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ch8.docx8.1Pubertal Changes
Key Questions
· What physical changes during adolescence mark the transition to a mature young adult?
· What factors cause the physical changes associated with puberty?
· How do physical changes affect adolescents’ psychological development?
Pete just celebrated his 15th birthday, but as far as he is concerned, there is no reason to celebrate. Although most of his friends have grown about 6 inches in the past year or so, have a much larger penis and larger testicles, and have mounds of pubic hair, Pete looks just as he did when he was 10 years old. He is embarrassed by his appearance, particularly in the locker room, where he looks like a little boy among men. “Won’t I ever change?” he wonders.
The appearance of body hair, the emergence of breasts, and the enlargement of the penis and testicles are all signs that the child is gone and the adolescent has arrived. Many adolescents take great satisfaction in these signs of maturity. Others, like Pete, worry through their teenage years as they wait for the physical signs of adolescence.
In this section, we’ll begin by describing the normal pattern of physical changes that take place in adolescence and look at the mechanisms responsible for them. Then we’ll discover the impact of these physical changes on adolescents’ psychological functioning. As we do, we’ll learn about the possible effects of Pete’s maturing later than his peers.
Signs of Physical Maturation
Puberty denotes two types of physical changes that mark the transition from childhood to young adulthood. The first are bodily changes, including a large increase in height and weight, as well as changes in the body’s fat and muscle content. The second concern sexual maturation, including change in the reproductive organs and the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics such as facial and body hair and growth of the breasts.
During the Growth Spurt, Girls are Often Much Taller Than Boys of the Same Age.
Justin Pumfrey/Getty Images
Physical Growth
For physical growth, the elementary school years are the calm before the adolescent storm. Figure 8.1 shows that in an average year, a typical 6- to 10-year-old gains about 5 to 7 pounds and grows 2 to 3 inches. In contrast, during the peak of the adolescent growth spurt, a girl may gain as many as 14 to 15 pounds in a year and a boy 16 to 17 pounds (Tanner, 1970).
Figure 8.1
Children grow steadily taller and heavier until puberty, when they experience a rapid increase known as the adolescent growth spurt.
Figure 8.1 also shows that girls typically begin their growth spurt about two years before boys. Girls typically start the growth spurt at about age 11, reach their peak rate of growth at about 12, and achieve their mature stature at about 15. In contrast, boys start the growth spurt at age 13, hit peak growth at 14, and reach mature stature at 17. This 2-year difference in the growth spurt can lead to awkward social interactions between 11- and 12-year-old boys and girls because the girls are often taller and look more mature than the boys.
The head, hands, and feet usually begin to grow first, followed by growth in the arms and legs. The trunk and shoulders are the last to grow (Tanner, 1990). The result of these differing growth rates is that an adolescent’s body sometimes seems out of proportion—teens have a head and hands that are too big for the rest of their body. These imbalances don’t last long as the later developing parts catch up.
During the growth spurt, bones become longer (which, of course, is why adolescents grow taller) and denser. Bone growth is accompanied by several other changes that differ for boys and girls. Muscle fibers become thicker and denser during adolescence, producing substantial increases in strength, particularly for boys (Smoll & Schutz, 1990). Body fat also increases during adolescence, but more rapidly in girls than in boys. Finally, heart and lung capacity increases more in adolescent boys than in adolescent girls. Together, these changes help explain why the typical adolescent boy is stronger, is quicker, and has greater endurance than the typical adolescent girl.
Think About It
Compare and contrast the events of puberty for boys and girls.
Brain Growth in Adolescence
At the beginning of adolescence, the brain is nearly full size—it’s about 95% of the size and weight of an adult’s brain. Nevertheless, adolescence is important for fine-tuning the brain’s functioning. Two features of brain development that begin early in life (and that we discussed in Chapter 3) are nearly complete in adolescence: myelination, which is the acquisition of fatty insulation that allows neurons to transmit information faster, and synaptic pruning, which is the weeding out of unnecessary connections between neurons (Jernigan & Stiles, 2017). These changes mean that different regions in the adolescent brain are well connected and that information is rapidly conveyed between them, which means that adolescents can process information more efficiently than children, a theme that we will explore more on page 279.
Sexual Maturation
Not only do adolescents become taller and heavier, they also become mature sexually. Sexual maturation includes change in primary sex characteristics , which refer to organs that are directly involved in reproduction. These include the ovaries, uterus, and vagina in girls and the scrotum, testes, and penis in boys. Sexual maturation also includes changes in secondary sex characteristics , which are physical signs of maturity not directly linked to the reproductive organs. These include the growth of breasts and the widening of the pelvis in girls, the appearance of facial hair and the broadening of shoulders in boys, and the appearance of body hair and changes in voice and skin in both boys and girls.
Changes in primary and secondary sexual characteristics occur in a predictable sequence. For girls, puberty begins with growth of the breasts and the growth spurt, followed by the appearance of pubic hair. Menarche , the onset of menstruation, typically occurs at about age 13. Early menstrual cycles are usually irregular and without ovulation.
For boys, puberty usually commences with the growth of the testes and scrotum, followed by the appearance of pubic hair, the start of the growth spurt, and growth of the penis. At about age 13, most boys reach spermarche , the first spontaneous ejaculation of sperm-laden fluid. Initial ejaculations often contain relatively few sperm; only months or sometimes years later are there sufficient sperm to fertilize an egg (Dorn et al., 2006).
Mechanisms of Maturation
What causes the many physical changes that occur during puberty? The pituitary gland is key: it helps to regulate physical development by releasing growth hormone. In addition, the pituitary regulates pubertal changes by signaling other glands to secrete hormones. During the early elementary school years—long before there are any outward signs of puberty—the pituitary signals the adrenal glands to release androgens, initiating the biochemical changes that will produce body hair. A few years later, in girls, the pituitary signals the ovaries to release estrogen, which causes the breasts to enlarge, the female genitals to mature, and fat to accumulate. In boys, the pituitary signals the testes to release the androgen hormone testosterone, which causes the male genitals to mature and muscle mass to increase.
