In your teenage years, all you want to do is fit in, even if that means doing something that you do not want to. You do not want to be the only one to say no, so you do whatever it is to not be excluded. Rejection is what all teenagers obsess over because they don’t want it to happen to them. Peer victimization and exclusion are the two most common negative peer experiences adolescence will encounter. So we are going to focus on victimization and exclusion in the early adolescence because these negative experiences could become harmful during this developmental period.
Most adults don’t understand that you can drink enough in one sitting to die and its the first thing that parents need to know that it can kill them. Kids and parents don’t seem to understand the worst short-term effect which is that in an evening of drinking, you can drink enough to slow your respiration to the point that you do not take your next breath. Alcohol for adolescents is described as the perfect storm drug because it has two effects that are different in adolescents than they are in adults. The first is that adolescents are far less sedated by alcohol than adults are.
Now the second effect is from the buzz of drinking, which adolescents seem to be more sensitive when it comes to that. Adolescents are less sedated and more buzzed, so they can stay awake to do the things that they probably shouldn’t be doing. When you think about the brain, there is a go part of the brain that wants you to take risks and experience new things, but then there a skeptical part of the brain that wants to wait and see, which is the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is where the decision making happens and you have the executive control which helps make good decisions. This is all in adolescence but it might not be as strong and fast until the brain is fully developed by age 25. So adolescence is going to be more impulsive on risky behaviors. The textbook, Invitation to the Lifespan, explained in 2016 that, “ Youth are particularly vulnerable to alcohol abuse because the regions of the brain that are connected to pleasure are more strongly affected by alcohol during adolescence than at later ages (Berger, p.381).”
The most critical phase of brain development occurs during adolescence. During ages 12-22 your brain is still developing actively. The adolescent brain is wired to accomplish what we are driven to do which is mature and become independent. For adolescence to do this they have to encounter scary things and be strong, though hey still have to take risks. This is a normal part of development, but that can come with risks when confronted with drugs.
According to Developmental Psychology in 2018, “Alcohol use is typically initiated and escalates during adolescence, and it is a major health concern because it is associated with a number of maladaptive outcomes such as illicit drug use and the development of alcohol use disorder (Meisel, p.1795).” Adolescence do not have the brain power to have full responsibility to do what they need in every circumstance, and then to impair that with alcohol, will become problematic, because the younger they start drinking alcohol, the more dependent they become and they are addicted. Your brain could literally be wired to fall in love with whatever drug during adolescent years. Other symptoms were predicted as coping motives, which were associated with higher levels of alcohol use. These findings are consistent with the idea that negative peer experiences lead to emotional distress, which can stimulate strong motivations to drink as a way of coping.
Moving on from alcohol abuse, let's begin to talk about marijuana. Marijuana is the second most common drug of choice. An adolescent's limbic region reaches full development before the frontal part of the brain does. It is responsible for having impulse behavior and likes to feel good. Teenagers want to feel good but hardly ever think about the consequences, because the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed. Marijuana has been linked to some problems in psychosis, like developing schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and depression. About 75% of youth believe that there are no harmful effects from marijuana. So this increases the teenager's use of marijuana because they hear that it is legal for recreational use and medicinal use in some places and that it is helping. The American Psychological Association shares that, “Marijuana shows considerable promise for treating medical conditions including pain, muscle spasms, seizure disorders and nausea from cancer chemotherapy (Weir, 2015).” The high rates of marijuana and alcohol use among adolescents are of great concern because ongoing neurodevelopment occurs throughout adolescence and emerging adulthood, and exposure to neurotoxic compounds during this period could disrupt healthy brain development.
