Child & Adolescent Psychology Exam 4

Puberty

-Hormonal and physical changes by which children become sexually mature and reach adult height

-Pre-teen and early adolescence

Puberty Rite

Coming of age ritual in traditional cultures

Secular Trend

Decline in average age at which children reach puberty, due to increase in nutritional value

Menarche

-A female’s first menstruation/period

-Has to be talked about for materials

Spermarche

-Males first ejaculation of live sperm

-More private

Adrenal Androgens

-From glands at top of kidneys

-Ages 6-8

-Programs puberty, peak in early 20’s, pubic hair, body odor, sexual desire

HPG Axis

-Hypothalamus, pituitary, gonads (ovaries and testes)
-Three phase hormonal sequence that triggers puberty

Ovaries and Testes

Release estrogens and testosterone

Primary Sexual Characteristics

-Body changes that are directly involved in reproduction

-Ex: period, lengthening penis

Secondary Sexual Characteristics

-All the physical changes not involved in reproduction

-Ex; getting boobs, facial hair, pubic hair

Growth Spurt

Dramatic increase in height and weight

For Females

-Highly variable of change

-Growth spurt

-Breast and pubic hair development

-Menarche

-uterus and vagina growth

-Vocal cords, red blood cells,and heart and development

-Increases Strength

For Males

-penis, testicles, and pubic hair growth

-growth spurt in height and muscle mass

-change in hands, feet, and legs (these grow first→ then body)

-Increase in sweat gland activity (bigger pore size→more acne)

-development of body hair and vocal cords

-More red blood cells → increase strength

Variety of forces predict why children mature earlier or later in peers

-Genetics

-Ethnicity differences (within and between)

-BMI during elementary school (females; inconclusive for males)

-Rapid weight gain during first 9 months of life (females)

-Intense family stress (females)

Reactions to changing body influenced by

Social environment

Early Maturing Males

-More prone to abuse substances, especially if low impulse control exists

-Higher risk for depression when personality problems or unhappy family life presents

-Greater success at sports boosts popularity and self-esteem

Early Maturing Females

-Higher risk of developing externalizing problems when in stressful environment

-Tendency for earlier involvement in smoking, drinking, and drugs

-Less likely to use contraception

-Lower self-worth leading to poor body image, depression

Thin Ideal

-A media driven, cultural idea that females need to be abnormally thin

-More females

Muscle building

-More males

Pre-birth epigenetic roots

If there mom was exposed to stress in pregnancy, more likely to have daughters with eating issues

Brown & Tiggemann

Exposure to celebrity or peer images led to greater body dissatisfaction and negative mood compared to travel images

Anorexia nervosa

-Intake restriction leading to significant low body weight

-Intense fear of gaining weight

-Disturbance in one’s weight or shape

-Must have certain BMI

-Most dangerous and life-threatening

Bulimia nervosa

-recurrent binging (eating a large amount of food in little time with loss of control)

-Prevent weight gain

-self-induced vommitting/use of laxatives, disturbance of body-image

Binge Eating Disorder

-recurrent binging

-no purging behaviors

Causes for Body Image Issues

-Hereditary: anorexia and bulimia

-Temporal vulnerability

-Low-self efficacy

Sex

Anatomical parts (plumbing born with)

Types of Sex

-Male

-Female

-Intersex: both parts

Gender

-Sense of identifying, regardless of one’s sex

-fluid

Sexual Orientation

A physical/romantic attraction to another person

Types of sexual orientation

-Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, a-sexual

Sexuality in Teens

-Threshold androgren level primes initial feelings

-Environmental feedback heightens interest in sex

Sexuality

-Exploring sexual desire

-Onset is tied to output of adrenal androgens (around 10)

Factors that predict making the transition to intercourse

-Race

-SES

-Family and peer influences

-Externalizing tendencies

-Sex-laden media

1st Intercourse Experience

-Age 17.8 for women and 18 for men

-1/8 children by 15

Who are teens having intercourse with?

-Most U.S. teens have 1st time with steady partner

-Non-committed Sex

Sexual Double Standard

-A cultural code that gives men greater sexual freedom than women

Pregnancy and STDS are decreasing in Teens in U.S.

But, prevelance rates very high compared to other countries

Sexual Interventions

-Friendly and comprehensive sex education

-Helps prevent pregnancy

-Can delay transition to intercourse

Traditional nuclear family

-Heterosexual married couple with biological kids

-Less than 50%

Blended families

Spouses divorced and remarried

Single parent families

-One parent in household

-1 in 4 children have this

Low income households

2/3 households

Live outside nation of birth

1 in 30

US adults born in another country

1 in 5

Authoritative Parents

-High on discipline and high on love

-Considered best parenting style

-Lots of structure, but can be lenient for well-being

Authoritarian Parents

-High on discipline and low on love

-Lots of rules and no bending

-Come across as cold and uncaring

Permissive Parents

-Low on discipline and high on love

-Total freedom

-Kid might not run house

Rejecting-Neglecting Parents

-Low on discipline and low on love

-Worst parenting style

-Kids being neglected and feeling abandoned and raising themselves

Classic critiques of Baumrind’s parenting styles

-Parenting styles can vary from child to child

-Can vary depending on one’s society

-Depend on life-situation (parents experiencing death, divorce, money issues)

Resilient Children

-Proficiency in emotional regulation, high-self-efficacy sense and optimistic world view

-Good executive functions and intellectual and social skills

-At least one close, caring relationship with parent or another adult.

