Social Development Of Adolescence

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What is adolescence? Adolescence can be defined as the middle stage between childhood and adulthood. An adolescent would be a child between the ages of 11 to 18 years of age, the most difficult and trying time in a child’s life. This time is the most difficult because; there is an array of changes going on physically, socially, and cognitively. There are so many factors and stages, which play a role during this sensitive time of development such as changes in body, social acceptance, self-esteem and acceptance, peer pressure, school and parents. Puberty would be the first stage the adolescent would experience. Puberty is the biological and physical changes leading to maturity. Any parent, who has had a child went through this stage and…show more content…
All these things have an impact on the social behavior of the adolescent. How a child feels about themselves, sees themselves and how others see them, can influence how they act socially. Parental relationships are first and foremost. Parent/child relationships that are loving, accepting, full of communication and understanding, help build self-esteem and confidence. These positive actions will help the child with coping skills during adolescence as they face their peers, school and community. The culture of the child also plays a social role, behaviors and ideas that are learned through family, religion, and the economic status of the environment, will have an impact on how the child interacts with others. A good example of this would be a child who is the product of authoritative style parenting would be more prone to feel good about themselves, and not afraid to talk or interact with others, although they may still face peer pressure, their better equipped to handle it. Social change is also a pervasive feature of adolescent development and sometimes even a defining feature. (JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 15(4),…show more content…
Adolescents not only see themselves differently but, they see the world differently. As their brain develops and they gain more experience, the adolescents is able to think more strategically but, they still don’t have the complex decision making skills of an adult therefore are poor decision makers. The adolescent mind revolves around self. There is the Imaginary Audience, where the child sees themselves as the center of attention, therefore they are self-conscious and try to avoid embarrassment. They also have the Personal Fable, this is where in their minds everyone is looking at them, thinking about them, their opinion of themselves is inflated and they believe their special. These two thinking processes are not bad; they are part of cognitive process and can be beneficial with the right parenting interventions and they lead into the idealism and criticism phase of the thinking process. Adolescents have an idea of what they think the world is like or should be like compared to reality, because of this; they are very quick to criticize if things don’t measure up. Once again with the right parenting skills, understanding and communication, they can overcome this stage and move toward more realistic thinking. Decision making is another part of cognitive change, because the adolescent brain is still developing and has not experienced enough to know how to

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