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Human Development and Life transition issues: Adolescence
Adolescence is a transition phase. It is a period of growth from child to adult. In this phase of life great physical and psychological changes takes place. This phase lasts from 10 years of age to 11 years of age in girls and 11 years of age to 12 years of age in boys. There are particularly physiological changes under the influences of hormones. Along with great physiological changes, it is the time of internal turmoil. There are many social and cultural factors which affect the adolescence. Adolescence can prove time for both psychological and physiological changes such as issues of independence, self-identity, sexuality etc. In adolescence, phase teenagers develop their own thinking, choice of perceiving the world around them. All teenagers don’t display same behaviour pattern in adolescence. It is a confusing time for teenagers as well as their parents. Parents also need to accept the rapid change taking place in their kids.
There are a number of physical changes which takes place during adolescence. It includes changes in height, weight and body systems. There is the appearance of secondary sexual characters. Further, the male and female reproductive systems are active. There is secretion of testosterone in males and oestrogens in females. Facial hair in form of beard and moustache starts appearing on faces of male and in the case of females it is the onset of menarche and appearance of breasts. There is a rapid growth of height seen. The brain attains full maturity. All these development and changes are completed by 16-18 years of age. It is also the time for cognitive development. The teenagers have their own perspective and way of thinking. They go independent in their thoughts. They no longer agree to their parents. There are also improvements in their memory. They learn to take decision more quickly. The processing in their brain takes place faster than that of children. They begin to understand people. They have the capacity to take a decision and judge others based on their own experiences. Also, adolescences are great risk takers. The new surge of hormones makes them vulnerable to many things. At times the situation may become life threatening. This is a stage when the help of counsellors are taken. So that adolescent should not become a danger to themselves and the society.
G.STANLEY HALL( 1844-1924), was the first psychologist to advance a psychology of adolescence .According to him this the most turbulent transition phase. It is the inside war between idealism, goal, passion and suffering. There are many predictable and unpredictable changes in adolescence. The predictable changes include the physical development in both boys and girls. These make the adolescences very self-consciences about their body . In this, they become sensitive and worried about the changes taking place in their body. Normally adolescence starts to separate from their parents. Their peer group becomes more of a safe place for them. Their emotions and feelings become more complex. They become risk takers. They may take some sexual risk . This can lead to infections like HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. There can be things like abortion, unwanted pregnancy and childbirth. There are many behavioural risks such as alcohol dependency and drug dependency or chain smoking. They become very impulsive in their behaviour. There are a lot of misguiding forces in the society. They sometimes fail to recognise threats. Also, may indulge in anti-social activities and crimes.( UNICEF. Progress for children: A report card on adolescents)
Adolescence is the time for development of self-identity. Self-identity means a sense of who we are, to identify what defines us and makes us different from others. It is a change in our response to our family, peers and society. Our surrounding has a very close impact on our identity. Self-concept means how an adolescence evaluates himself or herself. The evaluation might be based on the area of interest of the adolescence. Many times they have a positive self-concept and at times a negative self-concept. ((Patton et al., 2014)).A positive self-concept gives them a lot of confidence related to their work and area of interest. A negative self-concept can cause serious problems in adolescence. When it comes to self-esteem it is the way adolescence thinks about them and important they feel themselves in their surroundings. It has an important effect on their peer group. This is the first time an individual starts searching its own identity. As we all know identity forms the base of our self-esteem. Our self-identity takes shape based on our peer group, family and surroundings. They become emotionally more mature. They are able to control and express emotions appropriately. As a person attains emotional maturity development of self-identity and self-esteem takes place. The adolescence develops their own qualities and abilities to express themselves as distinct individuals.
Self-esteem improves as youth begins to understand the outcome of their positive and negative actions. They start to recognise their qualities. This is the time when every adolescence develops their distinct personality and choice, for example, you can see them colouring their hair. This is also a way of forming or establishing one's identity. This is the phase when they determine who they want to be. They become much more confident in themselves. Associate themselves with famous personalities without any identity crises. Few adolescents who lack the ability to recognise their talent may go through a social disconnect. They also maintain a distance from their peer group and also parents. They can go into negative side. At this stage, a counsellor is required for consultation and proper guidance. In the United States, children are experiencing a decline in their positive self-concept. (Patton et al., 2014) The decline is severe in early adolescence but they generally recover by their mid-teens. This decline is generally due to bad habits and wrongly adapted behaviour. It is important to address this in youth as soon as possible.
The increasing domain of nurses can contribute in adolescence care. Nurses can help breaking down the barriers by proper counselling techniques. The health problems of adolescence are mainly psychological in nature. There is a good number of adolescents exposed to alcohol and using other harmful substances. They expose themselves to unprotected sex. They should be welcomed to discuss heath issues. Also, education related general health and sexually transmitted diseases are equally important. Some adolescence required counselling to maintain their mental health. Their mind and body go through rapid changes during this phase. To prepare themselves to cope with the changes they need frequent counselling and guidance at every stage. (. J Adolesc Health. 2012)They have a lot of discomfit disclosing their health issue to others. It is through proper counselling they can be encouraged to tell their health related problems to their parents or to any professional. There is fear like confidentiality, costs etc which need to take care . As nurses have frequent interaction with the patient they can achieve higher rates of satisfaction during counselling as compared to the general physician. (United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), New York; 2011)
From all the above discussion we can conclude that during adolescence there is a great degree of stress and pressure on the teens. The nurses can perform key roles in addressing their concerns. This is the age of risk takes. Adolescence is an age in which teens never hesitate to try something new. In this scenario, it becomes more important that they at least they should have proper knowledge. As we know that it is very natural that adolescences tend to get away from their parents. It is a natural response to this age. Still, they need support and guidance. This gap can be bridged by the nurses.
1) Patton, G. C., Coffey, C., Romaniuk, H., Mackinnon, A., Carlin, J. B., Degenhardt, L., … Moran, P. (2014). The prognosis of common mental disorders in adolescents: A 14-year prospective cohort study. The Lancet, 383(9926), 1404–1411. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)62116-9
2) UNICEF. Progress for children: A report card on adolescents. Available at:http://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/20025 http://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/index.html Accessed October 25, 2012...
3) (n.d.). Retrieved from http://Larke, N., Cleophas-Mazige, B., Plummer, M.L. et al, Impact of the MEMA kwa Vijana adolescent sexual and reproductive health interventions on use of health services by young people in rural Mwanza, Tanzania: Results of a cluster randomized trial. J Adolesc Health. 2012;47:512–522.
4) (n.d.). Retrieved from http://Opportunity in crisis: Preventing HIV from early adolescence to early adulthood. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), New York; 2011.