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Feature Article:
Teenage Development
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Teenage
Development
- This document was produced by INCAF
We need to better
understand adolescent developmental stages to help us not take teenage
behavior as a personal attack on us. By becoming familiar with these
stages, we will increase our competence in encouraging teens to establish
their sense of identity.
- Teens are preparing to
separate or individuate from the family. They are in the process of
developing their values.
- Teenagers must initiate
this separation and often rebellion gives them the energy to do
this. A teenager challenges rules and values as a way of
establishing his or her individuality. Adolescents cannot do this in
a vacuum, but rather through conflict and confrontation.
- Adolescents may be rude
or make fun of parents and other authority figures and not want to
be with them. In a teenager’s mind, defiance expresses autonomy and
says that he or she doesn’t need parents in and often serves as a
test of parental caring.
- Due to body changes,
there can be confusion about whether teenagers really do want to
grow up.
- Hormonal changes cause
mood swings marked by tearfulness, heightened sensitivity, sudden
flare-ups, an increased need for physical activity and inappropriate
laughter and giggling.
- Teens begin to work out
their relationships with their peers to find out how they fit in.
- Teens start relating to
the opposite sex in a different way than they did when they were
younger (where there were once friendships, romantic relationships
and/or deeply felt negative emotions may surface).
- Teenagers have a
heightened need for privacy. Experiencing privacy gives them a new
sense of control and autonomy. They need privacy to test things out
for themselves without parent input.
- Teenagers may feel
all-powerful and all-knowing at the same time that they experience
fears of inadequacy and failure.
- Teens still need an adult
to relate to, but in a different way than they did when they were
younger.
RULES WITHOUT
RELATIONSHIP = REBELLION
This document was
produced by the International Network for Children and Families
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