Understanding Adolescents and Young People
The view that adolescence is a period full of storms and stress creates an anxious wait for many families and adolescents. Daniel Offer and his friends were born in 1988 in the USA, Australia. In their research conducted in Bangladesh, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey and West Germany, at least 73% of adolescents exhibited a healthy body image. Although there are differences between them, adolescents mostly reported that they are happy, enjoy life, can exercise self-control, care about school and work, have self-confidence regarding sexuality, think positively about their families, and can cope with stress. Such a definition is not compatible with the view of "a period full of stress and storm".
Generally, due to the public's attitudes towards adolescence, personal experiences, and the influence of the media, an expectation is created that adolescence will be difficult.
In every period, an expectation is created that adolescence will be difficult. It involves its own difficulties of adaptation and adaptation, and this is natural. But it would be unfair to attribute this to a whole period to this dynamic, energetic and exploratory process.
However, young people in each generation are strikingly different from adults in taste and attitude, their appearance, behavior, the music they listen to, hairstyles, clothes. While adults find young people irresponsible, rebellious and independent, young people find adults oppressive, backward and narrow-minded. This perspective, which continues between generations, is almost the expression of a generation conflict.
Personality and Social Development in Adolescence
Many social and psychological needs emerge as the child grows from birth onwards. interest. The need or urge to be together with other species is seen in all living species. People, like other people, have a need to be in harmony with their environment. Social development is the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to the society in which a person lives. The baby gets rid of the understanding that he is the center and develops towards becoming a harmonious adult. Socialization begins with the baby's reaction to other people and continues throughout life.
As a person grows, enters new environments and his status changes, Develops such relationships. However, child-parent interaction is the fundamental way that determines the child's lifelong relationship with others. When a social relationship is established, especially with someone who represents authority, the social relationship established with the mother and father as a child is often taken as a model.
The parent's child-rearing attitude is another variable that affects the socialization of the child.
Parents' attitudes towards child-rearing are another variable that affects the socialization of the child.
Behaving democratically and egalitarian, being oppressive and authoritarian, or being overly protective causes children to develop different social attitudes.
Whether the child is an only child, the middle child or the oldest, the number of siblings, gender, the size of the family, the social experiences in which the family participates. quality, the arrival of guests at home, the way of hosting guests, the attitude the family wants the guests to have, the socio-economic and cultural level of the family are the main factors affecting the child's adaptation to society and socialization.
Most adolescents rely on their peer group for social and emotional support. They fully comply with their friends' values. Same-sex friend groups are replaced by mixed-gender friend groups, where short-term romantic relationships are common. Later, stable dating patterns emerge.
Friendly relationships are socially important. Being wanted, liked and accepted by friends is an important condition for self-esteem. It establishes bonds of friendship by helping each other, sharing, and engaging in emotional exchange. During this period, he is extremely balanced in terms of friendship. He attaches importance to loyalty and solidarity within his group of friends. He dresses and acts like them. He speaks slang like them. He chooses his own confidant and trouble partner. In order to stay in the group, he behaves inappropriately to make others accept him. The insecure and inadequate adolescent who is trying to find himself may fall under the yoke of his more assertive and skillful peers. On the contrary, self-confident adolescents can dominate their peers.
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Relationships between parents and children become difficult during adolescence. Being the parent of a teenager is not easy. While a child believes that his/her parents know everything, are strong and good, adolescents are very aware of their parents' mistakes and weaknesses. Struggles for independence During this period, they question everything and test every rule.
The weakest period in the parent-child relationship is the first adolescence, that is, the stage when the signs of puberty are seen. Intimacy in relationships decreases and conflicts increase.
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Emotional Development in Adolescence
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The most emotionally distinct period between childhood and adolescence is The difference is that while children express their emotions such as anger, resentment and joy more openly and instantly, in adolescence these emotions are more hidden and masked.
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v Girls reach emotional maturity earlier than boys. Adolescent girls of the same age are more balanced in their excitement and more mature in terms of controlling their emotions.
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v An increase in the intensity of emotions is observed. This intensity stands out when expressing emotions such as sadness, joy, anger and fear. It is reflected in the form of hand and arm movements, facial expressions, shouting, writing poems, stories, and keeping a diary.
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v There is instability in emotions. The change of emotional states is rapid and there is no regularity. He may react differently to the same event every day.
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v Falling in love, platonic love, and interest in the opposite sex may occur.
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v Embarrassment and shyness; It's as if they want to hide their bodies.
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v Excessive daydreaming, biological-sexual development, increase in emotionality and mental development also change the intensity and quality of what adolescents think of. Through imagination, the adolescent reflects his desires and thoughts. While dreaming is the driving force that nourishes creative thinking, if unrealized desires are imagined as if they had come true, it means that the adolescent has turned it into a means of refuge and compensation. It causes it to be called "day dream".
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v Being anxious and restless; While efforts to get used to the new situation brought about by physical and sexual development may cause this, disruptions in social relations with peers and adults or the blocking of a desire may also cause unrest.
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v The desire to be alone; They may want to get away from their parents and sometimes their peers and be alone with themselves. It is as if they want to take stock of what is happening in their body, review them and get used to new emotions.
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v Reluctance to work; in this period of rapid growth, there are times when the adolescent is a bit stagnant and inactive, almost lazy to move. He gets tired while working or playing and is less willing to work. It is as if body energy is spent on growth.
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v Getting excited easily; It is difficult to control emotions because the balance of excitement is not fully formed. He/she may become excited or afraid when faced with a new situation. He can get angry easily and the situation is something he does not want.
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Cognitive Development in Adolescents
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It shows a transition from the concrete operations period to the formal operations period.
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During adolescence, the young person is pulled in one direction by simpler, more basic instincts, and on the other hand, he becomes aware of other important institutions of society for the first time in his life.
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The young person can understand, evaluate and reason about many values from art to science, politics and religion. He can begin to perceive his own position by becoming a part of his culture.
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Sexual Development in Adolescents
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v Sexual changes begin to be observed in girls and boys approximately 1.5 years before they enter puberty.
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v It starts at the age of 10 in girls and at the age of 11-12 in boys. Behaviors such as being interested in the opposite sex, sexual symbols, and developing more masculine or feminine attitudes may be observed.
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v In the reproductive organs, voice, skin, beard, moustache, body hair, sweat glands. Sexual changes are examined as sexual changes such as breast enlargement, cartilage in the larynx, breast enlargement, and increased sexual dreams.
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v The real sexual development in girls is the first menstrual period.
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v In men, the reproductive cell begins to produce sperm.
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Gender Role
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How men and women think, It is the role given by the environment that determines how one feels and behaves. In most cultures, it is clear what men and women will and will not do. Differences such as colors, voice form, clothes, toys, and the game played are reinforced throughout the whole process. In addition to the behavior of parents, messages are also given through peers and the press.
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Approach to Youth
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v Ke He needs parents who will reassure him and explain that these emotional states depend on age and age and are temporary.
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v Not being understood is one of the most obvious problems of this period. It is comforting for the parents to listen to what the young person says without criticizing, belittling or judging him and giving him the opportunity to express himself.
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v He needs someone to tell the opposite sex about his feelings.
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v Adolescent asks for more permission from his parents. If it is prevented, tensions and conflicts arise. Fighting is typical parental behavior that worries a young person.
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