Adolescence (12-15) Flashcards
Physical Changes
- changes in the reproductive system are important
Sexual Orientation
- girls who develop earlier have no more problems with self-esteem/academics, and
fewer behavioural problems than their later developing peers - the earlier the boys develop, the more positive their body image, the better they do in school, the less trouble they get into, and the more friends they have
Sexual Behaviour
- the rate of Canadian teen girls/boys having sex before 15 years has declined by since the 1990s
- Is a 12 yr old capable of attaining consequences of having sex?
Having sex early
Males who have sex early
- living in low SES neighborhoods with low
parental involvement, have families who condone sexual activity, have lax dating rules, are more likely to use alcohol, were abused or neglected in childhood
Females who have sex early
- experienced earlier periods, low interest in school, dated at an early age, have history of
sexual abuse
- this is correlational not causal; we have not done a study to see if this is cause and effect
What is a major contributor to adolescent sex?
Alcohol
- Ppl get drunk and you are not strict about your thoughts, so you are willing to have sex
What is the issue with alcohol and sex?
- If someone is drunk consent gets called into question
○ Individuals bw 12 and 15 may not understand the consequences of their actions (having sex)
Sexual Behaviour
- the greater the # of risk
factors the greater the
likelihood that they will be
sexually active - sexual activity is predicted
by moral beliefs about sex - sexual activity is lower in
those who are involved in
sports/other activities
○ WHY? - bc people who are more involved in sports have less time to engage in sex
○ People who play sports have a fuller schedule, so its hard to fit other things in
Sex and HPV
- HPV causes growths on the genitals and is associated with
cervical cancer (accounts for majority of cases)
HPV vaccines for females
- between 19-45 years as well as continued Pap test for cervical
cancer
HPV vaccines for males
- between 9 and 26 years.
Education and Sexual Behaviour
- no research shows that abstinence-only sex education programs increase the delay of first intercourse or reduce the prevalence of sex in teens
- School systems and parents have this belief that if you teach kids about sex, they’ll have sex - this is NOT true - making condoms more readily available to teenagers does not increase their rate of sexual activity but it does
increase the use of condoms by teenagers who are readily
sexually activity - majority of Canadian parents believe that sex ed that provides explicit information on reproduction, birth control, STI/AIDS prevention,
relationships, sexual orientation, sexual abuse, and societal beliefs about sexual morals is important and should be provided in schools
The Brain
2 major brain spurts
1) between 13-15 years - cerebral cortex becomes thicker and the neuronal
pathways becomes more efficient
Health
- adolescence is one of the healthiest periods in life
- as adolescences gain independence, they encounter more health risks (engage in more risky behaviour)
Health care Issues
Invincibility complex
- belief that bad things will not happen to them
- Feeds into the types of behaviours they are willing to engage in bc they are like I can jump off the house into the pool bc I wont break my leg but my friend will
- increased levels of sensation seeking which leads to recklessness which in turn leads to accidents/injuries
Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco
- drug use among Canadian youth has steadily declined since 1970s
- the avg age of 1st time drug use (including alcohol) is 13- 14 years
- the use of substances increases with age, with alcohol, followed by marijuana/cigarettes
Smoking
- rate of smoking has been declining since the 70’s
- youth smoking rate is consistently lower than
the general population
WHY
○ In the 70’s, research was released saying that smoking causes cancer
○ So everyone stopped smoking
What is the most significant mental health challenge during adolescence?
Eating Disorders
Bulimia VS. Anorexia Nervosa
Bulimia
- an ED characterized by binge eating and purging
Anorexia nervosa
- an ED characterized by self-starvation
Eating Disorders
- girls in western societies, who have the highest rates of ED, are more likely to have
negative body images - gay/lesbian youth/teens who are unsure about their sexual orientation are at higher
risk of ED’s their heterosexual peers
Why is knowing who is at risk of an ED important?
- Reason it is important is bc for health promotion interventions to support people at risk of ED’s, targeted promotion strategies make more sense
○ If we know certain groups at at higher risk, it is more effective and cost-effective
Thinking and Memory
- in adolescence, most people
are capable of several types of thought that were impossible at earlier ages - Formal operational stage = 4th stage (Piaget) - when adolescents learn to reason
logically about abstract concepts - Systematic problem solving - the ability to search methodically for the answer to a problem
- This is why we see improvements in study habits - the ability to search, process, and use information is much better
Logic
1) Hypothetico-deductive reasoning- the ability to derive
conclusions from hypothetical premises
- Before adolescence, the idea of a hypothetical is hard for kids bc it is not concrete - and they are concrete thinkers
2) Naive idealism- the mental construct of an ideal world as
compared to the real world
- importance of developing this idea allows us to better shape what is actually possible
- This means to realize that everybody is good at different things and likelihood of excelling at everything is low
Which 2 characteristics separate adolescents from younger children?
