AMA COMPUTER COLLEGE – FAIRVIEW

Bristol St. cor Regalado Avenue, Fairview Q.C.

(02) 921-5781; 921-1115
LESSON #5
Subject: Personal Development PDEV 2111
Name: ____________________________ Section: __________________
Teacher: Mr. John Jacob T. Castrence, LPT Date: ____________________

LEARNING CONTENT: Challenges of Middle and Late Adolescence

Reference(s):
Anuada, A. M. (2017). Factors that influence senior high school students of SSC
in their choice of strand. Retrieved from
https://robertbalinton143.wordpress.com/2017/03/11/factors-that-influence-
senior-high-school-students-of-scc-in-their-choice-of-strand-2/

DeLamater, J. D., Myers, D. J. (2012). Social Psychology. Pasig City: Cengage

Learning Asia

Delp, V. (2011). How peers influence academic performance. Retrieved from

http://www.teens.lovetoknow.com.The_Extent_to_which_Peer_Groups_Affect_
Academic_Performance/

Cristy, C. (2012). The central importance of peer relationships for student

engagement and well-being in a rural secondary school. An International Journal
of Personal, Social, and Emotional Development. 30(3). 224-240. Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080.02643944.2012.671343

Kassin, S. M., Fein, S., Markus, H. R. (2014). Social Psychology. Australia:

Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Marsh, S. PhD. (2012). Appreciating Adolescence: The Role of Peers: Retrieved

from https://www.ncjfcj.org/appreciating-adolescence-role-peers

Regier, J. (2011). Why academic success is important? Retrieved from

http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2011SIAST.pdf

Ricardo Rubio Santos. Personal Development. Manila City. Rex Book Store.

Simpkins, S. D., Fredericks, J. A., Eccles, J.S. (2012). Charting the Eccles’
expectancy-value model from mothers’ beliefs in childhood to youths’ activities
in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 1019-1032. Retrieved from
https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0027468

Wigfield, A., Cambria, J. & Eccles, J. S. (2012). Motivation in Education. In R.

M. Ryan & P. E. Nathan (Eds.), The oxford handbook of human motivation (pp.
463-475). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Williams, Kelly. (2015). The Impact Poverty Has on Adolescents’ Experiences at

School According School Social Workers. Retrieved from Sophia, the St.
Catherine University repository website:
https://sophia.stkate.edu/msw_papers/546

World Health Organization. (2006). Adolescent nutrition: A review of the

situation in selected south-east asian countries. Retrieved from World Health
Organization Regional Office for South East Asia repository website:
http://apps.searo.who.int/PDS_DOCS/B-230.pdf?ua=1

LEARNING TARGET

Prepared by: Ivan Jae Escalante

Marygen Intano
Brigitte Estolatan
 AMA COMPUTER COLLEGE – FAIRVIEW
Bristol St. cor Regalado Avenue, Fairview Q.C.
(02) 921-5781; 921-1115

1.1. Discuss that facing the challenges during adolescence may clarify and manage the demands of teen
years;

1.2. Express his or her feelings on the expectations of the significant people around him or her (parents,
siblings, friends, teachers, community leaders); and

1.3. Make affirmations that help one become more lovable and capable as an adolescent.

LEARNING CONCEPT

I. Common Challenges Normal Adolescents Encounter

1. Attitudes and Behavior toward Sexuality and Sexual Relationships

• Puberty drives the adolescent to experience surges of sexual desires, which often lead to
experimentation and exploration.
• The danger of losing control on sexual drives is common, and might end in lifelong regrets.
• Being responsible enough and limiting yourself is the key.
• Sexual relationship is healthy if considered as part of a loving relationship rather than being just
for pleasure or fun.
• Love is genuine and is based on respect; not on mere sexual drives.
• Adolescents are prone to exploring pornography, especially when imitating any sexual acts as
demonstrated in such videos due to curiosity.
• A research in the USA shows that people heavily exposed to pornography tend to imitate every
act and simulate in real life.
• Sexual drives of a person often cause a person to lose respect and love towards the sexual
partner.

2. Academic Concerns

• Being a student is the primary role of an adolescent who is still in school.