The timing of pubertal events is regulated, in part, by genetics (Cousminer et al., 2013). This is shown by the closer synchrony of pubertal events in identical twins than in fraternal twins: If one identical twin has body hair, the other twin usually does too (Mustanski et al., 2004). Genetic influence is also shown by the fact that a father’s age at the onset of puberty predicts his son’s age at the onset of puberty and a mother’s age at the onset of puberty predicts her daughter’s age at the onset of puberty (Busch et al., 2020). However, these genetic forces are strongly influenced by the environment, particularly an adolescent’s nutrition and health. In general, puberty occurs earlier in adolescents who are well nourished and healthy than in adolescents who are not (St. George et al., 1994).
The social environment also influences the onset of puberty, at least for girls. Puberty occurs at younger ages in girls who grow up in adverse environments, such as when parents are in constant conflict or when mothers are emotionally unstable, depressed, and anxious (DiLalla et al., 2021). When young girls experience chronic socioemotional stress, this may release hormones that activate the hormones that trigger menarche.
This mechanism has an evolutionary advantage: if a girl’s experiences suggest that her future reproductive success is uncertain—as indicated by chronic socioemotional stress—then it may be adaptive to reproduce as soon as possible instead of waiting until later when she would be more mature and better able to care for her offspring. The evolutionary gamble in this case might favor “lower-quality” offspring early over “higher-quality” offspring later (Belsky, 2019).
Psychological Impact of Puberty
Of course, teenagers are well aware of the changes taking place in their bodies. Not surprisingly, some of these changes affect adolescents’ psychological development.
Young Adolescents are Often Quite Concerned About Their Appearance.
BearFotos/Shutterstock.com
Body Image
Compared with children and adults, adolescents are more concerned about their overall appearance. Many teenagers look in the mirror regularly, checking for signs of additional physical change. Generally, girls worry more than boys about appearance and are more likely to be dissatisfied with their appearance, but boys and girls are particularly likely to be unhappy with their looks when their parents and peers tease them about their appearance or when peers urge them to change their appearance (Webb et al., 2017).
Think About It
The Apache have an elaborate celebration for menarche. Can you think of other similar ceremonies—perhaps not as elaborate—that take place to celebrate other milestones of adolescent development?
Response to Menarche and Spermarche
Carrie was horror writer Stephen King’s first novel (and later a movie starring Sissy Spacek); it opens with a riveting scene in which the title character has her first menstrual period in the shower at school and, not knowing what is happening, fears that she will bleed to death. In fact, when girls are prepared for menarche—they know what to expect—they’re excited but when unprepared they often worry. Most girls turn first to their mothers for information, but they also rely on peers, healthcare professionals, and the internet (King, 2020).
Menarche is usually a private occasion for adolescents living in industrialized countries, but in traditional cultures, it is often celebrated. For example, the Western Apache, who live in the southwestern United States, traditionally have a spectacular ceremony to celebrate a girl’s menarche (Basso, 1970). After a girl’s first menstrual period, a group of older adults select a sponsor—a woman of good character and wealth (she helps to pay for the ceremony) who is unrelated to the initiate. On the day before the ceremony, the sponsor serves a large feast for the girl and her family; at the end of the ceremony, the family reciprocates, symbolizing that the sponsor is now a member of their family.
The ceremony begins at sunrise; the initiate, dressed in ceremonial attire, dances or chants, sometimes accompanied by her sponsor or a medicine man. The aim is to transform the girl into “Changing Woman,” a heroic figure in Apache myth. With this transformation comes longevity and perpetual strength. The ceremony signals the community that the initiate is now an adult, and it tells the initiate that her community now has adultlike expectations for her.
The Apache celebrate menarche with a special ceremony in which a girl is said to become a legendary hero.
Anders Ryman/Alamy Stock Photo
In contrast to menarche, much less is known about boys’ reactions to spermarche. Most boys know about spontaneous ejaculations beforehand, and they get their information by reading, not by asking parents (Gaddis & Brooks-Gunn, 1985). When boys are prepared for spermarche, they feel more positively about it. Nevertheless, boys rarely tell parents or friends about this new development (Stein & Reiser, 1994).
Moodiness
Adolescents are often thought to be extraordinarily moody—quickly moving from joy to sadness, reflecting the influx of hormones associated with puberty. In fact, adolescents are moodier than children or adults, but this is not due primarily to hormones (Steinberg, 1999). Scientists often find that rapid increases in hormone levels are associated with greater irritability and greater impulsivity, but the correlations tend to be small and are found primarily in early adolescence (Buchanan et al., 1992).
Instead of reflecting hormones, teenagers’ moodiness reflects frequent changes in their activities and social settings. Teens are more likely to report being in a good mood when hanging out with friends or when recreating; they tend to report being in a bad mood when in adult-regulated settings such as school classrooms or at a part-time job. Because adolescents often change activities and social settings many times in a single day, they appear to be moodier than adults (Larson et al., 2014).
Rate of Maturation
Although puberty begins at age 10 in the average girl and age 12 in the average boy, for many children, puberty begins months or even years before or after these norms. An early-maturing boy might begin puberty at age 11, whereas a late-maturing boy might start at 15 or 16. An early-maturing girl might start puberty at age 9; a late-maturing girl, at 14 or 15.
Maturing early can be harmful for girls. Girls who mature early often lack self-confidence, are less popular, are more likely to be depressed and have behavior problems, and are more likely to smoke and drink. Early maturation often leads girls to relationships with older boys, and these girls are ill-prepared to cope with the demands of these relationships (Hamlat et al., 2020; Skoog & Stattin, 2014). In turn, this can result in life-changing effects on early-maturing girls who are pressured into sex and become mothers while still teenagers: as adults, they typically have less prestigious and lower-paying jobs (Mendle et al., 2007). These harmful outcomes are more likely when early-maturing girls live in poverty or experience harsh punishment from parents (Skoog & Stattin, 2014). Fortunately, when early-maturing girls have warm, supportive parents, they are less likely to suffer the harmful consequences of early maturation (Ge et al., 2002).
Maturing early can be harmful for boys, too. Early-maturing boys are at risk for psychological disorders such as depression; they are also more prone to substance abuse and to sexual activity (Hamlat et al., 2020; Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). Being physically advanced for their age may cause early-maturing boys to have problems with their peers who have not yet matured (leading to depression) and cause them to spend more time with older boys (exposing them to risky behavior).
