Comprehensive Study Notes on Adolescent Development and Health

Adolescent Growth Spurt: A $4\,\text{year}$ period of rapid growth.
Height Spurt: A $4\,\text{year}$ period characterized by a rapid increase in height.
- Females: Add $8\,\text{in}$ between the ages of $10\text{--}14\,\text{yrs}$ (approximately $3\,\text{in/yr}$ ).
- Males: Add $14.5\,\text{in}$ from ages $11\text{--}16\,\text{yrs}$ .
- Growth Comparison: Females are taller around age $11$ , but boys catch up and surpass them later.
Weight Spurt: Characterized by rapid weight gain, starting approximately $6\,\text{mo}$ after the height spurt begins.
Biological Tissue Composition:
- Females: Contain approximately $40\%$ more fatty tissue than males (primarily in the breasts and pelvis).
- Males: Contain approximately $70\%$ more muscle tissue than females (primarily in the arms and chest, and potentially the legs).
Asynchronous Growth: Limbs grow faster than the rest of the body. The feet are the fastest-growing part of the body.

Definition: Reaching sexual maturity.
Primary Sex Characteristics: These are physical features directly tied to reproduction.
- Menarche: The initial menstrual cycle. This occurs on average at $11\text{--}12\,\text{yrs}$ old, with an overall range of $8\text{--}16\,\text{yrs}$ .
- Spermarche: The initial production of seminal fluid, occurs at approximately $13\,\text{yrs}$ . Sperm appears approximately $1\,\text{yr}$ later.
Secondary Sex Characteristics: Indicators of sexual maturity not directly tied to reproduction.
- Shared characteristics: These include male/female bodily and pubic hair, acne, and the growth spurt.
- Female-Specific: Includes breast development and pelvic widening.
- Male-Specific: Includes muscle growth, facial hair, a deeper voice, and random erections.

$13\text{--}15\,\text{yrs}$ : Development occurs in the cerebral cortex, leading to improvements in abstract thinking.
$17\text{--}\text{mid-}20\text{s}$ : Development occurs in the frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex. This period brings improvements in:
- Judgement.
- Impulse control.
- Emotional regulation.

Piaget's Formal Operations Stage:
- Abstract Thinking: The ability to understand the non-physical world.
- Hypothetical Reasoning: Thinking in terms of "what-if" scenarios.
Adolescent Egocentrism (Elkind, 1967): Defined as excessive self-focus.
- Imaginary Audience: The false belief that one is the constant center of all attention.
- Personal Fable: The false belief that one is unique and invulnerable.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development:
- Preconventional Level ( $\text{birth}\text{--}5\,\text{yrs}$ ): There is no internal sense of morality.
  - Stage 1 (Punishment Orientation): Focused on avoiding negative consequences.
  - Stage 2 (Reward Orientation): Focused on seeking positive consequences.
- Conventional Level ( $6\text{--}10\,\text{yrs}$ ): Morality is partially internalized.
  - Stage 3 (Good boy/girl orientation): Seeking approval from parents and teachers.
  - Stage 4 (Authority orientation): Following established rules.
- Preconventional Level ( $10+\,\text{yrs}$ ): (Note: Transcript label for the third level; standard theory refers to this as Postconventional). Morality is fully internalized.
  - Notes on reach: "Don't make it here" and "most people" are listed as caveats for this level.
  - Stage 5 (Social Contract Orientation): Following the law, while recognizing that laws are flexible because motive matters.
  - Stage 6 (Morality of Individual Principles): Guided by individual conscience and following a moral code regardless of the consequences.

Ego-identity status (Marcia, 1993): Outlined two dimensions of identity formation:
1. Exploration: Questioning and searching for alternatives.
2. Commitment: The level of investment an individual has in a particular identity.

Sleep: Teens need approximately $9\,\text{hrs}$ of sleep. Their sleep cycle is delayed; they are more alert late at night and more drowsy later in the morning.
Nutritional Needs: Requirements increase significantly due to the growth spurt.
- Males: Need approximately $3000\,\text{cal/day}$ .
- Females: Need approximately $1200\,\text{cal/day}$ .
Eating Disorders: Refers to pathological eating patterns. Females make up $90+\%$ of cases. These typically develop in the mid-to-late teens ( $14\text{--}18\,\text{yrs}$ ).
- Anorexia Nervosa: Self-starvation beginning with a body image disturbance and an intense fear of being overweight.
  - Symptoms: Starvation, purging, being $15\%$ underweight, and the cessation of the menstrual cycle (affects $0.5\text{--}1\%$ of individuals).
  - Implications: This condition may be fatal.
  - Demographics: Primarily affects Caucasian individuals from higher household incomes who are high achievers.
- Bulimia: Binge-purge syndrome.
  - Weight: Individuals maintain normal or above-normal body weight.
  - Psychology: Food is used as a mechanism to manage emotions.
  - Social factors: Often involves more emotional distance in family relationships. Affects $1\text{--}3\%$ of the population.

General Health: Most adolescents are healthy, but $\frac{1}{5}$ ( $20\%$ ) suffer from a chronic health issue.
Risk Group Rankings:
- $1^{\text{st}}$ Risk Group: Drug addiction and abuse.
- $2^{\text{nd}}$ Risk Group: STDs.
- $3^{\text{rd}}$ Risk Group: Suicide.
Fatalities: Accidents are the $1^{\text{st}}$ cause of death, particularly in boys. Car accidents are the most common type of fatal accident.

Trends: Anxiety and depression increase during the transition from childhood to adolescence.
Gender Disparities:
- Males: More likely to commit suicide.
- Females: More likely to unsuccessfully attempt suicide. Females are also more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression.