HDFS 2200 UGA-Exam 2 Review

Adolescence

• Age 12-18

• Characterized by onset of puberty

Puberty

o Time between the first onrush of hormones and full adult physical development

o Usually lasting 3 to 5 years

o Many more years are required to achieve psychosocial maturity

• Menarche

o Girls first menstrual period, signaling that she has begun ovulation

o Pregnancy is biologically possible, but ovulation and menstruation are often irregular for years after menarche

• Spermarche

o Boys first ejaculation of sperm

o Erection can occur as early as infancy, but ejaculation signals sperm production

• Hormones

o Hormones during puberty affect sleep-wake cycle

o Biology (circadian rhythms) and culture (parties and technology) work to make teenagers increasingly sleep deprived with each year of high school

• Influence on age of puberty

o Age of 11 or 12 is the most likely age of visible onset

o Still considered normal from 8-14 years old

o Precocious puberty: sexual development before age of 8

• About 1 in 5,000 children, for unknown reasons

o Girls generally develop ahead of boys

o Children who have a relatively large proportion of body fat experience puberty sooner than do thinner children

o Each generation has experienced puberty a few weeks earlier, and has grown a centimeter or so taller, than did the preceding one

• Individual differences in timing of puberty

o Heredity: usually related to their mothers

o Nutrition, exercise: body fat, leptin in girls; more weight, puberty usually happens earlier

• Body fat

o Geographical location: On a global level, around the world, there are different ages of puberty;has to do with access to resources (later start dates when they have limited resources)

o SES

o Family experiences: cortisol levels; higher cortisol (stress levels) will make puberty start sooner

o Hormones:

• Consequences of timing of puberty

o Early maturing girls

• Unpopular, withdrawn, low confidence, more deviant behavior

o Early maturing boys

• Popular, confident, independent, positive body image

o Late maturing girls

• Sociable, lively, popular, positive body image

o Late maturing boys

• Unpopular, anxious, talkative, attention seeking

o **with boys it's a mixed bag, may become over confident if developed early

• Factors in reactions to timing of puberty

o Physical attractiveness-body image

• Girls: most want to be thinner

• Boys: most want to be bigger

o Fitting in with peers

• Prefer similar level of physical maturity

Hormonal changes in puberty

• Estrogen

o More in girls

o Adrenal estrogen

• Androgen

o More in boy

o Testosterone

Sexual maturation

• Primary sexual characteristics

o Maturation of the reproductive organs

• Girls: menarche

• Boys: Spermarche

• Secondary sexual characteristics

o Visible parts of the body that signal sexual maturity

• Girls: breasts

• Boys: facial hair, voice change

Nutrition in adolescence

• Calorie needs increase

• Poor food choices common

o Less fruit, vegetables, milk, breakfast

o More soda, fast food

• Eating with family can help

Body image

• Persons idea of how this or her body looks

• Girls diet partly because boys tend to prefer to date thin girls. Social pressure to be thin

• Boys want to look taller and stronger partly because girls value well-developed muscles in males. Social value of strength and height in men

Eating disorders

• Anorexia nervosa

o Starve out of fear of getting fat

• Bulimia nervosa

o Strict diet and exercise, binge and purge

• Teenagers have different reward systems than kids.

False

Adolescent Brain Development

• Brain is still developing

• Striatum- releases dopamine,

• FMRI scanner

• Teenagers make decisions before they think it through

o Very impulsive

• Top four aspects in the changes in the human brain

o Emotional spark- adolescence brain is filled with more emotions

o Social engagement- compassion and empathy, push away from parents and move to their peers

o Novelty- trying new things

o Creative expiration- challenging your mind

Why do teens make riskier decisions?

• Hyper rational thinking along with dopamine changes

• Adolescence is a time when you are driven mad by hormones.

