Adolescence: Chances and Risks Notes

Adolescence: Chances and Risks Notes

Chapter 1: Biological Transitions

Puberty Overview

• Puberty enables sexual reproduction through rapid growth, primary (gonad development), and secondary sex characteristic development.
• The endocrine system regulates hormones; GnRH neurons play a key role.

Hormonal Feedback Loop

• The HPG axis involves the hypothalamus (GnRH), pituitary gland (hormone levels), and gonads (sex hormones: androgens, estrogens).
• Hormone levels are maintained at a set point, influenced by environmental and bodily conditions.

Adrenarche

• Adrenal gland maturation contributes to body odor and signals sexual maturation.
• Puberty increases sensitivity to stress due to cortisol secretion.

Triggers of Puberty

• Puberty is triggered by signals indicating sexually mature partners, sufficient nutrition, and physical maturity.
• Leptin levels are critical, especially in females.
• Stress, illness, and nutritional deficiencies can delay puberty.

Hormonal Influence

• Organizational role: early hormone exposure organizes the brain.
• Activational role: hormone changes stimulate behavioral and physical changes during puberty.

Somatic Development

• Adolescent Growth Spurt: rapid height and weight increase stimulated by growth, thyroid, and androgen hormones.
• Peak height velocity occurs at a toddler's growth rate.
• Epiphysis: bone end closure terminates growth.

Sex Differences

• Muscle growth is more rapid in boys; fat increases more in girls during puberty.
• Muscle-to-fat ratio in boys is $3:1$, in girls $5:4$.
• Girls are more prone to reduce physical activity.

Body Dissatisfaction

• Girls who mature early, date early, or are from affluent families are more susceptible to body dissatisfaction.
• Boys' concerns revolve around muscularity.

Sexual Maturation

• Tanner stages classify secondary sex characteristic development.
• Boys: testes/scrotal sac growth, pubic hair growth, body growth, penis growth, voice change, facial/underarm hair, and oil/sweat glands.
• Girls: breast growth, pubic hair growth, body growth, menarche, underarm hair, and oil/sweat glands.

Variations in Puberty

• Timing: age of onset, varies between individuals (girls onset 7-13, boys onset 9.5-13.5).
• Tempo: rate of maturation, varies between individuals (girls duration 1.5-6, boys duration 2-5).
• Genetics and nutrition play roles; familial tension and pheromones can influence timing.

Secular Trend

• Secular trend: Decline in average age of menarche over time, linked to improved nutrition and sanitation.

Psychological and Social Impact

• Biological changes influence behavior, self-image, and interactions with others.
• Puberty affects self-esteem, moodiness, and sleep patterns (delayed phase preference).
• Family relationships may experience increased conflict.

Impact of Specific Events

• Reactions to biological changes are generally positive.
• Negative attitudes toward menarche can increase menstrual discomfort.

Early vs Late Maturation

• Early-maturing boys: feel better about themselves, more popular, but more likely to engage in antisocial activities.
• Late-maturing boys: higher intellectual curiosity and social initiative.
• Early-maturing girls: more emotional difficulties, lowered self-image, higher rates of depression, anxiety, eating disorders.

Obesity and Eating Disorders

• Basal metabolism rate drops about 15% during puberty.
• Obesity results from genetic and environmental factors and is more prevalent among poor youth.
• Disordered eating ranges from preoccupation with weight to clinical eating disorders.
• Anorexia and bulimia have different prevalence patterns and are linked to mental health problems.

Paradox of Adolescent Health

• Adolescence is generally healthy but has a rise in mortality due to violence and risky behaviors.
• Focus on encouraging preventative health measures.

Chapter 2: Cognitive Transitions

Changes in Cognition

• Adolescents think about possibilities, abstract concepts, their own thinking, multiple dimensions, and relative truths.

Thinking About Possibilities

• Adolescents consider possibilities beyond reality and evaluate viewpoints critically.

Deductive Reasoning

• Involves drawing necessary conclusions from general premises.

Hypothetical Thinking

• Includes "if-then" thinking, planning, and considering consequences.

Abstract Concepts

• Engagement with interpersonal relationships, religion, morality, etc.

Thinking About Thinking

• Metacognition: monitoring one's own cognitive activity.

