Life-Span Development

Physical and Cognitive

Development in
Adolescence

McGraw-Hill © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 The Nature of Adolescence
What physical changes occur in adolescence?
– Pubertal with rapid physical changes
involving hormones
– Menarche is a girl’s first menstruation
– Puberty is also triggered by body mass
– Genetic factors are involved in puberty
– Puberty involves the interaction of the
hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and gonads
– The onset of puberty varies among individuals
 Median Ages at Menarche in Selected Northern European
Countries and the United States from 1845 to 1969

Norway
18
Finland
Sweden 17
U.K.
U.S.A. 16

15
Median age
(years) at 14
menarche

13

12
1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980
Year
Fig. 12.1
– Most noticeable physical changes include
• Pubic hair growth
• Facial and chest hair growth in males
• Breast growth in females
• Increased height and weight
• Sexual maturity
– Adolescent sexuality is initiated by
• First ejaculation, voice change, penis
elongation, and testes development in males
• Highly irregular menstrual cycles,
rounding of breasts, and widening of
hips in females
 Hormone Levels by Sex and Pubertal
Stage for Testosterone and Estradiol
Testosterone Boys
(pg/ml) Estradiol Girls
500 (pg/ml)
110
400 90

300 70

50
200
30
100
10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Pubertal stage

Fig. 12.2
• Early onset of puberty can create risks
for females
– Depression
– Eating disorders
– Use of alcohol, drugs, and/or tobacco
– Earlier dating and sexual involvement
with males
– Possible lower educational attainment

• Pubertal changes have a strong effect on

the adolescent’s body image, dating
interest, and sexual behavior
 Early- and Late-Maturing Adolescent Girls’ Perceptions of
Body Image in Early and Late Adolescence

Early development
Late development
+.30

+.20

+.10
Body
Image Mean
Score

-.10

-.20

-.30
Grade 6 Grade 10

Fig. 12.5
 Males Normal Range and Average
Females Development of Sexual
Onset (average) Characteristics in Males
Completion (average)
and Females

Height
spurt
Penile growth
Menarche
Testicular growth
Breast growth
Growth of
pubic hair
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Age (years)
Fig. 12.4
 Adolescent Sexuality
• Adolescent sexuality is a time of exploration,
experimentation, and sexual fantasies
• Adolescence is a bridge between the asexual
child and sexual adulthood – reaction of
each society may vary
• Television and other media contribute to the
sexual culture
• Developing a sexual identity involves
– Sexual behavior
– Indication of sexual orientation
• Percentages of sexually active young adolescents in
the United States vary greatly
• Male, African American, and inner-city adolescents
report being the most sexually active
• Early sexual activity is linked to other risky
behaviors and to contracting STIs
• Self-regulation and parent–child relationships are
two important factors in sexual risk-taking
• Adolescents are increasing their use of
contraceptives
• Cross-culturally, the United States still has one of
the highest adolescent pregnancy and birth rates
 Cross-Cultural Comparisons of
Adolescent Pregnancy Rates
80
U.S.
England
60 and Wales
Canada
France
40
Sweden

20

0
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Year
Fig. 12.6
 The Adolescent Brain
• Spurts in the brain’s electrical activity at 9, 12,
15 and 18 to 20 may signal changes in cognitive
development
• Neural activity using dopamine increases.
• Synaptic pruning continues.
• Some of the most recent discoveries regarding
areas of the brain involved emotions and
information-processing
– The amygdala, which is involved in processing
information about emotion, develops before the
frontal lobes.
 Adolescent Substance Abuse
• Monitoring the Future Study began in 1975
– 1960s and 1970s were a time of marked increases
in the use of illicit drugs and social unrest
– Annual studies since 1975 show that adolescent
drug use among U.S. secondary school students
• Declined in the 1980s
• Began to increase in the 1990s
• Declined among high school seniors after 1998
– Explanations for declining rates vary
– Parents and peers can influence usage attitudes
 Adolescent Alcohol and Nictotine
• The percentage of 8th, 10th and 12th graders
reporting that they had used alcohol in the past
30 days dropped from 26 to 21% from 96 to
2003, and the percentage of students reporting
binge drinking dropped from 41 to 31%. The
percentage of high school cigarette smokers
dropped from 36% in 97 to 24% in 2003.
• Risk factors for smoking include: having a
friend who smoked, a weak academic
orientation and low parental support.
 Trends in Drug Use by U.S. Eighth-,
Tenth-, and Twelfth-Grade Students
60

40 12th grade

10th grade

20
8th grade

0
1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003
1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001
Percentage of Year
students who
reported illicit
drug use in past
12 months
Fig. 12.8
 Young Adolescents’ Reports of Use in
the Family Matters Program
Control group Experimental group
Percentage Reporting Use in their Lifetime of:
Alcohol Cigarette smoking
90 60
85 55
80 50
75 45
70 40
65 35
60 30
55 25
50 20
Baseline 3 mos 1 yr Baseline 3 mos 1 yr