False

• Innovation emerges form adolescence

True

• The teenager brain doesn't stop developing until mid 20's

True

Cognitive Development

• Increased myelination-which decreases reaction time

• Enhanced dopamine activity- promoting pleasurable experiences

• Synaptic growth-enhancing moral development and openness to new experiences and ideas

• Formal operational stage

o More systematic logic and the ability to think about abstract ideas

• Hypothetical thought

o Reasoning that includes propositions and possibilities that may not reflect reality

Information processing improvements in adolescence

• Attention: become more selective

• Inhibition: better at thinking before acting

• Memory strategies: better at studying, remembering challenging information

• Knowledge: schooling becomes more challenging in adolescence

• Metacognition: understanding their thoughts and thoughts of others

• Cognitive self-regulation: doing things to change thoughts when thoughts are negative

• Processing capacity: abilities to process more difficult information.

• We have the ability to pay attention but because of other outside factors we decrease the ability to focus longer

• Intuitive thought

o Thought from an emotion, beyond rational explanation, influenced by past experiences and cultural assumptions

• Analytic thought

o Thought from analysis, such as a systematic ranking of pros and cons, risks and consequences, possibilities and facts

o Analytic thought depends on logic and rationality

Consequences of Abstract thought

• Self consciousness and self focusing

o Imaginary audience: the other people who, in an adolescent's egocentric belief, are watching and taking note of his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior. This belief makes many teenagers very self-conscious.

o Sensitivity to criticism

o Personable fable: an aspect of adolescent's egocentrism characterized by an adolescent's belief that his or her thoughts, feelings, and experiences are unique, more wonderful or awful than anyone else's

• Idealism and criticism

o Planning and decision making

• Inexperience

• Overwhelming options

Thinking about oneself

• Egocentric

o Focus on themselves to the exclusion of others-center of attention

• Personal fable

o Aspect egocentrism characterized by belief that own thoughts, feelings, or experiences are unique, more awful than anyone else's

• Invincibility fable

o Belief that cannot be harmed, or "that won't happen to me"

• Belief supports engagement in unprotected sex, drug abuse, or high speed driving

• Imaginary audience

o Belief that others are watching and taking note of appearance, ideas, and behavior. Makes many teenagers self conscious

• Risk and reward

Reward parts of brain are much stronger than inhibition parts.

Powerful sensation desirable-loud music, speeding cars, and stronger drugs

• Logic shut down

o When emotions are intense, especially when one is with peers, the logical part of the brain shuts down (emotional flooding)

o When stress, arousal, passion, sensory bombardment, drug intoxication, or deprivation is extreme, the adolescent brain in overtaken by impulses that might shame themselves and others, especially parents and other adults

Overview

• Adolescence is marked by the beginning of puberty.

• Increases in hormones signal physical changes to the body

• Girls typically have more negative effects of early puberty than boys

• Growth spurts are common-muscles and bone grow quickly during this time

• Adolescents are egocentric and often believe nothing bad will happen to them

• During this time, they develop formal operational thought and are able to think abstractly

Identity vs. Role Confusion

• Adolescents aim to figure out who they are, what they want, where they're going in life

• Different stages of identity development

• Identity will continue to be defined into adulthood

• Experimenting and exploring different parts of self is normal-helps them self define

Four areas of identity Achievement

• Religious identity

o Few totally reject religion if they've grown up with it

• Gender identity

o Acceptance of roles and behaviors society associated

o Different from sexual orientation

• Political/ethnic identity

o Often same political views as family

• Vocational identity

o Rarely achieved until age 25

o Takes years to acquire skills for many careers

o Spend years mastering knowledge

Relationships with parents

• Family closeness

o Communication

• Do parents and teens talk openly with one another?

o Support

• do they rely on one another?

o Connectedness

• How emotionally close are they?

o Control

• Do parents encourage or limit adolescent autonomy?