-Rebound from serious early life traumas to construct successful adult lives

-Can be genetic

Spanking

-Banned in 24 nations; no ban in US

-Research shows its detrimental to children

-Models violence

-Impairs prosocial behavior

-Linked to mental health problems

Corporal Punishment

Any physical force to discipline child

Child Maltreatment

Any act that seriously endangers child’s physical or emotional well-being

Physical Abuse

Bodily injury that leaves bruises

Neglect Abuse

Failure to provide adequate supervision and care

Emotional Abuse

Shaming, terrorizing, or exploiting a child

Sexual Abuse

A spectrum from rape and incest to fondling and exhibitionist acts

Parent Personality Problem

-Mental health issues

-substance abuse

Child Vulnerabilities

-Need extra time and patience

-Can be more likely to be abused

Risk Factors

-Parent Personality Problem

-Life stress and social isolation

-Child vulnerabilities

Divorce

Risk increased for variety of negative life outcomes

Children more likely to adjust when

-minimized parental alienation or relational aggresion

-child voice in custody plans

-quality parenting by both parents

Parental alienation

-Bad-mouthing a formal spouse

-Goal to turn child against spouse

Achievement tests

Evaluates child’s knowledge in specific school related areas

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

Measure cognitive ability or general aptitude for mastering academic work

Wechster Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

-Verbal comprehension (what does word mean)

-Fluid reasoning (standard rules in new situation)

-Processing speed (how fast it processes

-Working memory (recalling)

Intellectual Disability

-a significantly impaired cognitive functioning

-IQ 70 or below

-Deficits in behavior

Specific learning disorder

-Impairment or deficit in specific domain

-Listening, thinking, speaking, reading, spelling, math

-Ex: dyslexia

Gifted

-Superior intellectual functioning

-IQ 130 or above

Spearman

-IQ test scores and g (general intelligence factor)

-Summary measure of cognitive potential for all life tasks

Sternberg

-Analytic (ability to think outside box)

-Creative

-Practical (common sense and street smarts)

-Successful intelligence (good at all 3)

Gardner

-Multiple intelligences

-Eight or nine types of intelligence

-Everyone is intelligent in different ways

Intrinsic motivation is eroded

Drive to act based on taking the action itself

Extrinsic motivation is increased

Drive to action based on external reinforcement

-Money, grades, praise

Solution to making kids like school

-Make extrinsic tasks more intrinsic

-Offer relevant, child-focused class materials

-Fostering relatedness

-Providing choices about how to do work

Value-Added Teachers

Educators whose students showed elevated bumps on end-of-year stat testing to typical teachers

Emerging Adulthood

-18 → late 20’s

-Core goals: marriage and kids

-Begins after high school and tapers off toward the late twenties

Exploring Different Possibilities

-Who you are

-What you wanna do (career)

Re-centering life

-Take control

-Act like a real adult

Entering unstructured and unpredictable path

Looks different for everyone

Skeleton Peak

-Height peaks at 20

-Joint cartilages and bones compress

-Height starts to decrease

Muscles Peak

-Skeletal muscle fibers contracting → helps perform physical tasks

-At top peak in teens

Heart Peak

-Cardiac output increases in exercise

-Cardiac output at highest

Lungs Peak

-Deliver oxygen to blood

-Vital capacity peak

Traditional Entry Point for Adulthood

-18 → 20 something

-Nest-leaving better fit

-Child move out → better relationship with parents

Thank goodness

Frontal lobe fully develops in mid-20’s

Social Clock

-Concept that we regulate our passage through adulthood by an inner-time tables that tells us which life activities are appropriate for certain ages

-Set by society, personal goals

Age Norms

The central ideas about the appropriate age for certain tasks

On-time

On target for a cultures time table for these tasks (marriage and children)

Off-time

Being too late to too early to a cultures time tables

-Can cause lots of stress

Identity vs Role Confusion

-Erikson

-Identity: the life task of deciding who to be as an adult

-Role confusion: failure in identity formation, lack any sense of future adult path

Identity Statuses

-4 categories of identity formation

-Marcia

Identity Diffusion

-When someone feels aimless in identity

-Totally blocked

-Not any adult path

Identity foreclosure

-Decided on adult life path

-Often spelled out by authority figure

-Decided without much thought or active search

-Family business

Moratorium

When someone is exploring various possibilities to find a truly solid adult path

Ruminative Moratorium

-Inability to decide between identities

-Might get into emotional paralysis and anxiety

Identity Achievement

-End point stage

-Fully mature identity status where young person chooses satisfying adult life path

Ethnic Identity

Having a sense of belonging to a defined ethnic/racial category

Self-esteem and Emotional Growth

Self down first semester and rises moving forward

Zone of Flow

-Csikszentmihalyi

-Feeling of total absorption in a challenging, goal-oriented activity

-Stretching capacities, something different for us, right level of difficult