When children enter adolescence, parents often find the children difficult. They think that the adolescent only thinks about himself and that he has completely different norms and values than his parents. However, the adolescent is not ordinary and difficult, he goes through a period of great insecurity and self-consciousness. There are also major changes in his body. Of course, this does not always go smoothly, even for the adolescent himself.
Problems in sight
My daughter has already had her period, her breasts are also growing quite a bit and she is only twelve. She’s outgrowing all her clothes and doesn’t feel like doing anything except hanging out with friends. She doesn’t do her best at school and gets bad grades. She leaves everything lying around in her room and doesn’t put anything away. When I ask her to run an errand for me, she doesn’t feel like it and argues. By the way, she argues all the time, except when she is with others, when she is the fun itself. If I forbid her to go out she starts screaming and crying. The problems of adolescence in brief. As children move between primary school and adulthood, their minds and bodies change dramatically. The period in which the child matures from childhood to adulthood is now called adolescence.
What now?
Due to changes that have taken place in society in recent decades, the adolescence period has been brought forward. Although physical maturation takes place earlier and earlier, social maturity is achieved increasingly later. The adolescent ends up in a kind of twilight zone. They are too big to go to the cooking or craft club in the clubhouse, but too small to hang out in the cafe with friends. In addition, there is the influence of physical maturation, in particular the sexual maturation process and its influence on emotional development. The associated frustrations lead to conflict with the adults who play a leadership role in the adolescent’s life. The confrontations in adolescence arise because the image that the adolescent has built up of himself and the demands that the social environment places on him are often not the same. Educators, however, can make a good contribution to the development of the young person into an independent adult.
Adolescence
The adolescence period is between the ages of 12 and 22. Years ago they called the first half of this period puberty. This term is no longer used in developmental psychology. Because this term mainly stands for the drastic physical changes that take place from the twelfth to the sixteenth year. However, this ignores the psychological developments that are at least as important for growing up. Another reason why this term was replaced is because the word adolescent sounds quite negative, it has become more of a swear word than it refers to a young adult. The Latin word adolescence means growing up and that is exactly what the individual does, growing from child to adult. Radical changes will completely change the lives of young people. Changes of a biological nature, the chemical composition of the body changes and a growth spurt of the body begins. Changes due to the emergence of new sexual characteristics, the young person becomes sexually mature. The physiological changes are accompanied by many emotional and social changes. The young person goes from dependent to increasing independence. In practice, of course, this does not mean that they have a say during that period.
Being allowed to talk, but having nothing to say
Major social changes have occurred over the last forty years. At the age of fourteen, a young person can leave school and start working, but he can also continue studying until he is twenty-five. He can marry when he is eighteen, but he can also continue to live with his parents until well into his twentieth year. Young girls are wearing makeup much earlier than their mothers were allowed to wear during their childhood. The choice of clothing is often up to the young person themselves and young people are also much more likely to go on holiday without their parents. The young adult is also much freer in choosing a relationship and sexual intercourse than forty years ago. All this gives a young person the impression of being very mature. However, this does not mean that the adolescent is accepted as an adult by adults. He can always join in the conversation, but in fact he has nothing to say yet. The adults are still in charge. Parents encourage them to choose a future, but if this future does not match the parents’ ideas, they will challenge this choice. The adolescent becomes sexually mature but must wait years before having children. Despite the outward appearance of maturity, the young person is clearly not yet an adult. The most striking features of the adolescence period are:
- The young people discover that they are individuals.
- The young people are starting to understand what they want in life.
- It is slowly becoming clear to young people what will be expected of them when they start a family, become a parent or have to provide for their own livelihood.
read more
- Growing up: Physical development in the adolescent
- Growing up: Psychological development from zero to fifteen
- Growing up: The baby phase
- Growing up: Wow, I’m growing up
- Growing up: Middle age