Adolescent is a person in the period of development between childhood and adulthood. This period is often called adolescence. Many experts in human development believe adolescence begins at about the age of 10. They recognize adolescence as a period of growth with many distinctive features. These features involve changes in the individual’s body, thinking abilities, psychological concerns, and place in society.
Human beings, like all mammals, go through a series of physical and biological changes between childhood and adulthood. These changes, called puberty, prepare them for sexual reproduction. Therefore, adolescence has always existed as a biological phenomenon. But the concept of adolescence as a separate psychological and social stage developed in industrialized nations during the mid-1800’s.
The “invention” of adolescence
Before the 1800’s, adults did not make important distinctions among children of different ages. However, new patterns of work and family life came with industrialization in the 1800’s. Individuals from age 12 to 16 were greatly affected by these changes. Work shifted away from farming and became less tied to the family. Thus, young people needed a new kind of preparation for adulthood. Children in working-class families often took jobs in mines, factories, and mills. Others were apprenticed to craftworkers to learn a trade. Adolescents in middle-class families were expected to attend school. There, they were grouped with others of the same age. At school, they could be better educated for a rapidly changing workplace.
By the early 1900’s, adolescence had become a lengthy preparation for adulthood in some societies and some social and economic classes. During adolescence, young people remained grouped with people their own age, often referred to as their peers. They also remained economically dependent on adults. This role is still expected of adolescents in most societies today.
How society regards adolescence has a tremendous impact on the psychological and social development of individuals. Before the 1800’s, the lives of adolescents did not revolve around socializing with friends. There was no such thing as a “teen culture.” Young people seldom felt compelled to take a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise conform to be accepted by the group. Today, social pressure from people their own age is a major influence on many adolescents. Such pressure is known as peer pressure.
Before adolescence became defined as a distinct developmental stage, most young people did not struggle to develop a clear sense of self. Nor did they struggle to sort out what they would become in the future. Most young people had few real choices open to them. Today, psychological experts use the term identity crisis to refer to the psychological distress many adolescents feel as they seek a sense of purpose and an acceptable role in the world. Peer pressure, popular culture, and identity crises may seem to make up the core of adolescence. But they are actually consequences of how adolescence is defined today.
Physical development
Puberty is the most obvious sign that an individual has entered adolescence. Technically, puberty refers to the period during which the individual becomes capable of sexual reproduction. More broadly, however, puberty is used as a collective term for all the physical changes that occur in a growing girl or boy as the individual passes from childhood to adulthood.
The physical changes of adolescence are triggered by hormones (chemical substances in the body) that act on specific organs and tissues. In boys, a major change is increased production of the hormone testosterone. Girls experience increased production of the hormones called estrogens. In both sexes, a rise in growth hormone produces a growth spurt. This spurt lasts two or more years. During it, an individual commonly grows 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) taller per year.
Sexual development.
Many of the most dramatic changes of puberty involve sexual development. Internally, adolescents become capable of sexual reproduction. Externally, secondary sexual characteristics appear. The term secondary sexual characteristics refers to a variety of physical traits, such as body shape, voice, and facial hair. As these characteristics develop, girls and boys begin to look more like mature women and men.
Not everyone goes through puberty at the same time or rate. In Western industrialized societies today, the adolescent growth spurt occurs, on average, between the ages of 12 and 14 in boys. It occurs between ages 10 and 12 in girls. But some young people start puberty when they are 8 or 9. Others do not start until they are in their mid-teens. Generally, girls begin puberty about two years earlier than do boys. The duration of puberty also varies greatly, from 11/2 to 6 years in girls and from 2 to 5 years in boys.
Adolescent “awkwardness.”
Different parts of the body grow at different rates during puberty. Thus, many adolescents temporarily look and feel awkward. For many years, psychologists believed that puberty was stressful for young people. According to one theory, changes in hormones made young adolescents moody, irritable, and depressed. We now know that most emotional disturbances in adolescence result from changes in the teenager’s roles and relationships. Adolescents can minimize difficulties associated with puberty by knowing what changes to expect and having healthy attitudes toward them.
The timing of puberty
may affect an adolescent’s social and emotional development in important ways. Early-maturing boys and girls appear older physically. For this reason, people often treat them as if they were more mature psychologically than they are. Early maturers will more likely engage in risky behavior during early adolescence. Such behavior includes experimentation with drugs, sex, or delinquency. Many psychologists believe these risky actions result from the influence of older teenagers. Older teenagers befriend early maturers more often than they befriend younger-looking adolescents.