1) tendency to exaggerate others’ reactions to one’s own
behaviour
- Shift where they imagine that everyone is focused on them - they think they are the star
2) tendency to base decisions on unrealistic ideas about
the future
- Optimistic bias and invincibility complex - they believe things will be better than what they actually are
Information Processing
- by 14/15 meta cognitive and meta memory skills exceed those of younger children
Why is school a central force in adolescence lives
- self esteem declines when transitioning to secondary school
- Transition into anything tends to negatively impact self-esteem and achievement
○ Likely why you have a 10-15% lower average in 1st year and then it climbs back up in 2nd- The reason we must care is that some kids will be resilient whereas other students start to define themselves by this
Task VS Ability Goals
Task Goals
- based on personal standards and the desire for competence
- associated with greater sense of personal control and positive attitudes about school
- If you set a goal where you are not compared to anybody
- 5th grade task goals
Ability Goals
- define success in competitive terms
- students adopt relative standards: good
means beating someone else
- by 6th grade adolescents switch to ability goals
Personality
- teenagers acquire a sense of who they actually are as
individuals - culture plays an important role in the transition from child
to adult
Freud VS. Erikson
Freud
- genital stage- period during which people reach psychosexual maturity
Erikson
- identity vs role confusion- the stage during which adolescents attain a sense of who they
are
- identity crisis- psychological state of emotional turmoil that arises when a sense
of self becomes ‘unglued’ so that a new, more mature sense of self can be achieved
- Unglued - people becoming more confident in who they are
Self Concept
- thinking becomes more abstract in adolescence
- teenagers self-concepts
are more complex than those of younger children - Younger - their self-concept is I am fast, smart, good at basketball
3 Types of Self-Concept
1) Imaginary audience - everyone is looking at me
2) Mythical fable - that wont ever happen to me
- Invincibility complex
3) Personal fable - nobody knows what its like to be me
- While that is true,
- Idea that ur life is so much harder and worse than everyone elses
Self-Esteem
- there is an overall rise in self-esteem through adolescence
which continues through
early adulthood - factors that affects self-esteem: personal characteristics, relationships, lifestyle, factors and achievements
- high SES is associated with positive developmental outcomes (resist peer pressure,
achieve higher grades) - Low SE is associated with poorer mental health, physical health and suicidal thinking
Moral Development
- 6 stages of moral development are subdivided into 3 stages
1) Preconventional Reasoning- judgments are based on sources of authority (usually parents)
2) Conventional Reasoning- judgments are based on rules or norms of a group to which the individual belongs
3) Post conventional Reasoning- judgments are based on emergence of a personal authority
Kohlbergs 6 Stages of Moral Development
1) Preconvention reasoning
○ Stage 1 - make judgment based on obedience ad punishment
- Directly linked to getting punished or not
○ Stage 2 - motivated by self-interest
- If she helps tom know
- Whats in it for me??
- Both judge what is right/wrong by direct consequences they expect for themselves ad not social norms
- This form of reasoning is common among children
2) Conventional reasoning
○ Stage 3 - interpersonal accord and conformity guide judgement
- When you realize your friends so something, yoi do it too
- What do others think of me??
○ Stage 4 - value authority and want to maintain social order
- How can I maintain law and order?
- Morality is centred around what society regards as right
- At his level, fairness of rules is questioned
- Common to think like this in adolescence and adulthood
3) Post conventional reasoning
○ Stage 5 - we understand rules as social contracts as opposed to strict order
- Rules make sense if they serve the right purpose
- Does a role truly serve all members of the community?
○ Stage 6 - guided by universal ethical principle’s
- Rules are valid only if grounded in justice
- Highest moral principle is compassion - learn each otehs viewpoints
- What are the abstract ethical principles that serve my understanding of justice
- the right behaviour is never a means to an end but an end in itself
- not everyone reaches this level
Stages are….
- stages do not always have to do with age
○ Not all adults reach stage 6 - some will get stuck in stage 1 and 2 and never move beyond
○ Development and evolution is individually dependent - stages are typically correlated with age
- children usually reason in stages 1/2
- stages 2/3 are common in adolescences
3 Types of Adolescent Egocentrism
- Imaginary audience
- “everyone is looking at me” - Mythological Fable
- “that wont ever happen to me” - The Personal Fable
- “nobody knows what its like to be me”
Gilligans 3 Stages of Moral Development for Women
Stage 1: Orientation toward individual survival
- what is best for me?
- initial focus is on whats best for themself
- transition: from selfishness to responsibility which includes thinking about what is best for others
ex. 1st grader insists on playing games only she likes
Stage 2: Goodness as self-sacrifice
- what do other people want?
- a woman sacrifices her wishes to do what someone else wants
- transition: from goodness to truth which takes into account self and others needs
ex. same girl believes that she must play the games her friend likes even though she doesn’t, in order to be a good friend
Stage 3: Morality of nonviolence
- what do we both want?
- moral equivalence established between self and others
- hurting anyone is seen as immoral
- more developed form of reasoning
ex. same girl believes that both friends must enjoy their time together and look for activities they will both enjoy
Erikson VS Kohlberg
Erikson
- individuals as interdependent
- relationships of attention and response
- care as strength
- importance of interdependence and interpersonal connections
importance of autonomy an self-sufficiency
- needs of others is important
Kohlberg
- individuals as separate
- relationships as hierarchical or contractual
independence as strength
- rights of others is important
Social Relationships
Parents
- increase in conflict but does not disrupt the quality of the parent-child relationship
- underlying emotional attachment to parents remains
strong on average - teenagers wellbeing/ happiness is more strongly
correlated with quality of attachment to parents than
peers
Parenting Styles
- authoritative parenting styles is consistently associated
with more positive outcomes
Family Structure
- step-parents result in less well-adjusted teens and divorce
- tends to be more difficult for girls than boys
Friendships
- shared activities and interests continue to be important
- friendships are increasingly intimate, teens share more of
their inner feelings and secrets - loyalty and faithfulness are more valued characteristics of friendship
- adolescent friendships are more stable
- Smaller children play with anyone who wants to do what they are doing
- Older children want to be with people who make them feel valued and accepted
Romantic Relationships
- teenagers become aware of attraction to either same sex or opposite sex at 11-12 years
Learning for 12-15 Years
Short -Term
- Peers
- commonalities with presenters
- models/diagrams
- rationale
- respect
- age similar peers
Long-Term
- role models
- mind the personal fable and imaginary audience (their biggest fear)
- test their own conviction
- they are likely to change the way they are thinking or accept new thoughts
- Pushing and changing them helps them to feel more grown up
