Chapter 6: Adolescence

Physical Maturation

Growth During Adolescence

Puberty

Physical Manifestations of Puberty

• Development of primary and secondary sex characteristics
• Changes in body composition
• Changes in circulatory and respiratory systems

Onset of Puberty - a gradual process...

• Roles of hormones (Collaer & Hines, 1995); organizational
• Endocrine system levels of sex hormones; feedback loop: hypothalamus > pituitary gland > gonads (ovaries and testes)

Puberty

Puberty in Girls

• Begins earlier for girls than for boys. Girls start puberty at around age 11 or 12, and boys begin at around age 13 or 14. Wide variations among individuals.
• Influenced by environment

Onset of Menarche

• 1st occurrence of menstruation
• Varies in different parts of world
• Begins later in poorer, developing countries
• Influenced by proportion of fat to muscle in body
• Related to environmental stress

Puberty

Secular Trend: pattern of change occurring over several generations

• Average age of puberty decreasing over time.
• Since the 1900s in the U.S., puberty seems to have occurred about four months earlier with each passing decade.
• Result of better nutrition over centuries

Puberty

Puberty in Boys

• Penis and scrotum begin to grow at accelerated rate around age 12 and reach adult size about 3 or 4 years later
• Enlargement of prostate gland and seminal vesicles
• Spermarche around age 13
• Photo: pre and post-puberty

Sex Characteristics

Primary Sex Characteristics

• Further development of sex glands; testes in males, ovaries in females

Secondary Sex Characteristics

• Changes in genitals and breasts
• Growth of hair: pubic, facial, body
• Further development of sex organs

Changes in Body Composition

• Body fat: quantity and distribution of fat
• Muscle: quantity and distribution of muscle

Sexual Maturation

Primary sex characteristics: characteristics associated with the development of the organs and structures of the body that relate to reproduction

Secondary sex characteristics: visible signs of sexual maturity that do not directly involve the sex organs

Timing and Tempo of Puberty

• Variation of timing and tempo great
• No relationship between onset and rate of pubertal development
• Some differences; causes are inconclusive

Impact of Puberty

Psychological Impact of Puberty

• Biological changes can have direct impact on behavior; can impact self-image which in turn affects behavior.

• Biological changes transform appearance which may affect reactions of others, especially peers.

Immediate Impact of Puberty

• Self-Esteem: modest decline among girls when accompanied by other changes that require adaptation, social context is important.

Impact of Puberty

Impact of Specific Pubertal Events

Females: Menarche

• Positive attitude - gains in social maturity, peer prestige, self-esteem
• Negative attitude - greater menstrual discomfort

Males: Ejaculation

• Little research
• May be related to how culture views masturbation

Early Maturation

Early maturing boys

• More successful athletes
• More popular and more positive self-concept
• More apt to have school difficulties
• More likely to act inappropriately

Early maturing girls

• May feel uncomfortable about their bodies
• May experience teasing from peers
• More popular, but may not be socially ready for dating
• More likely to experience anxiety, unhappiness, and depression

Late Maturation

Late maturing boys

• Considered less attractive
• Disadvantaged in sports
• Diminished self-concept
• Coping in adolescence may contribute to assertiveness and insight in later life

Late maturing girls

• More positive, but sometimes overlooked in dating and mixed sex activities in junior high
• Relatively low social status
• Fewer emotional problems

Nutritional Problems in Adolescence

Poor eating habits

• High consumption of junk food/sugar/fats
• Large portion sizes
• Lack of variety

Related health concerns

• Obesity
• Osteoporosis
• Diabetes
• Heart disease

Pubertal Changes & Eating Disorders

• Obesity
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia

Obesity

Changes

• Ratio of body fat to muscle increases
• Basal metabolism rate decreases
• Overall physical appearance changes


Causes

• Lack of exercise
• Easy availability of fast foods
• Leisure time with media

Anorexia Nervosa & Bulimia

Anorexia: starvation to maintain low weight

Bulimia: binge and purge eating

• Higher incidence among females
• Disordered eating and body dissatisfaction reported across socioeconomic lines

Brain Development

Teenagers tend to assert themselves more as they gain greater independence.

• Partly related to changes in brain and advances in cognitive abilities
• Prefrontal cortex undergoes considerable development, but is still immature
• Risky behavior related to impulse control

Immature Brain Argument: Too Young for the Death Penalty?


• Adolescents’ brains are still developing in important ways and lack judgment due to brain immaturity.

• This reasoning says adolescents are not fully capable of making sound decisions because their brains differ from those of adults.

Pruning: (photo) 3D view of brain shows areas of gray matter that are pruned between adolescence and adulthood (Sowell et al., 1999)

Sleep Deprivation

Adolescents go to bed later and get up earlier. Sleep deprivation takes its toll.

