Culture and Adolescent Development, Research Paper Example

Introduction to Adolescence Development

Adolescence is an evolutionary stage of growth and development that is between infancy and maturity. According to the World Health Organization (2018), an adolescent is every individual who is between the age of ten and nineteen years. In a variety of societies, adolescence is closely associated with sexual maturity and the sequence of physical modifications culminating in procreative growth (Prinstein & Hupp, 2018).   Moreover, in some communities, puberty is assumed in broader terms that comprise emotional, social, and moral ground in addition to the stringently substantial elements of development (Prinstein & Hupp, 2018).  One can understand that in such communities, puberty typically refers to the stage between the ages of thirteen and twenty and is approximately comparable to the word teens. In this development period, a wide range of issues concerned with alienation from parents arises, which are crucial in the creation of individual values, transitional self-reliance powers a collection of changes upon many adolescents. This research paper will focus on adolescence in physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, and cultural development.

Identification of the Child

Physical Development

It is important to note that girls experience adolescence as a chronology of developments. Their puberty variations often start before boys. Every girl is different and progresses into pubertal changes in a different way (Family Planning, 2020).  During adolescence development stages, girls go through physical differences that are the start point of their transformation from middle childhood to adolescence. For Martina, when she reached the age of 12 years old, her first sign of development was that her breast started increasing in size. They developed morphologically, both concerning form and shape. They started resembling a cone that appeared with the base at the chest wall and the tip at the nipple (Family Planning, 2020).  One can understand that the rate of development for both breasts differs in size and shape. During that period, one can observe that there is a slight difference as one of her breasts was more significant than the other, but it is permanent and regular (Family Planning, 2020).  Also, Martina could notice that she started growing coarser hair under her armpits on her legs and arms.

Moreover, as she progresses with her teenage years, the widening of her hips and the appearance of pubic hair occurs. The hips widened and began growing in the genital region. Martina also noticed a growth spurt in her height; moreover, her body weight increased drastically as her appetite for food was high (Family Planning, 2020). Consequently, before the commencing of her periods, there was a white discharge that usually came out of her vagina. Knowing puberty is progressing is when her periods started. Often, girls have two ovaries, and each one of them contains thousands of eggs (Family Planning, 2020). The first menstrual period, which is known as menarche, follows, and it usually ends by four years after the first menstrual period begins. Martina experienced her periods when she was twelve years old.  For Martina, she developed other frequent physical changes like the appearance of acne on her face, and her body odour increased sensitivity due to regular sweating.

Risk Factors

Although the crucial physical development milestones of adolescence occur to everyone, their timings vary a lot, depending on an individual. As in the case of Martina, she exhibited physical signs of maturity sooner than her peers. Also, her periods started early when she was just ten years old (Prinstein & Hupp, 2018).   It is assumed that such differences have adverse effects on adolescents as they may feel self-conscious or worrying that they do not fit in when they do not resemble others of their age (World Health Organization 2018). Furthermore, these deviations can contribute to other individuals treating adolescents in a manner that does not match their intellectual and expressive development. For example, since Martina developed her physical signs much earlier like her curves started much earlier than her peers, she was treated more like an older teenager by her friends and even adults. However, she had not developed the cognitive and emotional maturity of older teenagers. One may also find that, in contrast, adolescent that may display physical changes far ahead than their peers are considered to be treated like younger kids, even though have already developed both cognitively and emotionally (World Health Organization 2018). According to studies, adolescents who encounter quicker physical growth are likely to participate in risk-taking conduct than their peers.

As a consequence of maturing more gradually than their peers, some adolescents are likely to encounter mistreatment (Magnusson & Stattin, 2018). The numerous risk factors that are responsible for differences in the timing and results of adolescents’ changes like the one Martina faced are; first, chronic conditions like cystic, fibrosis, or bowel issues contribute to delayed growth and puberty (World Health Organization 2018). This is because they are associated with a deficiency in nutrients, excess toxins, even side effects caused by medications. Second, a girl’s genetic make-up can be a risk factor that can affect the timing of puberty and determine how the changes would look like (World Health Organization 2018). Third, nutrition and exercise formerly and during adolescence are necessary. Research shows that overweight females are considered more likely to have their first menstrual cycle and experience breast enlargement at tender ages than their peers (World Health Organization 2018). Fourth, the use of tobacco and other prohibited drugs is likely to harm adolescents’ growth and development, as smoking hinders lung growth and contribute to reduced bone formation. Finally, deviations in expressive, cognitive, and ethical development are influenced by physical development in adolescents and vice versa.

