Adolescence begins with puberty in both boys and girls between 13-18 years, but some extend up to 19 or 20. Puberty is that time when a child goes through substantial natural and healthy changes. During adolescence, a child develops physically, psychologically, and cognitively. Physical developments in girls include breast development, growth spurt, and increase in height, shape changes, growth of hair in armpits, and pubic also, menstruation begins.
Boys also go through various physical developments during adolescence, which involves; growth spurt, growth of external genitals, hair grows in pubic parts and armpits, their voices break, and the development of muscles is likely to be witnessed. On the other hand, cognitive and psychological changes are common in boys and girls. Psychological developments are linked to changes in hormones and neurodevelopment. With time, adolescents make reasoning skills stronger likewise, moral and logical thinking will be able to make consistent judgments. From another point of view, cognitive changes relate to a leap forward where teens start reasoning concretely in a way that children cannot, therefore being capable of considering many points of view.
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According to research, mental and physical disorders during adolescence are related. Some of them include depression, mood, anxiety, and attention, and conduct disorder. Suicide is the most common cause of death among teens due to mood changes. Adolescence is related to sexual activity, which is associated with a lot of risks. