal from others and an inability to experience the bond of mutual
commitment.

Applied Topic: Adolescent alcohol and drug abuse

- Factors Associated with Alcohol Use

Physical Effects of Alcohol death may result from chugging, when combined with other drugs, and
when driving under the influence
Assessment of Risk adolescents do not view alcohol drinking as risky and may use it as sensation
seeking behavior
Reference Groups the two reference groups that influence the acceptability of drinking and the manner
in which alcohol is consumed are the family and the peer group

- Early Entry into Alcohol and Drug Use

Children who perceived that many of their friends had been drinking and who experienced peer pressure
to drink were more likely to drink
Children who were in classrooms where a larger number of children reported drinking were also at
greatest risk of drinking.
Perceptions of the amount of drinking that occurred in the family were also an important predictor of
early alcohol use
Binge Drinking

REFERENCES:
http://www.parentingteensonline.com/article/show/title/Developmental_Stages_of_Teens

http://www.etfo.ca/issuesineducation/earlyadolescence/pages/default.aspx

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001950.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070720100015.htm

http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Peer-groups.html#b
Lynn Blinn Pike Human Development and Family Studies Extension
http://family.jrank.org/pages/1525/Sexuality-in-Adolescence.html
Sexuality in Adolescence - Sexual Intercourse Patterns In The United States, Racial, National, And Ethnic
Diversity, Relationships And Sexual Activity - JRank Articles http://family.jrank.org/pages/1525/Sexuality-
in-Adolescence.html#ixzz1kUBGfl36
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intervention_(counseling)

Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach By Barbara M. Newman, Philip R. Newman