• Lower grades
• More depressed
• Greater difficulty controlling their moods
• Greater risk for auto accidents

Threats to Adolescents’ Well-Being

Why do adolescents use drugs?

• Peers
• Performance (academic)
• Self-medicate
• Pleasure, escape
• Addiction

Threats to Adolescents’ Well-Being

Illegal Drugs

• Incidence: almost 50% of high school seniors and almost 20% of 8th graders had used marijuana within the past year.

• Usage down, but substantial use still exists. According to an annual survey, the proportion of students reporting marijuana use over the past 12 months has decreased since 1999 (Johnston et al., 2012).

Threats to Adolescents’ Well-Being

Addiction

Addictive drugs can produce a biological and/or psychological dependence.

• Biological addiction: physical dependence; body cannot function without substance.
• Psychological addiction: emotional or mental dependence.

Drinking

Why do adolescents start to drink?

• Peer pressure
• Release inhibitions, tension, reduce stress
• False consensus effect

Threats to Adolescents’ Well-Being

Binge Drinking

• Men: Five or more drinks in one sitting
• Women: Four drinks in one sitting

Rate: almost half of male college students and over 40% of female college students say they participated in binge drinking during the previous 2 weeks

Effects: binging impacts bingers and non-bingers. Bran scans show damaged tissue.


Reasons: prove prowess, release tension, reduce stress, addiction

Threats to Adolescents’ Well-Being

Smoking

Why do adolescents begin to smoke and maintain the habit?

• Advertisements in the media (target less advantaged, recruit adolescent smokers)
• Addiction
• Parent and peer models
• Adolescent rite of passage

Incidence Differences

• Gender
• International
• Racial

Threats to Adolescents’ Well-Being

Signs of Addiction

• Identification with the drug culture
• Signs of physical deterioration
• Dramatic changes in school performance
• Changes in behavior

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Overall, around 2.5 million teenagers contract an STI each year (Centers for Disease Control, 2009)

Common STIs

• Human papilloma virus (HPV)
• Trichomoniasis
• Chlamydia
• Genital herpes
• Gonorrhea and syphilis
• Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Short of abstinence, there is no certain way to avoid STIs. However, there are ways to make sex safer.

• Know your sexual partner—well.
• Avoid the exchange of bodily fluids, particularly semen.
• Stay sober.
• Consider the benefits of monogamy.

Cognitive Development

Piagetian Perspective

Core concepts

• Fixed sequence of qualitatively different stages
• Fundamentally different than child thinking
• Utilized in variety of settings and situations

Cognitive Development

Concrete Operations

• 6-11 years
• Mastery of logic
• Development of rational thinking

Cognitive Development

Formal Operations

• 11+ years
• Development of abstract and hypothetical reasoning
• Development of propositional logic

Formal Operations

Emergent

• Early adolescence
• Variable usage depends on conditions surrounding assessment

Established

• Late adolescence
• Consolidated and integrated into general approach to reasoning

Formal Operations

The Consequences of Adolescents’ Use of Formal Operations

Changes in everyday behavior

• Increased abstract reasoning
• Increased critical thinking
• More argumentative
• More indecision

Piaget

Pros

• Catalyst for much research
• Accounts for many changes observed during adolescence
• Helps explain: developmental differences, multidimensionality, metacognition

Cons

• Fails to prove a stage-like fashion of cognition or that formal operations is an adolescent cognitive stage
• Fails to account for variability between children, within a child, within specific situations

Information Processing Perspectives

Gains during adolescence help to explain developmental differences in abstract, multidimensional, and hypothetical thinking

Changes in five areas:

Metacognition improves during adolescence

• Thinks about own thoughts --> self-consciousness
• Monitors own learning processes more efficiently
• Paces own studying

Information Processing Perspectives

Adolescent Egocentrism

Egocentrism

• Overly concerned with own thoughts and feelings

Imaginary Audience

• Belief that others are constantly watching
• Need to be noticed, attention-getting behaviors

Personal Fables

• Belief that their experiences and feelings are unique

Illusion of Invulnerability

• Belief that misfortune happens only to others
• Engage in risky behaviors

School Performance

True or False? Grades awarded to high school students have shifted upward in the last decade.

