Introduction
The boundaries of adolescence
Adolescence: Latin for ‘to grow into adulthood’
Early adolescence: 10 to 13
Middle adolescence: 14 to 17
Late adolescence: 18 to 21
Emerging adulthood: the early and mid-20s
Three distinct groups in expectations for the
future:
1. Early starters: finish school, enter labor
force, live on their own immediately
after high school, thinking of starting a
family before 22.
2. Employment focused: finish school,
start regular employment, live on their
own before 21, start a family years later.
3. Education focused: not finish school until 22 and don’t expect to start family until 24 or 25.
A framework for studying adolescent development
Model by Hill (1983): three basic components
1. The fundamental changes of adolescence. Biological, cognitive and social dimensions.
a. The onset of puberty (biological). The change in the young person’s physical
appearance and the development of the availability to conceive children.
b. The emergence of more advanced thinking abilities (cognitive). Compared with
children, adolescents are better able to think about hypothetical situations and about
abstract concepts.
c. The transition into new roles in society (social). All societies distinguish between
individuals who are viewed as children and those who are seen as ready to become
adults
2. The contexts of adolescence. All adolescents experience biological, cognitive and social
transitions but the effects of these changes are not uniform for all young people. Not everyone
is affected in the same way. This is because the psychological impact of the biological,
cognitive and social changes of adolescence is shaped by the environment in which the
changes take place.
3. The psychosocial developments of adolescence. Identity, autonomy, intimacy, sexuality and
achievement. Psychosocial is used to describe aspects of development that are both
psychological and social in nature.
a. Identity: discovering and understanding who we are as individuals.
b. Autonomy: establishing a healthy sense of independence. 3 aspects: becoming less
emotionally dependent on parents, learning to function independently, establishing a
personal code of values and morals.
c. Intimacy: forming close and caring relationships with others.
d. Sexuality: expressing sexual feelings and enjoying physical contact with others.
e. Achievement: being successful and competent members of society.
Bronfenbrenner: the ecological perspective on human development. We cannot understand
development without examining the environment in which it occurs (families, peer groups, schools,
work and leisure settings).
Psychosocial difficulties: drug and alcohol use abuse, delinquency and other externalizing problems,
depression and other internalizing problems
,Theoretical perspectives on adolescence
Biosocial theories:
Stress the hormonal and physical changes of puberty as driving forces.
Hall’s theory of recapitulation: the development of the individual paralleled the development of the
human species. Adolescence is a transitional and turbulent time a period of storm and stress.
Dual systems theories: maturational imbalance theories. Stress the development of two different brain
systems, one that governs the ways in which the brain processes rewards, punishments and social and
emotional information and another that regulates self-control and advanced thinking abilities like
planning or logical reasoning. Maturational imbalance because the arousal of the first systems takes
place early in adolescence, while the second system is maturing.
Organismic theories:
Recognize the importance of the biological changes of adolescence, but also take into account the
ways in which contextual forces interact with and modify these biological forces. How adolescents are
affected by biological changes can be influenced by parents/peers.
Freudian theory: adolescence is a time of upheaval. Puberty temporarily throws the adolescent into a
period of psychological crisis by reviving old conflicts over uncomfortable sexual urges that had been
buries in the unconscious. The need for adolescents to break away from parent to develop normally.
Eriksonian theory: internal and biological developments move the individual from one developmental
stage to the next, but the psychosocial conflicts are more stressed. Development in adolescence
revolves around identity crisis. Resolve identity crisis and emerge with a coherent sense of who one is
and where one is headed.
Piagetian theory: development is best understood by examining changes in the nature of thinking. As
children mature, they pass through distinct stages of cognitive development. Adolescence is the
transition from concrete to abstract thinking.
Learning theories:
Stress the context in which behavior takes place. The capacity of the individual to learn from
experience is assumed to be a biological given.
Behaviorism: emphasize the processes of reinforcement and punishment as the main influences on
adolescent behavior. Reinforcement is the process through which a behavior is made more likely to
occur again and punishment is the process through which a behavior is made less likely to occur again.
Social learning theory: emphasize the ways in which adolescents learn how to behave, but they place
more weight on the processes of observational learning and imitation. Learning by observing others.
Sociological theories:
Attempt to understand how adolescents, as a group, come of age in society. Focus on all the factors
that all adolescents or groups of adolescents have in common by virtue of their age.
,Adolescent marginality: the fact that because adolescents are often prohibited from occupying
meaningful roles in society, young people often become frustrated and restless. Treating adolescents as
if they are more immature and isolating them from adults.
Intergenerational conflict: the fact that adolescents and adults grow up under different social
circumstances and therefore develop different sets of attitudes, values and beliefs. Inevitable tension
between adolescents and adults.