Maturing late poses few risks: late-maturing boys and girls fare well (Ullsperger & Nikolas, 2017). Pete, the late-maturing boy in the opening vignette, has nothing to worry about. When he finally matures, others will treat him like an adult, and the few extra years of being treated like a child will not be harmful (Weichold & Silbereisen, 2005).
· Compare and contrast the impact of maturing early versus maturing late.
8.2Health
Key Questions
· What are the elements of a healthy diet for adolescents? Why do some adolescents suffer from eating disorders?
· Do adolescents get enough exercise? What are the pros and cons of participating in sports in high school?
· What are common obstacles to healthy growth in adolescence?
Kalel had just started the seventh grade and was overjoyed that he could try out for the middle school football team. He’d always excelled in sports and was usually the star football player on the playground or in gym class. But this was Kalel’s first opportunity to play on an actual team—with a real helmet, jersey, and pads—and he was jazzed! Kalel’s dad played football in high school and thought Kalel could benefit from the experience. His mom wasn’t so sure—she was afraid that he would get hurt and have to deal with the injury for the rest of his life.
Adolescence is a time of transition with regard to health. On the one hand, teens are less affected by the minor illnesses that would have kept them home in bed as children. On the other hand, teens are at greater risk for harm because of their unhealthy and risky behaviors. In this section, we’ll look at some of the factors essential to adolescent health and see whether Kalel’s mother should be worried about sports-related injuries.
Nutrition
The physical growth associated with puberty means that the body has special nutritional needs. A typical teenage girl should consume about 2,200 calories per day; a typical boy should consume about 2,700 calories. (The exact levels depend on a number of factors, including body composition, growth rate, and activity level.) Teenagers also need calcium for bone growth and iron to make extra hemoglobin, the matter in red blood cells that carries oxygen. Boys need additional hemoglobin because of their increased muscle mass; girls need hemoglobin to replace that lost during menstruation.
Many American teenagers eat far too many fast-food meals, which are notoriously high in calories.
Kuttig—People—2/Alamy Stock Photo
Unfortunately, although many U.S. teenagers consume enough calories each day, too much of their intake consists of fast food rather than well-balanced meals. The result of too many meals of burgers, french fries, and a shake is that teens may get inadequate iron or calcium and far too much sodium and fat. With inadequate iron, teens are often listless and moody; with inadequate calcium, bones may not develop fully, placing the person at risk later in life for osteoporosis.
Obesity
In part because of a diet high in fast foods, many American children and adolescents are overweight. The technical definition of “overweight” is based on the body mass index (BMI) , which is an adjusted ratio of weight to height. Children and adolescents who are in the upper 5% (very heavy for their height) are defined as being overweight. Childhood obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Today, roughly one adolescent out of five is overweight (Hales et al., 2017). This trend is not unique to the United States: it is evident in many developed nations and in developing nations as they adopt diets and lifestyles like those in Western countries (World Health Organization, 2020).
Overweight youngsters are often unpopular and at risk for depression and anxiety (Lindberg et al., 2020; Pryor et al., 2016). They are also at risk for many medical problems throughout life, including high blood pressure and diabetes, because the vast majority of overweight children and adolescents become overweight adults (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).
No single factor causes children to become obese. Instead, several factors contribute, including the following:
· Heredity Obesity runs in families, showing that genes contribute perhaps by causing some people to overeat, to be sedentary, or to be less able to convert fat to fuel (Cheung & Mao, 2012).
· Parents Some parents urge children to “clean their plates” even when the children are not hungry. Other parents use food to comfort children who are upset. Both practices cause children to rely on external cues to eat instead of eating only when they’re hungry (Coelho et al., 2009; Wansink & Sobal, 2007). In contrast, authoritative parenting seems to protect youth from obesity, apparently because authoritative parents are more likely to eat healthily themselves as well as monitor their children’s eating (Harrist et al., 2017; Sleddens et al., 2011).
· Sedentary lifestyle Youth are more prone to obesity when they are physically inactive, such as watching television instead of playing outdoors (de Rezende et al., 2014). Not surprisingly, limits on physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with increases in the number of obese children and adolescents (Jenssen et al., 2021).
· Too little sleep Adolescents who do not sleep enough tend to gain weight, perhaps because they have more opportunities to eat because they are awake longer, they experience increasing feelings of hunger, or they are too tired to exercise (Miller et al., 2018).
Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States.
Indiapicture/Alamy Stock Photo
Individually these factors may not lead to obesity. But collectively they may put children and adolescents on the path to obesity: Youth are at greater risk if they are genetically prone to overeat, are sedentary, and are chronically sleepy.
Obese youth can lose weight. Effective weight-loss programs focus on changing children’s eating habits and encouraging them to become more active. Children set goals for eating and exercise; parents help them set realistic goals, reward them for progress, and monitor their own eating and exercising. For adolescents, emphasis on physical activity is more important than diet. When programs incorporate these features, obese youth do lose weight (Brown et al., 2019). However, even after losing weight, many youth participating in these programs remain overweight. Consequently, it is best to avoid overweight and obesity in the first place by encouraging children and adolescents to eat healthfully and to be active physically.
Yet another food-related problem common in adolescence are two similar eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia.
Anorexia and Bulimia
In 2010, French model and actress Isabelle Caro died of respiratory disease just months after turning 26. Near her death, she weighed less than 75 pounds. Caro suffered from anorexia nervosa , a disorder marked by a persistent refusal to eat and an irrational fear of being overweight. Individuals with anorexia nervosa have a grossly distorted image of their body and claim to be overweight despite being painfully thin. Anorexia is a serious disorder that, left untreated, can result in death (Attia, 2017).
A related eating disorder is bulimia nervosa . Individuals with bulimia nervosa alternate between binge eating periods, when they eat uncontrollably, and purging through self-induced vomiting, laxatives, fasting, or excessive exercise. During binge eating, adolescents with bulimia consume two days’ worth of calories in two hours or less, then purge once or twice daily (Keel, 2017).
