Adolescent development
Lecture 1: Introduction
10 risk behaviors
1. Alcohol
2. Delinquency
3. Gambling
4. Internet
5. “extreme sports”
6. Smoking
7. School
8. Unsafe sex
9. Soft drugs
10. Traffic
Adolescence: The period between the onset of sexual maturation and the attainment of adult roles
and responsibilities
The transition from:
- “Child” status (requires adult monitoring)
- To “adult” status (self-responsibility for behavior)
Learning objectives
1. To Understand how adolescence has been conceptualized across time and contexts
2. Understand old and new views about storm and stress
3. Understand how the beginning and end of adolescence has been defined
Conceptualizing adolescence
The health paradox of adolescence: Adolescence in the healthiest and most resilient period of the
lifespan.
- Strength, speed, rt, mental reasoning, immune functioning,
- resistance to cold, heat, hunger, dehydration, and most types of injury
Sources of Morbidity and Mortality in Adolescence: Primary causes of death/disability are related to
problems of control of behavior and emotion
- rates of accidents, suicides, homicides, depression, alcohol & substance use, violence,
reckless behaviors, eating disorders, health problems related to risky sexual behaviors.
- risk-taking, sensation-seeking, and erratic (emotionally influenced) behavior
Scientific Questions (Roald Dahl)
- What is the empirical evidence that adolescents are “heated by Nature”?
- Are these changes based in biology?
In the hormones of puberty?
In specific brain changes that underpin some behavioral and emotional tendencies &
problems that emerge in adolescence?
, - What are the implications for interventions? Should we intervene?
G. Stanley Hall (1904) (1st president of APA)
Recapitulation Theory: development of the individual reflected the development of the species.
Storm and Stress: normal for adolescence that of a result of all the changes during adolescence,
mental health issues and risk behavior can be recognized.
- Oversimplifies the complex issue
- Many adolescents navigate this interval with minimal difficulties
- However, empirical evidence for: Increased conflicts with parents (intensity), Mood
volatility (and negative mood) and Increased risk behavior
Timeline
- Aristotle: Youth are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine.
- “G.S. Hall (1904) a period of heightened “storm and stress.”
- 1920 Margaret Meade – questioned storm and stress in all cultures
- 1930-50s – psychoanalytic perspective – Anna Freud – storm and stress is normal
- 1960s and 1970s: attempts to understand the problems as due to “raging hormones.
Later conceptualizations
- 1980s Petersen (1988) questioned the idea that all youth experience trouble (11% chronic
difficulties, 32% intermittent, 57% healthy) critical for making a change
- 1990s Arnett (1999) revised the idea of storm and stress
- 1990s-2000s context and time period recognized as important, thus different developmental
trajectories (Dubas, Miller & Petersin, 2003) with consideration of time and context. a shift
in the amount of problems based on historical events (covid)
- 2000s evolutionary ideas applied to recast concept of risk it could be beneficial for people to
be a risk taker
- 2010s neuroscience models of the adolescent brain in relation to behavior
Adolescent development from a scientific statement: interactions between biology, behavior and
social context
Defining Adolescence
John. P. Hill: Framework for the Study of Adolescence
- Primary Changes: the developmental changes that make adolescence distinctive
1. Biological changes of puberty (& brain)
2. development of abstract thinking
3. Social redefinition of an individual from a child to an adult (or at the very least a non-
child) social roles
- Secondary changes: the psychological consequences of the interaction between the primary
changes and the settings – organized into the domains of identity, autonomy, intimacy,
sexuality, and achievement
Steinberg
- Early Adolescence (10-13 years)
- Middle adolescence (14-17 years)
- Late Adolescence (18-21)
, - Young Adulthood (22-30)
- Others: Emerging Adulthood (18 -25 years) then young adulthood
Developmental tasks
1. Accepting one’s physical body and keeping it healthy
2. Achieving new and more mature relationships with age mates of both sexes
3. Achieving emotional autonomy from parents and other adults
4. Achieving a satisfying gender role
5. Preparing for a job or career
6. Making decisions about marriage and family life
7. Becoming socially responsible
8. Developing a workable philosophy, a mature set of values, and worthy ideals
Adolescence in Context
The past 150 years have witnessed a quiet revolution in human development that still sweeps across
the globe today: children nearly everywhere are growing faster, reaching reproductive and physical
maturity at earlier ages, and achieving larger adult sizes than perhaps ever in human history. - Carol
M. Worthman, Ph.D
Schlegel & Barry (1990)
- Adolescence recognized as interval between childhood and adult status
- End of childhood marked by a ritual (linked to age or puberty)
- Onset of adult status: marriage, Work roles (e.g., hunting), Owning property, Becoming a
parent and Independence (absence of monitoring)
- Interval between puberty and marriage as index of length
- Among girls, marriage occurred within two years of the onset of puberty in 63% of the
societies
- Among boys the ability to take a wife would require a specific level of achievement (e.g.,
making a kill on a hunt)
- Boys: 64% were married within four years of puberty
Puberty, Marriage and Adult Roles in Contemporary Societies
- Not simply changing attitudes about marriage
- Many other adult social roles
Starting careers, owning a home, choosing to become parents, are now occurring a decade or
more after puberty
- Adolescence has expanded from a 2-4 year period in traditional societies to an 6-15 year
interval in contemporary societies
- These changes have advantages (academic, economic) and costs (vulnerabilities)
Maturity Gap – chronological hostages of a time warp
1. biologically capable and compelled to be sexual beings but asked to delay most positive
aspects of adult life.