• Conflicts with parents

o Typically peaks in early adolescence and is more a sign of attachment than of distance

o Parent teen conflict in other cultures

• Parental monitoring

o Parents' ongoing awareness of what their children are doing, where, and with whom

• Positive: part of a warm, supportive relationships

• Negative: when overly restrictive and controlling

• Worst: psychological in which parents make a child feel guilty and impose gratefulness by threatening to withdraw love and support

Relationships with peers

• Adolescents rely on peers to navigate puberty, intellectual challenge's of high school, and social adjustments of leaving childhood

o Clique

• Group of adolescents made up of close friedns who are loyal to one another while excluding outsiders

o Crowd

• Larger group of adolescents who have something in common but who are not necessarily friends

• Choosing friends

o Peer pressure

• Encouragement to conform to one's friends or contemporaries in behavior, dress, and attitude

• Usually considered a negative force, as when adolescent peers encourage one another to defy adult authority

o Selection

• Teenagers select friends whose values and interests they share, abandoning friends who follow other paths

Peer support and influences

• Facilitation

o Peers either facilitate Destructive and constructive behaviors (pros and negative); i.e.

o Makes it easier to do both the wrong thing ("Lets all skip school on Friday")

o And do the right thing (Lets study together for the chem exam")

o Helps individuals do things that they would be unlikely to do on their own

• Deviancy training

o Destructive training

• Destructive peer support in which one person shows another how to rebel against authority or social norms

School transitions: Entering a new school

• Transition from one school to another is stressful and can impair ability to function and learn

• The first year in any new school correlates with increased, bullying, decreased achievement, depression, and eating disorders

• Parents need to increase communication, involvement, monitoring

• Get them involved

• Stay connected to homeroom teacher

• Classes in friends

Benefits of extracurricular activities

• Academic performance

• Social skills, peer acceptance

• Self esteem, confidence

o Less antisocial behavior

o Improved family relationships

o Higher achievement later in life

Dropout prevention strategies

• High-quality vocational training

• Remedial instruction

• Personalized counseling

o Address factors in students' lives outside school

o Extracurricular activities

Cyber Danger

• The internet affords tends with a multitude of growth opportunities

• Often communication via the internet bolsters fragile self-esteem, provides information, and widens social circle

• The danger- sharing personal information online without thinking about the possible consequences-easy to lower inhibition of self disclosure- makes them vulnerable

Dating and Romantic Relationship: Three stages

• Entry into romantic attraction and affiliation

o 11-13 years old

o interested in romance

o develop a crush

o dating often occurs in group setting

• exploring romantic relationships

o 14-16 years old

o casual dating-short lived, often only a few weeks long

o dating in groups-peers act as facilitators

• consolidating dyadic romantic bonds

o 17-19

o more serious romantic relationships develop

o strong emotional bonds

o closely resemble adult relationships

o more stable and enduring

• "straight"

o first romance appear in HS and rarely last more than a year

o girls claim a steady partner more often than boys do

o breakups and unreciprocated crushes are common

o adolescents are crushed by rejection and sometimes contemplate revenge or suicide

o hetero-normative: perceive straight relationships to be the norm

• "Gay"

- many do no acknowledge their sexual orientation.

- social discrimination and lack of acceptance often make GLBTQ tends feel ashamed.

- many date members of the other sex to hide true orientation-pass as heterosexual to avoid discrimination.

- many gay youth have higher rates of clinical depression, drug abuse, and suicide than did their heterosexual peers-due to discrimination and homophobia.

- true number of homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, or asexual youth is unknown.

Sexual Behavior

• Approximately more than ½ of all US teenagers had had sexual intercourse by age 16

• The rate of teenage pregnancy in US has declined since 1960

• 86% of new teenage mothers are unmarried

• currently, 20% of teenage couples use the pill condoms, to prevent both pregnancy and infection

Sexual education: Learning from peers

o Sexual behavior strongly influenced by friends

o Specifics of peer education depend on the group: All members of a clique may be abstinent or all may be sexually active

o "Virginity/purity pledge" in religious peer groups

o only about ½ of US adolescent couples discuss sexual issues in a mature way-fear and lack skills to talk openly

o many are unable to come to a common understanding based on accurate information

Sexual Education: Parents

o Parents should not underestimate kids need for information-they need it

o Many parents know little about their teen's sexual activity and wait to talk about sex until their child is already in a romantic relationship

o Parents fear that talking about sex will lead to child's greater sexual activity

o Gender and age are the most significant correlates of parent-child conversations