Initial reporting and 1st & 2nd follow-up

Figs. 12.9 and 12.10
 Eating Disorders

• Eating problems and disorders are increasingly

common in adolescence – most notably, anorexia
nervosa and bulimia nervosa
• Since the 1960s, a higher percentage of adolescents
have become overweight
• Most anorexics are White adolescents or young
adult females from well-educated, middle-
and upper-income families
– Stress results from not achieving high expectations
– Weight becomes something they can control
 Anorexia Nervosa
• Refusal to maintain body weight above the minimal
normal weight for individual’s height and weight.
– Body weight 15% or more below normal
– Intense fear of gaining weight
– Distortion of body image
– Amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation)
– Secondary symptoms: slow heart rate, low blood
pressure, low body temperature
– Often associated with depression, obsessions and
compulsions
– 10X more common in males.
 Bulimia Nervosa
• Eating binges and inappropriate compensatory
measures to prevent weight gain (at least 2X/week for 3
months).
– Attempts to compensate for binging may include
purging, vomiting, fasting, laxatives, enemas or
exercise.
– Preoccupation with food and intense fear of gaining
weight.
– Binging is not the result of a need for food
– Often associated with depression and obsessive-
compulsive symptoms.
– Generally of normal weight.
Risk Factors for Eating Disorders
• Feeling negatively about your body early in adolescence
• Having negative relationships with parents
• Being sexually active and in pubertal transition.
• Being highly motivated to look like same-sex media
figures.
• Watching 4+ hours of tv per day
• Being from a well-educated, middle or upper income
family.
 Adolescent Health
• Adolescent health is of great importance –
– Many factors linked to poor health habits and early
death in adulthood begin in adolescence
• U.S. adolescents exercised less and ate more junk
food than adolescents in 28 countries.
• Early formation of healthy behavior patterns has
– Immediate benefits
– Prevents or delays major causes of
premature disability or death
 The Increase in Being Overweight in Adolescence
from 1968 to 1999 in the United States

Percentage 15
overweight
adolescents, 10
12-19 years
of age 5

1966- 1971- 1976- 1988- 1999

1970 1974 1980 1994
Year
Fig. 12.11
• Nutrition, exercise, and adolescent
sleep patterns have physiological and
psychological effects
– At home
– During school
– In social interactions
• Most adolescents do not get enough sleep and sleep
deprivation seems associated with lower self-esteem
and higher incidence of depression.
• Leading causes of adolescent death
– Accidents (account for ½ of teen deaths) – most are
motor vehicle related and driver has a blood alcohol
level of .1 or higher in ½ of fatal car accidents.
– Homicide – second leading cause of death
– Suicide – rate has tripled since 1950s
 Adolescent Cognition
• Adolescent cognition shows greater abstract quality
in ability to
– Solve problems by verbal means alone
– Create make-believe or purely
hypothetical situations
– Engage in extended speculation and
test solutions systematically
– Engage in “hypothetico-deductive reasoning,” which
involves formulating and testing possible solutions to
problems.
• Assimilation dominates development of thought
• In later adolescence, accommodation returns to
thinking and information-processing
• Adolescent egocentrism involves two types of
social thinking: imaginary audience and
personal fable
• Adolescents have a sense of uniqueness
and invincibility
• Invincibility attitudes are likely to be
associated with reckless behavior such as
– Drug use
– Suicide
– Having unprotected sex
• Adolescence is a time of increased
decision-making
• Situations are examined from multiple
perspectives, and consequences anticipated
• A strategy for improving adolescent decision-
making includes parental involvement
• Cognitive changes that improve critical
thinking include
– Increased speed of information-processing
– Wider range of knowledge in variety of domains
– Increased ability to construct new knowledge
– Having more strategies to apply knowledge
• The transition from elementary to middle or
junior high school is of interest because
– It can be stressful
– It occurs at a time when family–child
relationships change
– Puberty and concerns about body image
accompany changes in social cognition
– A more impersonal school structure is entered
– There is increased responsibility and independence
– The “top-dog phenomenon” is experienced
– Creating effective and positive environments for
student learning is needed
• Recommendations for effective schools include
– Develop smaller communities that lessen
impersonality of middle schools
– Lower student–counselor ratios to 10-to-1
– Involve parents and community leaders
– Develop curricula that produce better students
– Integrate several disciplines in a flexible
curriculum
– Have more student health and fitness programs
• U.S. high school education is of concern
because of these facts:
– Some students graduate with inadequate skills
– Unskilled students go into college remedial classes
– Dropouts lack adequate workplace skills
– Dropout rates have declined over last 50 years
– Dropout rates are highest among minorities
– Students drop out of school for many reasons
 Trends in High School Dropout Rates
Latino African American Total White
40
35
30
25
20
15

10
5
0
1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000
Percentage of 16- to 24-year-olds
who have dropped out of school

Fig. 12.12
• High schools for the future need to promote
– More awareness of knowledge and skills needed
by students upon graduation
– Higher expectations for student achievement
– Strong, positive adult role models
– Higher-quality work experiences
– More coordination and communication among
all grade levels
– More student service learning experiences