Details about physical, biological and social development of an individual in adolescence

1. ADOLESCENT
DEVELOPMENT

2. KEY POINTS
• Adolescence is one of the most rapid phases of human development.
• Biological maturity precedes psychosocial maturity. This has implications for policy and
programme responses to the exploration and experimentation that takes place during
adolescence.
• The characteristics of both the individual and the environment influence the changes
taking place during adolescence.
• Younger adolescents may be particularly vulnerable when their capacities are still
developing and they are beginning to move outside the confines of their families.
• The changes in adolescence have health consequence not only in adolescence but also
over the life-course.
• The unique nature and importance of adolescence mandates explicit and specific
attention in health policy and programmes.

3. RECOGNIZING ADOLESCENCE
• Adolescence is a period of life with specific health and developmental needs
and rights. It is also a time to develop knowledge and skills, learn to manage
emotions and relationships, and acquire attributes and abilities that will be
important for enjoying the adolescent years and assuming adult roles.
• All societies recognize that there is a difference between being a child and
becoming an adult. How this transition from childhood to adulthood is
defined and recognized differs between cultures and over time. In the past it
has often been relatively rapid, and in some societies it still is. In many
countries, however, this is changing.
• Age is a convenient way to define adolescence. But it is only one
characteristic that delineates this period of development. Age is often more
appropriate for assessing and comparing biological changes (e.g. puberty),
which are fairly universal, than the social transitions, which vary more with

4. ADOLESCENCE: PHYSICAL CHANGES
• Adolescence is one of the most rapid phases of human
development. Although the order of many of the changes
appears to be universal, their timing and the speed of change
vary among and even within individuals. Both the
characteristics of an individual (e.g. sex) and external factors
(e.g. inadequate nutrition, an abusive environment) influence
these changes.

5. ADOLESCENCE: NEURODEVELOPMENTAL
CHANGES
• Important neuronal developments are also taking place during the
adolescent years. These developments are linked to hormonal changes
but are not always dependent on them. Developments are taking place
in regions of the brain, such as the limbic system, that are responsible
for pleasure seeking and reward processing, emotional responses and
sleep regulation. At the same time, changes are taking place in the pre-
frontal cortex, the area responsible for what are called executive
functions: decision-making, organization, impulse control and planning
for the future. The changes in the pre-frontal cortex occur later in
adolescence than the limbic system changes.

6. ADOLESCENCE: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
SOCIAL CHANGES
• Linked to the hormonal and neurodevelopmental changes
that are taking place are psychosocial and emotional changes
and increasing cognitive and intellectual capacities. Over the
course of the second decade, adolescents develop stronger
reasoning skills, logical and moral thinking, and become more
capable of abstract thinking and making rational judgements.
• Changes taking place in the adolescent’s environment both
affect and are affected by the internal changes of
adolescence. These external influences, which differ among
cultures and societies, include social values and norms and
the changing roles, responsibilities, relationships and

7. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH AND
BEHAVIOUR
• In many ways adolescent development drives the changes in the disease burden
between childhood to adulthood—for example, the increase with age in sexual and
reproductive health problems, mental illness and injuries.
• The appearance of certain health problems in adolescence, including substance use
disorders, mental disorders and injuries, likely reflects both the biological changes of
puberty and the social context in which young people are growing up. Other
conditions, such as the increased incidence of certain infectious diseases, for example,
schistosomiasis, may simply result from the daily activities of adolescents during this
period of their lives.
• Many of the health-related behaviours that arise during adolescence have implications
for both present and future health and development. For example, alcohol use and
obesity in early adolescence not only compromise adolescent development, but they
also predict health-compromising alcohol use and obesity in later life, with serious
implications for public health.

8. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICIES AND
PROGRAMMES
• The changes that take place during adolescence suggest nine observations with
implications for health policies and programmes:
• Adolescents need explicit attention.
• Adolescents are not all the same.
• Some adolescents are particularly vulnerable.
• Adolescent development has implications for adolescent health.
• Adolescent development has health implications throughout life.
• The changes during adolescence affect how adolescents think and act.
• Adolescents need to understand the processes taking place during adolescence.
• To contribute positively, adults need to understand the processes taking place during
adolescence.
• Public health and human rights converge around concepts of adolescent development.
• - WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
• https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/adolescence/development/en/

9. • Today, 1.2 billion adolescents stand at the crossroads between childhood and the adult
world. Around 243 million of them live in India. As they stand at these crossroads, so
do societies at large – the crossroads between losing out on the potential of a
generation or nurturing them to transform society.
As adolescents flourish, so do their communities, and all of us have a collective
responsibility in ensuring that adolescence does in fact become an age of opportunity.
• In 2009, there were an estimated 1.2 billion adolescents in the world, forming around
18 per cent of the global population. An adolescent is defined as an individual aged
10-19 by the UN. The vast majority of the world’s adolescents – 88 per cent – live in
developing countries. The least developed countries are home to roughly 16 per cent
of all adolescents.

11. The characteristics are:
• 1. A period of Rapid Physical/Biological Changes, has Psychological Repercussions Too
• 2. Appearance-Consciousness
• 3. Attraction Towards the Opposite Sex
• 4. Cognitive Development
• 5. Career-Consciousness
• 6. Emotional Conditions
• 7. Flight on Imagination
• 8. Hero Worship
• 9. Hobbies and Other Details.
• 10. Sex-Role Identity
• 11. Impact of the Peer-Group is the Strongest
• http://www.psychologydiscussion.net/child-development/11-major-characteristics-of-
adolescence-child-development/1111

12. WORLD-ISSUES AND CRISES: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS
• Historically, many societies instituted formal ways for older individuals to help young people take
their place in the community. Initiations, vision quests, the Hindu samskara life-cycle rituals, and
other ceremonies or rites of passage helped young men and women make the transition from
childhood to adulthood. An outstanding feature of such coming-of-age rites was their emphasis
upon instruction in proper dress, deportment, morality, and other behaviours appropriate to adult
status.
• The Kumauni hill tribes of northern India offer a vivid example of a culture that traditionally
celebrates distinct stages in every child’s life. When a girl reaches puberty, her home is decorated
with elaborate representations of the coming of age of a certain goddess who, wooed by a young
god, is escorted to the temple in a rich wedding procession. Anthropologist Lynn Hart, who lived
among the Kumauni, noted that each child grows up at the centre of the
family’s attention knowing that his or her life echoes the lives of the gods. Although Kumauni
teenagers may act in ways that bewilder their elders, tribal traditions ease the passage through
this stage of life, helping young people to feel a connection to their community.
• Social Constraints
• Restrictions on physical movement
• Absence of meaningful responsibility

13. A CRITICAL CULTURAL ANALYSIS
• General facts
In 2009, there were an estimated 1.2 billion adolescents in the world, forming around 18 per cent of the global
global population. An adolescent is defined as an individual aged 10-19 by the UN.
The vast majority of the world’s adolescents – 88 per cent – live in developing countries. The least developed
countries are home to roughly 16 per cent of all adolescents.
Adolescents represent only 12 per cent of people in the industrialized world. In contrast, they account for
more than 1 in every 5 inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the least developed countries.
More than half of all adolescents live in Asia, with both South Asia and East Asia and Pacific each containing
roughly 330 million adolescents.
On current trends, however, the regional composition of adolescents is set to alter by mid-century; by 2050,
sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have more adolescent than any other region, marginally surpassing the
number in either of the Asian regions.
Adolescences today face a unique set of challenges, including an uncertain global economic outlook and high
levels of youth unemployment, an increasing number of humanitarian crises and conflicts, climate change and
environmental degradation, and rapid urbanization. The severity of challenges is expected to worsen over the
next decade.

14. Physical well-being
Adolescents across the world are generally healthier today than in previous generations. Yet in 2004,
nearly 400,000 adolescents died of unintentional injuries such those caused by road accidents.
• More than 70 million girls and women aged 15–49 have undergone female genital
mutilation/cutting(FGM/C), usually by the onset of puberty.
• The available evidence from 14 developing countries suggests that adolescent females run a
greater risk of nutritional difficulties than adolescent males, notably anaemia. For both sexes,
obesity is a serious and growing concern in both industrialized countries and the developing
world.
• Worldwide, one third of all new HIV cases involve young people aged 15–24.The risk of HIV
infection is considerably higher among adolescent females and young women than adolescent
males and young men. Among adolescents aged 15-19 in the developing countries, only 30 per
cent of males and just 19 per cent of females have correct, comprehensive knowledge of HIV.
• Adolescents with disabilities are likely to suffer forms of discrimination, exclusion and
stigmatization. Access to transportation, educational facilities and other resources is crucial to
ensure that adolescents with disabilities can enjoy the same opportunities as their peers.
It is estimated that around 20 per cent of the world’s adolescents have a mental health or
behavioral problem, with depression being the most frequently experienced disease.
Evidence shows that some adolescents engage sexual relations in early adolescence (10-14 years).
To stay healthy and safe adolescents need access to high-quality sexual and reproductive health
services and information from an early age.

