©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Life-Span Development Twelfth Edition Chapter 11: Physical and Cognitive Development in Adolescence

The Nature of Adolescence  G. Stanley Hall (1904): adolescence is a time of “storm and stress”  More recent research has found that this is not necessarily true  Most adolescents successfully negotiate their path from childhood to adulthood  Negative stereotypes of adolescence are common but are not always accurate ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Puberty  Puberty: a period of rapid physical maturation involving hormonal and bodily changes that occur primarily during early adolescence  Menarche is a girl’s first menstruation  Marked weight and height gains  Growth spurt occurs about 2 years earlier for girls than boys  Girls increase in height 3.5 inches per year, boys about 4 inches  Pubic hair growth  Facial and chest hair growth in males  Breast growth in females  Sexual maturity ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Puberty  Hormonal Changes:  Hormones: chemicals secreted by the endocrine glands and carried throughout the body by the bloodstream  Endocrine system’s role involves the interaction of the hypothalamus, pituitary glands, and gonads  Hypothalamus: brain structure involved with eating and sex  Pituitary gland: endocrine gland that controls growth and regulates other glands  Gonads: testes in males, ovaries in females  Concentration of testosterone and estrogen increases ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Puberty  Hormonal Changes (continued):  Hormones may contribute to psychological development in adolescence  Behavior and moods can affect hormones  Stress, eating patterns, exercise, sexual activity, tension, and depression  Link between hormones and behavior is complex ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Puberty  Timing and Variations:  Average age of menarche has declined significantly  Improved nutrition and health  For boys, pubertal sequence typically begins from age 10–13 ½ and ends from 13–17  For girls, menarche typically begins between the ages of 9 and 15 ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Puberty  Preoccupation with body image is especially strong in early adolescence  Girls are generally less happy with their bodies than boys and become more dissatisfied over time  Boys typically become more satisfied as they move through puberty  Research on Body Image in Adolescence:  Appearance  Physical and mental health problems  Best and worst aspects of being a boy or a girl  Body art is becoming more popular among adolescents ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Puberty  Early and Late Maturation:  Boys:  Early-maturing boys view themselves more positively and have more successful peer relations  Late maturing boys report a stronger sense of identity in their 30s  In general, early maturation seems to be better  Girls:  Early-maturing girls are more likely to smoke, drink, be depressed, have an eating disorder, struggle for earlier independence, have older friends, date earlier and have earlier sexual experiences ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Brain  The adolescent brain undergoes significant structural changes  Corpus callosum thickens; improves adolescents’ ability to process information  Amygdala (handles processing of information about emotion) develops earlier than the prefrontal cortex (involved in higher-level cognitive processes)  Adolescents are driven by strong emotions but have difficulty controlling these passions ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Brain ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Sexuality  Adolescent sexuality is a time of exploration, experimentation, sexual fantasies, and incorporating sexuality into one’s identity  Every society gives some attention to adolescent sexuality  In the U.S., sexual culture is widely available to adolescents  Television and other media contribute to the sexual culture ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Sexuality  Developing a Sexual Identity Involves:  Learning to manage sexual feelings  Developing new forms of intimacy  Learning skills to regulate sexual behavior  Sexual Identity Includes:  Activities  Interests  Styles of behavior  Indication of sexual orientation  Gay male and lesbian youth have diverse patterns of initial attraction, often have bisexual attractions, and may have physical or emotional attraction to same-sex individuals ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Sexuality  Timing of sexual initiation varies by country, gender, and other socioeconomic characteristics  Percentages of sexually active young adolescents in the United States vary greatly  Male, African American, and inner-city adolescents report being the most sexually active; Asian American adolescents are the least sexually active  Early sexual activity is linked with risky behaviors (drug use, delinquency, school-related problems) ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Sexuality  Low parental monitoring is linked with early initiation of sexual activity, more sexual partners, and less condom use  Dramatic increase in oral sex during adolescence  Considered a casual, recreational activity by many  Belief that oral sex is not really sex  Belief that it is likely to be safer than sexual intercourse ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Sexuality  