Adolescent girls struggle through the complexities of life. This is a Basic Skills guide for adolescent girls, that they should have.The growing problems that adolescent girls face now have a resource. It is not unrealistic to teach them to cope and build their selves into attaining selfhood. Questions or Comments, email me at whozien@gmail.com

1. Adolescent Girls’ Development:
A Resource Guide
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D.
whozien@vsu.edu

2. Defining Adolescence
• Merriam Webster Online Dictionary:
• “the state or process of growing up from
childhood to adulthood.”
• Our emphasis on adolescence as a time of
change and growth, as a passing
• Developmental Phenomenon introducing
adulthood, reveals more about our hopes and
fears than about the actual content and
opportunities of adolescent development.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

3. Adolescent to Maturity
• The adolescent is regarded as a
• Child who has left the safe harbor of
childhood but
• Has not yet reached the shores of maturity.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

4. Adolescent Struggle
• Is about the forces which shape the self and
direct the search for identity.
• It examines the factors which incline young
people toward
• Self-centeredness,
• Irrationality and
• Faulty Decision-Making.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

5. Maturity Involves
• Being Honest and True to oneself,
• Making decisions based on a conscious
internal process,
• Assuming responsibility for one’s decisions,
having healthy relationships with others and
• Developing one’s own true gifts.
• Thinking about one’s environment and
• Deciding what one will and won’t accept.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

6. Adolescent Girl Basic Skills
• Adolescent Girls Should have are:
• Ability to Separate
Thinking from Feeling
• Making Conscious Choices
• Making and Holding Boundaries
• Defining Relationships
• Managing Pain
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

7. Ability to Separate
Thinking from Feeling
• It is particularly difficult
for teenagers because
their feelings are so
intense.
• They are given to
emotional reasoning,
which is the belief that if
something feels so, it
must be so.
• Help the teenager process
events by asking:
• Adolescent Aid:
• How do you feel about
this?
• What do you think about
this?
• Over time, girls learn that
these are
• Two different processes
and
• Both should be respected
when making a decision.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

8. Making Conscious Choices
• Is a part of defining a self
• Encourage girls to take
responsibility for their
own lives
• Decisions need to be
made slowly and carefully
• Parents, boyfriends, and
peers may influence their
decisions, but the final
decisions are their own.
• This is important because
they need to
• Own their lives and make
their own decisions:
• Whether they are
influenced by others or
not.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

9. Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

10. Help Teenager Process Events and Ask:
• Does this decision keep you on the course you
want to be on?
• In the beginning: the choices are small.
• Who shall I go out with this weekend?
• Shall I forgive a friend who hurt my feelings?
• Later the choices include decisions about
family, schools, careers, sexuality and intimate
relationships
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

11. Making and Holding Boundaries
• Girls learn to make and enforce boundaries
• At the most basic level, this means
• They decide who touches their bodies.
• It means they set limits about
• Their time, Their activities, Their companions
• They can say, “No I will not do that.”
• They need to make position statements that are
firm statements of what
• They Will and Will Not Do.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

12. Defining Relationships
• Many girls are “empathy sick”
• Know more about others’ feelings than their
own.
• Girls need to think about:
• What kinds of relationships are:
• In their Best Interest and
• To structure their relationships in accord with
their ideas.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

13. Defining Girls’ Space
• This is difficult because
girls are socialized to let
others do the defining.
• Girls are uncomfortable
identifying and stating
their needs, especially
with boys and adults.
• They worry about not
being nice or appearing
selfish.
• Success in this area is
exhilarating.
• With this skill they
become the object of
their own lives again.
• Once they have
experienced the
satisfaction of
• Defining relationships,
they are eager to
continue to develop this
skill.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

14. Managing Pain
• All the craziness in the
world comes from
• People trying to escape
suffering.
• All mixed up behavior
comes from
• Unprocessed pain.
• People drink, hit their
mates, and children,
gamble, cut themselves
with razors and even kill
themselves
• To escape pain.
• Teach girls to sit with their
pain,
• To listen to it for messages
about their lives,
• To acknowledge and
describe it rather than to
run from it
• Teach them to write about
pain
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

15. Teach Girls To
• Talk about pain
• Express it through art
(Draw, paint, color – let it
out on paper or canvas or
whatever)
• Express it through Dance
and Music
• Girls need predictable
ways to calm themselves.
• If they do not have
positive ways like:
• Exercise, reading, hobbies
or meditation
• They will have negative
ways, like
• Eating, Drinking, drugs or
self-mutilation.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

16. Model Proper Channeling of Emotions
• Girls need help regulating their emotional
reactions.
• Encourage them to rate their stress
• Challenge Extreme Statements like: This is the
worst day ever. He is the worst teacher in the
world.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

17. Reframe Adolescent Perspective
• To be inclusive, not exclusive.
• Teach them to reframe their statements.
• Rate their stress on a scale from one to ten.
• Rate the teacher on a scale from one to ten.
• Reframe by asking:
• What did you learn from your experience?
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

18. Adolescent Girls Need Validation
• Girls are socialized to look for praise and
rewards and this keeps them other oriented
and reactive.
• They are vulnerable to Depression as a result.
• If they happen to be in an environment where
they are not validated.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

19. Help Girls Reach Selfhood
• Ask them to record victories and bring these in
to share with you
• Victories are actions that are in keeping with
their long term goals.
• Once a girl learns to validate herself, she is less
vulnerable to the world’s opinion.
• She can orient toward true Selfhood.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

20. Adolescence is a Developmental Stage
• Accept the concept that it is a developmental stage instead
of a
• Transitory phase would foster social guarantees (societal
sanctions) for appropriate
• Customs, programs, associations, and, especially, ample
time to assure adolescent development.
• Then vocational training centers, youth centers,
extracurricular activities, social centers for loafing, bowling,
or dancing, and
• Youth counseling or employment services with access to
work opportunities would gain further relevance as basic
social institutions for normal adolescent development.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

21. Redefining Adolescence
• These are valuable resources through which
adolescents can have a
• Chance to define their behavior for
themselves within
• The context of their community.
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

22. References
• K. Borman & B. Schneider (Eds.), The adolescent years: Social influences and
educational challenges. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Brown, B. B. (2004). Adolescents’ relationships with peers. In R. M. Lerner & L.
Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (2nd ed., pp. 363-394).
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
• Buchmann, M. (1989). The script of life in modern society: Entry into adulthood in
a changing world. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Byrnes, J. P. (2002). The development of decision-making. Journal of Adolescent
Health, 31(Suppl. 1), 208-215.
• Cicourel, A. V., and Kitsuse, J. I. (1963). The educational decision-makers.
Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
• Coleman, J., Hendry, L. B., and Kloep, M. (2007). Adolescence and health. London:
Wiley.
• Erikson, Erik H. (1962 ).''Youth: Fidelity and Diversity," Daedalus, Vol. XCI, Winter,
pp. 5-27.
• Friedan, Betty. (1963). The Feminine Mystique. NY: WW Norton.
• Gilligan, Carol. (1982). In a Different Voice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Mead, Margaret. (1971). Coming of Age in Samoa. NY: Morrow.
• Orbach, Susie. (1986) Fat is a Feminist Issue II. NY: Berkley Books.
• Pipher, Mary. (1994) Reviving Ophelia. NY: Riverhead Books.Wafa Hozien, Ph.D

23. Questions or Comments?
• Via Email:
• Wafa Hozien, Ph.D.
• whozien@vsu.edu
Wafa Hozien, Ph.D