15. • Education and employment
Almost half the world’s adolescents of the appropriate age do not attend secondary
school. The lowest rates of attendance are in Eastern and Southern Africa, with net
enrolment ratios of 24 per cent for boys and 22 per cent for girls.
In 2008, youth were almost three times as likely to be unemployed as adults, and
suffered disproportionately from a deficit of decent work.This means that in many
cases the first experience of work for young people is one of wasted talent,
disillusionment, underemployment and continued poverty.

16. • Protection
Around 150 million children aged 5–14 are currently engaged in child labour, with incidence
highest in sub- Saharan Africa.
Worldwide, UNICEF estimates that at any given moment more than 1 million children are in
detention by law enforcement officials.
At present, 1 in every 5 adolescent females aged 15-19 in the developing world excluding China
are married or in union. This rate rises to 28 per cent South Asia, the region with the highest
incidence, and 59 per cent in Niger.
Adolescent marriage – defined as a marriage or union where one or more of the spouses is age
19 or younger – is most common in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. New figures from 31
countries in these two regions show that most adolescent marriages take place between the ages
ages of 15 and 18.
In Africa, 25 per cent of women aged 20-24 gave birth before the age of 18. In South Asia this
rate falls to 22 per cent, marginally higher than Latin America and the Caribbean (18 per cent).
Adolescents are sometimes targeted for recruitment by military groups, whether to carry
weapons and participate in combat or to act in effect as sexual slaves or other types of servitude.
• http://unicef.in/PressReleases/86/State-of-World-Children-Key-Facts

17. IDENTITY IN ADOLESCENCE
• The Self & Identity "Who Am I?"
• During adolescence, the goal of many teens is to establish an identity.
• Identity: A consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms
of roles, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations.
• The 1st step in the identity process is to establish the integrity of personality
- that is, to align emotions, thinking, & behavior be consistent no matter what
the place, time, circumstances or social relationship.
• As they try to establish identities, adolescents encounter Identity vs Role
Confusion: Erickson’s 5th stage of development in which the person tries to
figure out "Who am I" but is confused as to which of the many roles to adopt.

18. • Throughout adolescence, a teen may experience more than one Identity Status:
Identity Achievement: Erickson’s term for attainment of identity-ideally established by
reconsidering the goals and values set by the parents and culture, then accepting some and
rejecting others. Four specfic aspects / areas of identity achievement follow.
• Religious
• Sexual / Gender
• Political / Ethnic
• Vocational
Foreclosure: When adolescents accept their parents or society’s roles and values without
questioning them or exploring alternatives.
Negative Identity: When adolescents adopt an identity that is opposite what is expected of
them. Usually occurs when adolescents feel that the roles their parents and society expect them
to fulfill are unattainable or unappealing, yet they cannot find any alternatives that are truly their
own.
Identity Diffusion: When an adolescent does not seem to know or care what his identity is.
Typically, these teens have few commitments to the goals or values of their parents, peers, or
larger society.
Identity Moratorium: Erickson’s term for a pause in identity formation that allows young
to explore alternatives without making final identity choices.

19. Society & Identity
Finding an identity is affected by forces outside the individual. The surrounding culture
can aid identity formation in two major ways:
• By providing values that have stood the test of time and that continue to serve their
function.
• * By providing social structures and customs that ease the transition from childhood
to adulthood.
Multiple Selves
• Adolescents display three distinct types of multiple (false) selves. (Harter et. al. 1996)
• The acceptable false self arises from the adolescent's perception that the real self is
rejected by parents & peers. May cause a sense of worthlessness, depression, &
hopelessness.
• The pleasing false self arises from a wish to impress or please others. Quite common.
Better than false self arising from rejection.
• The experimental false self arises from the need to "try out" different identities to see
how they feel.
A.k.a the possible self.

20. Family & Friends
• Adolescence is often a time when the values and behaviors of young people are said to become
increasingly distant and detached from those of their parents and other adults.
• Generation Gap: The distance between generations in values, behaviors, and knowledge. The gap is
typically small by objective measures.
• Generational Stake: The need of each generation to view family interactions from its own perspective,
because each has a different investment in the family scenario. Adolescents have a stake in believing
that their parents are limited, old-fashioned, and out of touch. This divergence happens with good
reason, adolescents do need to break free from their parents to find their own way.
Parent- Adolescent Conflict
• Usually occurs when a young persons drive for independence clashes with the parents’ traditions of
control.
• Typically emerges in early adolescence particularly with daughters and mothers.
• Bickering: repeated petty, peevish arguing, more like nagging than fighting.
Conflict is also one aspect of parent-teen relationships, Other aspects include:
• * Control: Parental Monitoring: - Parental awareness of what one’s children are doing, where and
with whom.
• - Too much parental interference & control can be a strong predictor of adolescent depression.
• - Do parents encourage or limit autonomy?
• * Support - do they rely on each other?
• * Communication - can they talk openly with each other?
• * Connectiveness - How close are they?