Adolescents are increasing their use of contraceptives  Some still use contraceptives inconsistently  Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are contracted primarily through sexual contact  U.S. has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the industrialized world  Difference exists despite the fact that U.S. adolescents are no more sexually active ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Sexuality  Adolescent pregnancy creates health risks for baby and mother  Low birth weight, neurological problems, childhood illness  Mothers often drop out of school and typically do not catch up economically  It is often not pregnancy alone that leads to negative consequences  Adolescent moms are more likely to come from low-SES backgrounds  Many were not good students before they became pregnant  Some adolescent mothers have positive outcomes ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Health  Many factors related to poor health habits and early death in adulthood begin during adolescence:  Poor nutrition  Lack of exercise  Inadequate sleep  Adolescents typically need about 9 hours of sleep  Adolescents’ biological clocks shift as they get older  Conflicts with school starting times ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Health  Leading Causes of Death in Adolescence:  Accidents  Typically motor vehicle accidents  A large percentage are due to alcohol or drug impairment  Homicide  More common among African American males  Suicide ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Substance Use and Abuse  United States has one of the highest rates of adolescent drug use of any industrialized nation  Adolescent alcohol and cigarette consumption has declined in recent years  Use of painkillers (Vicodin, Oxycontin) is increasing  Parents, peers, and social support can play important roles in preventing adolescent drug abuse ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Eating Disorders  Research Findings:  Body Image:  Adolescents are dissatisfied with their bodies  Low self-esteem and social support, weight-related teasing, and pressure to lose weight  Parenting:  Healthy eating patterns and exercise by parents increased adolescents’ healthy habits  Sexual Activity:  Sexually active girls were most likely to be dieting  Role Models and the Media:  Girls who were motivated to consume media with thin, female images were more likely to report dissatisfaction with their bodies ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Eating Disorders  Anorexia Nervosa: an eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation  Three Main Characteristics:  Weighing less than 85% of what is considered normal for a person’s age and height  Having an intense fear of gaining weight that does not decrease with weight loss  Having a distorted image of their body shape  Typically begins in the early to middle teen years, often following an episode of dieting  10 times more likely to occur in females than males ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Eating Disorders  Anorexia Nervosa (continued):  Most anorexics are White females from well- educated, middle- to upper-income families, and are competitive and high achieving  Linked to problems in family functioning  Fashion image in the U.S. contributes to the incidence of anorexia ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Eating Disorders  Bulimia Nervosa: eating disorder in which the individual consistently follows a binge-and- purge pattern  Most bulimics:  Are preoccupied with food  Have an intense fear of becoming overweight  Are depressed or anxious  Have a distorted body image  Bulimics typically fall within a normal weight range ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Cognition  Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage (age 11+):  More abstract than concrete operational thought  Increased verbal problem-solving ability  Increased tendency to think about thought itself  Thoughts of idealism and possibilities  More logical thought  Hypothetical-deductive reasoning: involves creating a hypothesis and deducing its implications ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adolescent Egocentrism  Adolescent Egocentrism:  Heightened self-consciousness of adolescents  Imaginary Audience: adolescents’ belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are  Personal Fable: involves a sense of uniqueness and invincibility  Invincibility attitudes are associated with reckless behavior  Drug use  Suicide  Having unprotected sex ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Information Processing  Improvement in executive functioning  Reasoning, making decisions, monitoring thinking critically, monitoring one’s cognitive process  Individuals become more competent decision- makers with age  Most people make better decisions when calm  Unfortunately, adolescents have a tendency to be emotionally intense ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Information Processing  Cognitive changes that improve critical thinking skills include:  Increased speed, automaticity, and capacity of information-processing  More breadth of content knowledge in a variety of domains  Increased ability to construct new combinations of knowledge  A greater range and more spontaneous use of strategies or procedures for applying or obtaining knowledge ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.