Adolescence: Physical Development and Puberty

The Nature of Adolescence

• Young people have seemed different from adults across generations regarding taste and manners.
• Adolescents explore new identities, wardrobes, and preferences.

Physical Development

• Puberty is the period in which adolescents reach sexual maturity, and the capacity for sexual reproduction is achieved.
• Puberty is a brain-neuroendocrine process primarily in early adolescence.
• Puberty involves rapid physical changes.
• Puberty occurs not as a single, sudden event.
• Sexual maturation, height, and weight are all affected by puberty.
• Primary changes like growth of the penis and menstruation occur during puberty.
• Secondary changes like the growth of pubic hair occur during puberty.
• Weight and height changes can occur at different times for boys and girls.
• Early adolescence usually involves girls weighing more than boys.
• By about age 14, boys begin to outweigh girls.
• The growth spurt occurs approximately 2 years earlier for girls.
• Hormones are chemicals secreted by endocrine glands carried through the bloodstream.
• The HPG axis (hypothalamus-pituitary gland-gonads) releases hormones and controls the growth of gonads (testes) in males and ovaries in females.
  • The hypothalamus monitors eating and sex.
  • The pituitary gland controls growth and regulates other glands by releasing hormones.
  • Gonads give rise to pubertal changes.
• Hormone concentrations increase dramatically during adolescence.
• Testosterone and estradiol are types of estrogen in the hormonal makeup of both boys and girls.
• Testosterone dominates male pubertal development, and estradiol dominates female pubertal development.
• Several environmental factors affect puberty's timing and makeup, including nutrition, health, family stress etc.
• Menarche is a girl's first menstruation and usually happens late in the pubertal cycle.
• The average age of menarche has declined due to improved nutrition and health
• Later menarche is associated with high income levels.
• Adolescents who mature earlier or later than their peers perceive themselves differently.
• Early-maturing boys usually have an advantage during adolescence.
• Early maturation increases girls' vulnerability to issues like smoking, drinking, depression, eating disorders, and earlier sexual experiences.
• Adolescents care about their bodies and how they look with gender differences.
• Girls tend to be less happy with their bodies and have more negative images.
• Body images become more positive toward the end of adolescence between both genders.
• Internet use plays a role in body image.

Adolescent Sexuality

• Adolescence is a time for sexual exploration and experimentation to incorporate sexuality into identity.
• Profiles of sexual activity vary across cultures.
• Adolescents are emotionally unequipped to handle sexual experiences, specifically in early adolescence.
• Parental behaviours play a role in early sexual activity.
• SES, peers, school, and sports contexts relate to sexual risk.
• Forming a sexual identity involves managing sexual feelings, developing intimacy, and learning to regulate sexual behaviour.
• Sexual orientation constitutes attraction, behaviour, and identity.
  • Sexual identity is an individual's social identity.
  • Sexual behaviour a person's sexual partner, sex, or gender.
  • Sexual attraction constitutes feelings, independently of behaviours.
• Sexual attraction, behaviour, and identity may not align.
• Lesbian and gay individuals struggle with attractions in childhood and may gradually recognize that they are gay or lesbian in middle to late adolescence.
• There are barely any differences between hetero and homosexual milestones except for stress.
• Conversion therapy became illegal in Canada on January 7, 2022.
• Sexual activity carries considerable risks if safeguards are not taken.
  • Unintended, unwanted pregnancy can result from this activity.
  • Sexually transmitted infections can result from this activity.
• Most adolescents do not use contraceptives or use them inconsistently.
• Adolescent pregnancies create health risks for both the baby and the mother.
• Adolescent pregnancy is associated with preterm birth, low birth weight, low Apgar scores, and increased mortality.
• Negative outcomes can be associated with the context such as low SES.
• Approaches to reduce adolescent pregnancy should include pregnancy prevention and empower girls.

Adolescent Health

• Adolescence is a time in life when health behaviors are adopted.
• Nutrition and exercise are important.
• Early obesity is on the rise and has long-term health implications.
• Exercise outcomes in adolescence are reduced triglyceride levels, lower blood pressure, and a lower rate of type 2 diabetes.
• Adolescent exercise levels are associated with parenting, peer relationships, and screen activity.
• Key metrics of sleep include the amount of sleep and the timing.
• Adolescents get less sleep than they need, and their circadian rhythm differs from that of children and adults.
• Electronic media and caffeine contribute to sleep deprivation.
• Sleep deprivation is associated with depression, anxiety, obesity, poor performance on tests, and difficulty concentrating.
• Adolescents experiment with substances like alcohol and cigarettes.
  • Youth use substances as part of sociability with peers.
  • Some people use substances to cope with stress, anxiety, and depression.
• Peers are an important factor in adolescents' substance use.
• Alcohol and cannabis use are higher among First Nations, Inuit, and Metis communities than non-Indigenous youth.
• There are 4 pillars to guide youth programs aimed at preventing problematic substance abuse.
  • This incudes creating social conditions, promoting positive social norms, building skills, and promoting early intervention.
• Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder involving pursuing thinness through starvation that also involves biology and culture.
• Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that involves a binge-purge pattern along with distorted body image issues.

Adolescent Cognition

• Children enter the concrete operational stage of cognitive development at around 7 years of age.
• Formal operation is more abstract than concrete operations.
• Adolescents conjure up make-believe situations and reason with them logically.
• Adolescents think about thought itself.
• Hypothetical-deductive reasoning involves creating and testing hypotheses.
• Researchers have challenged some of Piaget's formal operational stage ideas.
  • This includes culture and education exerting a stronger influence on cognitive development.
  • cognitive development is not stage-like.
  • training can lead to earlier cognitive abilities.
• Adolescent egocentrism involves heightened self-consciousness,
• Believing that others are as interested in them as they are leads to attention-getting behaviour called an imaginary audience.
• A personal fable is a sense of uniqueness and invincibility.
• Social media might heighten all the previously mentioned ideas.
• Executive function is an umbrella-like concept for higher-level processes linked to the development of the prefrontal cortex.
• Executive function involves managing one's thoughts, goal-directed behaviour, and self-control.
• Working memory involves storing and manipulating information.
• Sustained attention increases during adolescence.
• Inhibition (Stroop task) increases during adolescence.
• Improvements in sustained attention working memory and inhibition have consequences in daily life.
• Decisions are made during adolescence (e.g., friends and sex).
• By ages 15-16, skills develop for adult-like decision-making but are still not as good.
• The prefrontal cortex has been shown to mature before the limbic system.
• Structural brain changes occur in adolescents.
• There is an increase in brain volume and neural pruning as well as thickening of the corpus callosum and better processing.
• the limbic system for emotions matures before the prefrontal cortex.
• The amygdala is especially involved in emotion.
• The effects of stressors such as poverty and migration during adolescence can potentially impact mental health.
• Stressors have been shown to increase anxiety and depression and the use of alcohol.

Schools

• First year of middle school or junior high school can be hard for many students due to factors like puberty and social pressures.
• Being the oldest and the biggest students in grade school but then going to being the youngest and smallest students in high school can be challenging.
• High schools are larger and more impersonal than grade schools and can make it difficult for some students.
• Teachers can often not make content relevant in higher education.
• Adolescents can become more immersed in peer group cultures.
• Students can drop out due to a variety of reasons.
  • Young men typically want to be financially independent.
  • Young women typically are dealing with family issues.
  • Drop out rates are most significant among Indigenous students.
• Service learning is a education that promotes social responsibility, it can be effective if students are able to reflect on their experience.