Growth of Body & Brain

As usual, adolescence is the stage that facilitates the evolution of bringing the capability of individuals’ large and multifaceted brains to culmination (Harper, 2018).  This period is essential for brain development as the experiences of Martina are shaped into adulthood. Furthermore, the growth of the brain contributes to both the hormonal modifications, behavioral and cognitive features of Martina. It is essential to know that, development of the brain primarily takes place before adolescence, but it only undertakes global transformation in the adolescent period.  Harper (2018) argues that in this stage, development is not majorly concentrated on multiplying of neurons but on the consolidation of the network of linkages between the neurons. Studies show that brain growth progresses in an upsurge from regions at the posterior that safeguard older and more common functions which include, locomotion, vision, and dispensation to developmental different and complicated intelligent regions located at the anterior of the brain (Harper, 2018).  As the brain matures during adolescence, processing happens in a practical, linked, and unified manner.

Also, intellectual transformation turns out more disseminated. Comprehensive linkages escalate, thus facilitating incorporation between detached brain areas (Vijayakumar et al. 2016).   It allows resource processing to increase with greater efficiency. Like in the case of Martina, her brain’s coordination alters, and it grows significantly. Her brain’s axons invariably became more sequestered by myelin. The reasons for insulation are for higher transmission of messages along the axons.

In particular, the synapses, which are the chemical junctions that allow messages to pass, strengthen only if they are used often, while those less used progressively lessen (Vijayakumar et al. 2016).  This facilitates the brain’s cortex, which is the grey matter responsible much of an individual multifaceted, and conscious reasoning to become thinner and more efficient. Also, more reliable connection matures among the prefrontal cortex and other parts of the brain. For instance, linkages in the middle of the hippocampus and frontal regions of the brain for Martina are reinforced, facilitating her to become progressively better at incorporating memory and experiences into her judgment.

Furthermore, the nucleus accumbens located in the ventral striatum is primarily concerned in accolade transformation and assessment as it is useful in adolescents than adults. In this case, it gives Martina, the drive for goal-oriented behavior by connecting the emotion centers with consciousness and the locomotion structure. Consequently, the amygdala,s  function in panic transformation is well recognized, and it is relevant to how danger is evaluated (Arain et al. 2013). The hippocampus plays a crucial importance in concealing vivid memory through its linkages with the amygdalas. The significant characteristic of the human brain is the late fruition of the prefrontal cortex.  Its main vital goal is becoming experienced at accommodating internal emotional conditions with the stresses of obvious truth (Arain et al. 2013). As Martina’s prefrontal cortex grows, exploiting reaction from the environment to outline its development is significant to her. This is because it enables her to study ways to accomplish stable planning and observing issues taking place. Also, it assists in regulating efficiently at the same time, maintaining her feelings and behaviors applicable to the situation. It is believed this capability is helped by the developing inhibitory impact of the prefrontal dopamine structure that increasingly progresses the ability of adolescents to “apply brakes” (Arain et al. 2013).

Subsequently, dopamine and other neurotransmitters are a more critical impact than hormones in the regulation of feelings, reasoning, and behavior (Vijayakumar et al. 2016).

Dopamine has inhibitors that impact in the prefrontal cortex, and it is intricate in the brain’s reaction to innovation and accolades in the background in addition to risk-taking attitudes. Finally, brain regions and systems accountable in awareness of facial feelings, taking other individuals’ perceptions, and empathic retorting in adolescence stage are not fully developed up to adulthood; also, social performance is still under development (Vijayakumar et al. 2016).   Also, before puberty, there are no variances between boys and girls in the distribution of fat and muscle. During adolescent males develop muscle quicker than females, and females experience an advanced increase in body fat, and bones appear more laborious and more fragile (Vijayakumar et al. 2016).   Martina, when she was thirteen years, her lungs and heart increased in size and volume, which contributed to increased energy and resistance for a workout.

