Nutrition Assignment Psycho-Social: Adolescent

PSYCHO-SOCIAL: ADOLESCENT
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Growth and development entail not only the physical aspect of the body but also the mental or psychological bit too. Whereas the physical aspect of growth is hinged upon the incremental change in one's body size, the mental or psychological aspect depends on the brain. It is sometimes a general observation among the teens that they seem to be more self-conscious and more impulsive than adults. Most of them too, are very critical of anything that borders on their general appearance to the extent that their entire existence and ego, depends on it. They are easily crushed or encouraged, depending on what they perceive from the general public or close company. Most of them are in the developmental stage, where the body and the brain are experiencing rapid changes and growth, which in turn impacts on their hormonal balance as well.
To understand the risk-taking tendencies as well as the variations in eating habits in adolescents, it is important to, first of all, understand the brain and its mechanisms during the adolescent stage. The brain doesn't stop growing in late childhood as it was previously believed. Instead, it grows right from childhood, adolescence and into early adulthood. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (2012) defines adolescence as the period of life that starts with the biological hormonal or physical changes at puberty and ends at a period when an individual achieves stable, independent role in society. The prefrontal cortex is one of the regions of the brain that experience dramatic changes during adolescence. Its roles are mainly cognitive, such as socialization, decision making, planning and inhibiting inappropriate behavior.
The volume of the gray matter in the brain is usually highest during adolescence. The decline in the frontal gray matter is correspondent to synaptic pruning, a phenomenon whereby the wrong or unacceptable habits are systematically weeded out of the brain. This is to mean that during adolescence, ...