Because of the emphasis many boys place on athletics, early-maturing boys may have temporary advantages over their peers. As a result, during the first years of adolescence, early-maturing boys tend to be more popular, have higher self-esteem, and have more self-confidence than average- or late-maturing boys.
In contrast, the effects of early maturation on girls are more mixed. Early-maturing girls tend to be more popular with their peers. But they are also more likely to feel awkward and self-conscious. Perhaps they feel this way because they are uncomfortable with the attention, both welcome and unwelcome, their new appearance draws.
Over time, puberty has begun at younger and younger ages. Part of the trend is due to improvements in nutrition and health care. The trend appears to be leveling off, however.
Intellectual development
Compared with children, adolescents begin to think in ways more like adults. Their thinking becomes more advanced, more efficient, and generally more effective. These improvements appear in five chief ways.
(1) An adolescent’s thinking is less bound to concrete events than that of a child. Children’s thinking focuses on things and events that they can observe directly in the present. Adolescents can better compare what they observe with what they can imagine.
(2) During adolescence, individuals become better able to think about abstract things. Adolescents have an increased interest in relationships, politics, religion, and morality. These topics involve such abstract concepts as loyalty, faith, and fairness.
(3) Adolescents think more often about the process of thinking itself. As a result, they can develop better ways to remember things and to monitor their own thinking.
(4) Adolescents have the ability to think about things in several ways at the same time. Adolescents can give much more complicated answers than children to such questions as “What caused the American Civil War?” Adolescents can better understand other people’s feelings. Thus, they have more sophisticated, complicated relationships with others. They also understand that social situations can have different interpretations, depending on one’s point of view.
(5) Children tend to see things in absolute terms. Adolescents often see things as relative. They are more likely to question statements. They are less likely to accept “facts” as unquestionably true. This change can be frustrating to parents, who may feel that their adolescent children question everything just for the sake of argument. However, such questioning is normal. It helps teenagers develop individuality and personal convictions.
One by-product of these changing aspects of intellectual development is the tendency for adolescents to become self-conscious and self-absorbed. This tendency is sometimes called adolescent egocentrism. Intense self-consciousness sometimes leads teenagers mistakenly to believe that others are constantly watching and evaluating them. A related problem is an adolescent’s incorrect belief that his or her problems are unique. For example, a teenager who has just broken up with a girlfriend or boyfriend may say that nobody else could possibly understand what he or she is feeling, even though such breaking up is a common experience.
Psychological development
Identity and self-esteem.
As individuals mature, they come to see themselves in more sophisticated, complicated ways. Adolescents can provide complex, abstract psychological descriptions of themselves. As a result, they become more interested in understanding their own personalities and motivations. Teenagers’ feelings about themselves may fluctuate, especially during early adolescence. However, self-esteem increases over the course of middle and late adolescence, as individuals gain more confidence.
Some adolescents go through periods when they genuinely wonder what their “real” personality is. Adolescents who have gone through a prolonged identity crisis may feel a stronger sense of identity as a result of taking the time to examine who they are and where they are headed.
Independence and responsibility.
During adolescence, individuals gradually move from the dependency of childhood to the independence of adulthood. Older adolescents generally do not rush to their parents whenever they are upset, worried, or need assistance. They solve many problems on their own. In addition, most adolescents have a great deal of emotional energy wrapped up in relationships outside the family. They may feel just as attached to their friends as to their parents. By late adolescence, children see their parents, and interact with them, as people—not just as a mother and father. Unlike younger children, adolescents do not typically see their parents as all-knowing or all-powerful.
Being independent also means being able to make one’s own decisions and behave responsibly. In general, decision-making abilities improve over the course of the adolescent years. Gains in being able to handle responsibility continue into the late years of high school.
During childhood, boys and girls are dependent upon and relate closely to their parents rather than their peers. During early adolescence, conformity to parents begins to decline. Peer pressure and conformity to peers increase. Peer pressure is particularly strong during junior high school and the early years of high school.
Adolescents yield more often to peer pressure in day-to-day social matters, such as styles of dress, tastes in music, and choices among leisure activities. But teenagers are mainly influenced by their parents and teachers when it comes to long-range questions concerning educational or occupational plans, or decisions involving values, religious beliefs, or ethics.
Becoming independent involves learning how to cope with peer pressure. During middle adolescence, individuals begin to act the way they think is right, rather than trying to impress their friends or please their parents.
Social development
Relationships with peers
change in four important ways during the teenage years: (1) There is a sharp increase in the amount of time adolescents spend with their peers compared to the time they spend with adults or their families. (2) Peer groups function much more often without adult supervision than they do during childhood. (3) In most societies, there is much more contact with peers of the opposite sex. (4) Adolescents tend to move in much larger peer groups than they did in childhood. Crowds tend to dominate the social world of the school.