The article, Neuropsychology, shared in 2015 that,“ Over the past two decades the advent of more sophisticated neuroimaging techniques has allowed researchers to identify functional and structural brain abnormalities in cerebral gray and white matter associated with heavy marijuana and alcohol use during adolescence ( Jacobus, p.830).” Several hours after the last use, heavy marijuana users, such as young adults, have demonstrated a lack of attention, verbal learning and memory, psychomotor speed, and sequencing functioning. Evidence also suggests that adolescent who smokes at a young age are at a higher risk of poor neural health and neurocognitive outcome over time.
It is as though teenagers love the feeling of being “intoxicated”. Adolescents believe if they are “intoxicated” they will be one of the cool kids. When in reality you are putting your body a mind through more damage just to make yourself look cool and to fit in. Also, do you believe vomiting or making a fool of your self while being drunk will get you into the popular crowd? Transitioning into teen pregnancy; did you know that most teen pregnancies occur after being under the influence at a party?
Being pregnant nowadays feels like the new accessory. Women seem to be getting younger and younger when they get pregnant. The World Health Association estimated that “Every year, 21 million girls aged 15 to 19 years old and 2 million girls aged under 15 years become pregnant in developing regions (“Adolescent Pregnancy”,2018).” There is always a question that is raised: How can you raise a child when you are a child yourself? Every day over 1,000 babies are born to teen mothers. There are many impacts on the teen mother, such as, missing out on their childhood and not having time to graduate high school. Most teen pregnancies occur because they aren’t on contraceptives and they didn’t have a one on one talk with a healthcare professional.
An interview was done with 15 pregnant adolescents ranging from 15-19 years old, and of different ethnic groups. According to Families, Systems, & Health, "Several of the mothers spoke about the chaotic nature of their lives and how becoming pregnant gave them more direction and a deeper purpose where the mothers turned their focus to their baby instead of themselves (Solivan, 2015).” Though there were many struggles being a pregnant teenager. They spoke about feeling judged by peers, teachers, adults in the community, and themselves. Some had not completed their high school education, though many were enrolled in classes. The majority of mothers stated that they remained positive in their pregnancy, even though they did face struggles between their family members, school, and symptoms of pregnancy. The thing that kept them so positive was their strong support systems, such as their families. The parents though did have hopes that their children would receive a higher education and career before taking on the responsibility of raising a child.
Adolescent bullying, well if you think about it, bullying can happen at any age and time. Bullying means a repeated effort to inflict harm on someone through cyberbullying or physical and verbal abuse. You can also have a bully-victim, who is somebody who harms others but might be bullied themselves as well. Bullying continues to be a threat to the physical and mental health of children. Girls and boys could be bullied because of height, weight, acne, or literally anything a bully can think of.
My topics relate to the course content because we have talked about pregnancy and the act of bullying. I also chose substance abuse and teen pregnancy specifically because our theoretical children are about to hit puberty, and I believe puberty is where the teenage rebellion begins. Adolescents begin to get emotional with major attitude and they will do anything to feel better. During puberty your hormones are all over the place, from experience, you can never make up your mind and you tend to break the rules sometimes.
Work Cited
Adolescent pregnancy. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-pregnancy
Berger, K. Invitation to the life span.
Jacobus, J., Squeglia, L. M., Infante, M. A., Castro, N., Brumback, T., Meruelo, A. D., & Tapert, S. F. (2015). Neuropsychological performance in adolescent marijuana users with co-occurring alcohol use: A three-year longitudinal study. Neuropsychology, 29(6), 829–843. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000203
Weir, K. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/11/marijuana-brain.aspx
Meisel, S. N., Colder, C. R., Bowker, J. C., & Hussong, A. M. (2018). A longitudinal examination of mediational pathways linking chronic victimization and exclusion to adolescent alcohol use. Developmental Psychology, 54(9), 1795–1807. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000569
Solivan, A. E., Wallace, M. E., Kaplan, K. C., & Harville, E. W. (2015). Use of a resiliency framework to examine pregnancy and birth outcomes among adolescents: A qualitative study. Families, Systems, & Health, 33(4), 349–355. https://doi.org/10.1037/fsh0000141