In today’s day and age, the term adolescent is often synonymous with puberty because puberty does occur during adolescence. However, the two are not synonymous. According to Berk & Myers (2016) Adolescence is defined as “the transition between childhood and adulthood” while puberty is defined as “a flood of biological events leading to an adult-sized body and sexual maturity”. Adolescents are not quite babies nor are they adults just yet. Youselene had the opportunity to interact with young men and women that were first time college students. There were 12 students assigned to Youselene and she held weekly office hours twice a week for at least two hours a day. Out of all the students, John happens to stick out the most. For the sake of this paper, John will be his name. She will discuss her knowledge of youth development using John as a reference as well as provide a discussion on the strengths, limitations, and obstacles that she experienced.
Keywords: Adolescence, emerging adulthood, physical, cognitive development.
John’s Late Adolescent Development
The period of development consists of stages of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social expansion. More specifically, late development is considered the time span between the ages of eighteen to twenty years old. This particular age is the age of most freshmen at the University of Florida. As a part of the AIM Program, the incoming freshmen had to go through a two day, Transitioning Orientation Program (TOP). There, they were able to learn the ropes on how to survive college. From housing, financial aid, and even mental health awareness. I met a few of the students there, but eventually met the mass majority throughout the course of the summer.
Method
Participant
Youselene worked as the Peer Advising Coach in the Office of Academic Success in Gainesville, Florida. From May to August 2018, she spent about five hours to per week working with and mentoring first year students as they transitioned to college. Youselene developed a close relationship with students through weekly meeting, but she became especially close to someone that we will call John. John is eighteen years old. At first, he was distant, but as time went on, he was eager to actually talk.
Child development refers to a series of physical, emotional, mental, and social changes that a child must experience prior to reaching full adulthood. This paper examines John as well as discuss the developmental changes that he had to face.
Physical Development
John was significantly taller than me and he has a muscular built. He looks about 5’9 but, his voice was still higher pitched than most of his peers. Youselene is not sure if he has developed his primary sexual characteristics, but his age leads her to believe that he has produced reproductive organs. He has also developed some secondary sexual characteristics that are visible outside the body such as his height, broad shoulders, and hair on his skin. A child’s environment can either ease a child in their transitioning process or it may it more difficult. In John’s case, he is more athletic. Society favors athletics in young men and it is impacted by their physical appearance. The professor also spoke in class about how physical appearance impacts children the most. It is understandable since that is normally the first thing that one notices about a person, even from a distance, and it is used by some people to cast judgment. In both young men and women, positive body image impacts an individual’s confidence level tremendously.
This is also a period when a child may experience a sporadic growth spurt in which they gain an increase in bone density, muscle growth, and broadening of the shoulders. Although he has some of the characteristics such as muscle growth, hair growth, and most likely the production of testosterone, I don’t believe that he has fully experienced the entire duration of puberty. According to an NPR interview of Kay Hymowitz, she believes that there is a period of extended adolescence that she refers to as “pre-adulthood”.
Cognitive Development
Cognitively, John seems to be adjusting well. He is head strong and it was a bit discouraging at first because he did not seem as receptive to my advice as I had hoped. I thought I reached a brick wall because he would contradict whatever I would say. For example, we were speaking about meal plans and I told him that he would get tired of eating the same thing on campus. He insisted that will not be the case so I will wait and see.
She became hopeful because he walked past the Reitz when one of Youselene’s friends were having lunch and he was much more receptive to her. I am not sure if it was because it peaked his interest since she has the same major as his intended major. Either way, it was a win in her book and she was ecstatic. He was also the very first person to make an appointment and attend her office hours. That caught her attention because he had a sense of urgency to complete all of his mandatory summer requirement, unlike many of my other students. He was well articulated and knew exactly why he came to the University of Florida. John was able to clearly state his goal and we were able to come up with realistic expectations for the remainder of his first year.