Motor Development

On the other hand, children are still undergoing motor development, which entails an extraordinary period in physical growth where the bones, muscles, and the ability to move and touch surroundings of the child are developing to become stronger and with muscles that enable the child to move around more often. During this period, the child can connect with her environment (Brian et al. 2018). They can improve on the skills they learned earlier, like running and walking.

For Martina, it was noted that during her 11^th year, she began learning how to master skills like those of skipping and hopping. She developed an improved way of controlling and coordinating. It was noted that she could correlate more than previously, even balance. Also, she could move her body with more exceptional skill and precision.  The locomotive’s skills are grouped into the gross motor, which is associated with significant muscle movement of the body like those muscles utilized during running.

In contrast, excellent motor skills are linked to small and particular muscle movements like those used while texting (Brian et al. 2018). For girls like Martina make only uncertain improvements in the superior motor skills up to when they are fifteen years. After this, she does not encounter any additional development in her motor skills, except she precisely trains for a hobby or sport that needs such skills. Contrary to girls, the motor skills of teenage boys continue improving especially gross motor skills. They promptly increase physical swiftness, skipping, throwing agility, and courage through their whole period of puberty.

Cognitive Development

It is termed as the progression of reasoning from the way a baby behaves to the way a grown-up behaves. Also, it is the change that takes place in the brain in preparing individuals to think and learn (Sanders, 2013).  Furthermore, it is the biological modifications in the structure of the brain and the linkages in the brain network with a better experience, understanding, and changing social burdens in producing rapid cognitive development (Sanders, 2013). There are dualistic perspectives concerning adolescent thinking, constructivist, and information processing.  The constructivist is about Piaget, and it theorizes that adolescence’ cognitive development is comparatively impulsive and drastic (Ritchie at al. 2018).

In comparison, the information-processing perspective comes from artificial intelligence and acknowledges that cognitive improvement concerning the growth of unique mechanisms of the general process of thinking. During this stage of development, an increase in necessary reasoning capabilities significantly results in five areas. The first improvement is the memory, which is observed in working memory and long-term memory (Sanders, 2013).   Secondly, developments are found in selective attention, which focuses on a single stimulus, whereas turning off the second one also divided attention, which majorly focuses on tuning on several incentives at once (Sanders, 2013).  Thirdly, processing speed increases in adolescents as they think faster than children. Fourthly, organizational improvement is observed as they are aware of their thought processes and utilizes mnemonic devices in thinking and remembering information more effectively (Ritchie at al. 2018).  Finally, improvement in metacognition is seen as they can think about thinking itself. It mainly entails monitoring an individual’s cognitive actions during the thinking process. It facilitates the capability in planning, viewing future consequences of an activity, and providing alternative explanations of events (Sanders, 2013).

In particular, three areas of cognitive development take place. First, the brain produces enormous numbers of new cells at a rapid rate (Sanders, 2013).  These cells create room for the adolescent’s information to be stored. Like in the case of Martina, she developed more progressive cognitive abilities, such as the skills in exploring a full variety of opportunities essential in a situation, think supposedly, and utilizes a rational thought development.

Secondly, the disadvantage of containing extra brain cells reduces the efficiency of the brain (Human Health Services, 2019).  As time goes by, when adolescents attend school and go about with their chores, the brain prunes down excess cells based on the areas of the brain that Martina actively utilizes. As a result, it of trimming it makes a brain structure, which facilitates her to access information she mostly uses efficiently.  Adolescents improve their ability to think conceptually. Martina transformed from being a real thinker who conceived of situations that they have direct interaction or familiarity about to conceptual thinkers who envisage conditions not realized or experienced. This enables her to love, reason about religiousness, and take part in a more progressed mathematics.

Assuredly, adolescents who retain at the category of a solid thinker focus majorly on substantially current or concrete matters in unraveling challenges and hence may face struggles or hindrances with school work as they transition all through school (Human Health Services 2019).   Moreover, adolescents can experience an individual allegory due to being capable of thinking theoretically. Understandably, the personal parable is created because of the peers is observing and judging about the teenager, and then they should be exceptional or distinct.  Research has found that adolescents distinguish more risks in particular regions than mature individuals, but being conscious of the perils, it fails to stop the adolescent from taking part in risk-taking attitudes (Human Health Services 2019).  It goes on to imply that adolescents’ impacts higher expressive contentment with bravado behaviors. This contentment usually affects them in engaging in behavior regardless of knowledge of the risks associated with them.

