Adolescence in All Its Aspects;
In our age, we hear the word puberty a lot and unfortunately there is a lot of information pollution on this subject. Adolescence is a biopsychosocial process, that is, it has both physical and physiological, spiritual and mental and social aspects. Being a conscious parent at the point of puberty gives us:
→ We know what our child is going through physically and mentally and interpret his behavior accordingly.
→ We make our child feel that we understand him and that we are with him and that we are aware of all these processes.
Let us first consider the biological aspect of adolescence. In this period, the adolescent body has begun to transform from a child’s body to an adult body. Physical development differs in boys and girls; The average age of growth spurt in girls is 9 years, while for boys it is 11 years. In other words, growth in girls begins 2 years earlier than boys. Physical development in men follows the following order: genital growth, hair growth, minor voice change. In girls, this order is as follows: breast development, pubic hair growth, armpit hair growth, lengthening, hip and shoulder enlargement, first menstruation (menstrual) bleeding.
In this process, adolescents focus on their ever-changing bodies. We can often find them in front of a mirror examining their appearance. According to studies, girls have more negative body images than boys because while fat increases during physical development in female adolescents, this increase is in the direction of muscle mass in male adolescents.
During this period, we also see great changes in the behavior of adolescents; sudden mood changes, irritability, risk taking and some problem behaviors brought about by risk taking. One of the biggest reasons behind these behaviors is the changing hormone balance in the adolescent body. In boys, high androgen levels are associated with violence and reckless actions, while high estrogen levels in girls are associated with depression.
We have observed that our children take more risks during adolescence. Problem behaviors (alcohol and tobacco use, substance abuse, harming oneself and others, etc.) are quite evident in this period. Behind these problem behaviors, changes in the brain development of adolescents play a big role. During adolescence, the part of our brain responsible for our emotions develops considerably more than other regions. Thus, the adolescent individual becomes very emotionally intense. However, in this period, the part of our brain that is responsible for curbing all this emotional intensity has not yet begun to develop. In other words, our adolescent has an undeveloped brake mechanism as well as an excessive emotional intensity. For this reason, we see a lot of mood swings and risk-taking behaviors in adolescents.
Let’s consider adolescence in its social aspect; We have all observed how much importance many adolescents attach to their peer and friend groups. It is very important for adolescents how they are seen by their peers and friends. In this period, which serves as a bridge between childhood and adulthood, the adolescent gradually breaks his ties with his family and turns to more friends.
There are many factors that affect adolescence, as in every period of development. The age we live in and the developing technology are one of the biggest factors affecting adolescents. With the developing technology, both access to information and communication have changed dimensions. It has become very easy to share and disseminate an information or situation with smart mobile phones. Adolescents’ use of social media and internet is very important at this point. The use of technology in adolescence should be very controlled. Unfortunately, the internet environment is not always beneficial for the spiritual development of our children.
One of the mistakes parents make is to compare the adolescents of our time with their own adolescence. The sentence “it was never like this in our time” that we often hear is a wrong and judgmental sentence. It will be more beneficial for the adolescent to try to understand them rather than comparing them with our own time and criticizing them.