Emotional Associations
One of the most crucial aspects of puberty is that a child goes through a period of hormonal changes. There are two types of pubertal changes: body growth and development of sexual characteristics. According to Berk & Myers, sex changes usually occur before physical changes take place. This may begin as young as between the ages of 6 to 8 years ago. When Youselene asked John if he missed his family, he responded with no. Although Mary Ainsworth’s Strange Situation experiment was conducted on young children, it is believed that he has a secure attachment to his mother and father because he doesn’t react irrationally. He maintains contact with his family in the US and he understands that he will be able to go home soon, so he is looking forward to the end of summer.
Social/Emotional Development
John is definitely in the “in” crowd and has a strong desire to be with the cool kids. When he travels, he is usually with one or two extra friends, rarely does he ever travel alone. He is still trying to find his identity on such a large college campus and it is concerning because Youselene notices that he attempts to follow what the upperclassmen are doing. Even at the TOPS orientation, most students would go to the orgs that were tabling, grab a flier or candy, and then walk away. Not john; he stayed for an exceptionally long time at the fraternities table and he referred to them as his friend. It’s as if his self-esteem was impacted. Self-esteem is defined as how one regards oneself. Compared to his self-efficacy, in which he believes he is capable of accomplishing different things. They both contribute to an individual’s sense of self concept.
He also has a good grasp on his Emotional Self-Regulation (ESR) At times, when the workshops would be longer than his liking, I noticed him going on his phone. I actually preferred that because it enabled him not to walk out or be disruptive.
Erikson’s stages of Development
According to Erickson’s eight stages of psychosocial development, John is presently in the stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion. During this era, a child is attempting to discover who they really are. Many, like John are still figuring out what they want to do for the rest of their lives. In his case, he would like to become an architect. When asked why, his response was well thought out. He is grasping a stronger understanding of who he is as well as why he does certain things. This is especially important because many are easily persuaded as a freshman. The sooner an individual gains a proper sense of self, the easier he/she will be able to ease into adulthood.
Piaget’s stage of cognitive development
At the age of 12, children develop the ability to utilize logic and think in an abstract manner. This includes thinking deeply and gaining the ability to develop deductive reasoning skills. After interacting with John throughout the course of the summer, it is clear that he has developed or is currently sharpening this skill during this present stage. Although we may come to different conclusions, he is still able to maintains the process of thinking critically.
Information processing
During Information processing, a child’s attention becomes more selective. Meaning, John would only be attentive to the things that interests him and he now has the ability to be pickier about what he gives most of his attention to. An adolescent’s inhibition may also improve. This may sometimes be referred to as a child’s intuition or internal conviction. John knows what is appropriate and what he should avoid saying around me. I noticed that he may filter himself, but then at times he does not. His knowledge about various things, not just academics, also increases. Metacognition, which is one’s awareness of thought cultivates the ability to develop insight and ultimately solve internal and external problems. Lastly, cognitive self-regulation improves and their working memory increases. John is able to think on his feet and evaluate the effectiveness of certain things (Berk & Myers, 2016).
Discussion
Strengths
John is making steady gains and seems to have a great head on his shoulders. He is able to make friends and his self-image has not yet been construed. He does not talk much about his mental health, but I have been reassuring him that I am here to help and if he is not comfortable speaking to me, there are paid professionals in the Counseling and Wellness Center that are also here to help. I like the fact that he is still questioning things and discovering himself because he will not be easily swayed. This will be crucial for his success at the University of Florida.
Obstacles
John is a male and myself a female. At times, he prefers not to open up and I am only able to help as much as he lets me in. At first, it was difficult because I felt like I was talking to a brick walk and did not feel like I was getting any improvements. It is difficult for me to relate to his biological changes since I have never experienced these things. I am also unable to provide much assistance in terms of his major or college since we are both on two different tracks.
Limitations
These observations are only based on a couple months. Perhaps, had I conducted these observations throughout the course of a year, I would have a more in depth understanding of who John is. I would also have more knowledge on how he reacts when he is experiencing different emotions such as anger and sadness that I was unable to witness.
Conclusion
Overall, children are complex being and should be treated as such. There is no one size fits all formula that can be used to assess them. However, it makes the process smoother by having an understanding of adolescent development to know how to approach certain children. Not every child is raised the same and they face many different challenges each day. Biological factors may also have an impact, such as the case of epigenetics