Anorexia and bulimia are alike in many respects. Both disorders primarily affect females and emerge in adolescence and many of the same factors put teenage girls at risk for both eating disorders. Heredity puts some girls at risk as do psychosocial factors, such as adverse life experiences (e.g., stressful or traumatic events) and low self-esteem. Another important risk factor is being overly concerned about one’s body and internalizing the thin body that is often thought to be ideal in Western cultures. Teenage girls are at risk when they frequently watch TV shows that emphasize attractive, thin characters and when their friends frequently talk about weight and diet constantly to stay thin (Bardone-Cone & von Ranson, 2020).
Although eating disorders are far more common in girls, about 12 to 15% of boys meet diagnostic criteria for some type of eating disorder. For example, nearly one-third of American teenage boys report trying to “bulk up,” and they eat more or take supplements (Nagata et al., 2020).
Adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa believe that they are overweight, and they refuse to eat.
Bubbles Photolibrary/Alamy Stock Photo
Fortunately, programs can help protect teens from eating disorders (Becker et al., 2017). These programs work to change attitudes toward being thin and provide ways to resist social pressure to be thin. At-risk adolescents who participate in these programs are more satisfied with their appearance and are less likely to diet or overeat (Stice et al., 2012). For those teens affected by eating disorders, treatment is available: like prevention programs, treatment typically focuses on modifying key attitudes and behaviors (Puhl & Brownell, 2005).
Think About It
Describe how obesity, anorexia, and bulimia represent the different forces in the biopsychosocial network.
Physical Fitness
Being physically active promotes mental and physical health during adolescence and throughout adulthood. Individuals who regularly engage in physical activity reduce their risk for obesity, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and psychological disorders, including depression and anxiety. “Regular activity” typically means exercising for one hour every day. Most of the hour should be devoted to moderate or vigorous aerobic physical activity, with the balance devoted to activities that strengthen muscles and bones (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). Running, vigorous walking, swimming, aerobic dancing, biking, and cross-country skiing are all examples of activities that can provide the needed aerobic intensity.
Think About It
Many teenagers do not eat well-balanced meals, and many do not get enough exercise. What would you do to improve teenagers’ dietary and exercise habits?
Unfortunately, all the evidence indicates that most adolescents rarely get enough exercise. Part of the problem is that physical education classes provide the only regular opportunity for many high school students to exercise, yet a minority of high school students are enrolled in physical education and most who are enrolled do not attend daily.
Many teenagers get exercise by participating in organized sports. Today, approximately 4.5 million boys and 3.4 million girls participate in sports (National Federation of State High School Associations, 2021). Participating in sports has many benefits for youth. It can provide adolescents a chance to learn important social skills, such as how to work effectively as part of a group, often in complementary roles. Sports can enhance participants’ self-esteem, can help them learn initiative, and can protect them from anxiety and depression (Bowker, 2006; Eime et al., 2013; Panza et al., 2020). And when many team sports were canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic, many teenage athletes reported feeling anxious or depressed (McGuine et al., 2021).
From participating in sports, youth can improve their self-esteem and learn skills about how to work effectively as part of a group.
ZUMA/Alamy Stock Photo
These benefits of participation are not necessarily available to all youth, as we’ll see in the Diverse Perspectives: What Do You Think? feature.
Diverse Perspectives: What Do You Think?
How Should Transgender Girls Participate in Sports?
In June 2018, Terry Miller of Bloomfield High School in Connecticut won the girls 100 meter dash and the girls 200 meter dash at the New England high school championships. These two championships garnered attention because Terry was born a boy but transitioned to a girl after her freshman year in high school. Some cisgender girls—those who were females at birth and who identify as females—and their parents filed suit, complaining that it wasn’t fair for transgender girls to compete with cisgender girls (Barnes, 2020).
Were Terry a college athlete, she could participate in events for women after she had completed a year of treatment to reduce her testosterone levels. But individual U.S. states vary in their policies for high school sports. Some permit transgender girls to compete with cisgender girls, some permit transgender girls to compete with cisgender girls under certain circumstances, some prohibit transgender girls from competing with cisgender girls, and some have no policy at all (Buzuvis, 2021).
Many states are debating whether transgender girls should participate in sports with cisgender girls. In these debates, three arguments are common:
1. Transgender girls are not “real girls” and therefore don’t deserve the opportunity to compete with cisgender girls. In fact, compared with cisgender girls, transgender girls identify just as strongly as females and they similarly prefer feminine-stereotyped activities and clothes as well as other girls as friends (Gülgöz et al., 2019). And there are no known cases of boys “faking it” as girls just to succeed in sports (NCAA, 2011).
2. Transgender girls face challenges daily; denying them the opportunity to participate in girls’ sports would add to the list of challenges. Transgender girls are at much greater risk for harassment and assault; they are also prone to depression as well as anxiety, and they’re at greater risk for suicide. Experiences that affirm their gender identity—for example, being accepted by one’s family, peers, and healthcare professionals—mitigate these risks. Experiences that stigmatize or discriminate against transgender girls—perhaps such as being prohibited from competing against cisgender girls—increase risks to health and well-being for transgender girls (SRCD, 2021).
3. Transgender girls have an unfair physical advantage because of their exposure to testosterone during puberty. Before puberty, boys and girls compete evenly in many athletic events. But after puberty, boys typically have the upper hand: exposure to typical levels of testosterone makes them bigger and stronger as well as giving them more muscle mass and larger hearts (Hobson, 2021). Hormone treatment to suppress testosterone is designed to reverse these physical changes and negate the advantage they provide. However, after the recommended year of treatment, transgender females retain some advantages such as greater muscle area (Harper et al., 2021).
What Do You Think?
· Imagine you want to e-mail your state representative concerning transgender girls’ participation in sports. What would you say?
· Throughout this feature, we’ve focused on transgender girls because, so far, there’s been less concern that transgender boys would have a competitive advantage over cisgender boys. How do the three arguments change when applied to participation of transgender boys in boys’ sports?
· Do similar issues surface when transgender girls wish to participate as girls in other areas, such as gender-specific roles in the arts (e.g., a ballerina), organizations for girls (e.g., Girl Scouts), and coming of age ceremonies for girls (e.g., the ceremony for Apache girls described on page 269)?