Furthermore, solid-thinking teenagers may be incapable of understanding the significances of actions, like being powerless in linking the cause and consequence concerning health behaviors and may not be equipped in evading the risks (Human Health Services 2019).  Also, teenagers who might feel individual allegory are vulnerable can present with anxiety and depression symptoms. Third, linkages between brain cells facilitate the storage of information in the brain to be utilized in daily life (Human Health Services 2019).  The brain reinforces such ties through wrapping a specialized fatty tissue around the cells in protecting and insulating them. The prescribed operative judging feature of puberty qualifies adolescents to contemplate about rational or meta-cognition. This feature enables Martina to develop the capability to reason on what she perceives and how her peers identify her. This thought process, together with rapid expressive and substantial developments occurring during puberty, results in the majority of teenagers in discerning that everybody is presuming not just about what they are judging about but about their imaginary audience. Imaginary audience describes the phenomena that a young individual expects the responses of other people towards them in concrete or imminent social circumstances.

Piaget’s Stages

 To clarify, Jean Piaget’s concept entails explaining the phases of cognitive development. The theory suggests that four stages are involved in the event of children mentally (Lourenço, 2016). It is believed that children are active in the process of learning, and they are like little scientists who can do experiments and learn about what happens in the world. When they interact with the world, they can gain new knowledge that they add to their existing knowledge. This is evident because Piaget published his paper at 11 years (Lourenço, 2016). His exposure to the intellectual development of children of a young age enabled the development of IQ tests that justified that children’s minds are not just small versions of adult minds but rather think differently from adults. This was when he deduced that intelligence is a thing that grows through a series of stages.

The sensorimotor stage is from birth to two years of age, where the child is getting to know the world through the movements they make. They are also able to interact with their surroundings as they touch things and lick them. This is the point where they begin to develop excellent motor skills (Lourenço, 2016).  The sensorimotor stage is divided into smaller sub-stages, where the first is the reflexive sub-stage. In this substage, the newborn responds to touch and sometimes sucks while smiling. Then the infant begins making some movements as a way of enjoying themselves (Lourenço, 2016). This stage is the primary circular reaction, and the babies make some sounds and movements aimed at enjoyment and pleasure repeatedly. These behaviors include cooing and smiling intentionally.  By the time the baby is eight months, they enter the secondary circular reactions substage where they begin being attracted to objects, and they use them to learn about the world. They may bang objects together to make a sound then laugh to express their happiness (Lourenço, 2016).

Afterward, they can coordinate all the abilities, and they are smart. For instance, they can crawl; pick a particular toy while pushing the others aside. For about 12 months, the baby now becomes a toddler, and they are more exposed to exploring the world. It is during tertiary circular reactions substage where their motor coordination and experimentation begins. They can separate things then put them back together to see the effect. They also understand directions, and they show their interest in short stories and songs (Lourenço, 2016).  By the time they are 18 months, toddlers can understand objects and their existence.  The child remembers what has happened on previous days, and they even make statements or ask short questions. During this time, the parents should encourage development through pouring water from a bowl to another, playing with colors by mixing them while painting on paper, even bouncing balls to promote their motor coordination development.

Secondly, the preoperational stage is between two and seven years, whereby the child has begun talking but without concrete logic. Children have developed to using symbols in their language, and they have increased play (Lourenço, 2016). Through symbolism, the children can use one object to represent other objects. They also use role-playing whereby they adopt the roles of mother, father, among other tasks. Toddlers begin using these imaginary playmates and later advance to playing with other participants.

However, at this stage, they prefer playing alongside other children instead of joining them. This characteristic is called parallel playing. Egocentrism is another characteristic of this stage, and it is where the toddler wants everything to happen at the moment and not later (Lourenço, 2016).  For instance, if they’re going to drink water and you are doing laundry, they are not patient enough to let you finish with the activity first. They even assume that you are feeling the same as they do. A parent can help their children through this stage by assisting them in making costumes where they can dress and be someone else and set the areas where they can feel like someone else like a doctor’s office at the corner of the living room (Lourenço, 2016).

