PERDEV H3

• Developmental tasks


  Processes inherent in every stage of development that need to be accomplished successfully in preparation for other developmental tasks in the next stage of development
• Developmental tasks of an adolescent

  • Adjust to sexually maturing bodies and feelings
  • Develop and apply abstract thinking skills
  • Develop and apply a more complex level of perspective thinking
  • Develop and apply new coping skills
  • Identify meaningful moral standards, values, and belief systems
  • Understand and express more complex emotional experiences
  • Form friendships that are mutually close and supportive
  • Establish a key aspect of identity
  • Meet the demands of increasingly mature roles and responsibilities
  • Renegotiate relationships with adults in parenting roles
• Appearance

  • Major body changes due to increased production of hormones, resulting in acne, cracked voices, and changing body appearances
  • Adolescent who is self-conscious may find these changes distressing and unattractive, resulting in low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, and withdrawal from social interactions
• Attitude


  • Teenager begins to explore independence, exhibiting awkward manners, bluntness, straightforwardness, avoidance of parents, and skipping family gatherings - attitudes that may be interpreted as rebellious and defiant
• Friends


  • Friends become more important than family for teenagers, which can worry parents about the influence of wayward friends, but friendships outside the family are necessary for a teenager's development
• God uses problems to draw you closer to himself
• Problems force us to look to God and depend on him instead of ourselves
• Everything that happens to a child of God is Father-filtered, and he intends to use it for good even when Satan and others mean it for bad
• Problems are character-building opportunities, and the more difficult they are, the greater the potential for building spiritual muscle and moral fiber
• Problems don't automatically produce what God intends - many people become bitter, rather than better, and never grow up
• The secret of endurance is to remember that your pain is temporary but your reward will be eternal
• God wants you to thank him that he will use your problems to fulfill his purposes
• Character building is a slow process, and whenever we try to avoid or escape the difficulties in life, we short-circuit the process, delay our growth, and actually end up with a worse kind of pain
• Instead of asking "Why me?", ask "What do you want me to learn?" and then trust God and keep on doing what's right