2. Cannot work until 16 and labor not respected by adults
- Role-less
- economic liabilities
3. Segregated
- Youth culture
, - Sexual socialization that may appear inappropriate
Illustrates how changes in nutrition has led to an almost world-wide lengthening of the adolescent
period which has the potential to lead to youth unrest but other (rapid) contextual changes are also
likely to affect adolescents
Contextual Approaches and Social Change Pinquart & Silbereisen (2005)
Social change
– in typical characteristics of a society
o Economic system & social institutions
o Cultural products (internet, smart phones, ai)
o Laws, norms and values
o symbols
– In direct social context
o Friends, peers, family
– At the national or international level
o Breakdown of communism
o Formation of European Union
o Globalization
Importance
- Creates important developmental challenges for adolescents
- Adolescents are the most responsive to change
“sensitive period”
Adolescents and young adults are more likely to use new substances;
New technologies
- Cohort-specific demands
explains diversity in results
- Useful for individual X context
effects
- Theoretical concepts may only
be limited to particular
historical circumstances
Lecture 2: Identity development
Why is identity an adolescent issue?
Lecture 1: Introduction
10 risk behaviors
1. Alcohol
2. Delinquency
3. Gambling
4. Internet
5. “extreme sports”
6. Smoking
7. School
8. Unsafe sex
9. Soft drugs
10. Traffic
Adolescence: The period between the onset of sexual maturation and the attainment of adult roles
and responsibilities
The transition from:
- “Child” status (requires adult monitoring)
- To “adult” status (self-responsibility for behavior)
Learning objectives
1. To Understand how adolescence has been conceptualized across time and contexts
2. Understand old and new views about storm and stress
3. Understand how the beginning and end of adolescence has been defined
Conceptualizing adolescence
The health paradox of adolescence: Adolescence in the healthiest and most resilient period of the
lifespan.
- Strength, speed, rt, mental reasoning, immune functioning,
- resistance to cold, heat, hunger, dehydration, and most types of injury
Sources of Morbidity and Mortality in Adolescence: Primary causes of death/disability are related to
problems of control of behavior and emotion
- rates of accidents, suicides, homicides, depression, alcohol & substance use, violence,
reckless behaviors, eating disorders, health problems related to risky sexual behaviors.
- risk-taking, sensation-seeking, and erratic (emotionally influenced) behavior
Scientific Questions (Roald Dahl)
- What is the empirical evidence that adolescents are “heated by Nature”?
- Are these changes based in biology?
In the hormones of puberty?
In specific brain changes that underpin some behavioral and emotional tendencies &
problems that emerge in adolescence?
, - What are the implications for interventions? Should we intervene?
G. Stanley Hall (1904) (1st president of APA)
Recapitulation Theory: development of the individual reflected the development of the species.
Storm and Stress: normal for adolescence that of a result of all the changes during adolescence,
mental health issues and risk behavior can be recognized.
- Oversimplifies the complex issue
- Many adolescents navigate this interval with minimal difficulties
- However, empirical evidence for: Increased conflicts with parents (intensity), Mood
volatility (and negative mood) and Increased risk behavior
Timeline
- Aristotle: Youth are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine.
- “G.S. Hall (1904) a period of heightened “storm and stress.”
