Question

Discuss how concepts of adolescence are related to problems in adolescence. This is a Sociology question dealing with Adolescence.

Answer 1

• Adolescence is that ten to twelve year period of social and psychological growth that transforms the dependent child (beginning in late elementary or early middle school) into a functionally independent young adult in his or her early to mid twenties.
• Puberty is the one to three-year process of hormonal and physical change that causes the young person to reach sexual maturity, girls usually entering it about a year earlier than boys.
• Puberty now creates two problems in one. First, it creates a process problem: how to manage the physical changes that are besetting their bodies. This is the problem of self-consciousness. And second, it creates an outcome problem: how to act young manly or young womanly. This is the problem of sex role definition.
• For most young people, puberty catches them at a bad time - during the early adolescent years (around ages 9 - 13) when they are separating from the shelter of childhood and begin striving for social belonging and place among their society of peers.
• Already feeling adrift from family and at sea in this brave new world of more social independence, puberty demonstrates how they are also out of control of their body.
• Developmental insecurity and early adolescence go hand in hand.For most young people, puberty is the enemy of self-esteem. It changes how they look at a time when physical appearance becomes more important for social acceptance and social standing.
• Early adolescence is an age of intolerance, where perceived differences or departures from the dominant or desired norm are not treated kindly. Now a young woman or young man can be teased and picked on for not looking womanly or manly enough.
• A painfully self-conscious early adolescent can take this social cruelty very personally. "What's wrong with me?" "I hate how I look!" "I'll never fit in!" Self-esteem can plummet when being teased causes a young person to become self-rejecting.
• While adolescence begins growth toward more independence, puberty adds another dimension to this journey -- the need to claim one's young manhood or young womanhood.
  
• It is the cultural ideals for being a man and being a woman that young people find most alluring, ideals portrayed in the images and messages and icons that media advertising and entertainment constantly communicate.
• To approximate these young manly and young womanly attributes means incorporating some of them into one's desired appearance.
• So come puberty, the social/sexual stereotypes kick in as young women worry about weight and thinning down their bodies by dieting, and young men worry about muscle size and strengthening their bodies by lifting weights.
  
• According to stereotype, the male is encouraged to be sexual aggressor, the female is encouraged to be sexual attractor.
• After puberty, young women who are not deemed attractive enough by their peers, and young men who are not deemed aggressive enough by their peers, can feel punished by being told and shown how they are not measuring up - girls for being too fat, boys for being too weak.
• These thoughts about one's self image can lead adolescents towards drugs,alcohol abuse,depression,eating disorders and even suicide.It is very important that parents should be present to explain to their teenage child that is normal part of the development process and they shouldnt feel any less from others.