Adolescence:

Physical Changes of Puberty

Emerging Adulthood- Jeffrey Arnett
• Exploring Identity especially in love and work
• Experiencing instability
• Often instability in love, work, education
• Being self-focused
• Feeling in-between
• Experiencing the age of possibilities
Physical Changes of Adolescence
• Growth spurt
• Hormonal changes
• Primary sex characteristics changes
• Directly related to reproduction- sexual organs
• Development of existing anatomy

• Secondary sex characteristics changes

• Not related to reproduction
What Causes Puberty to Begin?
• Hormonal feedback system – HPG axis
• hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis
• Gonads: Males- testes Females- ovaries

• Likely triggered by a variety of factors

• Biological, genetic factors
• Environmental

• Hormone increase eventually occurs

• Both males and females have testosterone and estradiol
• During puberty- testosterone dominates in males, and estradiol
dominates in females
 At what age does puberty occur in
the United States today?
• Onset of puberty
• Boys
• Girls

• First signs of puberty

• Sexual Maturation
• Menarche
• Spermarche
Why Does Pubertal Timing Matter?
• Puberty impacts:
• How adolescents feel about themselves
▪ Early vs late adolescence

• How adolescents are treated by others

• Parents should prepare teens for

changes
Pubertal Timing
What really matters about pubertal timing for adolescents?
 Absolute timing

vs. Relative timing

vs. Perception of timing

Early and Late Maturers
• Entering puberty at a normative time is not likely to be problematic
• Gender differences in off-time development
• Early maturing boys
• Late maturing boys
• Early maturing girls
• Late maturing girls
Adolescents and sleep
• Changes in sleep throughout adolescence
• Younger vs older adolescents

• Outcomes for inadequate sleep

• Biological clock shift- Carskadon

• Teens get sleepy later due to a delay in melatonin release
• School start time should be later for older students
Sexual Activity
Sexual Health
“The integration of the somatic, emotional, intellectual, and social
aspects of sexual being, in ways that are positively enriching and that
enhance personality, communication, and love”

~ World Health Organization

Positive Sexual Development

• Becoming comfortable with

changing bodies

• Accepting feelings of sexual

arousal as normal and
appropriate

• Feeling comfortable with

sexual choices

• Practicing safe sex

Percentages of Sexual Activity
• US adolescents who have had sexual intercourse
• 9th graders: 34%
• 12th graders: 63%
• Trends over time
• Increase in oral sex: 55% of 15-19 years
• Increase in contraceptive use among sexually active teens:
62% 9th-12th graders
• Differences in teen pregnancy rates
• Ethnicity differences
• Having a 2nd child as a teen
• Having a mother who gave birth as a teen
Sex Education
• Comprehensive Sex Education

• Abstinence Only Until Marriage

• Abstinence Plus Education

Advocatesforyouth.org
Why Not Use Contraceptives?
• Lack of access- especially for younger adolescents

• Lack of psychological comfort

• Lack of education- especially for younger adolescents

• Ambivalence toward pregnancy

• Increase in condom use from 1990’s (46%) to 2011

(60%)
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• Can be reduced with condom use

• Some are curable with antibiotics

• Other STDs are just treatable with medications- Herpes, HIV, Genital
warts

• Approximately 25% of sexually active teens will be infected with an

STD each year
 Adolescence:
Cognitive Development and
School Transitions
The Adolescent Brain
• Corpus Callosum thickens

• Frontal Lobe continues to mature

• Prefrontal cortex

• Limbic system matures

• Amygdala involved in emotion

• Synaptic Connections increase

Cognition
• Brain Development

• Piaget: Formal Operations

• Abstract reasoning
• Thinking about thinking
• Verbal problem solving
• Idealism
• Hypothetical deductive reasoning
• Does everyone progress to formal operations?
 Adolescent Egocentrism

• Egocentrism
• Imaginary audience

• Personal fable
Information Processing
• Executive Function
• Working Memory
• Cognitive Control
• Attention
• Reducing Interfering Thoughts
• Flexibility
• Decision Making
Erikson’s Identity Stage
• Identity vs. Role Confusion
• Exploring who they are
• Trying on different roles
• Integrate roles into one identity
• Might become confused about
who they are
Transition to Secondary School

Negatives
Smaller to larger
Top dog phenomenon
Positives
Feel more grown up
Class choice- electives
Academic challenges
Independence from parents
More social activities
Concerns about Jr. High/Middle School

• Multiple Transitions
• Developmental Readiness
• Stage-Environment Fit
Teacher and Parent Support
 Climate & Expectations

• Classroom climate

• Teacher expectations
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Class and ethnic biases
• Role of parent involvement
Dropping Out of School
Definition of a Dropout
• Someone who does not complete high school

• In Texas, a dropout is “a student who is enrolled in

public school, does not return to public school the
following fall, is not expelled, and does not graduate,
receive a GED certificate, continue school outside the
public school system, begin college, or die.”
• Texas longitudinal dropout rate

• Gender and ethnic differences

Dropout Characteristics

• Causes

• Outcomes for dropouts

• Correlates
• Student
• Home
Characteristics of Schools with
Low Dropout Rates
 Orderly school environments
 Emphasis on academics
 Supportive and committed
teachers
• Decreased emphasis on ability grouping

• Efforts to support school success during the early years

of high school