These benefits of participating in sports are balanced by potential hazards. Four are worrisome:
· Adolescents’ participation in sports has been linked to delinquent and antisocial behavior (Gardner et al., 2009). However, outcomes are usually positive when sports participation is combined with participation in activities that involve adults, such as school, religious, or youth groups (Linver et al., 2009; Zarrett et al., 2009).
· Teenage athletes who play contact sports such as hockey, football, judo, soccer, and wrestling are at risk for concussion, a mild brain injury that follows a hit to the head. About 15% of athletes report experiencing a concussion in the past year (Mantey et al., 2020); many report headaches, fatigue, and slower cognitive processing but these usually resolve in 2 to 4 weeks (Howland et al., 2021). Multiple concussions may put teenage athletes at risk for cognitive problems and depression (Covassin et al., 2017; Yumul & McKinlay, 2016).
· About 3% of teenage athletes—more boys than girls—report using anabolic steroids—drugs that are chemically similar to the male hormone testosterone—to increase muscle size and strength and to promote more rapid recovery from injury (LaBotz & Griesemer, 2016). This is worrisome because steroid use has been linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mental health problems (Bird et al., 2015).
· Some athletes experience sexual abuse, sexual harassment, or emotional harassment (scapegoating, humiliating) from coaches as well as physical violence from coaches and peers. Elite athletes—those who aspire to compete at the highest levels—may be particularly susceptible because coaches can have such control over their futures. The extent of this kind of abuse and violence is hard to estimate because some teenage athletes may be reluctant to report it and others may not realize that it is inappropriate—they may believe that it “comes with the territory” (Vertommen & Parent, 2020; Wilinsky & McCabe, 2020).
Parents of child and adolescent athletes—for example, like the parents of Kalel, the football player in the opening vignette—need to walk a fine line. On the one hand, they should not get too involved or too invested in their child’s participation and success because this can make youth less eager to participate. On the other hand, parents need to watch for the aforementioned risks and not hesitate to speak out should they suspect a problem (Knight et al., 2020).
Threats to Adolescent Well-Being
Every year approximately 20,000 U.S. adolescents die. Most deaths are due to accidents involving motor vehicles or firearms. Sadly, many of these deaths are preventable. Far too many adolescents are killed because they drive too fast, drive while drunk or texting, or drive without wearing a seat belt. And deaths due to guns are often linked to “all-too-easy” access to firearms in the home: in far too many homes, firearms are stored loaded, unlocked, or both (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; Cunningham et al., 2018).
Adolescent deaths from accidents can be explained in part because adolescents take risks that adults often find unacceptable (Nell, 2002). Teens drive cars recklessly, engage in unprotected sex, and sometimes use illegal and dangerous drugs (we’ll discuss the latter behaviors more in Chapter 9). Why? Many adolescents believe they are invulnerable—only others experience the harmful consequences of risky behaviors (Hill et al., 2012).
Adolescents are Far More Accident-Prone Than Children or Adults, in Part Because They Believe the Rewards of Risky Behavior Far Outweigh the Potential Harm.
Brooke Whatnall/Shutterstock.com
8.3Information Processing During Adolescence
Key Questions
· How do working memory and processing speed change in adolescence?
· How do increases in content knowledge, strategies, and metacognitive skill influence adolescent cognition?
· What changes in problem-solving and reasoning take place in adolescence?
Amir, a 14-year-old boy, was an enigma to his mother, Faiza. On the one hand, Amir’s growing reasoning skills impressed and sometimes surprised her: he not only readily grasped technical discussions of her medical work but also was becoming adept at finding loopholes in her explanations of why he wasn’t allowed to do some activities with his friends. On the other hand, sometimes Amir was a real teenage “space cadet.” Simple problem-solving stumped him, or he made silly mistakes and got the wrong answer. Amir didn’t correspond to Faiza’s image of the formal-operational thinker that she remembered from her college human development class.
For information-processing theorists, adolescence represents a transition from the rapidly changing cognitive processes of childhood to the mature cognitive processes of young adulthood. Cognitive changes during adolescence are small compared with those seen in childhood; adolescence is a time when cognitive processes are tweaked to adult levels. We’ll describe these changes in this section, and as we do, we’ll see why adolescents such as Faiza’s son don’t always think as effectively as they might.
Working Memory and Processing Speed
Working memory is the site of ongoing cognitive processing, and processing speed is the speed with which people complete basic cognitive processes. Both of these capacities achieve adultlike levels during adolescence. Adolescents’ working memory has about the same capacity as adults’ working memory, which means that teenagers are better able than children to store information needed for ongoing cognitive processes. In addition, processing speed becomes faster, as illustrated in Figure 8.2 and exemplified by performance on a simple response-time task in which individuals press a button as rapidly as possible in response to a visual stimulus. The time needed to respond drops steadily during childhood—from about one-third of a second at age 8 to one-quarter of a second at age 12—but changes little thereafter. This pattern of change is not specific to simple response time; instead, it is found for a wide range of cognitive tasks: adolescents generally process information just about as quickly as young adults (Kail, 2004). Change in working memory and processing speed means that compared with children, adolescents process information very efficiently.
Figure 8.2
Response time declines steadily during childhood and reaches adultlike levels during middle adolescence.
Source: Data from Kail, 2004.
These changes in efficiency reflect changes to the brain described earlier in this chapter (page 267). Increases in myelination during adolescence allow nerve impulses to travel more rapidly, which contributes to more rapid and more efficient information processing during this period (Scantlebury et al., 2014).
Content Knowledge, Strategies, and Metacognitive Skill
Adolescents Often Have Adultlike Skills in Some Domains, Such as Using an Ipad, Which Allows Them to Teach Adults.
Courtesy of Robert V. Kail
As their content knowledge increases, adolescents also become better skilled at identifying strategies appropriate for a specific task, then monitoring the chosen strategy to verify that it is working (Schneider, 2015). For example, adolescents are more likely to outline and highlight information in a text. They are more likely to make lists of material they don’t know well and should study more, and they more often embed these activities in a master study plan (e.g., a list of assignments, quizzes, and tests for a 2-week period). All these activities help adolescents learn more effectively and remember more accurately (Schneider, 2015).
