Physical, Cognitive and Socio-emotional Development in

Adolescence
(12-18 years old)

I.Physical Development in Adolescence

During puberty, an adolescent experience a period of rapid physical growth that culminates in sexual maturity.

a.Physical Changes of Puberty

Puberty is the period of several years in which rapid physical growth and psychological changes occur,
culminating in sexual maturity. The onset of puberty typically occurs at age 10 or 11 for females and at age 11
or 12 for males; females usually complete puberty by ages 15 to 17, while males usually finish around ages 16
to 17. Females tend to attain reproductive maturity about four years after the first physical changes of
puberty appear. Males, however, accelerate more slowly but continue to grow for about six years after the
first visible pubertal changes.
b.Hormonal Changes
Puberty involves distinctive physiological changes in an individual’s height, weight, body composition, and
circulatory and respiratory systems. During this time, both the adrenal glands and the sex glands mature—
processes known as adrenarche and gonadarche, respectively.
These changes are largely influenced by hormonal activity. Hormones play an organizational role (priming the
body to behave in a certain way once puberty begins) and an activational role (triggering certain behavioral
and physical changes).
c.Sexual Maturation
It is this stage in life in which a child develops secondary sex characteristics. Primary sex characteristics are
organs specifically needed for reproduction, like the uterus and ovaries in females and the testes in
males. Secondary sex characteristics, on the other hand, are physical signs of sexual maturation that do not
directly involve sex organs. In females, this includes development of breasts and widening of hips, while in
males it includes development of facial hair and deepening of the voice. Both sexes experience development
of pubic and underarm hair, as well as increased development of sweat glands.

Girls experience menarche, the beginning of menstrual periods, usually around 12–13 years old, and boys
experience spermarche, the first ejaculation, around 13–14 years old. Facial hair in males typically appears
around age 14.

d.Physical Growth
The adolescent growth spurt is a rapid increase in an individual’s height and weight during puberty resulting
from the simultaneous release of growth hormones, thyroid hormones, and androgens. Males experience
their growth spurt about two years later than females. The accelerated growth in different body parts
happens at different times, but for all adolescents it has a fairly regular sequence. The first places to grow are
the extremities (head, hands, and feet), followed by the arms and legs, and later the torso and shoulders. This
non-uniform growth is one reason why an adolescent body may seem out of proportion. During puberty,
bones become harder and more brittle.
e.Brain Development
The adolescent brain also remains under development during this time. Adolescents often engage in increased
risk-taking behaviors and experience heightened emotions during puberty; this may be due to the fact that the
frontal lobes of their brains—which are responsible for judgment, impulse control, and planning—are still
maturing until early adulthood (Casey, Tottenham, Liston, & Durston, 2005).

II.Cognitive Development in Adolescence

In adolescence, changes in the brain interact with experience, knowledge, and social demands and produce
rapid cognitive growth.

a.Cognitive Development and Changes in the Brain

Adolescence is a time for rapid cognitive development. Cognitive theorist Jean Piaget describes adolescence as
the stage of life in which the individual’s thoughts start taking more of an abstract form and egocentric
thoughts decrease. This allows an individual to think and reason with a wider perspective. This stage of
cognitive development, termed by Piaget as the formal operational stage.
b.Perspectives and Advancements in Adolescent Thinking
There are two perspectives on adolescent thinking: constructivist and information-processing.
The constructivist perspective, based on the work of Piaget, takes a quantitative, state-theory approach. This
view hypothesizes that adolescents’ cognitive improvement is relatively sudden and drastic. The information-
processing perspective derives from the study of artificial intelligence and explains cognitive development in
terms of the growth of specific components of the overall process of thinking.

Improvements in basic thinking abilities generally occur in five areas during adolescence:
• Attention. Improvements are seen in selective attention (the process by which one focuses on one
stimulus while tuning out another), as well as divided attention (the ability to pay attention to two or
more stimuli at the same time).
• Memory. Improvements are seen in both working memory and long-term memory.
• Processing Speed. Adolescents think more quickly than children. Processing speed improves sharply
between age five and middle adolescence, levels off around age 15, and does not appear to change
between late adolescence and adulthood.
• Organization. Adolescents are more aware of their own thought processes and can use mnemonic
devices and other strategies to think more efficiently.
• Metacognition. Adolescents can think about thinking itself. This often involves monitoring one’s own
cognitive activity during the thinking process. Metacognition provides the ability to plan ahead, see the
future consequences of an action, and provide alternative explanations of events.
c.Metacognition and Relativistic Thinking
Metacognition is relevant in social cognition and results in increased introspection, self-consciousness, and
intellectualization. Adolescents are much better able to understand that people do not have complete control
over their mental activity. Being able to introspect may lead to two forms of egocentrism, or self-focus, in
adolescents, which result in two distinct problems in thinking: the imaginary audience (when an adolescent
believes everyone is listening to him or her) and the personal fable (which causes adolescents to feel that
nothing harmful could ever happen to them). Adolescents reach a stage of social perspective-taking in which
they can understand how the thoughts or actions of one person can influence those of another person, even if
they personally are not involved.

d.Wisdom and Risk-Taking

Wisdom, or the capacity for insight and judgment that is developed through experience, increases between
the ages of 14 and 25, then levels off. Wisdom is not the same as intelligence, and adolescents do not improve
substantially on IQ tests since their scores are relative to others in their age group, as everyone matures at
approximately the same rate.

Adolescents are more likely to take risks than adults. The behavioral decision-making theory proposes that
adolescents and adults both weigh the potential rewards and consequences of an action. However,
adolescents seem to give more weight to rewards, particularly social rewards, than do adults.

III.Socioemotional Development in Adolescence

Adolescence is a period of personal and social identity formation, in which different roles, behaviors, and
ideologies are explored.
Adolescent Identity Exploration
Adolescence is the period of life known for the formation of personal and social identity. Adolescents must
explore, test limits, become autonomous, and commit to an identity, or sense of self. Different roles,
behaviors, and ideologies must be tried out to select an identity, and adolescents continue to refine their
sense of self as they relate to others. Erik Erikson referred to the task of the adolescent as one of identity
versus role confusion.
Adolescents tend to be rather egocentric; they often experience a self-conscious desire to feel important in
peer groups and receive social acceptance. Because choices made during adolescence can influence later life,
higher levels of self-awareness and self-control in mid-adolescence will contribute to better decisions during
the transition to adulthood. Three general approaches to understanding identity development include self-
concept, sense of identity, and self-esteem.
Psychological Changes
During puberty, adolescents experience changes in the levels of certain neurotransmitters (such as dopamine
and serotonin) in the limbic system. This affects the way in which they experience emotions, typically making
them more emotional than younger children and adults and more sensitive to rewards and stress.
Parental Relationships
As adolescents work to form their identities, they pull away from their parents, and the peer group becomes
very important (Shanahan, McHale, Osgood, & Crouter, 2007). Despite spending less time with their parents,
the type of relationship that adolescents have with their parents still plays a significant role in identity
formation. Warm and healthy parent-child relationships have been associated with positive child outcomes,
such as better grades and fewer school-behavior problems, in the United States as well as in other countries
(Hair et al., 2005). When a solid and positive relationship exists, adolescents are more likely to feel freedom in
exploring identity options. However, when the relationship is not as close or supportive and/or the adolescent
fears rejection from the parent, the adolescent is more likely to feel less confident in forming a separate,
personal identity.
Cultural and Societal Influences on Adolescent Development

The influence of parental and peer relationships, as well as the broader culture, shapes many aspects of
adolescent development.