DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES EXPERIENCED DURING

ADOLESCENCE

ACADEMIC CONCERNS

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

On top of the pursuit of good grades. The continuous pressure to perform well
academically in addition to extracurricular demands. Where students suffer from pressure from
school related concerns to complete daily class work, assignments, finish projects and study for
exams. Many adolescents often find it difficult and stressful to live up to the teachers’ and
parents’ expectations.

GROUP BELONGINGNESS

While there is an urge to be independent and autonomous from family members, there is
also an urge to seek a replacement of this support system.

A sense of belongingness is a human need, just like the need for food and shelter. Feeling
that you belong is the most important in seeing the value in life and in coping with intensely
painful emotions. Adolescents strongly feel the need to find a group to belong to and fit well in.
Peers are considered at the center of the teenager’s social relationship.

Also being belong to a group of friends may include the use of drug, fraternities,
smoking, drinking alcohol and etc.
MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Self-Actualization
- desire to become the most that one can be

Esteem
- respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength,
freedom

Love and belonging

- friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection

Safety needs
- personal security, employment, resources, health,
property

Physiological needs
- air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

Adolescents, resulting to abuse of body and mind.

Nutrition is the intake of food, considered in relation to the body’s dietary needs. Good
nutrition means an adequate, well-balanced diet combined with regular physical activity as a
cornerstone of good health.

TYPES OF EATING DISORDERS ARE:

1. ANOREXIA
 Refusal to eat adequate calories out of fear of becoming fat. It can damage major
organs, cause irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, pulse, body temperature,
and breathing rates, cessation of menstrual cycle, infertility, brittle hair and nails,
and thinning of bones. It is fatal in about one out of every 10 cases, usually
attributed to cardiac arrest, imbalance and suicide.
2. BULIMIA
 Gross overeating (binging) and then purging (getting rid of) the food. Feeling
disgusted and ashamed after overeating, bulimics try to prevent weight gain by
inducing vomiting or using laxatives, diet pills, diuretics, or enemas.
MATERIAL POVERTY

It is the scarcity or the lack of a certain (variant) amount of material possessions or

money. Absolute poverty or extreme poverty to the complete lack of the means necessary to
meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

PARENTS WORKING ABROAD

Several studies show how migration of parents is indeed heart-breaking for children,
making them long for parental care, get confused over gender roles, vulnerable to abuse and even
develop consumerist attitudes.

RELATIONSHIPS

Maintaining relationship require certain level of maturity.

Building and maintaining relationship of all kinds can be challenging. It requires a person
to be emotionally mature to be rational in thought and behavior.

Maintaining a RELATIONSHIP WITH PARENTS maybe difficult because usually

they have a different perspective from an adolescent.

RELATIONSHIPS (RELATIONSHIP WITH PEERS, FRIENDS AND BARKADA)

It is the easiest as adolescent since you share the same concerns, issues and complaints.
Though it is easy to establish it is more challenging to maintain them. Through time, friendship
is negatively affected by jealousy, tactless, criticism, disloyalty, backbiting and rejection.

RELATIONSHIP (ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP)

It starts to develop during this stage. Such relationships are highly intense and emotional
that people do not usually think with reason and objectivity. Acting on impulse or being blinded
by what one only wants to see and often brings harm and danger and leads to quarrel and
breakup experiences.
TIME MANAGEMENT

It is the ability to use one’s time effectively and productively.

CAREER CHOICE

Adolescents feel that there is an urgent need to identify what course to take in college and
establish a career in future.

VALUES AND BELIEFS

Different people may endorse conflicting values and beliefs.

DEVELOPING OR REGAINING SELF-ESTEEM

Adolescents who are creating their self-identity should be objective and balanced when
viewing themselves.

ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR TOWARD SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP

Adolescents exploring their sexuality should be able to draw their limits in terms of
sexual expressions and should be responsible to see the consequences of their behavior.

STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH CHALLENGES

The challenges that you will encounter might cause pain and stress on your part. While
you are capable to handle such situations, it may cause pressures that would affect your well-
being. So, here are some of the strategies that may help you do so (Sevilla, 2000):

1. Learn to accept what you feel – what every you feel, you need to embrace those feelings
because they are real emotions. They are only reflective of who you are – a human being.
Accepting your feelings means allowing yourself to feel and express them.
2. Identify your vulnerabilities – knowing when you feel intense emotions is important to
acknowledge. For instance, you have notices that before you flare up anger, you first feel
your face getting hot, your knees trembling, and your heart pounding very fast. The next
time you feel angry and you see these signs, you excuse yourself from the discussion and
walk away.
3. Develop your talents and interests – know your interests or things that you enjoy. After
doing so, then develop those competencies, talents, and skills in you. With these, you do
not allow negative thoughts or feelings conquer your heart.
4. Become more involved with others – as they say no one is an island so we need others to
support us. Do not focus on yourself but rather live your life with other people that can
give you happiness and influence you to become a good person.
5. Seek help when needed – most of the adolescents would feel shy and are hesitant to ask
for help because they might feel that they add burden to the person they are asking help
for. But you must remember that teenager still must remember that teenager still must
learn a lot of ways of being effective and psychologically healthy. Thus, you still seek for
help too your support system.