Problem-Solving and Reasoning
When solving problems, two approaches are common (Evans & Stanovich, 2013). One is to rely on heuristics, rules of thumb that do not guarantee a solution but are useful in solving a range of problems. Heuristics tend to be fast and require little effort, but they don’t always lead to correct answers. Another approach is to determine an answer mathematically or logically. Compared with heuristics, analytic solutions are slower and require more effort.
Think About It
Students typically are introduced to the study of complex topics such as philosophy and experimental science during adolescence. Explain how their maturing cognitive skills contribute to the study of these and other subject areas.
To see the difference between heuristic and analytic solutions, think about the following problem (based on Kail, 2013):
Gabriela wants a new smartphone. A well-known tech website reports that 82% of consumers rate the Stratosphere as the best model, but Gabriela’s aunt has a Superba that she likes a lot. Which phone should Gabriela get, the Stratosphere or the Superba?
The heuristic solution relies on personal testimony from familiar people. In this case, that means relying on the aunt’s experience. In contrast, the analytic solution relies on the statistical information from consumers’ ratings.
When Children Reach Adolescence, They are More Likely to Use Reasoning Skills and Solve Problems Analytically.
Jacky Chapman/Janine Wiedel Photolibrary/Alamy Stock Photo
Heuristics are used throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, but analytic solutions become more common in adolescence (Klaczynski, 2013). In other words, teens are more likely than children to rely on logic or math and would be more likely to suggest that Gabriela pick the phone with the higher ratings from consumers. This developmental change reflects adolescents’ mastery of formal operational thinking (described on pages 193–194). But it also reflects adolescents’ greater working-memory capacity (needed because analytic solutions require effort) and their greater self-regulation (needed to suppress fast-acting heuristics).
Adolescents’ analytic approach is the subject of the Spotlight on Research feature.
Spotlight on Research
Characteristics of Adolescents Who Solve Problems Analytically
Who were the investigators, and what was the aim of the study? As adolescents grow, they more often solving problems analytically—relying on math or logic—instead of relying on easier but often error-prone heuristics. But some teenagers more often use analytic solutions while others are more likely to rely on heuristics. The aim of research by Maggie Toplak and David Flora (2021) was to learn more about the features of teenagers who tend to solve problems analytically.
How did the investigators measure the topic of interest? To measure analytic solutions, Toplak and Flora used an extensive battery of tasks. One task was like the example on page 280 in which Gabriela wanted a new smartphone; it measured participants’ reliance on statistical information instead of personal testimony. In a second illustrative task, participants were shown pairs of bowls containing marbles. For example, one bowl contained 1 black marble and 9 white marbles with the label “10% chance” (of picking a black marble) while the other had 8 black marbles and 92 white marbles with the label “8% chance.” They were asked to select the bowl where a black marble is more likely to be drawn randomly. Even some college students pick the second bowl, a phenomenon called “denominator neglect”—students selecting the second bowl are lured by the greater number of black marbles in that bowl and ignore the fact that there are proportionately even more white marbles.
Toplak and Flora also recorded students’ grades in school, measured their verbal intelligence and their non-verbal intelligence (using a test like the one shown on page 204), and administered two questionnaires, one measuring adolescents’ belief in superstition (e.g., “I have things that bring me luck;” “It’s a good idea to consult your horoscope”) and another measuring adolescents’ belief in being open-minded in their thinking (e.g., “People should consider evidence that goes against their beliefs;” “It’s OK to be undecided about some things”).
Who were the participants in the study? The researchers 204 8- to 12-year-olds; they were tested three times, at three-year intervals (i.e., 8-year-olds were tested at 8, 11, and 14 years of age). For this analysis, Toplak and Flora used the data from 166 children tested from ages 12 to 15 years.
What was the design of the study? This study was correlational because Toplak and Flora were interested in examining variables that related to adolescents’ use of analytic solutions. The full study was longitudinal but this aspect of the study did not investigate age differences, so it was neither cross-sectional nor longitudinal.
Were there ethical concerns with the study? No. The project was reviewed and approved by the research ethics board at the investigators’ university.
What were the results? Overall, students used analytic solutions about 75% of the time, which means that analytic solutions were typical but not used invariably. Correlations between adolescents’ use of analytic solutions and other variables are shown in Figure 8.3. Perhaps not surprisingly, adolescents who frequently solve problems analytically tend to have higher grades, and they have higher scores on verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests. In addition, they’re more open-minded in their thinking—they’re more likely to gather more evidence before deciding and they consider different perspectives. Finally, consistent with their focus on analytic solutions to problems, adolescents who rely on analytic solutions are less likely to believe in superstitions, many of which invoke “good luck” or magic as explanations.
Figure 8.3
Children who used analytic solutions more often had better grades, high scores on intelligence tests, and more open-minded thought.
What did the investigators conclude? Toplak and Flora concluded that using analytic solutions, intelligence, academic success, and open-minded thought and avoiding superstitious thinking all tap into a broad construct of cognitive sophistication. As children move into adolescence, their thinking becomes sophisticated across many fronts, although not necessarily at the same rate.
What converging evidence would strengthen these conclusions? The participants came mainly from families of European descent and from economically advantaged homes (e.g., 84% of mothers had at least an undergraduate degree). It would be valuable to examine correlations between these variables in a sample that is ethnically and economically more diverse. In addition, some participants dropped out of the study over time and these tended to be participants who had lower scores on the first round of testing (illustrating a problem that we discussed on page 31).
Adolescents also are better skilled at finding weaknesses in arguments. In logical reasoning, they can pinpoint flaws in arguments (Weinstock et al., 2006). In scientific reasoning, adolescents recognize the hazards in making generalizations from extremely small samples. They would be wary of concluding that people from another country are particularly friendly based on meeting just two people from that country (Klaczynski & Lavallee, 2005).
Of course, adolescents may not always use their skills effectively. Sometimes they resort to heuristics because they take less effort and are “good enough” for the problem. Also, sometimes adolescents’ beliefs interfere with effective thinking: when evidence is inconsistent with adolescents’ beliefs, they may dismiss the evidence as being irrelevant or try to reinterpret the evidence to make it consistent with their beliefs. For example, an American teenager may be quick to find flaws in a study showing that Americans are self-centered but overlook similar flaws in a study showing that Americans are better leaders than people in other countries (Byrnes & Dunbar, 2014). Thus, adolescents use their reasoning skills selectively, raising their standards to dismiss findings that threaten their beliefs and lowering them to admit findings compatible with their beliefs.
