Adolescence Flashcards
What is adolescence?
Growing up period between childhood and maturity from ages 10-20
What are the major tasks of adolescence?
adjusting to changing body size and shape
coming to terms with sexuality
adjusting to new ways of thinking
strive for emotional maturity and economic independence of adulthood
What is the historical context of puberty?
Age of puberty has declined dramatically after last few hundred years
eg. Norway - 1840: mean age of period was 17, today 13
Why has puberty declined?
Increased standard of living: nutrition, health, heredity (identical twins start period within 1 month of each other) and body mass (hit puberty when 7.5 stone)
How long does puberty last?
7 year range for the onset
full process lasts about 4 years
Which gender does puberty begin earlier for?
2-3 years earlier for girls than boys
What happens when people go through puberty?
Average growth spurt of 10 inches, and 40 pounds (3 stone almost)
marked changes in hormone (testosterone and estradiol) levels
What are the psychological aspects to puberty?
Body image - least satisfaction during puberty
Girls less satisfied than boys
Increased hormone levels related to change in mood:
males = increases anger and irritability
females = increases anger and depression
(may not be hormones causing mood, could be life becoming more challenging)
People who develop earlier are the least satisfied
What are the three hypothesis about pubertal timing?
Stressful change hypothesis
Off time hypothesis
Early timing hypothesis
What is the stressful change hypothesis?
The intrinsic stress of pubertal change will cause stress during the period of most rapid change
What is the off time hypothesis?
Events encountered earlier or later will cause additional distress
What is the early timing hypothesis?
Early maturation may cause inappropriate maturity demands from others, causing distress
Caspi and Moffitt - girls at puberty
Set out to test the 3 hypothesis, looking at behavioural problems (anti social, aggression, anxiety, attention problems, weird behaviour) due to age of period. Large scale sample from New Zealand
Results: supports the early timing hypothesis, at age 13 and 15 it was the girls who hit the period at age 12 or younger who had the most problems
If the stressful change hypothesis was true, when would girls show the most problems?
For age 13 problems - it would be the girls who hit period at age 13 who showed most problems
Age 15 - girls who hit their period at age 15 would show most problems
If the off time hypothesis was true, when would girls show the most problems?
Age 13 problems- girls who hit period at 12 or younger would show most problems
Age 15 problems - girls who hit period at age 15 who show most problems
If the early timing hypothesis was true, when would girls show the most problems?
At both ages, it would be the girls who hit period at age 12 or younger who showed most problems
Pubertal timing: girls
Dislike maturing early, those who do tend to be less sociable, have poor body image, lower self-esteem, engage in risky behaviours (try to get more attention from boys) and reach lower levels of educational attainment
Pubertal timing: boys
Like maturing early, gain in self-esteem, more popular, likely to be leaders, good natured, may hold a cognitive advantage
but more cautious, bound by rules and routines
late matures are more dependent, insecure, aggressive and more likely to rebel against parents
What are the two competing theories about parent child relationships?
Adolescents individuate from their parents, becoming more emotionally and behaviourally independent
The parent-child relationship changes over adolescence, leading to psychological independence with continued connectedness
Larson et al 1996
220 adolescents form Chicao, date from 5th grade - 10 yr olds and 12th grade - 18 yr olds. Reported lots of different interactions
total time with family is 33% in 5th grade, falling to 15% by 12th grade. time spent one on one with fathers and mothers remains constant
time spent with siblings alone, family group and extended family all decreases
older adolescents spending less than half time with family than younger, but time alone didn’t decrease
What effect does time spent with family members have?
No correlation between time spent with family members and quality of relationships
What has caused the decline in time spent with family?
External factors to family: having a job, driving, peer activities
How do boys and girls change in terms of their positivity?
Boys - start out positive, then a dip at grade 7-8, then go positive again
Girls - start out positive, dip form grade 7-8, continue to dip for grade 9-10, then finally upturn at 11-12
What conclusions did Larson et al come up with?
Evidence for transformation and disengagement in daily interactions
disengagement - large decrease in time spent due to external factors rather than strive within the family
continuity/transformation - adolescents continued to spend time with each parent alone and talking did not decrease. transformation in affect mirrors previous research
