Adolescence & Transition

Adolescent development does not necessarily honour a similar pattern for every individual as the multidimensional conformation spans through in a quite complex way. At a time of transit from childhood to adulthood traditionally, a period of rapid bodily maturement is flung upon the individual amidst brief periods of remission.In the last century however, the onset of physical qualify has occurred at increasingly younger mounts, increasing the likelihood that the psychosocial and cognitive changes will lag shadow (Neinstein, 2002). Physical changes thereby vary among adolescents as children of the same age critically vary in the growth and familiar development.For some, the rates of change occur and happen at different times as adolescents be intimate puberty in his/her own way and time. While it is interesting to observe pubertal changes in adolescents, the tremendous cycle brings about a cacophony of questions among the concerned age group. Some teens develop earlier tha n others and contend with changes earlier than others.For others, maturity may occur later than others and more pronounced is the variation of pubertal changes amidst males and females (Lerner and Galambos, 1998 414). Adolescents of the same age do not necessarily follow a similar pattern of change and the comparison is quite pronounced between both genders.In females, the Luteinizing Horm unitary stimulates the ovarian cells to produce androgens and progesterone and stimulates ovulation and follicle-stimulating hormone increases estrogen production earlier comp ard to males whose LH stimulates testosterone production and FSH stimulates gametogenesis at a later dress (Neinstein, 2002).The onset of puberty varies, as female pubertal development begins on fair at 11.2 eld of age (range 9.0 13.4) and lasts about 4 categorys while male puberty development begins on total at 11.6 years of age (range 9.5 13.5) (Rosen and Foster, 2001310.Up to and during puberty, girls develop phy sically and mature much faster than the male counter give (Brayer, 1986247).To say that adolescents encounter a lot of changes and challenges during this period of human development is an understatement. When each gender is marauded with variable levels of change, one goes through a critical give in a short period of transition from childhood to adulthood. We shall identify the changes for males and females across this developmental stage in order to arrive at a comparison between both wakenes.Physical ChallengesThe earliest signs of puberty for females include the emergence of physical changes that occur at different rates and intensity. On the average, breast budding along with pubic hair growth signals the sign phase of a females growth spurt that reaches its peak about one year and one month after breast development begins.Menarche, or the onset of menstruation starts typically one year after at an average age of 12 years old (Brayer, 1986 247). The male akin of menarche i s spermarche which is characterized by the first ejaculation of sperm (Beckett, 2002113).Testicular enlargement is the common physical sign along with pubic hair development which definitely varies among the male age group but interestingly, the onset is spermarche signals the initial phase of adolescent growth in males which is a stark comparison to the female gender.Females marked the initial stage of puberty with physical changes while males mark the onset of change through the development of secondary internal and reproductive characteristics (Brayer, 1986248). The fall outance of spermatozoa in males appears at a mean chronologic age of 13.4 as sperm begins to appear present in urine samples among teenage males (Greenspan and Gardner, 2004610).As adolescents increase in height and weight during this stage, growth is rapid where females tend to typically experience this growth spurt one-and-one-half to two years earlier than males and on average grow 23-28cm. Males experience a 2-year delay in bone closure as compargond to females, and this accounts in part for their greater growth in height.Females increase in body fat while males increase in lean body mass that can often cut to tripping and clumsiness. The variability of changes can be anxiety provoking for adolescents who tend to remain shorter than their friends as some experienced delayed puberty (Beckett, 2002 114).Cognitive ChallengesDuring adolescence are often unable to deal with remote, future or hypothetical problems and often encounter difficulty in predicting and anticipating future experiences. Such is consistent with Jean Piagets conception pf cognitive development as a rational process with rational outcomes (Moshman, 20051).Often, the adolescent render problems effectively dealing with abstract ideas and resort to daydreaming and increased self-interest. Adolescents likewise assume that others are as interested in them as many have an unrealistic view of themselves that can commonly le ad them to believe they are invincible and immune to the dangers that take place others (Beckett, 2002114).Young adolescents, at the beginning of this cognitive shift, have unrealistic career plans and for those who are exposed to disadvantaged situations, would lead to the beginning of feelings of hopelessness (Moshman, 20052).Moral and Psychosocial ChallengesAdolescence marks the movement from the conventional level of moral judgment to post-conventional (Neinstein, 2002). Early adolescents are typically in the conventional level of moral development as they are commonly prompt by the need to meet expectations of external factors such as opinion of friends (Strasburger, 2000 802).They have a special simple idea and concept and apprehension as they are heavily motivated on satisfy others. As a continuous process of experience boys and girls may follow a different thought pattern in moral development as most adolescents experience a moral crisis and partition (Adams and Berzon sky 2003247).In the 80s and 90s, many in the society had maintained that the society was in a moral crisis brought about by juvenile delinquency, adolescent drug and alcohol abuse and teenage maternalism (Berzonsky, 2003248). Society has however neglected the fact that transformations in moral judgment take on concentre during adolescence.The central developmental task during adolescence is developing a sense of identity with significant turning points of regulate and reshaping different roles, beliefs and commitments (Lerner and Galambos, 1998441). In a distinctly technological society, adolescents are faced with confronting the tasks and decisions amidst changing roles.At the early age of 11-13, females tend to start a separate identity from the family and build close relationships with peers primarily of the same sex (Scales, et al, 200029). For males, such challenges are encountered at the age of 12-14 year old as they become preoccupied with questions of normalcy yet begin c oncerning themselves with separation from members of the family. At a peak age of 14-16, most experiment with sexual experimentation, omnipotence leading to risky behaviors (Strasburger, 2000789).