The concrete operational stage is from seven to eleven years, and the child now has developed thinking that is organized and rational (Lourenço, 2016). Conservation is one of the characteristics of this stage. Whereby It involves the understanding that quantities could stay the same even in cases where their shape and appearance changes. The toddlers can understand mass and volume, even length. An example is when one pours a fluid into a narrow glass and the same amount into a more extensive glass and they realize that the amount is equal; this conservation cuts across to numbers. The children at this age are also good at classification, and they can classify things according to shapes, colors, and sizes (Lourenço, 2016).

Finally, there is the formal operational stage that is form twelve years upwards. It begins where the children are now in the adolescent stage and are going through a phase of intellectual development.  They can participate in mathematical problem solving and reason abstractly. Teachers use possible ways of asking questions so that the students can manipulate their thoughts in several directions at once (Lourenço, 2016). One may ask, “What would have happened if electricity had not been discovered?” this will give the student a chance to think entirely on their minds and systematically arrive at a solution. This skill of problem-solving and intellectual growth is gained from the environment and the objects in it (Lourenço, 2016).

Language Development

One may assume that by the period a baby reaches s adolescent, they have their language skills by now developed. Well, that is not the case as most of the time, the increasing activity and varying contexts from school, home, and social settings enable the children to keep expanding their knowledge, thus improving their language skills. At this point, the central development occurs in pragmatics and semantics (Nippold, 2000). One could notice that when Martina turned 10, her language had grown much, and she cold code switch. This means that she was able to know the kind of conversation she can have with a person at a particular time. She realized that she was required to use a type of formal speech in front of teachers and other people whom she respected. She also knew how to vary her responses when speaking to her age mates on social media, even face to face.  Also, the adolescent could use facial expressions when she wanted to back up her answer. For instance, she could nod, while saying, “Yes, are you kidding me?” when participating in a conversation that involved the peer group, Martina would use language that is slung and sometimes use metaphors that the peers could only understand and receive the message.

By the time Martina reached 12 years, she had a more developed communication form where she had a more refined language. She could reason and apply logic. She could also read well and use literacy skills across different areas of her life.   One could notice that she could use derivational suffixes in her language. For instance, she could add ‘y’ to an adjective and ‘ly’ to an adverb.  She was able to develop a way in which she could explain the intensity of something. She was able to describe how she felt. She could use words like slightly, deeply, probably in her sentences.

Moreover, one could notice that Martina’s written sentences became more sophisticated, and she could use conjunctions, and her sentences were more cohesive. Her writing improved significantly, and she could write and formulate arguments even use complex sentences. During this time, there was a need to improve on her language development through reading books and participating in ‘word dynamo’ where she could play games that would improve her vocabulary.

In particular, the improvement in the language is brought about by the cognitive development of the brain (Nippold, 2000). This happens when the gray matter production increases in production and nerve fibers develop in the language-centered brain parts. The children develop aural comprehension, whereby they can listen to someone else speaking to them. For instance, Martina could easily hold conversations with people, even those of older ages. They are able to develop empathy and learn how to interpret vocal tones. At this time, they are also able to understand the use of non-literal language as when someone uses sarcasm. Unlike boys, girls do not participate in much humor, and it is barely an aspect of their peer language (Nippold, 2000).  Language development is a delicate stage because it affects how the child will think and be. If the phase is great handles, the child learns to think abstractly, and they can learn new concepts (Nippold, 2000).  A kid can be prepared for the future where she will be social and learn how individual drops of people communicate and adopt her language to the same.

Socio-emotional Development

For one thing, puberty is considered to include the advance of emotional and societal capability. Emotional capability is concerned with the ability to manage emotions while social capability revolves around an individual’s ability to relate effectively with other people (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).  Family and peers are the two vital social aspects of socio-emotional development. It is during this development that young people grow into being more aware of being capable of identifying and labeling their feelings and other people’s emotional state (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).   One should understand that the rate of emotional and cognitive developments do not go hand in hand with the level of physical fruition. This is because unlike in adulthood brain, where both the reaction epicenter and the prefrontal cortex are heightened when observing pictures that express terror, in the youthful mind, after viewing similar images, the emotion center is improved with lack of action in the prefrontal cortex (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).