• Be aware that academic grades are not the only indicators of learning.
• Important values and skills an adolescent student can learn:
◦ Discipline
◦ Openness
◦ Perseverance
◦ Diligence
◦ Excellence
◦ Curiosity
◦ Analytical and Critical Thinking
◦ Memory
◦ Understanding
◦ Cooperation and Team Work
◦ Respecting other people’s opinions and beliefs
◦ Social interactions
◦ Leadership
◦ Followership
• Grades reflect the body of knowledge a person aquires and absorbs.
• Critical thinking and reasoning are equally important.
• Grades are critical in achieving goals.

3. Group Belongingness

• An adolescent has the urge to be independent and autonomous from his family and parents, but
replaces it in the form of social groupings such as school friends, memberships in organizations,
and community.

Prepared by: Ivan Jae Escalante

Marygen Intano
Brigitte Estolatan
 AMA COMPUTER COLLEGE – FAIRVIEW
Bristol St. cor Regalado Avenue, Fairview Q.C.
(02) 921-5781; 921-1115
• An adolescent having low self-esteem might be drawn towards organizations that promise
camaraderie.
• Academic performance of a student is greatly and positively affected by how he is accepted by
his peers. (Wigfield et al. 2012)
• Peer rejection takes place either if that person did not meet the standards of the group, or if the
members feel the threat of being underestimated by that specific person (Delp 2011).
• Healthy and wholesome organizations are those whose objective aims to help individuals
develop themselves.
• It is the responsibility of the adolescent to avoid organizations with anti-social behaviors.
• Healthy and wholesome organizations respect the individuality of each person.

4. Health and Nutrition

• A healthy mind and body is what every adolescent should strive for.
• Lack of sleep and poor eating habits often result in disaster.
• Long exposures to gadgets are unhealthy.
• Having regular exercises, balanced diet, proper hygiene, and adequate sleep cycles helps an
adolescent become a healthier person.
• Nutrition initiatives in most developing countries tend to neglect adolescents as they focus more
on women and adolescents. A link was evidenced between fetal undernutrition and increased
risk of chronic diseases during adulthood (WHO 2006).
• There are two factors determining the adequate nutrition of an individual: adequate availability
of food, and the ability to digest, absorb, and utilize the food (Chen 1979 as cited by WHO
2006).

5. Developing or Regaining Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem is defined as an individual’s positive and negative self-evaluation (Kassin, Fein, and
Markus 2014).
• Adolescents should be objective and balanced when viewing themselves.
• Individuals who often encounter criticism at home and in school often develop low self-esteem.
• Self-esteem is said to be one of the critical factors to excel academically. A person will find it
difficult to finish a task if he thinks that he cannot do it, resulting in developing his self-
defeating behavior (Regier 2011; Kassin et al. 2014).
• A balanced self-esteem is a must, since low self-esteem indicates inferiority, while having too
much self-esteem may inflict violence or superiority (Baron and Branscombe 2012; Kassin et
al. 2014).

6. Roles

• Adolescents must learn to integrate all their roles and must be related to the tasks expected of
them by others.
• People with high self-esteem are more sociable than those with low ones, and are said to be
more productive and capable of being assigned for leadership roles (De Lamater and Myers
2012).
• A healthy adolescent whose self-identity is clear and whose roles are integrated will understand
and accept the situation of having multiple roles. He or she will recognize the values being
expected from him or her.
• Role confusion can be diminished when these values are clear in the mind of the adolescent.

7. Material Poverty

• Many adolescents face difficulties in life due to their needs not being sufficiently met.
• These inadequacies are the reason why some children cannot go to school, or at least get the
quality education they need.
• A qualitative study by Williams (2015) explained that absence in school is the first thing that
can be identified in a student living in poverty.

Prepared by: Ivan Jae Escalante

Marygen Intano
Brigitte Estolatan
 AMA COMPUTER COLLEGE – FAIRVIEW
Bristol St. cor Regalado Avenue, Fairview Q.C.
(02) 921-5781; 921-1115
• The lack of resources at home can make negative impact on their academic performance, their
family life as well as their peer groups (Williams 2015).
• It was also mentioned that poverty affected adolescents on an emotional level, with a participant
arguing that they have minimal access to mental health services (Williams 2015).

