Adolescent Physical Development

Name: Instructor: Institution: Date: Adolescent physical development Introduction D uring adolescence, both boys and girls experience a tremendous amount of physical growth and development. Such development is important as it establishes a pattern of thinking that help teens shift from concrete thinking to logical reasoning. On the other hand, establishing the age at which adolescence begins has proven difficult since the average age has changed over time. Consequently, this has resulted into physical, social, and emotional effects depending on the time of occurrence. However, through technology, teens can counter such effects by forging close and healthy relationships with their peers. Trends in puberty over the last 100 years and reasons for such trends Are girls and boys growing older soon? Yes they are. In present day, the beginning stages of puberty in girls occur when they are 7 or 8 years old. This is an extremely early age when compared to average ages in the 1900’s and the 1800’s. In the 1800’s, the average age was 16.6 years old, 14.6 years in 1920, and 13.2 years in 1950 (Keizer‐Schrama, 2014). However, the trend has leveled off since the 80’s with an average age of 12.5 years. Although boys are also experiencing the emergence of facial hair at a younger age, the trend is not as rapid as it is in girls. To explain this trend, scientists have cited economic factors, climatic change, and gene development as possible reasons. Nevertheless, the most widely held belief is that improved nutrition in the modern world has allowed normal growth to occur in children. The physical, social, and emotional effects of early and late onset of puberty Children going through puberty appear tall compared to their peers. Nevertheless, when puberty stops, the growth also stops. This implies that children with precocious puberty cannot attain their full height potential since their skeleton matures at an earlier age. The opposite is true to children who experience late puberty. In addition, girls who mature late or early usually suffer from poor body image and low self esteem (Mrug, 2014). However, this only occurs to boys who experience late puberty. Generally, the occurrence of early puberty does not represent the existence of any medical problem. There is basically no renowned reason for why it occurs. In terms of social effects, boys and girls who go through early puberty are at a bigger risk of engaging in drug abuse. Consequently, smoking is common among teens that experience early puberty compared to the ones who have a normal or late maturity period. How changes in physical development affect cognitive processing and decision making Cognitive development is the frequent growth of a child’s ability to reason on his/her own. Therefore, as physical development occurs during adolescent, children reasoning shifts from concrete ...