Moreover, such emotional-cognitive asynchrony may effect Martina’s misapprehending other’s emotional state and feelings. In contrast, poignant-physical asynchrony may cause her to be handled as a grown-up than her emotive stage of growth (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).   Early pubertal growth in girls significantly impacts body image and societal interactions, as seen in the case of Martina above. This is because first fruition in girls exposes them to social disadvantage.  And it is associated with risk factors such as behavior challenges, depression, early substance misuse, pregnancy, and initial sensual introduction. The crucial development duty of adolescence is constructing a more complex, distinguished, and systematized self-concept.

Especially within the family context, three areas of study are remarkable, which include the effects of parental friendliness, impacts of parent-adolescent conflict, and timetable of instituting independence from parents (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).  Parental warmth is communicated both in physical like hugs and verbal ways like a manifestation of fondness. Parental friendliness is considered to be a global phenomenon as it has a universal linkage with positive psychosocial consequences like self-confidence, educational progress, and emotional well-being (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).  Martina has had definite parental warmth as this has made her academic and self-esteem to be lively, making her adolescence experience to be positive. It is assumed that inadequate parental friendliness is associated with universal connections with adverse psychosocial outcomes like aggression, misbehaviors in school, and depressive symptoms.

Moreover, despite parental friendliness being universal, its level is not similar across cultures. Cultures that are more socially intricate and those that are developed are believed in perceiving parents as lesser friendly and tolerant or even rejecting, compared to more traditional cultures (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).  Martina being an American Hispanic, her culture is more conventional, and for this reason, when her adolescence stage started, her parents showed her parental warmth, and this strengthened their bond. In industrialized civilizations, most of the time, parents spend a lot of their time at work living young people to feel uncared for. Also, industrialization has led to individualism as parents in such societies show less affection to their adolescents (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).

As a result, conflicts between parental requirements and anticipations and those of youth may manifest as explicit parental-adolescent engagements. Martina’s relationship with the parent from the onset of her adolescence was warm and never showed any signs of conflicts between her and her parents. Studies have shown that increased levels of parent-adolescent disputes are linked to lower levels of parental friendliness and higher rates of increased youth misbehavior and depressive symptoms across cultural communities (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).

Also, another critical feature in parent-adolescent association concerns adolescent independence. Martina’s parents have never stopped supporting her even though she might need them to let her have autonomy of herself. Parents and youths in individualistic cultures are known to demonstrate earlier expectations of independence compared to parents in collectivist societies like Martina’s parents. Finally, peer associations explain another vital social context for adolescent growth. Youth in different communities utilize an unusual amount of time associating with their peers (Chen & Farruggia, 2002).   Martina, from the time she was five years old, she has been spending most of her time with her peers. When she started her adolescence journey, though it began to earlier, she was still spending most of her time with her peers. Through this peer relationship, it has helped her in psychological well-being as her self-esteem increased, and she never felt odd one out again.

Parenting

Undoubtedly, the most rewarding work is of adult life is parenting. This is because it brings joy and pride to have a cheerful, productive, and loving child. The stage of adolescence during parenting requires many skills to achieve different objectives of increased independence successfully. Martina’s parents made sure that her adolescent years would be less stressful as they worked together throughout her development in ensuring that they created a solid ground for positive relationships. During this period of adolescence, the ability to talk openly about challenges is crucial aspects of the parent and child relationship (Schwartz et al. 2017). Martina’s parents developed a culture where they engaged her in a positive relationship that created a strong sense of belonging. It is important to note that building this relationship and open communication requires time, perseverance, and understanding.  It develops progressively as parents create time with the youth.

To clarify, Martina’s parents developed this relationship through spending time with her and praising positive behaviors and discussing the challenges and upsetting things. This provided a foundation for talking with her when she started her struggles and conflicts during her adolescence. Consequently, growth changes in parent-child relationships have been associated with adolescents’ biological or cognitive fruition (Schwartz et al. 2017).  Hormonal alterations linked to puberty and lead adolescents in striving for autonomy and individualization from parents, which at the end result in conflicts with parents permitting youth to form a mature and open relationship. Similarly, reorganizing responsibilities and moving towards an open relationship is crucial to parents and adolescents (Schwartz et al. 2017). It is assumed that conflicts occur commonly and more extreme between the parent and adolescent during this stage. But it is essential to know that these conflicts are means in negotiating interpersonal changes.

