THE CHALLENGES OF

MIDDLE AND LATE

ADOLESCENCE
5
• Challenges happen in all phases of a person’s
life. During adolescence, the challenges are
most daunting because they seem to come
all at the same time. However, challenges are
the drivers of change and development. The
adolescent faces many of them but it is in
these challenges that an adolescent find and
form his personality and character.

• According to Erickson, the adolescent’s

primary challenge is about identity and role
confusion.
 CHALLENGES
DURING ADOLESCENCE
 1. Attitudes and behavior toward sexuality and sexual relationships

• Puberty drives the adolescent to experience surges of sexual

desires, which often lead them to experimentation and
exploration.
• Sexual relationship is healthy when the adolescent sees this as
part of a loving relationship and not as something that is just for
exploration or pleasure.
• Being responsible also implies that entering into relationships is
all about genuine loving and caring for the other person, and
not just to satisfy one’s urges and needs which can lead to
bigger problems like teenage pregnancies or sexually
transmitted diseases.
 1. Attitudes and behavior toward sexuality and sexual relationships

• The adolescent is also prone to exploring pornography, which

usually starts out of curiosity. A research in the USA shows that
people who are heavily exposed to pornography tend to
imitate what they watch and relive these in their lives. Others
form unhealthy attitudes toward the opposite sex or toward
the sexual partner, losing respect and love when performing
sexual acts with them, thinking and feeling that the act is
merely a mechanical behavior devoid of intimacy and
genuine affection in the same way that these are portrayed in
pornography.
 2. Academic challenges and the knowledge and skills an
adolescent need to acquire.

• Being responsible is called for when dealing with academic

challenges.
• Be aware that academic grades are not the only indicators of
learning.
• 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,
and followership are some of the important skills and values
that an adolescent student can also learn while in school.
 3. Group Belongingness

• Is crucial to an adolescent who desires and needs to be part

of a group. This is related to the formation of their self-identity.
• When joining informal groups or organizations, be very aware
of peer pressure that says, “Do this of you cannot join our
group because you are not like us”.
• Healthy and wholesome organizations respect the individuality
of each person and would therefore not lure him into doing
something that goes against time-honored human values.
 4. Health and Nutrition

• A healthy mind and body is what every adolescent should

strive for.
• However, adolescents, because of their growing bodies and
brains, are gifted with so much energy that seems
inexhaustible, oftentimes resulting in abuse of one’s body and
mind.
• Lack of sleep and poor eating habits often result in disaster.
• Learn to listen to your body.
 4. Health and Nutrition

• Learn to listen to your body.

• Avoid unhealthy food.
• Drink plenty of clean water and regulate intake of rich food.
• Embrace a healthy lifestyle for yourself.
• Every time you put something inside your body, ask first the
question, “Will this make me healthy or not?”
• Long exposures to television and screen gadgets are also
unhealthy.
• Read books and take time to exercise.
• Embrace a sport that you enjoy playing, either by yourself or
with others.
5. Developing or Regaining Self-Esteem

Is part of the self-identity building process among adolescents.

Developing self-esteem is closely linked to developing one’s
healthy self-concept.
- Among the factors greatly affecting self-concept is physical
appearance. Body types rarely ever change due to its genetic or
hereditary nature. The adolescent should learn to accept what
his or her body type is and celebrate it.
 5. Developing or Regaining Self-Esteem

• A healthy, evolving adolescent’s task should be about caring

for oneself and self-healing, and creating and owning positive
and healthy self-concepts like, “I am a good person” or “I am
strong and can accept challenges”. In this way, an adolescent
can develop self-esteem that is necessary for him or her to
lead a healthier life.
• Accepting one’s body type is better than rejecting it.
 6. Roles

• An adolescent’s understanding of what people expect from

them, especially by the family, can affect the adolescent’s
development. Cultural biases such as in a Filipino-Chinese
family’s expectations from a firstborn male offspring can be
very daunting to many.
• Balancing his or her time and energy in addressing the
responsibilities demanded by each role can be achieved
through discipline and time management.
7. Material Poverty

Remains to be a challenge not only to families and adolescents

but also for the whole of Philippine society. Due to poverty, the
human body cannot develop properly for lack of nutrition, hence
affecting the development of the brain as well. Poverty is a reality
many Filipinos face, and to an adolescent, sometimes poverty
can be overwhelming if it becomes a barrier in fulfilling their
dreams of having a good education, for example.
8. Parents Working Abroad

Or single-parent family is also a phenomenon common in the

country today. This is about by the need to provide financial
support for families to survive. Parents go abroad and are
separated from their children. The impact of this absence may
have adverse effects especially to a growing child or adolescent,
such as the materialism of young people today.
9. Career Choice

A real challenge especially for adolescents who are still

discovering their talents, skills, interests, and values.

10. Relationships

• Are important to adolescents because they have a need to

belong and to grow emotionally as well.
• Adolescent can learn to understand and deal with conflict by
accepting there is conflict that exists between him and
another person, and to understand what is causing the
conflict.
11. Values and Beliefs

Being the foundation of self-identity, are necessary for an

adolescent to discover and develop.

12. Other challenges:

-Depression
-Bullying
 We don’t grow when things are
easy, we grow when we face
challenges.
Welcome the challenges. Look for the opportunities in every situation to learn and grow in wisdom.