Socioeconomic Status & School Performance

Individual differences

• Children living in poverty lack many advantages of more affluent peers
• Later school success builds heavily on basic skills presumably learned (or not) early in school

School Performance

Ethnic and Racial Differences in School Achievement

Significant achievement differences between ethnic and racial groups

• On average, African American and Hispanic students tend to perform at lower levels, receive lower grades, and score lower on standardized tests of achievement than Caucasian students
• Asian American students tend to receive higher grades than Caucasian students
• When compared to the math performance of students across the world, U.S. students perform at below-average levels (National Governors Association, 2008)

School Performance

Achievement Testing & No Child Be Left Behind

No Child Left Behind Act

• Passed by Congress in 2002
• Requires that every U.S. state design and administer achievement tests that students must pass in order to graduate from high school


Unintended consequences

• Teaching to test at the expense of other content
• Inherent bias of mandatory testing program

Internet Concerns

• Mature content, addiction, safety

Teenagers, Cell Phones, & Texting

self-Concept

View broadens

• One's own assessment of who they are
• Others' views

More organized and coherent

• View self in terms of traits and multiple aspects

self-Esteem

Self-Esteem

• Accuracy of understanding the self
• SES
• Gender

Influences on Self-Esteem

• Traditional research: prejudice is incorporated into minority adolescent's self-concepts.
• Recent research: African-American adolescents have same levels of self-esteem as Caucasians. Strong racial identity is related to higher self-esteem levels.

self-Esteem

Ethgender: joint influence of race and gender.

Findings

• African-American and Hispanic males had highest self-esteem
• Asian and Native American females had lowest levels

Identity Formation

Identity vs. Identity-Confusion Stage
: Erikson's 5th stage of ego psychosocial development. Occurs during adolescence between (approximately) ages 12 and 18. Adolescents explore their independence and develop a sense of self.

Identity vs. Identity-Confusion

• Identity
: a consistent definition of one's self as a unique individual, in terms of roles, attitudes, beliefs, and aspiration.
• Identity Achievement: the attainment of identity, or the point at which a person understands who he/she is as a unique individual, in accord with past experiences and future plans.

Identity vs. Identity-Confusion

Role Confusion (identity diffusion): adolescent does not seem to know or care what their identity is.

Foreclosure: premature identity formation, occurs when adopt parental or societal roles or values without question or analysis.

Moratorium: a socially acceptable way of postponing identity-achievement decisions. Example: going to college.

Identity vs. Identity-Confusion

Societal Pressures & Reliance on 
Friends & Peers

Societal pressures high during this stage

• Difficult choices about future plans
• Gender differences

Psychological moratorium, experimentation period

• Probably no lasting, negative psychological affects
• Some benefits
• Not available to all adolescents

Limitations of Erikson’s Theory

• Male identity development used as standard against which to compare female identity

Identity vs. Identity-Confusion Updated

Identity Status Theory (Marcia): adolescent stage consists neither of identity resolution nor confusion, but rather degree to which one has explored and committed to an identity in a variety of life domains (vocation, religion, relational choices, gender roles, etc.).

• Proposes two distinct parts form an adolescent’s identity: crisis (i.e. a time when one’s values and choices are being reevaluated) and commitment.
• Crisis is a time of upheaval where old values or choices are being reexamined. End outcome of a crisis leads to a commitment to a certain role or value.

Religion & Spirituality

Fowler: understanding and practice of faith and spirituality proceeds through a series of stages
.

• Childhood: Fairly literal view of God
• Adolescence: Spirituality becomes abstract
• Adulthood: Reflection on beliefs and values
• Last stage: Broad, inclusive view of religion and humanity

Identity, Race, & Ethnicity

Cultural Assimilation Model

• Cultural assimilation: process of consistent integration whereby members of an ethno-cultural group (e.g., immigrants, or minority groups) are "absorbed" into an established, generally larger community. Presumes a loss of many characteristics of the absorbed group.

Assimilation may be voluntary, which is usually the case with immigrants, or forced upon a group, as is usually the case with the receiving "host" group or country.

Identity, Race, & Ethnicity

Pluralistic Society Model

• Pluralism refers to people of different races, religions, political beliefs, etc., living side-by-side in one society. Rather than blending into one single culture, the groups keep their unique traditions, values, and identities.

Bicultural Identity

• Bicultural describes a state of having or inheriting two or more cultures (e.g., one of an ethnic heritage and one of culture lived in) or two or more ethnic traditions.

Psychological Difficulties in Adolescence

Between 25 - 40% of girls, and 20 - 35% of boys, experience occasional episodes of depression during adolescence, although the incidence of major depression is far lower.

