Accompanying the changes of adolescence
To be able to better support children or students during adolescence, it is important to understand all the changes that occur during this stage of life.
Adolescence is the stage that encompasses ages 12 to 20-25, in which a set of biopsychosocial changes occur to prepare adolescents for adulthood.
Are teenagers' hormones running wild?
It has always been said that teenagers have hormones that are on the rise, and this is because there is a hormonal hyperactivation that promotes the most significant physical development of adolescence, known as puberty . Puberty occurs between the ages of 10 and 14, and usually begins earlier in girls than in boys. Furthermore, this hormonal hyperactivation not only produces a maturation at a physical level but also in terms of brain structure.
Hormonal hyperactivation promotes the physical maturation of adolescence, puberty.
Body changes
Puberty occurs thanks to hormones and that is why during adolescence there is greater activation of the hormonal glands, as they allow growth and sexual differentiation in adolescence, among many other changes.
During this period, boys and girls experience physical changes that also have an impact on an emotional level.
- Boys : Growth of testicles, appearance of pubic and armpit hair, change in voice due to lengthening of the larynx.
- Girls : Breast development, appearance of pubic hair, menarche (first menstruation), growth of the hips.
For this reason, it is important to ask ourselves how we believe adolescents experience all these changes and how they can impact their development.
Why are teenagers emotionally intense?
Brain changes
Research over the years has shown that the adolescent brain does not reason or make decisions in the same way as the adult brain. A large number of studies have shown that during adolescence there is a specialization and neuronal pruning that allows the brain to mature . It would be as if during adolescence we sculpt the brain, we give it shape.
These brain changes begin in the back parts and progress, as we grow, towards the frontal areas, which are responsible for decision-making, inhibiting our behavior and emotional regulation, among others. Therefore, during adolescence, our minds change in the way we think, remember, relate and focus our attention . Adolescents make different decisions than adults because their brains are different.
Brain maturation is also modulated by hormonal hyperactivation . From the point of view of biological changes, of neurodevelopment, it is around the age of 25 when brain maturation is achieved, both from the point of view of structure and functioning. This maturation process involves different changes at the brain level .
The brain changes of adolescence, broadly speaking, manifest themselves in different ways:
- A process called neural pruning takes place in which connections that the brain considers unnecessary are destroyed.
- A restructuring occurs that involves neuronal reorganization.
- New connections between neurons develop.
Teenagers make different decisions than adults because their brains are different.
All these brain changes imply a series of characteristics that become evident during adolescence.
Socio-emotional changes
In the socio-emotional sphere, different substages have been established within adolescence and different developmental milestones, which will be challenges that the adolescent must overcome.
- Identity development : Every adolescent needs to answer the question “who am I?”. Adolescents need to develop their own values, opinions, and interests, and not just repeat those of their parents. They often have difficulty understanding that other people may have different perspectives, opinions, or experiences than their own. This can lead them to believe that their point of view is the only valid one and to have difficulty considering the perspectives of others. Elkind ( Elkind, 1967 ) ( Schwartz et al., 2008 ) referred to adolescent egocentrism as a form of “underdeveloped social cognition.” Adolescent egocentrism is a normal part of the developmental process and often diminishes as adolescents gain more social and cognitive experience. Adults in adolescents’ lives can help overcome it by encouraging empathy, open communication, and understanding and discussing different perspectives.
- Independence-autonomy : As part of the process of building their identity, adolescents move from being dependent on their parents to being interdependent. Building identity involves moving towards independence from the support figures who have been with them throughout childhood, their parents. Parents can help their teenage children by giving them support when they need it, but they will need a little patience and understanding when they start to see their teenage child looking more to their friends for support and less to them.
Why do teenagers move on from their parents?
- Integration into the peer group : Peer groups become the most influential group and source of support throughout adolescence. In this search for their own identity, the adolescent seeks friendships based primarily on loyalty, intimacy, trust and mutual help.
Why do teenagers make risky decisions?
- Concern about image . At the beginning of adolescence, it is natural for them to feel insecure about body changes and for this issue to occupy an important place within their concerns and condition their emotional states and social relationships. That is why adolescents are much more vulnerable to body dissatisfaction, which is greatly influenced by the current beauty canons of the society in which they live, being also a generation that exposes itself and compares itself in the digital world.
How to support adolescents in accepting these changes
Therefore, adolescence is not a phase that must be passed through like the flu, but rather a stage of specialization and growth in which children grow, change and acquire tools and skills to transition to adulthood. That is why it is vitally important that adults of reference for adolescents guide them in this transition in order to provide them with tools to cope with the adult stage.
- Provide adequate information about the changes that will occur.
- Receive social support, both from adults and peers.
- Legitimize the emotional experience they experience due to physical changes and facilitate strategies to cope with the changes.
- Promote the ability to face changes and difficult situations on a daily basis.
Socio-emotional skills that promote resilience
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