The increased importance of peers during early adolescence coincides with changes in an individual’s need for intimacy. Adolescents begin to share secrets with their friends. As they do, a new sense of loyalty and commitment grows between them. An adolescent’s discovery that he or she thinks and feels the same way as someone else becomes an important basis of friendship. It also helps in the development of a sense of identity.
Dating and sex.
In industrialized societies, most young people begin dating sometime during early to mid-adolescence. Dating can mean a variety of activities, from gatherings that bring males and females together, to group dates, in which a group of boys and girls go out jointly. There can be casual dating in couples or serious involvement with a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Most adolescents’ first experience with sex does not involve another person. Many boys and girls report having sexual fantasies about someone they know or wish they knew. It is also fairly common for adolescents to masturbate (handle or rub their sex organs).
By the time many adolescents have reached high school, they have had some experience with intimate sexual contact, such as kissing, caressing, or sexual intercourse. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, more adolescents became sexually active than in the past. They also became sexually active at an earlier age. By the late 1990’s and the 2000’s, however, surveys indicated that the trend toward becoming sexually active at an early age was leveling off. Many individuals and religious groups consider sexual activity outside of marriage to be morally wrong. They also urge adolescents to avoid sexual activity for health reasons.
Family relationships
change most about the time of puberty. Conflict can increase between parents and adolescents. Closeness between them diminishes somewhat. Changing adolescent views on family rules and regulations may contribute to increased disagreement between young people and their parents.
Young people may distance themselves from their parents as they enter adolescence. But this period is not normally a time of family stress. Most conflicts take the form of minor arguments over day-to-day issues. In many families, the decline in closeness between parents and children in early adolescence results from the adolescent’s increased desire for privacy. In addition, teenagers and parents may express affection for each other less often. Generally, this distancing is temporary. Family relationships often become closer and less conflict-ridden during middle and late adolescence.
Certain constants remain in family life. Among the most important is an adolescent’s need for parents who are both nurturing and demanding. This combination of warmth and strictness is associated with healthy psychological development. Children raised by loving parents who maintain clear and constant personal and social standards are more likely to have good feelings about themselves than children brought up by harsh or lax parents. Adolescents raised with both warmth and firmness are more likely to excel in school, to have close and satisfying relationships with others, and to avoid trouble with drugs and delinquency.
Special problems and challenges
Adjusting to school life.
A young person’s move from elementary school to middle school or junior high school can be difficult. In elementary school, the child had a single homeroom teacher who knew him or her personally. In middle school or junior high, the child usually has a different teacher for each subject. In elementary school, children are rewarded for trying hard. In middle or junior high school, grades are based more on performance than on effort. In elementary school, children work under close supervision all day. In middle school or junior high, young people must learn to work more independently.
For such reasons, many students are temporarily disoriented during the transition between schools. Their self-esteem falters, and their grades may drop off slightly. Their interest in school activities declines. They may feel anonymous, isolated, and vulnerable. Parents can help by talking to the child before school begins about the differences he or she will experience.
Alcohol and drug abuse.
Many adolescents in industrialized countries experiment with alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. Adolescents may experiment with such substances because of a desire to fit in with their friends. Many adolescents see smoking, drinking, and using drugs as a key to popularity. Other reasons adolescents experiment with drugs and alcohol include boredom, and a desire to feel grown-up. They see drugs as a way to prove they are adults and no longer under adult control.
Young people who abuse drugs and alcohol are more likely to experience problems at school, to suffer from psychological distress and depression, to have unsafe sex, and to become involved in dangerous activities. Alcohol and drugs often contribute to automobile accidents, the leading cause of death among American teenagers. Adolescent substance abusers also expose themselves to long-term health risks that result from drug addiction or dependency.
Pregnancy.
Some young women become pregnant before the end of adolescence. Adults can help adolescents prevent unwanted pregnancies. For example, parents and teachers can provide sex education to instruct young people in how to deal with their sexual feelings before they become sexually active. Adults also can make adolescents feel more comfortable about discussing sexual matters. Such efforts may help young people to examine their own behavior seriously and thoughtfully.
Establishing a sexual identity.
Normal developmental tasks of adolescence include learning to think of oneself as a sexual being, to deal with sexual feelings, and to enjoy a new kind of closeness with another person. Part of this involves developing a sexual identity. Sexual identity includes sexual orientation—that is, whether a person is sexually attracted to the opposite sex or the same sex. People who are primarily attracted to members of their own sex are called homosexual, gay, or, if they are women, lesbian. People attracted to the opposite sex are called heterosexual or straight. No one factor determines sexual orientation.