Sexual Education: Starting Early: the most effective program

o Begin before HS

o Include assignments that require parents-child communication

o Focus on behavior (not just on conveying information)

o Provide medical referrals on request

o Last for years

• Talk to them based on their intellectual abilities

Talking to adolescents about sex

• Foster open communication

• Use correct terms

• Listen, discuss, collaborate

• Think before talking

• Keep conversations going

• Have accurate information

• Don't lecture-be curious, share your views

Adolescent Contraceptive Use

• Recent increase in contraceptive use

• Still 27% American, 13% Canadian don't use

• Reasons for not using:

o Concern about image

o Adolescent risk taking

o Lack of information

o Forced intercourse

o Low availability

Preventing Teen pregnancy

- Comprehensive sex education

- learning to handling different sexual situations (i.e. talking and role playing)

- Promoting Abstinence

- Information and Access to Contraceptives

- Academic and Social competence

-School involvment

Help for teen parents

- Health care for mom and child

- help graduating HS and college

- Job and life management training

- Parenting classes: manage multiple goals

- affordable and quality child care

- adult mentoring, guidance, and encouragement

- Support: child's father, their family, and their friends

- help parents stay alcohol and drugs free/ non-dependent

Adolescent substance abusers

Addicts compared to experimenters:

-More antisocial and impulsive

-start earlier

- more likely to be affective by genetic and environmental factors

Adolescent emotional health

- Substance use and abuse is strongly correlated with teen's emotional well-being

-Common Problems are:

o Depression

o Anxiety

o Social and academic pressure

o Suicide ideation, attempts, or achieved

o Self-harm behaviors

o Anger and violence

o Eating disorders

o Substance abuse

o Delinquency

o Sexually related problems

Depression

• Self esteem dips at puberty

• Signs of depression are common

o 36% of girls and 21% of boys experienced symptoms

o when a child feels helpless

• feeling guilty

• children feel like its their fault

• child wants to fit in to a class room

o treating low

• determine the stressors

• cognitive therapy

interrupt negative thoughts

• behavioral therapy

take her to ballet if she enjoys it

• does not go away, may not reach full potential in life

• self compassion: be kind to yourself

• gender differences:

- 20% of females and 10% of males experience clinical depression

- causes for gender disparity may be biological, psychological, and or social

cognitive explanation: Rumination

- repeatedly thinking and talking about past experiences can lead to depression; more common in girls.

• Suicidal ideation

- thinking about suicide, with much more emotional and intellectual overtones

- Adolescent suicidal ideation are common; However, accomplished suicides are not common.

-Adolescents are less likely to kill themselves than adults.

• Four factors increase risks of completed suicides

- availability of guns

-use of alcohol or other drugs

- lack of parental supervision- permissive parenting

- a culture that condones suicide

Gender differences with Suicide

- Suicide rate among male teenagers in the US is four times higher than the rate of female teenagers.

- Reasons for this difference:

1.) availability of lethal means

2.) Male culture can shame those who attempted suicide, but failed.

Methods of suicide for the gender differences between males and females

- Males tend to shoot themselves; females tend to pills or hang themselves.

- Girls tend to their families and friends know that they are depressed but boys tend to not

Suicide Prevention

o How can you help:

- be direct

- be willing to listen

- be non-judgmental

- don't be shocked

- don't be sworn to secrecy

- Take action. Removing means such as guns or stockpiled pills

Anger and Aggression

-Anger: Increased anger during puberty is normal, but most adolescent express their anger in acceptable ways.

- Aggression: Steady aggression throughout childhood and adolescents; (75) is a warning sign; boys are socialized to be violent; violence and aggression=masculinity

2 types of Delinquents

- Juvenile delinquent- persons under the age of 18 that break the law; older teens are often times tried as adults

1.) Life course persistent offender: a persons who criminal activity begins in early adolescence and continues throughout life; a career criminal

2.) Adolescence limited offender: a person whose criminal activity stop by age of 21.