Furthermore, the short-term dyadic developments occurring during conflict interactions are essential in the growth of the parent-child association (Schwartz et al. 2017).  Also, parent-youth dyads with higher emotional inconsistency during conflict relations contribute to adapting efficiently and reorganizing parent-child relationships in reaction to the developmental requirements of youths (Schwartz et al. 2017). Thus, their conflicts are termed adaptive from relational growth when parents and adolescents can tune openly between a range of constructive and damaging emotions.

Friends /Ability to Play

Friendship is an essential feature of adolescence that fosters social and emotional growth, and it contributes to a vital context in intimacy with peers. Even though the number of friends an individual has is a significant predictor of well-being, there is inconsistency in the worth of those friendships. Adolescents receive great support from their friends’ that their parents. Adolescence might have numerous associations that are described by conflict, lack of affection, and nonexistence of support (Flynn Felmlee & Conger, 2017). Girls’ friendships are considered to be more intimate and have fewer conflicts. Girls demonstrate higher rates of intimacy, self-disclosure, and closeness as compared to boys; hence girls are more exclusive.  Conflicts increases during adolescence development since it arises when friendships become more intimate (Flynn Felmlee & Conger, 2017).

Also, gender difference plays a significant role in conflict resolution. American Hispanic adolescents girls tend to utilize solution-oriented measures. For instance, during an argument, they resolve it together (Flynn Felmlee & Conger, 2017).   They are less control-oriented measures. For example, one of the friends keeps arguing until they have their way during a disagreement. In this case, Martina is an excellent example as she is of solution-oriented strategies during her disputes with her friends. When she is with her friends, she is more considerate of how her friends feel when they get into an argument, and thus she is less likely to be harmful when solving the conflict. Martina believes that permitting her friends some independence and self-sufficiency creates an enhanced friendship. Her relationship with friends has been stronger since, and she emphasizes the importance of intimacy and self-disclosure in her friends.

One can understand that intimacy in girls is significant as it facilitates them in understanding different social identities that are assisted by close friendship (Flynn Felmlee & Conger, 2017). Martina’s positive association with her friends has provided her with positive companionship, support, and a sense of belonging. Her positive friends reinforce healthy behaviors among themselves. Through this friendship, it has developed her social skills with a wide range of individuals. Also, she has learned how to cooperate and communicate effectively with other people. Finally, through having positive friends in her life, it has motivated her to achieve academic excellence as well as engaging in extracurricular activities that she used to hate.

Finally, it is essential to understand that youth require to play and have fun with one another to enhance the relationship between themselves. The time they spend with each other without being told what to do is crucial to their ability to play and improve their emotional identities individually and in peers (Flynn Felmlee & Conger, 2017).  They must be given time and space in making their decisions and learn from the errors. Martina’s father has been at the forefront in giving her adequate freedom and a voice in decisions concerning her life. Through such a parent-child relationship, enables her to learn from her bad choices. She was allowed to make the mistakes to learn, and she appreciates her parent have been with her throughout her puberty stage.

Cultural Development

As adolescents cross the bridge of childhood, they are anticipated to take new roles. Even though sometimes they may not be happy helping out a hand in doing house chores, there are benefits in assisting their families. Research shows that adolescent with more family roles feels more burdened by their tasks, but also indicates that they are happier and encouraged than those adolescents with fewer duties to carry out at home (Gibbons & Poelker, 2019). It is necessary to note these facts are different for families from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Studies show that adolescents from Latino and Asian upbringings are more likely than those from European societies to assist at home and contribute worth on familial responsibilities. Martina likes helping around when she is at home, and this has enabled her to have a positive relationship with her parents. In Hispanic societies, adolescents are exposed to duties and shown how to go about it, and this helps one in understanding how different duties are carried out, which in return makes them responsible in life.

Consequently, studies show that there are specific features of pubescent growth that are significantly more in beliefs than in intellectual structures (Gibbons & Poelker, 2019).  Culture is acquired through learning and socially used, and it has an impact on adolescent life. Social roles, sexual communication, and trust-system growth rely on culture. Moreover, numerous distinctive features of a person like dressing and language are the fruition of culture (Gibbons & Poelker, 2019).  A variety of factors vary by culture in shaping the development of adolescence.  For example, the level at which adolescents are regarded to be autonomous individuals differs significantly in different cultures as well as behaviors representing such developing autonomy (Gibbons & Poelker, 2019). Also, an adolescent lifestyle in a given culture is shaped substantially by the duties and roles they are supposed to assume. Also, the distribution of financial duties or provisions of allowance is mirrored by socioeconomic upbringings, which are impacted by cultural standards and morals.

