Module 8: Adolescence - Physical and Cognitive Development

Content

1. Pubertal milestones during adolescence

2. The progression of pubertal development; factors that may accelerate/delay it

3. The risk factors associated with early/frequent sexual activity in adolescence

4. Protective and risk-factors experienced by same sex attracted youth in relation to their well-being and adjustment

5. Prevention strategies for teen pregnancy

6. Piaget’s formal operational stage

7. Typical reactions from adolescents resulting from their advancing cognition

What is Adolescence?

Adolescence is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Implies sexual maturity, and increasing romantic relationships, increased reliance on peer groups, and risk and experimentation.

Main changes:

• Abstract thought, formal reasoning

• Emerging independence

• Completed schooling and choosing career paths

• Identity achievement

• More stable self-esteem

Biological View

G. Stanley-Hall: “storm and stress”

Core Elements of "Storm and Stress":

Hall claimed adolescence is universally characterised by:

1. Conflict with parents – Increased push for independence leads to friction with authority figures.

2. Mood disruptions – Hormonal and neurological changes cause emotional volatility, rapid mood swings, and heightened sensitivity.

3. Risky or deviant behaviour – Adolescents experiment with identity and autonomy, often leading to rule-breaking or sensation-seeking.

4. Sexuality development

Key Assumptions:

• Adolescence is biologically driven and inevitable.

• It’s a necessary and natural phase in human development, reflecting a recapitulation of human evolutionary history.

Criticisms:

• Overgeneralised: Not all adolescents experience intense turmoil.

• Cultural bias: Based mostly on Western, white, middle-class youth.

• Later research shows that while some teens do experience conflict or instability, most do not show extreme storm and stress.

Social View

Storm ad stress exaggerated,

Margaret Mead: first to consider individual variability in adjustment, noted impact of social environment

• Cultural Relativity:

  • Mead studied adolescents in Samoa and found they did not experience the same turmoil and conflict common in Western adolescents.

  • She concluded that storm and stress are not universal, but rather culturally constructed.

• Environment over Biology:

  • She believed social and cultural factors—not just hormones—determine how adolescents experience this stage.

  • In supportive, open societies with clear roles and gradual transitions to adulthood, adolescence can be smooth and stress-free.

• Adolescence as a Social Construct:

  • Mead saw adolescence as a flexible life stage, with its challenges depending on how a society treats youth, sexuality, identity, and responsibility.

Contemporary View

• Biological changes

  • Puberty triggers physical and hormonal changes.

  • Brain development, especially in the prefrontal cortex, affects decision-making, impulse control, and risk-taking.

  • These biological factors do influence mood and behaviour, but don’t determine them completely.

• Cognitive and emotional development

  • Adolescents develop abstract thinking (Piaget’s formal operations), identity (Erikson’s identity vs. role confusion), and emotional regulation.

  • Emotional volatility is common but varies greatly between individuals.

• Social and cultural context

  • Peer relationships, family dynamics, schooling, media exposure, and cultural expectations all shape how adolescence is experienced.

  • For example, teens in supportive environments often have smoother transitions than those in high-conflict or high-stress contexts.

  • Industrialised countries have longer adolescent period, greater adjustment to independence

• Individual differences

  • Not all adolescents experience "storm and stress."

  • Personality traits, resilience, mental health, and life circumstances play major roles.

Summary of Views

Physical Development

Growth spurt: girls precede boys

Girls accumulate fat faster.

Boys gain muscle, increased oxygen capacity from lungs to muscles

Pubertal Timing

Individual Differences

Hereditary: identical twins are more similar in onset than fraternal (2.8/12 months)

Nutrition and Exercise: earlier in obese girls, but not boys; for high exercise - later

Poverty and Malnutrition: later onset

Family Environment: high conflict, harsh parenting, parental separation - earlier onset

Consequences of Pubertal Timing

Psychological Reactions to Puberty

• Feelings of awkwardness, clumsy, unattractiveness

• Preoccupation with body throughout adolescence, but heightened in puberty with acute dissatisfaction

  • More pronounced in girls: 30% of average weight girls view selves as fat

• Self-consciousness, desire for privacy

• Moodiness: hormonal changes

  • Increased neuronal sensitivity

  • More negative life events

  • Situational: happier with friends in social situations, than with adults in structured, adult-controlled contexts

Adolescent Sexuality

Sex Education

Openness and information associated with less risky sexual behaviours, views more like parents

• The earlier kids receive sex education using proper terms, the later their first sexual experience is going to happen

• Mothers more communicative than fathers

• Girls have more information then boys

• Peers and popular media - alternative sources

Early sexual activity associated with:

• Earlier menstruation

• Greater independence

• Greater tolerance of deviant activity

• Poor academic achievement

• Poor relationships with parents/parental absence

• Poverty

• Less religious

• Sexually active role models

Same-Sex Attracted Youth

Most same-sex attracted youth have disclosed attraction in adolescence, with the number steadily increasing (97.5%). Most disclose to friends first, but family support has also increased in the recent years. Attending supportive schools with homophobia policy decreased risk of self-harm and suicide.

Homosexual youth is over-represented in homeless populations, due to being kicked out of their family house after disclosure.

• 61% report verbal abuse

• 18% report physical abuse

• 69% reported exclusion/rumours (more likely girls)

• 80% of abuse occurred at school

• Boys more likely to experience abuse

Adolescent Brain Development

In adolescence following changes are observed:

• Myelination of frontal lobes

• Improvements in attention, planing, self-regulation, integration of information

• Some EF tasks less mature, inhibition, planning, future orientation

• Increased sensitivity to excitatory neurotransmitters

  • Increased arousal

  • Increased riskiness

  • React more strongly to negative events, experience pleasure more intensely

The limbic system, particularly the amygdala and ventral striatum develop early in adolescence and show high activity, whereas the frontal cortex fully develops much later. Therefore, emotions like fear, are overwhelming, with the impacted capacity of the PFC to manage it. Furthermore, increased activity in the reward centre promotes faster learning and neuroplasticity.

Adolescence features changing sleep/arousal states. Adolescents go to sleep later, but still require the same (or more) amount of sleep

• Sleep deprivation results in declined EF

• More likelihood of anxiety, moodiness

• Weekend rebound effect exacerbates phase delay

Phase Delay: in adolescence the pineal gland secretes melatonin two hours later than in adulthood (8/10)

Feel sleepiness later, feel awake later.

• Teens who get A’s and B’s get about 25 more minutes of sleep

• Fatigue causes impulsiveness and poor concentration, similarly to ADHD

• Poor quality sleep linked to higher delinquency, depression, and lower coping self-esteem.