Efas/Ifas Airbusadolescent Development – Is It A Difficult Period Or Not?
...“who I am” is a key developmental challenge of adolescence. Thinking generally, adolescence is a development stage between childhood and adult and it represents a critical period in people¢s life. It starts with physical beginnings of sexual maturity and ends with the social achievement of independent adulthood. No longer children but not quite adults, adolescents face a period or rapid changes in physical, cognitive, social and moral development that affects them for the rest of their lives.
Physical Development
Adolescence begins with puberty, the time when one is maturing sexually. Puberty is a period of rapid physical development, usually beginning at about eleven in girls and at about thirteen in boys. During puberty, changing hormonal levels play a role in activating the development of secondary sex characteristics that differentiate men and women but not directly involved in reproduction such as pubic hair growth of underarm hair, facial hair growth for boys and breast development for girls, deepening of the voice. Adolescents experience also rapid gains in weight and height. Weight gain results from increased muscle development in boys and body fat in girls. Primary sex characteristics also emerge. Reproductive organs and external genitalia develop dramatically. Puberty lasts about three – four years, by the end of which time adolescents become physically capable of reproduction.
Recent research suggests that teen¢s brains are not completely developed until late in adolescence, connections between physical and mental abilities are incomplete. This could explain why some teens cannot control their emotions, impulses and judgments.
The timing of puberty may have different consequences for boys and girls. For earlier maturing boys, their greatest size and strength give them an advantage in athletic and contributes to a more...
View Full Essay