Historical and anthropological perspectives:
Stress that adolescence as a developmental period has a varied considerably from one historical era to
another. As a consequence, it is impossible to generalize about such issues as the degree to which
adolescence is stressful, the developmental tasks of the period or the nature of intergenerational
relations.
Adolescence as an invention: the way in which we divide the life cycle into stages is nothing more
than a reflection of the political, economic and social circumstances in which we live.
Anthropological perspectives: societies vary considerably in the ways we in which they view and
structure adolescence.
Chapter 1: Biological transitions
Puberty: an overview
Puberty has four chief physical manifestations:
1. A rapid acceleration in growth, resulting in dramatic increases in height and weight.
2. The development of primary sex characteristics, including the further development of the
gonads which result in a series of hormonal changes.
3. The development of secondary sex characteristics, including changes in the genitals and
breasts and the growth of pubic, facial and body hair.
4. Changes in the brain’s anatomy and activity as a result of hormonal influences.
No new hormones are produced at puberty. Rather, the levels of some hormones that have been present
since before birth increase, whereas others decline.
The endocrine system: the system of the body that produces, circulates and regulates hormones.
Glands: organs that stimulate particular parts of the body to respond in specific ways to particular
hormones.
Hormones that play important roles at puberty mostly carry their instructions by activating
gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons (GnRH), which are certain
brain cells.
A feedback loop: a cycle through which two or more bodily functions
respond to and regulate each other, such as that formed by the
hypothalamus, the pituitary gland and the gonads (the HPG axis). This
system becomes increasingly important at the onset of puberty.
The HPG axis is set to maintain certain levels of androgens and
estrogens, “sex” hormones.
Adrenarche: when maturation of the adrenal glands takes place and
you get sexual feelings. Also contributes to body odor.
, The hormonal changes of puberty make us more responsive to stress, which leads to secretion of
cortisol at high and chronic levels, cortisol can cause brain cells to die.
The onset of puberty is stimulated by an increase in a brain chemical: kisspeptin. The production of
this chemical is affected by leptin, which stimulates it and melatonin, which suppresses it. Leptin plays
a role in the regulation of hunger and appetite by suppressing our desire to eat when we’re full.
Melatonin is a hormone whose levels rise and fall as a function of how light or dark it is, which
regulates our sleep cycle.
The more fat cells and/or the more light you have been exposed to during childhood, the more likely
you will go through puberty on the early side of your inherited propensity overweight children and
children who grow up closer to the equator go through puberty earlier. Light from electronic gadgets
can suppress melatonin and hasten puberty.
Somatic development
Adolescent growth spurt: growth hormones, thyroid hormones and androgens stimulate rapid
acceleration in height and weight. The hands, head and feet are the first to accelerate in growth.
Muscle tissue grows faster in boys than girls, body fat increases for both sexes during puberty, but
more so for females than for males, especially during the years just before puberty.
Epiphysis: the closing of the ends of the bones, which terminates growth after
the adolescent growth spurt has been completed.
Adolescence is the period of greatest risk for the development of eating
disorders. Women who recalled being unprepared for and disliking going
through puberty are at relatively greater risk for developing an eating disorder
many years later. Studies show that comparing themselves with their friends
leads to unhappiness about their appearance. Black adolescents seem less
vulnerable to feelings of body dissatisfaction and are less likely to diet.
Secondary sex characteristics: sexual maturity at puberty, including the
development of breasts, growth of facial and body hair, changes in the voice.
Usually divided in the Tanner stages (shown in the figure ).
Boys usually are fertile before they have developed an adultlike appearance. For
girls, the development of secondary sex characteristics is less regular than it is
among boys. Usually, the first sign is the elevation of the breast and appearance
of pubic hair. Internal changes for girls are the development and growth of the
uterus, vagina and other aspects of the reproductive system, as well as the
enlargement of the labia and clitoris. Girls typically appear physically mature
before they are fertile.
Menarche: the beginning of menstruation. Is more likely to be earlier in
countries where individuals are less likely to be malnourished or to suffer from chronic disease.
The timing and tempo of puberty
There is no relation between the age at which puberty begins and the rate at which pubertal
development proceeds.
The timing and tempo of pubertal maturation are largely inherited. A specific region on chromosome 6
has been identified as one of the markers for pubertal timing in boys and girls. Also, the environment
plays an important role. Timing and tempo of pubertal maturation are the product of an interaction
between nature and nurture. The most important environmental influences are nutrition and health.
After genetic factors, overall physical well-being of the individual from conception through
preadolescence is an important determinant of the timing of puberty.