Findings such as these tell us that Faiza, the mother in the opening vignette, should not be so perplexed by her son’s seemingly erratic thinking: Adolescents (and adults, for that matter) do not always use the most powerful levels of thinking that they possess. The information-processing account of intellectual functioning in adolescence is a description of how children and adolescents can think, not how they always or even usually think.
These changing features of information processing are summarized in Table 8.1. Change in each of these elements of information processing occurs gradually. When combined, they contribute to the steady progress to mature thinking that is the destination of adolescent cognitive development.
Table 8.1
Information Processing During Adolescence
|
FEATURE |
STATE IN ADOLESCENCE |
|
Working memory and processing speed |
Adolescents have adultlike working memory capacity and processing speed, enabling them to process information efficiently. |
|
Content knowledge |
Adolescents’ greater knowledge of the world facilitates understanding and memory of new experiences. |
|
Strategies and metacognition |
Adolescents are better able to identify task-appropriate strategies and to monitor the effectiveness of those strategies. |
|
Problem-solving and reasoning |
Adolescents often solve problems analytically by relying on mathematics or logic, and they can detect weaknesses in scientific evidence and logical arguments. |
8.4Reasoning About Moral Issues
Key Questions
· How do adolescents reason about moral issues?
· What other factors influence moral decisions?
Liam, the least popular boy in the eighth grade, had been wrongly accused of stealing a sixth grader’s iPod. Min-shen, another eighth grader, knew that Liam was innocent but said nothing to the school principal for fear of what his friends would say about siding with Liam. A few days later when Min-shen’s father heard about the incident, he was upset that his son apparently had so little “moral fiber.” Why hadn’t Min-shen acted in the face of an injustice?
Sometimes teenagers (and adults) act in ways that earn our deepest respect and admiration, for example, by going out of their way to help others. Sometimes they act in ways that we find contemptable, for example, by hurting defenseless people just for fun. And at a more mundane level, we wonder why Min-shen didn’t tell the principal the truth about the stolen iPod. All these examples concern moral reasoning and behavior, the focus of this section. We’ll start with an influential theory of moral reasoning proposed by Lawrence Kohlberg.
Kohlberg’S Theory
Kohlberg’s (1969) best-known dilemma is this story about Heinz, whose wife is dying:
In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her, a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging $2,000, ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, “No.” The husband got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. (p. 379)
Thus, Heinz and Jean Valjean both face moral dilemmas in which the various alternative courses of action have desirable and undesirable features.
Kohlberg analyzed children’s, adolescents’, and adults’ responses to many dilemmas and identified three levels of moral reasoning, each divided into two stages. At the preconventional level , moral reasoning is based on external forces. For most children, many adolescents, and some adults, moral reasoning is controlled almost exclusively by rewards and punishments. Individuals in stage 1 moral reasoning assume an obedience orientation , which means believing that authority figures know what is right and wrong. Consequently, stage 1 individuals do what authorities say is right to avoid being punished. At this stage, one might argue that Heinz shouldn’t steal the drug because an authority figure (e.g., parent or police officer) said he shouldn’t do it. Alternatively, one might argue that Heinz should steal the drug because he would get into trouble if he let his wife die.
In stage 2 of the preconventional level, people adopt an instrumental orientation , in which they look out for their own needs. Stage 2 individuals are nice to others because they expect the favor to be returned in the future. Someone at this stage could justify stealing the drug because Heinz’s wife might do something nice for Heinz in return. Or someone might argue that Heinz shouldn’t steal the drug because it will create more problems for him.
Video: Moral Development
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At the conventional level , adolescents and adults look to society’s norms for moral guidance. In other words, people’s moral reasoning is largely determined by others’ expectations of them. In stage 3, adolescents’ and adults’ moral reasoning is based on interpersonal norms . The aim is to win the approval of other people by behaving as “good boys” and “good girls” would. Stage 3 individuals might argue that Heinz shouldn’t steal the drug because he must keep his reputation as an honest man or that he should steal the drug because no one would think negatively of him for trying to save his wife’s life.
Stage 4 of the conventional level focuses on social system morality . Here, adolescents and adults believe that social roles, expectations, and laws exist to maintain order within society and to promote the good of all people. Stage 4 individuals might reason that Heinz shouldn’t steal the drug, even though his wife might die, because it is illegal and no one is above the law. Alternatively, they might claim that he should steal it to live up to his marriage vow of protecting his wife even though he will face negative consequences for his theft.
At the postconventional level , moral reasoning is based on a personal moral code. The emphasis is no longer on external forces such as punishment, reward, or social roles. In stage 5, people base their moral reasoning on a social contract . Adults agree that members of social groups adhere to a social contract because a common set of expectations and laws benefits all group members. However, if these expectations and laws no longer promote the welfare of individuals, they become invalid. Consequently, stage 5 individuals might reason that Heinz should steal the drug because social rules about property rights no longer benefit individuals’ welfare. Alternatively, they could argue that he shouldn’t steal the drug because it would create social anarchy.
Finally, in stage 6 of the postconventional level, universal ethical principles dominate moral reasoning. Abstract principles such as justice, compassion, and equality form the basis of a personal code that may conflict with society’s expectations and laws. Stage 6 individuals might argue that Heinz should steal the drug because saving a life takes precedence over everything else, including the law. Or they might claim that Heinz’s wife has a right to die and that he should not force his views on her by stealing and administering the drug.
Video: Kohlberg's Moral Dilemma
Watch interviews with adolescents who are explaining their moral reasoning to understand moral development in this age group.
Copyright © Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
Putting the stages together, the entire sequence of moral development looks like this:
· Preconventional Level: Punishment and Reward
· Stage 1: Obedience to authority
· Stage 2: Nice behavior in exchange for future favors
· Conventional Level: Social Norms
· Stage 3: Live up to others’ expectations
· Stage 4: Follow rules to maintain social order
· Postconventional Level: Moral Codes
· Stage 5: Adhere to a social contract when it is valid
· Stage 6: Personal moral system based on abstract principles
This developmental sequence usually unfolds over many years, but sometimes it happens more dramatically, such as when individuals undergo a major transformation in their moral motivation. One noteworthy example of such a transformation was depicted in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning movie Schindler’s List, as described in the Real People feature.