Adolescent Egocentrism

• Includes imaginary audience (belief of being the center of attention) and personal fable (belief of unique experiences).

Multiple Dimensions

• Consideration of issues from various perspectives.

Adolescent Relativism

• Questioning of previously accepted facts.

Piagetian View

• Cognitive development progresses through distinct stages; formal operations enable abstract logical reasoning.

Information-Processing View

• Cognitive development involves improvements in attention, memory, processing speed, organization, and metacognition.

Adolescent Brain

• Brain reaches adult size by age 10; synaptic pruning and myelination occur during adolescence.

Brain Structure

• PFC undergoes pruning; connectivity between PFC and limbic system improves.

Brain Functions

• PFC activation becomes more focused; coordination between brain regions increases.

Risk and Reward

• Changes in neurotransmitter systems make adolescents more emotional and reward-seeking.

Social Brain

• Limbic system changes increase sensitivity to social information.

Correlation is not Causation

• Brain changes correlate with but do not necessarily cause behavioral changes.

Measurement of IQ

• Involves verbal and performance tests.

Types of Intelligence

• Sternberg's Triarchic Theory: componential, experiential, and contextual intelligence.
• Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences: verbal, mathematical, spatial, etc.

Intelligence Test Performance

• Characterized by high stability but also change during childhood/adolescence.

Culture and Intelligence

• Vygotsky's perspective: intellectual skills develop in response to everyday problems.

Social Cognition

• Encompasses thinking about people, relationships, and institutions.

Theory of Mind

• Understanding others' mental states; improves through adolescence.

Relationships

• Children believe social activities should be inclusive; adolescents consider loyalty, status, and context.

Social Conventions

• Seen as arbitrary but functional; adherence is essential.

Risk Taking

• Behavioral decision theory: decision making is a rational process.

Values and Priorities

• Adolescents prioritize rewards over risks.

Emotional Influences

• Risky behavior is influenced by emotional arousal and peer encouragement.

Logic and Intuition

• Dual systems models: deliberative and intuitive thinking.

Reducing Risk

• Limiting opportunities for risky behavior is more effective than education.

Chapter 3: Social Transitions

Social Redefinition

• Redefining individual status in society; affects identity, autonomy, intimacy, sexuality, and achievement.

Elongation of Adolescence

• Adolescence lasts longer today with earlier puberty and later work/family formation.

Social Invention

• Adolescence is defined by society's recognition; behaviors are influenced by societal definitions.

Industrialization

• Led to new work, education, and family patterns; adolescents became viewed as preparing for adulthood.

Emerging Adulthood

• A unique developmental period (18-25) characterized by identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling between adolescence and adulthood, and possibilities.

Changes in Status

• Attainment of adult status involves community participation, new obligations, and new laws.
• Status offenses are violations only for minors.

Legal Boundaries

• Legal decisions set age boundaries based on potentially damaging behaviors and adolescent autonomy.

Social Redefinition Process: Common Practices

• Separation from parents, emphasis on sex differences, and information transfer from older generations.

Variations in Clarity

• Initiation ceremonies mark transitions but vary in clarity.

Clarity in Contemporary Society

• Social redefinition lacks clear indicators of adult responsibilities and privileges.

Adolescents' View

• Emphasis on self-reliance over specific roles; declining emphasis on family roles.

Social Redefinition in Traditional Cultures

• Marked by initiation ceremonies and physical changes.

Circumcision

• Some part of genitals is cut and permanently altered.

Social Redefinition in Previous Eras

• Transition to adulthood was different for baby boomers.

Variations in Continuity

• Continuity: Extent to which transitions are gradual or abrupt.

Contemporary Society

• Exclusion of young people from the world of adults with little training and abrupt shifts to total independence.

Traditional Cultures

• Provide formal education through tasks that mimic their roles as adults.

Previous Eras

• Transition was more continuous; adolescents were expected to work on the family farm and take part in child-rearing roles.

Current Trends

• Individuals live longer with parents due to housing costs and college attendance.

Transition into Adulthood

• Three transitions: have's, not have's, in-between; problems with the youth (no bond to college).

Special Problems

• Issues with a longer transitional period with little opportunity; poverty linked to failure with education, employment and pregency.

