Adolescent Growth and Development and Related Problem
1. Adolescent Growth and Development
and Related Problems
Agnes Montalbo MA Industrial Psychology
Instructor
Department of Arts and Sciences
Rizal Technological University
agnesmontalbo@gmail.com
534-8267
May 29, 2012
2. What is adolescence?
Adolescence, defined by World Health
Organization (WHO) as the period
between 10 and 19 years, is an
important, formative time which shapes
the future of girls' and boys' lives.
4. Short Activity
In a piece of paper, write your most
common problems with your
adolescents and how do you handle
problem behaviors
Indicate the age and gender
6. Period of Adolescence
Rapid growth (Mabilis ang paglaki)
Interaction of physical, psychological, and
environmental factors ( Katawan, Pag-iisip at
Kapaligiran)
Off timing of systems (Dahl, 2004)
Puberty
Physical growth
Emotion and behavior regulation
Importance of understanding interaction of all the
systems; (Mahalaga na maintindihan ang
interaksyon nito)
Transitions all occur sequentially but not necessarily
at the same time
7. What’s the Big Deal?
Adolescent morbidity (aksidente o
sakuna)
Health Paradox (Dahl, 2004):
Developmental period of strength and
resilience both physically and cognitively
Yet, morbidity & mortality rates increase 200%
DIFFICULTIES IN CONTROLLING BEHAVIOR
AND EMOTION
Accidents, suicide, homicide, depression,
violence, reckless behavior, risky sex.
10. Rapid Gains in Height & Weight
4.1 to 3.5 inches per year
Girls mature about 2 years earlier than boys
Weight gain = muscles for boys; fat for girls
11. Secondary Sex Characteristics:
Pubic hair
Menarche or penis growth
Voice changes for boys
Underarm hair
Facial hair growth for boys
Increased production of oil, sweat glands, acne
12. Continued Brain Development
Not completely developed until late
adolescence
Emotional, physical and mental abilities
incomplete
May explain why some seem inconsistent
in controlling emotions, impulses, and
judgements
13. Understanding the Adolescent Brain
Advances in brain imaging allow
for better understanding of what
occurs
Evidence for frontal lobe delays
Inability to delay gratification;
impulse control
Suggestion that puberty
represents a period of synaptic
reorganization and as a
consequence the brain might be
more sensitive to experiential
input at this period of time in the
realm of executive function and
social cognition
Prefrontal cortex of interest (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006)
14. Brain: Developmental
Changes
Synaptogenesis: proliferation of synapses
Myelinazation: insulation around synapses
Synaptic pruning: frequently used connections are
strengthened, infrequently used connections are
eliminated (Blakemore & Choudhury, 2006)
16. How do these change affect teens?
Usually studied as decision making
(Steinberg, 2004)
In lab: similarities in adolescent & adult decision
making processes
Adolescents are uniquely vulnerable to risk
taking
Novelty & sensation seeking increase dramatically
at puberty
Development of self-regulation lags behind
Risk taking as group behavior (Steinberg,
2004)
17. How Do These Changes
Affect Teens?
Frequently sleep longer - 9 1/2 hours
May be more clumsy because of growth
spurts-body parts grow at different rates
Girls may become sensitive about weight -
60% trying to lose weight
1-3% have eating disorder
18. How Do These Changes
Affect Teens?
Concern if not physically developing at same
rate as peers - need to “fit” in (early vs. late
maturation)
Feel awkward about showing affection to
opposite sex parent
Ask more direct questions about sex - trying
to figure out values around sex
19. What Can Adults Do?
Expect inconsistency in responsibility
taking and in decision making
Provide opportunities for “safe” risk
taking
Avoid criticizing/comparing to others
Encourage enough sleep
Encourage/model healthy eating
Encourage/model activity
Provide honest answers about sex
21. Beginning to Gain Advanced
Reasoning Skills
Options
Possibilities
Logical
Hypothetically
What if?
22. Think Abstractly
Can take others’ perspective
Can think about non-concrete things like
faith, trust, beliefs, and spirituality
23. Ability to Think About Thinking
Meta-cognition
Think about how they feel and what they are
thinking
Think about how they think they are perceived by
others
Can develop strategies for improving their
learning
24. How Do These Changes
Affect Teens?