Real People: Applying Human Development
Schindler’s List
In 1939, Oskar Schindler was an entrepreneur who earned much money during World War II working for the Germans after they conquered Poland. Motivated at first strictly by the potential for personal profit, he opened—with few qualms—a factory in which he employed Jews as slave labor.
Schindler’s company was quite successful. But as the war continued, Jewish citizens in Poland were shipped to concentration camps or summarily executed. This deeply disturbed Schindler, and his attitudes began to change. His employees suggested that he give the Germans a list of workers essential to the factory’s continued operation. The list protected employees because the plant’s products were used in the war effort. No longer driven by profit, Schindler went to great lengths to preserve life: he created cover stories to support his claims that certain employees were essential and went to Auschwitz to rescue employees who were sent there despite being on his list.
Schindler’s list saved many lives. Profits were made (and helped provide the perfect cover), but he employed Jews in his factory primarily to save their lives. Schindler may have begun the war at Kohlberg’s preconventional level—where he was motivated solely by personal profit—but he ultimately moved to the postconventional level—where he was motivated by the higher principle of saving lives.
During World War II, Oskar Schindler saved the lives of many Jews by adding their names to lists of employees who were essential for his factory’s operation.
AP Images/Peter Hillebrecht
Evaluating Kohlberg’S Theory
Think About It
Research shows that people sometimes do not reason at the most advanced levels of which they are capable; instead, they revert to simpler, less mature levels. Might this happen in the realm of moral reasoning too? What factors might cause a person’s moral reasoning to revert to a less sophisticated level?
On some other features, the theory does not fare as well. For example, Kohlberg claimed that the sequence of stages is universal; however, except for the earliest stages, moral reasoning in other cultures is often not described well by Kohlberg’s theory, mainly because not all cultures and religions share the theory’s emphasis on individual rights and justice. For example, the Hindu religion emphasizes duty and responsibility to others. Consistent with this emphasis, when Hindu children and adults respond to moral dilemmas, they favor solutions that provide care for others even when individual rights or justice may suffer (Miller & Bersoff, 1992). Thus, the bases of moral reasoning are not universal as Kohlberg claimed; instead, they reflect cultural values.
Even for people living in Western cultures, research does not consistently support the theory’s emphasis on justice. Many children, adolescents, and adults think about moral issues in terms of justice and caring, depending on the nature of the moral dilemma and the context (Turiel, 2006). To illustrate, suppose a child forgot to bring her lunch to school. One classmate might refuse to share her lunch with the child and justify it in justice terms by saying, first, that the lunch is the child’s property and she has the right to eat all of it, and, second, that the lunch room rules prohibit sharing. Another classmate might be eager to share her lunch and justify it in caring terms by saying that helping others is paramount and requires that she share.
Also inconsistent with Kohlberg’s theory is work on the impact on membership in social groups on moral reasoning. The peer group is particularly salient during adolescence, and teens’ judgments of what’s fair reflect their ideas about what’s best for their group. For example, adolescents are more likely to exclude a peer who gives away needed resources to another group that also needs them (Hitti & Mulvey, 2021). Similarly, adolescents are more likely to favor peers whose views benefit a group, even if they believe those views are unfair. If a group traditionally shares resources equally with other groups but one group member suggests keeping more resources for the group, adolescents view the group member more favorably than children do (Rutland & Killen, 2017). Thus, adolescents are more likely than children to balance being fair to others with being loyal to one’s group, a phenomenon that’s not well integrated into Kohlberg’s theory.
Teenagers who engage in moral behavior, such as participating in protest marches, often reason at high levels in Kohlberg’s theory.
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Whether it is based on justice or care, most cultures and most parents want to encourage adolescents to think carefully about moral issues. How can we teach adolescents more mature forms of moral reasoning or to aspire to moral bravery like that shown by Schindler? The Linking Research to Life feature has some answers.
Linking Research to Life
Promoting Moral Reasoning
How can adolescents be encouraged to think in more sophisticated terms about moral issues? Sometimes simply being exposed to more advanced moral reasoning is enough (Walker, 1980). For example, adolescents may notice that older friends do not wait to be rewarded to help others. Or a teenager may notice that respected peers take courageous positions regardless of the social consequences. Such experiences apparently cause adolescents to reevaluate their reasoning on moral issues and propel them toward more sophisticated thinking.
Discussion can be particularly effective in revealing shortcomings in moral reasoning (Berkowitz et al., 2006). When people reason about moral issues with others whose reasoning is more sophisticated, the usual result is that individuals’ reasoning at lower levels improve. Discussion with parents may be especially effective: mature moral reasoning comes about when adolescents are free to express their opinions on moral issues to their parents, who in turn express their opinions and thus expose their adolescent children to more mature moral reasoning (Fasoli, 2020).
Adolescents’ moral reasoning (and moral behavior) is also influenced by their involvement in religion. Adolescents who are more involved in religion have greater concern for others and place more emphasis on helping them (Youniss et al., 1999). An obvious explanation for this link is that religion provides moral beliefs and guidelines for adolescents. But participation in religion promotes moral reasoning in a second, less direct way. Involvement in a religious community connects teens to an extended network of caring peers and adults. From interacting with individuals in this network, earning their trust, and sharing their values, adolescents gain a sense of responsibility to and concern for others (King & Furrow, 2004).
Of course, these connections and interactions can occur in non-religious settings as well. Adolescents often become more sophisticated in their moral thinking when they participate in youth development programs devoted to, for example, the arts, activism, or leadership. Moral growth in these programs is most common when (a) youth in programs feel empowered, (b) they have positive interactions with other participants, (c) program leaders are trusted role models, and (d) program activities force youth to confront ethical issues (Larson et al., 2020).
When adolescents discuss moral issues together, the thinking of those at lower stages in Kohlberg’s theory is often influenced by those whose thinking is at the higher stages; that is, individuals who reason at the lower levels typically move their thinking to a more sophisticated stage.
MBI/Alamy Stock Photo