Briefly, adolescents start developing specialized trust systems by interacting with societal, family, and traditional backgrounds (Gibbons & Poelker, 2019).  The belief systems incorporate everything from gender, sexuality, religion, and politics. The level of behaviors that culture holds specific agendas influence the beliefs, lifestyles, and insights of its youth and can have equally positive and negative influences on their growth. For instance, the LGBTQ youth experienced excellent discrimination and bullying by their peers, which is on the basis of broader cultural attitudes concerning LGBTQ issues (Gibbons & Poelker, 2019).

References

Arain, M., Haque M., Johal L., Mathur P., Afsha R. Wynand N., Sandhu R., & Sharma S. (2013). National Center for Biotechnology Information. Maturation of the adolescent brain. DOI: 10.2147/NDT.S39776

Brian, A., Taunton, S., Lieberman, L. J., Haibach-Beach, P., Foley, J., & Santarossa, S. (2018). Psychometric properties of the Test of Gross Motor Development-3 for children with visual impairments. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 35(2), 145-158.

Chen, C. S., & Farruggia, S. (2002). Culture and adolescent development. Online readings in psychology and culture, 6(1), 1-12.

Family Planning (2020). Changes at puberty. https://www.familyplanning.org.nz/advice/understand-your-body/changes-at-puberty#:~:text=Girls’%20bodies%20increase%20in%20size,begin%20to%20develop%2C%20sometimes%20unevenly.

Flynn, H. K., Felmlee, D. H., & Conger, R. D. (2017). The social context of adolescent friendships: Parents, peers, and romantic partners. Youth & Society, 49(5), 679-705.

Gibbons, J. L., & Poelker, K. E. (2019). Adolescent Development in a Cross Cultural Perspective. Cross Cultural Psychology: Contemporary Themes and Perspectives, 190-215.

Harper, R. (2018). Alliance for excellent education. Science of Adolescent Learning: how body and brain development affect student learning. https://all4ed.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Science-of-Adolescent-Learning-How-Body-and-Brain-Development-Affect-Student-Learning.pdf

Human Health Services (2019). Cognitive development. general cognitive changes adolescents experience. https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-development/explained/cognitive/index.html

Lourenço, O. M. (2016). Developmental stages, Piagetian stages in particular: A critical review. New Ideas in Psychology, 40, 123-137.

Nippold, A., M. (2000). ResearchGate. Language Development during the Adolescent Years: Aspects of Pragmatics, Syntax, and Semantics. DOI: 10.1097/00011363-200020020-00004

Prinstein, M. J., & Hupp, S. (2018). Adolescence ends at 18 years old Girls are universally experiencing puberty sooner in recent years. The teen brain is fully developed by age 18 Anorexia treatment usually requires teens to be. Great Myths of Adolescence, 4141999.

Ritchie, S. J., Quinlan, E. B., Banaschewski, T., Bokde, A. L., Desrivieres, S., Flor, H., … & Ittermann, B. (2019). Neuroimaging and genetic correlates of cognitive ability and cognitive development in adolescence.

Sanders, R., A. (2013). Pediatrics in review. adolescent psychosocial, social, and cognitive development. https://pedsinreview.aappublications.org/content/34/8/354

Schwartz, O. S., Simmons, J. G., Whittle, S., Byrne, M. L., Yap, M. B., Sheeber, L. B., & Allen, N. B. (2017). Affective parenting behaviors, adolescent depression, and brain development: A review of findings from the Orygen Adolescent Development Study. Child Development Perspectives, 11(2), 90-96.

Vijayakumar, N., Allen, N. B., Youssef, G., Dennison, M., Yücel, M., Simmons, J. G., & Whittle, S. (2016). Brain development during adolescence: A mixed longitudinal investigation of cortical thickness, surface area, and volume. Human brain mapping, 37(6), 2027-2038.

World Health Organization (2018). Adolescents: health risks and solutions. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescents-health-risks-and-solutions