Heightened self-consciousness
Believes no one else has experienced
feelings/emotions
Tend to become cause-oriented
Tend to exhibit a “justice orientation”
“It can’t happen to me” syndrome
25. What Can Adults Do?
Don’t take it personally when teens
discount experience
Discuss their behavior rules/consequences
Provide opportunities for community service
Ask teens their view and share own
27. Establishing Identity
Erikson (1959): identity vs. identity diffusion
Integrates opinions of other into own
likes/dislikes—needs interactions with diverse
others for this to occur
Outcome is clear sense of values, beliefs,
occupational goals, and relationship expectations
Secure identities-knows where they fit
29. Establishing Autonomy
Becoming independent and self-governing within
relationships
Make and follow through with decisions
• Live with own set of principles of right/wrong
• Less emotionally dependent on parents
30. Establishing Intimacy
• Learns intimacy and sex not same thing
• Learned within context of same-sex friendships;
then in romantic relationships
• Develops close, open, honest, caring, and trusting
relationships
• Learn to begin, maintain, and terminate
relationships; practice social skills, and become
intimate from friends
31. Becoming Comfortable
with One’s Sexuality
• How educated/exposed to sexuality largely
determines if healthy sexual identity develops
• More than half high school students are sexually
active
• Mixed messages contribute to teen pregnancy
and sexually transmitted diseases
32. Predictors of Sexual Activity
• Having a steady boy/girlfriend
• Using alcohol regularly
• Having parents with permissive values about
sex
• Being worried about one’s future occupational
success
• Implication: focus on more than one risk
factor
33. Achievement
• Society fosters and values attitudes of
competition and success
• Can see relationship between abilities, plans,
aspirations
• Need to determine achievement preferences,
what good at, and areas willing to strive for
success
34. How Do These Changes
Affect Teens?
• More time with friends
• May keep a journal
• More questions about sexuality
• Begin to lock bedroom door
• Involved in multiple hobbies/clubs
• More argumentative
• Interact with parents as people
35. What Can Adults Do?
• Encourage involvement in groups
• Praise for efforts and abilities
• Help explore career goals and options
• Help set guidelines/consequences
• Establish rituals for significant passages
• Know friends and what they are doing
• Provide structured environment/clear expectations
Notes de l'éditeur
2 developmental processes
Puberty and cognitive development; progress at different rates
“starting the engine with an unskilled driver”
“igniting passions”
Have ‘turbo charged feelings” with learners permit driving skills
Compared to young children, adolescents are stronger, bigger, and faster and are achieving maturational improvements in reaction time, reasoning skills, immune function and the capacity to withstand cold, heat, injury, and physical stress
Also illustrate better reasoning and decision making skills than young children
**What accounts for morbidity? Major sources are related to difficulties in the control of behavior and emotion
It’s high rates of accidents, suicide, homicide, depression, ATOD, violence, reckless behavior, risky sex…
DIFFICULTIES IN CONTROLLING BEHAVIOR AND EMOTION—MOST RECKLESS DECISIONS ARE EMOTIONALLY BASED
Executive function=capacity that allows coordination of thoughts and behaviors—selective attention, decision making, voluntary response inhibition and working memory
e.g. allows you to filter out unimportant information, holding in mind a plan to carry out in the future and inhibiting impulses
PREFRONTAL CORTEX
Involved in multiple aspects of cognitive processing
It’s a proposed mediator of behavioral planning and reasoning, attentional processes, impulsivity and response inhibition
Given this the contention is that some adol who experiment with ATOD may not be able to moderate their impulsivity—and consider alternative behavioral choices and consequences—or to inhibit a response
Normative synaptogensis and pruning—0-3 literature—sensitive periods—e.g. language development—unused areas are eliminated
Most of this is linear with the exception of the prefrontal cortex
Suggested that prefrontal cortex pruning is ignited during puberty but continues up until age 30!
We have historically tried to understand adol risk taking by focusing on their decision making process
Results show that risk perception and appraisal change very little between adolescence and adulthood
In laboratory settings, adolescents appear quite similar to adults in their decision making process
Flaws in methods-
Give hypothetical scenarios which negates emotional element
Study adol individually, but risk behavior tends to occur in groups
Steinberg (2004) suggests that “the greater propensity for adolescents to take risks is not due to age differences in risk perception or appraisal, but to age differences in psychosocial factors that influence self-regulation”
Adolescents is a heightened vulnerability to risk taking because of a disjunction between novelty and sensation seeking (both of which increase dramatically at puberty) and the development of self-regulatory competence (which does not fully mature until early adulthood) which is biologically driven and normative.
Interventions should aim to reduce the harm associated with risk taking
