Adolsence

• Secular Trend


  Children may be starting puberty earlier but spending more time to reach full sexual maturity
• Reasons for earlier puberty

  • Higher standard of living
  • Undernutrition
  • Health
  • Exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals
• Other reasons for earlier puberty

  • Being firstborn
  • Being born to a single mother
  • Harsh maternal parenting practices
• Children exposed to high stress when young


  Tend to reach pubertal milestone earlier than those who are not
• Early maturation


  Linked to adult health issues such as cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease
• Early puberty


  Can be a predictor of adult obesity and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
• Effects of early or late maturation

  • Most likely to be negative when adolescents are much more or less developed than peers
• Underdevelopment of frontal cortical systems


  • May help explain why adolescents tend to seek thrills and novelty and why many of them find it hard to focus on long-term goals
• Peers


  • Tend to exert a stronger influence in adolescence in part because of a heightened neurobehavioral susceptibility to social reward cues and concurrent immaturity in the cognitive control system
• Sedentary lifestyle


  May result in increased risk of poor mental health, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and an increased likelihood of heart disease and cancer in adulthood
• As children get older

  They generally go to sleep later and sleep less on school days
• Sleep deprivation


  Can sap motivation and cause irritability, and concentration and school performance can suffer
• After puberty


  The secretion of melatonin takes place later at night, making it difficult for adolescents to go to bed early
• Overweight teenagers


  Tend to be in poorer health than their peers and are more likely have difficulty attending school or engaging in strenuous activity
• Body Image


  One's perception, thoughts, and feelings about one's body
• Girls' body satisfaction


  • Highest when underweight, some dissatisfaction when average weight, and the most dissatisfaction when overweight
• Anorexia Nervosa


  Distorted body image, severely underweight, may be withdrawn or depressed, and afraid of losing control and becoming overweight
• Bulimia Nervosa


  Short-lived binge eating and then purging by self-induced vomiting, strict dieting, excessive exercise, etc.
• Binge-eating disorder


  Binging without purging of food
• Abuse of nonprescription cough and cold meds (dextromethorphan)

  A recent trend
• Binge Drinking


  Consuming five or more drinks on one occasion
• When the brain is undergoing significant structural and functional change


  Might be a period of the life span during which teens should be particularly sensitive to environmental influences
• Alcohol


  Interacts with inhibitory and excitatory receptor systems that are developing in adolescence, making them more sensitive to rewarding effects of alcohol and less sensitive to its negative features
• Those who drink


  Show changes in key prefrontal areas, including middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, left frontal cortex, frontal pole, and left frontal gyrus – all areas involved in executive control
• Being female


  Is a risk factor for depression
• This


  May be due to biological changes associated with puberty
• Motor Vehicle collisions are the leading cause of accidental deaths among US teenagers
• Homicides are the third leading cause of death among US teenagers
• Suicide is the second cause of death among US teenagers
• Young people who consider or attempt suicide

  Tend to have histories of emotional illness