- 1920 Margaret Meade – questioned storm and stress in all cultures
- 1930-50s – psychoanalytic perspective – Anna Freud – storm and stress is normal
- 1960s and 1970s: attempts to understand the problems as due to “raging hormones.
Later conceptualizations
- 1980s Petersen (1988) questioned the idea that all youth experience trouble (11% chronic
difficulties, 32% intermittent, 57% healthy) critical for making a change
- 1990s Arnett (1999) revised the idea of storm and stress
- 1990s-2000s context and time period recognized as important, thus different developmental
trajectories (Dubas, Miller & Petersin, 2003) with consideration of time and context. a shift
in the amount of problems based on historical events (covid)
- 2000s evolutionary ideas applied to recast concept of risk it could be beneficial for people to
be a risk taker
- 2010s neuroscience models of the adolescent brain in relation to behavior
Adolescent development from a scientific statement: interactions between biology, behavior and
social context
Defining Adolescence
John. P. Hill: Framework for the Study of Adolescence
- Primary Changes: the developmental changes that make adolescence distinctive
1. Biological changes of puberty (& brain)
2. development of abstract thinking
3. Social redefinition of an individual from a child to an adult (or at the very least a non-
child) social roles
- Secondary changes: the psychological consequences of the interaction between the primary
changes and the settings – organized into the domains of identity, autonomy, intimacy,
sexuality, and achievement
Steinberg
- Early Adolescence (10-13 years)
- Middle adolescence (14-17 years)
- Late Adolescence (18-21)
, - Young Adulthood (22-30)
- Others: Emerging Adulthood (18 -25 years) then young adulthood
Developmental tasks
1. Accepting one’s physical body and keeping it healthy
2. Achieving new and more mature relationships with age mates of both sexes
3. Achieving emotional autonomy from parents and other adults
4. Achieving a satisfying gender role
5. Preparing for a job or career
6. Making decisions about marriage and family life
7. Becoming socially responsible
8. Developing a workable philosophy, a mature set of values, and worthy ideals
Adolescence in Context
The past 150 years have witnessed a quiet revolution in human development that still sweeps across
the globe today: children nearly everywhere are growing faster, reaching reproductive and physical
maturity at earlier ages, and achieving larger adult sizes than perhaps ever in human history. - Carol
M. Worthman, Ph.D
Schlegel & Barry (1990)
- Adolescence recognized as interval between childhood and adult status
- End of childhood marked by a ritual (linked to age or puberty)
- Onset of adult status: marriage, Work roles (e.g., hunting), Owning property, Becoming a
parent and Independence (absence of monitoring)
- Interval between puberty and marriage as index of length
- Among girls, marriage occurred within two years of the onset of puberty in 63% of the
societies
- Among boys the ability to take a wife would require a specific level of achievement (e.g.,
making a kill on a hunt)
- Boys: 64% were married within four years of puberty
Puberty, Marriage and Adult Roles in Contemporary Societies
- Not simply changing attitudes about marriage
- Many other adult social roles
Starting careers, owning a home, choosing to become parents, are now occurring a decade or
more after puberty
- Adolescence has expanded from a 2-4 year period in traditional societies to an 6-15 year
interval in contemporary societies
- These changes have advantages (academic, economic) and costs (vulnerabilities)
Maturity Gap – chronological hostages of a time warp
1. biologically capable and compelled to be sexual beings but asked to delay most positive
aspects of adult life.
2. Cannot work until 16 and labor not respected by adults
- Role-less
- economic liabilities
3. Segregated
- Youth culture
, - Sexual socialization that may appear inappropriate
Illustrates how changes in nutrition has led to an almost world-wide lengthening of the adolescent
period which has the potential to lead to youth unrest but other (rapid) contextual changes are also
likely to affect adolescents
Contextual Approaches and Social Change Pinquart & Silbereisen (2005)
Social change
– in typical characteristics of a society
o Economic system & social institutions
o Cultural products (internet, smart phones, ai)
o Laws, norms and values
o symbols
– In direct social context
o Friends, peers, family
– At the national or international level
o Breakdown of communism
o Formation of European Union
o Globalization
Importance
- Creates important developmental challenges for adolescents
- Adolescents are the most responsive to change
“sensitive period”
Adolescents and young adults are more likely to use new substances;
New technologies
- Cohort-specific demands
explains diversity in results
- Useful for individual X context
effects
- Theoretical concepts may only
be limited to particular
historical circumstances
Lecture 2: Identity development
Why is identity an adolescent issue?
