Adolescence is roughly defined as the period between childhood and adulthood that approximately

takes place between 10 – 19 years old according to the WHO. During this period a child goes through
many important changes that will influence their psychological wellbeing for the rest of their life.
The child will be subject to; physical changes, emotional changes, and social changes that will all
impact them greatly.

Puberty, though different for both males and females cause equal amounts of stress and
developmental change on a child. The influx of important hormones such as testosterone and
oestrogen can impact all aspects of their life from sleep to causing hormonal mood swings. The NHS
cites puberty as a difficult time for children due to these hormonal changes brought on by puberty
that may cause more serious issues such as low self-esteem, aggression, and depression (NHS, 2018).
Another important aspect of puberty, however, is the timing at which the adolescent begins
experiencing it as the changes occurring early or late can have a significant effect on the child’s
wellbeing. Studies find that early puberty in girls is linked to symptoms of depression (Angold, 2003).
This supports a hypothesis known as developmental readiness hypothesis that posits that
experiencing puberty early leads to psychological problems due to not being cognitively and
emotionally prepared for the significant changes to their body.

Biologically as mentioned above adolescents undergo significant changes hormonally which may
explain some aspects of their emotional and physical changes, it is also important however to
consider the development of the brain at this time. It is a noted stereotype that adolescents are
prone to taking risks, a possible explanation of this is Laurence Steinberg’s Social Neuroscience
perspective which posits that risk taking increases in adolescents due to the time that puberty takes
place is at a time when the brain’s emotional system is prone to increased reward-seeking, especially
due to the influence of peers on an adolescent (Steinberg, 2008). Furthermore we know that various
aspects of the brain are still under development during adolescence such as a restructuring of the
frontal lobe which normally being responsible for self-control, or the continued development of the
temporal lobes which are partly responsible for rational thought and general emotional maturity.

Moving on from the physical changes brought on by adolescence the seeking and establishment of a
self-concept really takes hold during adolescence. In Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial
development this occurs at stage 5 or approximately between the ages of 12 – 18 (Erikson, 1963). Its
during this time that adolescents are exploring themselves through the world and attempting to find
something that they feel they can fit in with, answering the primary question of this stage of
development; “Who am I?”. Erikson calls the development of self-concept the development of the
ego identity, which is constantly in flux during this stage as the adolescent experience’s new
interactions and information. This constant changing of ego identity on the outside can look like the
adolescent is being impulsive and irrational but is key to the healthy transition to adulthood.
Adolescents who are sufficiently encouraged and reinforced in their attempts to find an identity
enter adulthood with a strong sense of self which is a base requirement for forming healthy and
strong relationships. However, those that are not encouraged to explore and find a fitting self-
concept may find themselves struggling to find lasting relationships or career paths due to never
truly realizing a sense of self.

A more modern concept that influences adolescence is the presence of social media. Many studies
have been done into the effects social media can have on adolescents and have found that; social
media can lead to increased anxiety and depression (Woods & Scott, 2016), greater social media use
relates to poor sleep, poor body images, and higher depressive symptom scores (Kelly et al., 2018),
and with a meta-analysis also finding a significant correlation between social media use in
adolescents and depressive symptoms (Elizabeth et al., 2020) it is a strong position to say that social
media has a negative impact on adolescents. It is however possible to have positive experiences due
to social media as it increasing social avenues that would not be open before being able to connect
via the internet and those that use social media self-report feeling more supported by who they
connect with (Cillessen & Bellmore, 2014).

Many key changes occur during adolescent development and these do not fully explore the scope of
what can influence development at this stage, however those listed are key factors that may define
the psychological wellbeing of the adolescent going into adulthood.