Drug Use: Variations

• Age differences

- becomes widespread from ages 10 to 25 and then decreases

- drug use before age 18 is the best predictor of later drug use

Harm from Drugs: Tobacco

- slow down growth (impairs digestion, nutrition, appetite)

- reduces appetite

- causes protein and vitamin deficiencies.

- can damage developing hearts, lungs, brains, and reproductive systems

Harm from Drugs: Alcohol

- most frequently abused drug among north american teenagers

-Alcohol allows momentary denial of problems. When problems get worse because they have been ignored, more alcohol is needed.

- heavy drinking may permanently impair memory and self control by damaging the brain

Harm from Drugs: Marijuana

- Adolescents who regularly smoke weed are likely to drop out of school, become teenage parents, and become unemployed

- Weed affects memory, language proficiency, and motivation.

Preventing Drug Abuse: What Works?

• Scare tactics: May increase drug use because...

- the advertisements make drugs seem exciting

- Adolescents recognize the exaggeration

- the ads give teenagers ideas of ways to show defiance.

• Advertising campaigns against teen smoking

- antismoking announcements produced by cigarette companies increased use

Teens-Risk and protective factors

• Risk

- chaotic home environment

- ineffective parenting

- poor social coping skills

- academic failure

- parental substance abuse or mental illness

- Perceived external approval drug use

-affiliations with deviant peers

• Protective

- Strong family bonds

- Parental engagement in child's life

- clear parental expectation and consequences

- academic success

- strong bonds with prosocial institutions

-conventional norms about drug and alcohol

Overview

- Adolescent focus on identity formation.

- Adolescents often spend more time with peers than parents.

- Parental monitoring conflicts with autonomy, but helps to prevent deviant behavior.

- Romantic relationships develop across adolescence, with increasing intimacy.

- Quality of sex education influences outcomes.

- Depression is common in adolescents. Know the signs of depression and take suicide threats seriously.

Spring break

• Students often feel free to loose control and not take responsibility for behavior-"its just fun"

• Alcohol and drug abuse grossly impairs your judgment

• Lower inhibitions and affects your ability to think clearly and act responsibly- consequences can be fatal

• Alcohol and drug use, along with "group think" and peer influences put you seriously at risk

o Men will rape women and women will be raped

o You can get robbed, beaten, seriously assaulted

o Property can get destroyed or damaged

o The consequences of your actions of lack of actions can be detrimental and last a lifetime

o All your actions can be recorded and can hurt you

Adulthood

• What does it mean to be an adult?

- mature

- having a career

• Do you consider yourself an adult?

• What are the markers for adulthood?

- biological

-emotional

- psychological

-social

interpersonal

Emerging Adulthood

- slower than in past to reach milestones of adulthood

• Prolonged identity development

- more education

-later career entry

-financially less secure

- slow to marry

• This pace less available for low SES

The 20s are a black box

- move back home at least once

- 7 jobs in their 20s

- 2/3rds live with a romantic partner without being married

- getting married later

- emerging adulthood: transition takes place closer to 30s

DNA cellular level

- programmed effects of specific aging genes

- Random events: mutations, cancer, free radicals.

Organ and tissue level

- cross linkage theory

- gradual failure of the endocrine system

- declines in immune system

Biological Changes-heart and lung

- Heart: few resting changes, poorer performance under stress; hypertension and atherosclerosis; diseases declining- better lifestyle

- Lungs: Maximum vital capacity declines after 25; stiffness makes breathing harder with age