At some time, almost all young adolescents worry that they might be homosexual. At the age when children enter puberty, they still spend most of their time with members of the same sex. As a result, many adolescents begin to experience sexual feelings before they have much contact with the opposite sex. This does not mean that all of these young adolescents have homosexual desires. Their sexual development is just ahead of their social development.
Unfavorable attitudes toward homosexuality may cause significant psychological distress for adolescents who experience gay and lesbian feelings. Such distress may be especially prevalent if they encounter hostility from those around them. The psychological tasks of adolescence, such as developing a sense of identity, present great challenges for all teenagers. These challenges may be intensified for those adolescents attracted to members of the same sex. They may have to resolve these issues without the social support available to their heterosexual peers.
Eating disorders.
Some adolescents, especially females, become so concerned about weight control that they take drastic and dangerous measures to remain thin. Some overeat and then force themselves to vomit to avoid gaining weight. This pattern is associated with an eating disorder called bulimia. Young women with a disorder called anorexia nervosa actually starve themselves to keep their weight down. Adolescents with eating disorders have an extremely disturbed body image. They see themselves as overweight when they are actually underweight. Bulimia and anorexia nervosa are rare before the age of 10. It was once believed that eating disorders were more common in North America and Western Europe than in other parts of the world. It was also thought they were more common among the prosperous and well educated. However, research studies have found these disorders to be common among all social and economic levels, and in many countries throughout the world.
The incidence of anorexia and bulimia is small. But many adolescents, especially females, remain unhappy with their body shape or weight. Many girls whose weight is normal by medical and health standards believe they are overweight. A majority of adolescent girls report that they would like to be thinner. Most believe that being thinner would make them happier, more successful, and more popular.
Delinquency.
Violations of the law are far more common among adolescents and young adults than in any other age group. Violent crimes and crimes against property peak during high school.
Violent crime is a serious concern to youths as well as to adults. Adolescents are the age group most likely to become victims of such crimes as theft, robbery, rape, and assault. However, adolescents may also commit such violent crimes. Delinquents who repeatedly commit serious crimes typically come from disrupted or badly functioning families. They frequently abuse alcohol or drugs. Hostile, neglectful, or unfit parents may mistreat children and fail to instill in them proper standards of behavior or the psychological foundations of self-control.
Risk taking.
Many adolescent health problems result from behaviors that can be prevented. These behaviors include substance abuse, reckless driving, unprotected sex, and violence. One particular concern is sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, among teenagers. Some people mistakenly consider AIDS a homosexual disease. But the virus can be transmitted from male to female or female to male. The virus is also transmitted through needles and syringes that are used in taking drugs. It may even be spread by tattooing or body piercing if the instruments were previously used on an infected person.
Suicide.
The suicide rate among teenagers has risen dramatically since the mid-1900’s. Four factors in particular place an adolescent at risk for a suicide attempt. They are: (1) suffering from low self-esteem or an emotional problem, such as depression; (2) being under stress, especially in school or because of a romantic relationship; (3) experiencing family disruption or family conflict; and (4) having a history of suicide in the family or a friend who has committed suicide.
Any threat of suicide demands immediate professional attention. Anyone who suspects an adolescent is considering suicide should immediately call a suicide hot line or the emergency room of a local hospital.
Planning for the future
Career planning
is part of the identity development process during adolescence. Occupational plans develop in stages. Prior to adolescence, children express career interests that are often little more than fantasies. These fantasies have little bearing on the plans they eventually make. In adolescence, individuals begin to develop self-concepts and ideas about work that will guide them in their educational and occupational decisions. Adolescents may not settle on a particular career at this point. But they do begin to narrow their choices according to their interests, values, and abilities.
One problem all young people face in making career plans is obtaining accurate information about the labor market and the best ways of pursuing positions in various fields. One goal of career education is to help adolescents make more informed choices about their careers and to free them from misinformation that inhibits their choices. For a discussion of how to choose and plan a career, see the Careers article.
Education
is essential today for anyone who wants a well-paying job with a promising future. Young people need at least a high school education to compete in the job market. Those who want to go into a craft or trade usually need a two-year course of college study.
Most of the better jobs go to individuals with at least some college education. However, getting a job is not the only reason for going to college. College plays a critical role in a young person’s psychological development. College does not only provide occupational advantages. It also affects where individuals will live, who they will marry, who their lifelong friends will be, and, most important, who they become.
