DON’T FORGET!A

s a human services professional (in fact, as any kind of professional), you will not be expected to have all the answers.

You will be expected to know how to find them!

The quiz will be good practice.

THE QUIZ IS AN OPEN BOOK TEST!

Mark your text! Know where to find the information!

Erikson’s stage: IDENTITY vs. CONFUSION

What does that mean?

According to Erikson, adolescence represents the struggle between identity and identity confusion, with the primary question, “Who am I?”

Three distinguishable periods of adolescence:

Early Adolescence: begins at puberty-14 yrs old; characterized by important physical changes and great need for peer approval

Middle Adolescence: 15-17 years old; high-school yrs.; characterized by reflection and self-discovery

Late Adolescence: 18-22 years old; characterized by independence from the family and development of personal identity

Biologically speaking, adolescence begins with the onset of puberty.

The onset of puberty for girls has been getting earlier since it was first recorded in the 1800s.

Records from the 1840s in Norway show the average age of the first menstruation in girls was 17 – now it is 11-12 years old.

Any idea what it is here in the United States?

According to the book – 12.4 years!

The pubertal process

Identified by the combination of the growth spurt, maturation of the physiological mechanisms, and the development of secondary sex characteristics, such as pubic hair, breasts

Physical changes experienced by both males and females include:

» Endocrine glands produce hormones» Pelvic changes» Growth in gonads

» Appearance of pubic hair» Growth of external genitalia» Vocal changes» Broadening of body frame

Myelinization (the process in which neurons surround themselves by a fatty covering called the myelin sheath) continues throughout adolescence.

Why is this important?

The Myelin sheath insulates the wire-like fibers connecting regions of the brain – which allows impulses to travel faster and more efficiently leading to improved problem-solving and coordination as well as faster reflexes.

Final growth spurt in gray matter of the brain’s frontal lobes (regions that guide planning, problem solving and judgment) occurs around ages 11-13.

Why is that important information for people who work with teens?

Adolescents need to match their caloric intake to their rate of growth

On average, a girl needs 2,200 calories per day and a boy needs 2,800 calories

Adolescents often don’t get proper nutrition -

20% of their calories come from snack food

Adolescents don’t eat enough fruits/vegetables and over-consume soft drinks (in place of milk)

Obesity:

body weight of 20% or more above recommended weight for one’s height

Associated with certain diseases, high blood pressure, and social and psychological problems

Experience name-calling, stigma, peer rejection

80% of obese adolescents become obese adults

One research study showed:

50% of high-school students went to bed after midnight on school nights

90% did so on weekends

Sleep experts believe adolescents need about 9.25 hours of sleep every night

Not getting enough sleep leads to poor cognitive functioning, irritability, anxiety, and depression

Piaget - Formal Operations Stage

Adolescent is capable of abstract thought – flexible thinking

Use of hypothetical-deductive reasoning: the problem-solving process that tests and evaluates hypotheses to find the best solution

Adolescents begin to ponder their own thoughts and to recognize both possibility and actuality     

Formal operational thought is believed to occur in two stages of adolescence:

Assimilation: Cognitive process of consolidating new information into existing knowledge; characterized by a focus on the ideal, with unlimited possibilities

Accommodation: the adolescent must adjust to the cognitive changes that have occurred.

Research has found that by late adolescence only about 60% of young people use formal operations

Along with an improvement in thinking abilities in adolescence comes a greater capacity for effective communication.

The nature of boys and girls communication becomes increasingly different during adolescence.

Boys appear to talk more in terms of competitive conversation comparing knowledge and experiences

Girls talk more about themselves, feelings, and relationships

More complete friendships begin to develop

Adolescents describe friendship using terms like trust, loyalty, intimacy, and commitment

Gender differences are apparent:

Female friendships reflect more supportive and emotional aspects

Male friendships reflect more shared interests

Conduct Disorder

Involve a constellation of behaviors such as: stealing bullies, threatens, or intimidates others fire setting physically cruel to animals truant from school before the age of 13 running away from home physical assault

May be related to factors such as temperament or personality, deficits in moral development, family structure and environment (divorced parents, absent fathers, uncaring and abusive parents), and negative modeling

A lot of delinquent behavior is related to status in the peer group

Delinquent acts are committed both with peers and for peers

When deviant behavior occurs at early ages the problem is seen as conduct disorder

When the behaviors lead to illegal acts by juveniles the problem is considered delinquency

High school dropouts remain a serious problem – the percentage of youths who do not finish high school has decreased

Studies of the characteristics of dropouts have found several factors that predict dropout:

Poor attendance Disinterest in school Living in poverty Single-parent families Parents who do not participate in decision making

concerning the students

*Dropping out is not usually a response to a lack of ability – these students have average intelligence scores.

Seem to be related to the developmental need for young people to associate with peer groups

Gangs often play a very important function for young people by providing social support, bonding, and protection from rival gangs

Long term studies have found that the most important risk factor for gang membership is growing up in a neighborhood with poverty where there is little attachment to people and social institutions . Why???

“intentional, self-effected, low-lethality bodily harm of a socially unacceptable nature, performed to reduce psychological stress” (Walsh, 2005)

*Usually performed in secret and often begins in adolescence

*It evokes strong feelings of shame and guilt and can take on an addictive quality

The most commonly cited reasons for self-harm include:

expressing pain

method of coping

euphoric feelings

establishing control

communication

In childhood, up to puberty, more boys than girls are depressed

In late adolescence the number of girls experiencing depression is twice that of boys

Do you know what the most significant factor related to depression in girls is?

Body image!!!

Research shows that girls interpret their maturing bodies negatively.

Why do you think that is?

What can be done to help our adolescent population?

Adolescent Self-Esteem

Self-esteem:

a global evaluation of one’s self one’s sense of self-worth a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the self

Strategies for enhancing self esteem:

Encourage achievement

Promote competencies in specific areas

Provide peer and parental support

Develop coping skills

At what age should parents start working on their child’s self-esteem?

There are lots of intervention and treatment methods

Six treatment methods are widely used with delinquent youth:

Restitution and community service Family intervention Token economies Fear, emotional shock and avoidance training Wilderness training Social-skills training

What works the best?

It depends on the child. Each child is different, so we can’t use a cookie cutter approach. Human Service Professionals must find the method that works best for each child.

Family intervention and social-skills training have best results reducing recidivism.

That was a lot of information!

Any questions, thoughts, comments???

nembaye@kaplan.edu