• Depression
• Incidence
• Causes
• Differences

Psychological Difficulties in Adolescence

Adolescent Suicide

• Suicide
• Incidence
• Attempts
• Differences

Other factors in adolescent suicide

• Depression
• Family conflicts
• History of abuse and/or neglect
• Drug and alcohol abuse

Gender Differences in Depression

• Higher incidence among girls than boys
• Stress more pronounced for girls due to many, sometimes conflicting demands of traditional female gender role

Warning Signs of Potential Suicide

• Direct or indirect talk
• School difficulties
• Writing a will
• Changes in eating habits
• General depression
• Dramatic behavior changes
• Preoccupation with death

Adolescent Difficulties

Preventing adolescent suicide

• Listen without judging
• Talk specifically about suicidal thoughts
• Evaluate the situation, trying to distinguish between general upset and more serious danger
• Be supportive, let the person know you care
• Take charge of finding help
• Make the environment safe
• Do not keep suicide talk or threats secret
• Do not challenge, dare, or use verbal shock treatment
• Make a contract with the person
• Don’t be overly reassured by a sudden improvement of mood

Relationships: Family & Friends

Changing family relations

• Parental views questioned
• Role shifts
• Cultural factors

Adolescents increasingly seek autonomy, independence and a sense of control.

• Primary developmental task
• Grows gradually over course of adolescence
• Consists of changes in relational symmetry

Relationships: Family & Friends

Culture & Autonomy: cultural and gender factors play an important role

• Collectivistic cultures
• Individualistic cultures


Adolescents from different cultural backgrounds also vary in degree of felt family obligation
.

• Adolescents from more collectivistic cultures tend to feel greater obligation to their families.
• In general, male adolescents are permitted more autonomy at earlier age than female adolescents.

Relationships: Family & Friends

Generation Gap

• Social, political, and religious issues
• Dress, music, friends
• Difference in values and attitudes between teens greater than the difference between parent and teen

Conflicts with Parents

• Primary issues
• Cultural differences

Peer Relationships

Relationships with Peers: Importance of Belonging

• The sex segregation of childhood continues during the early stages of adolescence.
• However, by the time of middle adolescence, this segregation decreases, and boys’ and girls’ cliques begin to converge.

Peer relationships

• Critical during adolescence
• Provide opportunity for social comparison and information

Peer Relationships

Reference Groups: groups with whom one compares oneself.

• Adolescent need not belong to group for it to serve as reference

Cliques: groups from 2 to 12 people whose members have frequent social interactions.

Crowds: larger groups than cliques, composed of individuals who share particular characteristics, but who may not interact with one another.

Sex Cleavage: sex segregation, separation of boys and girls into different cliques.

Peer Relationships

Race Segregation

• Adolescents of different ethnicities and races interact very little
• Members of different racial and ethnic groups may be segregated in the classroom
• Segregation in school may also reflect prejudice, both perceived and real, toward members of other groups

Peer Relationships

Popularity and Rejection

• Adolescent social world is complex
• High status categories
• Low status categories

Peer Relationships

Conformity: Peer Pressure in Adolescence

Susceptibility and conformity

• Few empirical studies

Brown: how much pressure peers exerted

• Overall perception
• Gender differences
• Kinds of peer pressure

Peer Relationships

Digital communication: adolescents’ mode of communication is rapidly changing.

• Less personal
• Emotions more difficult to convey
• Text messaging most prevalent form of communication
• Social networking increasing
• Sexting

Are there reasons to be particularly concerned about texting?

Juvenile Delinquency

Adolescents, along with young adults, commit more crimes than any other age group.

• Undersocialized delinquents
• Socialized delinquents

Juvenile Delinquency

Close Relationships

Dating

• Learning to establish intimacy
• Learning to engage in entertainment
• Shaping identity

Close Relationships

What are the functions of dating?

• Pattern of courtship that lead to marriage
• Way to learn to establish intimacy
• Mechanism to provide entertainment and prestige
• Resource to develop a sense of one’s own identity

Close Relationships

Dating and the Development of 
Psychological Intimacy

• Dating in early and middle adolescence is not terribly successful at facilitating intimacy
• True intimacy becomes more common during later adolescence
• Gay and lesbian couples experience a variety of challenges related to dating

Sexual Relationships

Sexual Relationships

Sexual Orientation: Heterosexuality, Homosexuality, and Bisexuality

Sexual orientation questions occur at adolescence

• Heterosexuality
• Homosexuality
• Bisexuality

What Determines Sexual Orientation?

• Genetic and biological factor
• Family and peers
• Conditioning

Sexual Relationships

Teenage Pregnancy Rates

• Although there has been a small increase in recent years, the rate of teenage pregnancies has dropped dramatically among all ethnic groups since 1991 (Hamilton & Ventura, 2012).

Sexual Relationships

What contributes to the decline in teenage pregnancy? U.S. teen pregnancy rate declined to historic lows in all racial and ethnic groups.

• New initiatives have raised awareness among teenagers of the risks of unprotected sex
• The rates of sexual intercourse among teenagers has declined
• The use of condoms and other forms of contraception has increased
• Substitutes for sexual intercourse may be more prevalent