Adolescent Development

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Behavior

The sudden and rapid physical changes that adolescents experience typically lend this period of development to be one of self-consciousness, sensitivity and concern over one's own body changes, and excruciating comparisons between oneself and peers.

Because physical changes may not occur in synchrony, adolescents may go through stages of awkwardness, both in terms of appearance and physical mobility/coordination. Unnecessary anxieties may arise if adolescent girls are not informed and prepared for the menarche (the onset of menstrual periods) and adolescent males are not provided accurate information and prepared for the onset of nocturnal emissions.

During adolescence, it is appropriate for youngsters to have and demonstrate a need to separate from their parents and establish their own identity. In some, this may occur with minimal reaction on the part of all involved.

However, in some families, significant conflict may arise over the adolescent's acts or gestures of rebellion and the parents' needs to maintain control and have the youth continue in his or her former childhood behaviors of compliance.

As adolescents pull away from parents in a search for their own identity, the peer group takes on a special significance. It may become a "safe" haven, in which the adolescent can test new ideas and compare his or her own physical and psychological growth.

In early adolescence, the peer group usually consists of members of the same gender forming "cliques", gangs, or clubs. Members of the peer group attempt to behave alike, dress alike, have secret codes or rituals, and participate in the same activities. As the youth moves into mid-adolescence (14 to 16 years) and beyond, the peer group expands to include members of the opposite sex.

Mid to late adolescence is characterized by a need to establish sexual identity through becoming comfortable with one's own body and sexual feelings. Through friendships with members of the opposite sex, dating, and experimentation, adolescents learn to express and receive intimate or sexual advances in a comfortable manner that is consistent with internalized values.

Young people who do not have the opportunity for such experiences may demonstrate difficulty in establishing intimate relationships into adulthood.

Adolescents typically demonstrate behaviors consistent with several "myths of adolescence":

• The first is that they are "on stage" with the attention of others constantly centered upon their appearance or actions. This preoccupation stems from the fact that adolescents spend so much time thinking and looking at themselves, it is only natural to assume that everyone else is also thinking and looking at them as well. In reality, this doesn't occur because "everyone else" (usually peers) are too preoccupied with themselves and their own issues to be overly concerned with those of others. This normal self-centeredness may appear (especially to adults) to border on paranoia, narcissism, or even hysteria.
• Another "myth of adolescence" is that of the "indestructible self." This belief feeds into ideation of "it will never happen to me, only the other person." In this sense, "it" may represent becoming pregnant or incurring a sexually transmitted disease after having unprotected intercourse; causing an auto accident while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs; developing oral cancer as a result of chewing tobacco; or any of the numerous adverse effects of a wide range of risk-taking behaviors.