Motor performance in adulthood

• Athletic skills peak between 20 and 35

-decline gradually until 60s or 70s, then faster

• Continued training slows loss

- keep more vital capacity, muscle, response speed

The immune system in Early Adulthood

• Begins decline after age 20

o Fewer T cells from shrinking thymus

o B cells don't work as well without T cells

o Stress weakens immune response

Tope Health Risks for Young Adults

- accidents and unintentional injuries are the two top leading causes of death

- Long term health risks include...smoking, obesity, inactivity

- Young adults have twice the mortality rate than adolescence

- physical health at 30 predicts health at 70

- fewer chronic health problem than older adults

Leading causes of death for ages 15-24

• Accidents-46% of deaths

• Homicide-15% deaths

• Suicide-13%

• Cancer 5%

• Heart disease 3%

• Congenital conditions

• Stroke

• Flu and pneumonia

• HIV

• Chronic lower respiratory disease

Obesity: Health problems

- blood pressure, heart

- diabetes

- liver, gallbladder

- arthritis, joints

- sleep, digestive

- lower life expectancy

Obesity: Discrimination

- housing

- education, careers, peers

Treating Obesity

- diet

- eating record

- social support

- problem-solving skills

- extended intervention, including psychotherapy and nutritional counseling

Exercise

- only 1/3 of the population get enough exercising

- "enough exercising" would entail

a.) at least 30 minutes of 5 or more days a week

b.) more often, more vigorous is better

- 1/3 of north america are inactive

a.) women low SES

Benefits of exercise

- reduces fat, and builds muscle

- boost immune system, prevent some disease

- cardiovascular benefits

- mental health benefits

a.) stress reduction

b.) self esteem

- longer, healthier life

Other health and mental health related issues

• substance use

• tobaccos use

• alcohol use

• sexual relationships/behavior

• sexual assault

• stress

Substance use in early adulthood

- Major public health concern

- peaks from 19-22, then declines

-20% ages 21-25 are substance abusers

- cigarettes, chewing tobacco

- alcohol-binge drinking

- drugs (marijuana, stimulants, prescription drugs, "party drugs")

Cigarette smoking

• 25% of American

- number slowly declining

- less with higher education, but many college students smoke

- most smokers start before age 21

- deadly health risks

- extremely hard to quit

Alcohol abuse in early adulthood

- 13% of men, 3% of women are heavy drinkers

a.) about 1/3 of these alcoholics

- genetics and cultural factors in alcoholism

- binge drinking big concern

- "pregaming" is common among college students-- drinking before going out

- mental, physical, emotional, interpersonal, sexual, and social problems

- high social costs i.e. legal cost

- treatment is difficult

Sexuality

- 60% of young adults in the US report to having had sex at age 18 and most by the age of 25

- average age for marriage for men is 28, for women 26.

- males have more casual sexual partners- hookup- and dating has different meanings for different people

- casual sex and experimentation is more common in emerging adulthood than in any other life stages

- women report to being more selective of partners

- lifetime number of partners similar for men and women- attitudes grow more similar with age

- sexual double standards still exist

Sexual Assault

-Rape: is the forcibile sexual intercourse with a person who does not or cannot give consent- (minor, inebriated, low cognitive ability)

- Date or acquaintance rape most common

- 1 in 3 teens girls will be involved in a controlling abusive relationship before HS graduation

- 2/3 of 1st year college women report being rapes or had experienced attempted rape at least once.

- 2/3 of college men admit to fondling women against their will and 1/2 admit to forcing women to have sex.

Factors related to sexual coercion/rape: Perpetrator characteristics

- believes in male superiority

- controlling and dominant

- aggression enhances sense of power or masculinity

- alcohol and drug abuse

- Hyper "masculine traits

- Uses sex as a means to prove manhood

Factors related to sexual coercion/rape: Cultural forces

- rape culture

- boys taught dominance, competition, aggression

-women submission

- acceptance of violence

- aggressive pornography

- misogynist, demeaning images of women and girls

Survivors Consequences of rape and sexual abuse

•Trauma response

- immediate shock and fear

- long term problems: depression, anxiety, fear, worry, feelings of self worthlessness

- physical injury

- STIs

- general poor health

- negative, self harming behaviors

Responding to Rape and Abuse

-only one person responsible for preventing rape i.e the rapist

- focus must be on holding rapist accountable

- although victim can't prevent rape, people can lower vulnerability

- we need to challenge misogynistic views- male dominance and female subordination

- community services-underfunded, few for men

- survivor needs routine screening for STIs

- validate