8. Parents working abroad

• Absence of a parent or both leaves social costs on the young, vulnerable child
• Migration and Filipino Children Left Behind: A Literature Review by Professor Melanie Reyes
of the Miriam College Women and Gender Institute: “several studies showed that children
experience gender role confusions, abuse, longing for parental care, and consumerist attitudes
development.”
• Adolescents use their emotions in order for to get their parents attention, some even resorting to
emotional blackmail.
• Those who see their parents working abroad in a negative way often feel sadness, loneliness,
and thoughts of being abandoned, while those looking in a positive way perceive this as a way
for their family to have good lives and sustain their needs.
• However, others can also see this as an opportunity to work harder and achieve greater results,
that would pay off the hard works of their parents.

9. Career Choice
• An adolescent who is creating his own identity needs to identify the career path he or she is
taking on.
• Private schools often provide career counseling and guidance, but it is suggested that students
search in the Internet to help identify his or her capabilities and skills.
• Material poverty could be another challenge for career choice.
• Adolescents need to be figure out their interest and skills in order to find the right career.
• A study by Anuada (2017) had a result in which 68.33% agree that peer influence is one of the
factors that affect career choices of senior high school students.

10. Relationships

• Maintaining healthy relationships require a certain level of maturity.

• Parents would often strain their children from having relationships.
• Adolescents need to understand that their parents show concern regarding relationships and its
consequences in his or her emotions or life.
• Social relationships are essential in adolescence and peers should form a strong bond together
to become successful in adulthood (Marsh 2012).
• School administrators recognize peer relationships as a nuisance to teenagers, and are
visualized as of no significance (Gristy 2012).
• It was argued that each member of a peer group often have similarities with each other, which
helps in the development of a stable relationship of the group (De Lamater and Myers 2011).

11. Values and Beliefs

• Adolescents are still developing their own cognitive skills that they can use in thinking of
abstract concepts and asking critical questions.
• A study by Simpkins, Fredericks, and Eccles (2012) had a result in which parents’ behaviors
mediated the relation between mothers’ and youths’ beliefs, and in turn mediated the parents’
• and youths’ behaviors.

12. Other challenges

• Depression is a serious case that adolescents experience, and some are unaware that they are
experiencing this.
• A qualitative study by Williams (2015) proposed that there were other barriers (i.e.
transportation, realistic hope, and abuse) that impacted adolescents.

Prepared by: Ivan Jae Escalante

Marygen Intano
Brigitte Estolatan
 AMA COMPUTER COLLEGE – FAIRVIEW
Bristol St. cor Regalado Avenue, Fairview Q.C.
(02) 921-5781; 921-1115
II. Three Filipino Adolescents, Three Heroes

1. Gregorio del Pilar – born November 14, 1875, died December 2, 1899.
• Often regarded as the “Boy General” for being the youngest ever to be commissioned as
general by the Filipino revolutionary forces that fought the Spaniards and Americans.
• Killed in the Battle of Tirad Pass in Ilocos Sur fighting the American colonialist forces.
2. Edgar Jopson – born September 1, 1948, died 1982
• Son of middle-class parents, graduated valedictorian of his high school class in Ateneo.
• Became the Student Council President at UP and the President of the National Union of
Students in the Philippines.
• One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines in 1970.
• Became a moderate activist during the martial law years under Marcos.,
• Marcos rebuked him with a statement, ad hominem, criticizing him being born as a son of a
grocer.
• Became more radical with his political views after having been exposed to various
situations depicting the excess of martial law.
3. Efren Peñaflorida – born March 9, 1982
• Started an organization called Dynamic Teen Company to keep adolescents like him away
fro trouble.
• It went into youth awareness projects talent and self-development activities and community
services before it helped poor children who could not afford to got to school.
• Efren’s father is a tricycle driver and his mother is a housewife, together lived in an open
dumpsite somewhere in Cavite City.
• He graduated from San Sebastian College-Recoletos de Cavite with a degree in Computer
Technology.
• He graduated from Cavite State University with a degree in Secondary Education, cum
laude in 2006.
• Awarded as CNN Hero of the Year on November 22, 2009, crediting and honoring his work
of pushcart project.

Prepared by: Ivan Jae Escalante

Marygen Intano
Brigitte Estolatan