21. Peers
• Relations with peers are vital to the transition from childhood to adulthood. Adolescents help each other "grow up"
in many ways.
• Brown (1990) identified four special, constructive functions performed by peer relationships. They follow.
• Pubertal self-help - re. physical changes
• Social support - protection against turmoil
• Identity formation - mirror
• Values clarification - sounding board
• Contrary to Brown's four constructive functions is the notion of Peer Pressure. Peer Pressure is the social pressure to
conform with one’s friends or contemporaries in behavior, dress, and attitude; usually considered negative, as when
adolescent peers encourage each other to defy adult standards.
• The idea of peer pressure is exaggerated in three ways:
• Peer-group pressure is not strong forever, but only for a few years ( to 14).
• Peer-group conformity is not always destructive it can be constructive.
• Peer standards are not necessary negative they can be positive.
Conflict between peers & family is likely to arise in ethnic groups that revere closeness to family, respect for others, and
self-sacrifice. These ideals clash with peer group emphasis on adolescent freedom & self-determination.
• It is not surprising that minority individuals often have trouble establishing their identities.
Boys & Girls will act on their attraction to each other and come together. These romantic relationships augment rather
than replace same-sex friendships.

22. Adolescent Suicide
• Adolescence is usually an OK time, but for some, serious problems plague this period of
life. Unfortunately most adolescence problems have comorbidity. Comorbidity is the
presence of one or more disorders (or diseases) in addition to a primary disease or
disorder. The term dual diagnosis is often applied to the comorbid existence of both a
mental disorder & substance abuse.
• Adolescents think about suicide often - a sign that depression is prevalent during these
years.
Terms
• Rumination (mental) is contemplation or reflection on a particular topic. If very persistent
or repetitively focused on problems, it is thought to play a role in the development of
clinical depression. It is more common among females than males.
• Suicidal Ideation: Thinking about suicide, usually with some serious emotional and
intellectual overtones. So common that it can be considered "normal" for teenagers.
• Parasuicide: A deliberate act of self-destruction that does not end in death. Parasuicide
can be fleeting, such as a small knife mark on the wrist, or potentially lethal, such as
swallowing an entire bottle of pills. Usually carried out in a state of extreme emotional

23. Whether or not suicidal ideation leads to a plan, a parasuicide, or death depends on
• Availability of lethal means, especially guns
• Parental supervision
• Alcohol & other drugs
• Attitudes about suicide in the culture
• Gender
• Note: Adolescent romanticism underlies many cluster suicides.
A number of factors have been found to be related to adolescent suicide. Adolescents may have psychological
problems such as depression, drug related problems, or feeling of helplessness. They may show behavioral
symptoms , such as antisocial behavior, social isolation & withdrawal, & difficulties with family & peers. Usually
suicide is preceded by events or feelings (precipitators) that may include problems with relationships, bouts of
depression, or drinking (drug usage).
Suicide is usually considered an emotional internalizing problem, because completed suicides are the ultimate
example of self-harm; however, some use suicide to "get-back" at others thus acting outward (externalizing).
• Program proposed by therapists to help identify risk factors & prevent suicide:
1. Identify risk factors, including depression, drug abuse, previous attempts, recent suicide of a friend & major
life stressors, such as family turmoil or parental separation.
2. Crisis management (intervention following a suicide)
3. Suicide hot-line services (24 - 7)

24. Breaking the Law
• Psychologists believe that adolescent crime is an indication of the emotional stress that
adolescents feel.
• Incidence data reveals that adolescents have the highest criminal arrest rate.
• Prevalence: how widespread within a population a particular behavior is
• Incidence: how often a behavior occurs.
• Adolescents are actually far less often criminals than adults are.
•
• The term adolescent-limited offender is used for a juvenile delinquent who is likely to become
law-abiding once adulthood is attained.
• Adolescents commit their crimes most often against other adolescents.

25. ADOLESCENCE IN INDIA: GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND CONCERNS

26. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN INDIA

27. THANK YOU
The right of children to express their views freely on all
affecting them is a guiding principle of the Convention on
Rights of the Child.
In addition to being a right, participation stimulates the
development of a personality. Through meaningful civic
engagement young people prepare to be active citizens.