What Can Be Done

• To easy; education restructure, new works open with a mentor, improvement in the adolescent community.

Neighborhood Condition

• Can influence an youth development with poor norms, poor resources.

Collective Efficacy

• With little to no trust undermines the relationship, easier for deviant peer groups to exist.

Impact of Stress

• Stress from home effects parent relationships with others for behavior.

Limited Access

• Poor opportunity to have to the community to grow.

Chapter 4: Families

The Stereotype of Teenagers

• The more that parents believe in, the relationship becomes worse; studies show the relationship is closer, parents have more respect, love their kids, care.

Conflict is Inevitable

• Not necessarily; teenagers and parents usually share similar beliefs and values regarding working hard and going to school; the biggest differences are in taste/style.

Disagreements

• Usually curfews, clothing; parents see it as right/wrong, but kids see it as personal; don' accept rules for personal matters.

Relationships Change

• Family function, as the individual family members or circumstances change (especially in adolescence when teenagers are more emotionally/Temperamentally rigid/difficult)

Midlife Meets

• Biological change; adolescents undergo rapid physical growth/sexual maturation, while parents have concerns over there own bodies, attraction, intimacy decrease

New Expectations

• Power and status shift: Adolescents are on the verge of gaining more, while parents have already done so, parents have more responsibilities.

Health Check

• Nearly 2/3 of parents describe adolescence as most difficult (especially single mothers); low part in satisfaction, can cause marital issues later in life. Children leave and lose contact with fathers.

What a Stress

• Money issues with clothes, phones, help parents; familial duties of children to take precedence; can create stress between American born kids.

Cycle of Change

• The power balance starts from an asymmetrical one from the imbalance into higher grounds.

Puberty can Distort

• Not serious intimacy is less likely to take effect, become affectionate/less love; health can take a drop (emotion distress)

Whats Affects

• Families is good/bad; but depends on many different adolescents.

The Powerfull

• Authoritative parenting provides balance of restrictiveness/autonomy; creates self reliance, communication/understanding, development overall with emotions/verbal.

Workable Parenting

• Self directed kids elicit, wormth helps. This creates positive parenting.

Ethnically Different

• Less prevalent parenting in other cultures, as some practices are just protective (not authoritarian). Adverse effects show higher control.

A Secure Family

• If teens are permitted, autonomy creates self esteem and better coping abilities.

Siblingship

• Relationship with siblings includes a mix with both conflict/rivalry with nurturance/support; more negativity/effect, resolution with both parent; siblings become both distant with good/bad quality

Network of Relationship

• Positive sibling relationships help acemics/social well being, siblings share knowledge with friendships. Genetic/non-environments affect the personalities/behavior in childhood, especially with aggressive behavior/IQ traits.

The Different

• If the treatment creates tension due to uniqueness/fairness with relationships. Sibling has higher identification, with less conflict.

Divorcing Parents

• In US there is a higher divorce rate increasing during 1960s-1960s. 40% is the current of first time marriages, which results in a single parent/remarriage households

Step Parents

• 3/4 divorces remarry, lots of kids get second divorce in steps. There is lower income and this effects the kid, poverty can harm the outcome.

Can effect Kids

• Might depend; but usually leads into a bad lifestyle with school, crime, mental problems

Different Parents

• Usually no bad differences, just higher levels of marital unhappiness. But effect a children which makes them do drugs.

Gene Problems

• Maybe a genetic inheritance from divorced parents or in general the bad characteristics they have.

Family Problems

• For kids; usually can lead to emotional problem, bad temperament; help can be a thing if the problems are minimal (same sex parenting is usually better)

Sleeper Effect

• Effects can be negative later for children in the 30's that divorced as a child.

Double Dose

• May be double with second divorce. There more the conflict/contact the greater likelihood for bad outcomes.

Economical Stress

• The financial outcome may also end up having kids depressed/less nurturing/parenting, resulting in bad behavior overall.
  Poverty is especially problematic as they feel isolated.

Adoption is hard

• Has higher rates of use in drug abuse, problems with both home/school (the magnitude is little!).

Lesbian Parents do not alter Children

• They have no difference whatsoever then the next (straight) parent

Foster Kids are risky

• Due to their environment in a dangerous house.