This document discusses physical and cognitive development during adolescence. It covers the changes adolescents face such as puberty and new experiences. Adolescents experience major physical changes through puberty like growth spurts and sexual maturation. Their brains also develop to allow for more advanced cognition like abstract thinking. Schools can support adolescents by addressing the challenges of this transition period.

1. Physical and
Cognitive
Development
in Adolescence
Chapter 11
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2. 11 - 2
Chapter Outline
• The nature of adolescence
• Physical changes
• Issues in adolescent health
• Adolescent cognition
• Schools
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3. 11 - 3
The Nature of Adolescence
• Adolescents face
– Biological changes
– New experiences
– New developmental tasks
• Influences on the adolescent
– Ethnic
– Cultural
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4. 11 - 4
The Nature of Adolescence
– Gender
– Socioeconomic
– Age
– Lifestyle differences
• Youth benefit when they have caring adults in
their lives in addition to parents or guardians
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5. 11 - 5
Physical Changes
• Puberty: Period of rapid physical maturation,
occurring primarily in early adolescence, that
involves hormonal and bodily changes
– Sexual maturation, height, and weight
• Marked weight and height gains
• Facial and chest hair growth in males
• Pubic hair growth
• Breast growth in females
• Menarche: Girl’s first menstruation
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6. 11 - 6
Figure 11.1 - Pubertal Growth Spurt
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7. 11 - 7
Physical Changes
• Puberty
– Hormonal changes
• Hormones: Chemicals secreted by the endocrine glands
and carried throughout the body by the bloodstream
• Increases in testosterone and estradiol
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8. 11 - 8
Physical Changes
• Puberty
– Timing and variations in puberty
• Average age of menarche has declined significantly
since mid-19th century
• Improved nutrition and health
• Pubertal sequence begins:
– Boys - 10-13 1/2 years
– Girls - Between ages of 9 and 15 years
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9. 11 - 9
Figure 11.2 - Age at Menarche in Northern European
Countries and the United States in the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

10. 11 - 10
Physical Changes
• Puberty
– Body image
• Preoccupation with body image is strong throughout
adolescence
• Girls are less happy with their bodies and have more
negative body images
• Puberty
– Early and late maturation
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

11. 11 - 11
Physical Changes
• Boys
– Early-maturing boys view themselves more positively and
have more successful peer relations
– Late maturing boys report a stronger sense of identity in their
30s
• Girls
– Early-maturing girls show greater satisfaction early but less
satisfaction later
» More likely to smoke, drink, be depressed
» Have an eating disorder
» Struggle for earlier independence
» Have older friends
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

12. 11 - 12
Figure 11.3 - Early-and Late-Maturing Adolescent Girls’
Perceptions of Body Image in Early and Late Adolescence
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

13. 11 - 13
Figure 11.4 - Changes in the
Adolescent Brain
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

14. 11 - 14
Changes in the Brain
• Corpus callosum: The location where fibers
connect the brain’s left and right hemispheres
• Amygdala: The region of the brain that is the
seat of emotions
• Prefrontal cortex
– The highest level of the frontal lobes involved in
reasoning, decision making, and self-control
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

15. 11 - 15
Physical Changes
• Adolescent sexuality
– Developing a sexual identity
• Learning to manage sexual feelings
• Developing new forms of intimacy
• Learning skills to regulate sexual behavior
– Sexual identity includes:
• Activities
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

16. 11 - 16
Physical Changes
• Interests
• Styles of behavior
• Indication of sexual orientation
– Gay males and lesbians struggle with same-sex
attractions
• Adolescent sexuality
– Risk factors in adolescent sexual behavior
• Drug use, delinquency, and school-related problems
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

17. 11 - 17
Figure 11.5 - Timing of First Sexual
Intercourse in U.S. Adolescents
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

18. 11 - 18
Physical Changes
• Socioeconomic status
• Family/parenting
• Peers
– Reproductive health outcomes
• Family connectedness
• Parent-adolescent communication about sexuality
• Parental monitoring
• Partner connectedness
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

19. 11 - 19
Physical Changes
• Adolescent sexuality
– Contraceptive use
• Adolescents are increasing their use of contraceptives
• Younger adolescents are less likely to take
contraceptive precautions
– Sexually transmitted infections (STIs): Contracted
primarily through sexual contact
• Including oral-genital and anal-genital contact
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

