ADOLESCENCE (11-21 Years)

ADOLESCENCE (11-21 Years)

1. Health Behaviors

   • Characteristics
     • often underestimate the potentially negative health consequences.
       • Injury and violence are leading causes of death, linked to risky behaviors.
         • Risky behaviors include alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
         • Other challenges include sexual behaviors leading to pregnancy or STDs, and mental health concerns.
   • Time for exploring a variety of new behaviors.
     • Health supervision is key for anticipatory guidance and supporting health-promoting behaviors.

2. Cognitive Development

   • Begin to shift from focusing on the present to considering future implications of current actions.
   • Develop the capacity to comprehend the impact of present behaviors on future health.
   • Move from simple solutions to a tolerance for ambiguity and recognition of multiple causes.
   • Emerging capability for abstract thinking (can lead to argumentative behavior / challenging authority)
   • Early adolescence (11-14) Thinking is still primarily concrete and present-focused.
   • Late adolescence (18-21) Many develop the potential for formal operational thinking and sophisticated moral reasoning.
   • Characteristics

3. Social & Emotional Development

   • Need to balance peer pressure with family expectations creates new challenges and tensions.
   • Struggle for autonomy while retaining interdependence with parents
   • Older adolescents develop the ability to integrate emotional and physical intimacy in a love relationship.
     • Key late adolescence task: Achieving independence and developing a capacity for mature emotional intimacy.
   • Early adolescents (11-14) may display erratic or moody behavior and can be very opinionated.
   • Characteristics

4. Family

   • needs and characteristic
     • Decreased time spent by parents with adolescents leads to decreased communication and supervision
     • Family provides loving parenting, needed limits, and respect for the process of developing maturity
     • Families should be actively involved and maintain a continuing interest in the adolescent's daily life
     • Less parental involvement may lead to more unsupervised time for high-risk behaviors
     • Family must adapt to the adolescent's need for confidentiality.
     • The adolescent still needs the family's love, support, and availability despite growing independence
     • Parents act as ethical and behavioral models and must communicate family expectations clearly

5. Physical Development

   • Characteristics
     • Most noticeable changes: Physical, psychological, and sexual growth
     • Young adolescents are preoccupied with physical changes (body image).
     • Includes the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics and ability to reproduce.
     • Involves issues like sexual exploration and development of sexual identity
   • Early Adolescence (11-14) is marked by dramatic physical changes (puberty).
   • Risks
     • Unintentional pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) from sexual activity

6. Community

   • needs and characteristic
     • School success contributes to self-esteem and social competence
     • Need for safe, supervised recreational programs and facilities
     • Need for opportunities for meaningful work experiences and community service
     • Must provide appropriate, accessible resources for mental health and sexual health issues
     • Community involvement includes regulating alcohol, cigarettes, guns, etc
     • Health promotion curricula should be offered in schools
       • family life, social skills, nutrition, substance abuse avoidance, etc