20. 11 - 20
Physical Changes
• Adolescent sexuality
– Adolescent pregnancy
• U.S. has 1 of the highest rates in the world
• Creates health risks for baby and mother
• Low birth weight, neurological problems, childhood
illness
• Mothers drop out of school and never catch up
economically
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

21. 11 - 21
Figure 11.6 - Cross-Cultural Comparisons
of Adolescent Pregnancy Rates
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

22. 11 - 22
Issues in Adolescent Health
• Adolescent health
– Poor health habits and early death in adulthood
begin during adolescence
– Nutrition and exercise
• 17% of 12–19-year-olds are overweight
• Decreased intake of fruits and vegetables and less
exercise
– Sleep patterns
• Only 31% of U.S. adolescents sleep 8 or more hours a
night
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

23. 11 - 23
Issues in Adolescent Health
• Adolescent health
– Leading causes of death in adolescence
• Unintentional injuries
• Homicide
• Suicide
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

24. 11 - 24
Issues in Adolescent Health
• Substance use and abuse
– United States has one of the highest rates of
adolescent drug use of any industrialized nation
– Adolescent alcohol and cigarette consumption has
declined in recent years
– The roles of development, parents, peers and
education
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

25. 11 - 25
Issues in Adolescent Health
• Eating disorders
– Anorexia nervosa: Relentless pursuit of thinness
through starvation
• Main characteristics
– Weight less than 85% of what is considered normal for a
person’s age and height
– An intense fear of gaining weight that does not decrease with
weight loss
– Having a distorted image of their body shape
– Amenorrhea
• 10 times more likely to occur in females than males
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

26. 11 - 26
Issues in Adolescent Health
• Eating disorders
– Bulimia nervosa: Individual consistently follows a
binge-and-purge pattern
• Most bulimics
– Are preoccupied with food
– Have an intense fear of becoming overweight
– Are depressed or anxious
– Have a distorted body image
• Typically fall within a normal weight range
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

27. 11 - 27
Adolescent Cognition
• Piaget’s theory
– Formal operational stage
• More abstract than concrete operational thought
• Increased verbal problem-solving ability
• Increased tendency to think about thought itself
• Thoughts of idealism and possibilities
• More logical thought
– Hypothetical-deductive reasoning: Creating a hypothesis and
deducing its implications
– Evaluating Piaget’s theory
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

28. 11 - 28
Adolescent Cognition
• Adolescent egocentrism: Heightened self-
consciousness of adolescents
• Imaginary audience: adolescents’ belief that others are
as interested in them as they themselves are
– Attention-getting behavior
• Personal fable: Involves a sense of uniqueness and
invincibility
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

29. 11 - 29
Adolescent Cognition
• Information processing
– Cognitive control
• Control attention and reduce interfering thoughts
• Be cognitively flexible
– Decision making
• Dual-process model: View of thinking in which decision
making is influenced by two systems
– Critical thinking
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

30. 11 - 30
Schools
• The transition to middle or junior high school
– Drop in school satisfaction
– Less stressful when students have positive
relationships
• Top-dog phenomenon: Move from the top
position in elementary school to:
– The lowest position in middle or junior high
school
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

31. 11 - 31
Schools
• Effective schools for young adolescents
– Develop smaller communities that lessen
impersonality of middle schools
– Lower student-counselor ratios to 10-to-1
– Involve parents and community leaders
– Integrate several disciplines in a flexible
curriculum
– Boost students’ health and fitness with more
programs
– Provide public health care© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This
document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

32. 11 - 32
Schools
• High school
– Graduate with inadequate reading, writing, and
mathematical skills
– High schools should discourage dropping out
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

33. 11 - 33
Figure 11.13 - School Dropout Rates of U.S. 16-to
24-Year-Olds by Gender and Ethnicity
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

34. 11 - 34
Schools
• Extracurricular activities
– Sports, academic clubs, band, drama, and math
clubs
– High-quality extracurricular activities provide:
• Competent, supportive adult mentors
• Opportunities for increasing school connectedness
• Challenging and meaningful activities
• Opportunities for improving skills
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.

35. 11 - 35
Schools
• Service learning: Form of education that
promotes social responsibility and service to
the community
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document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.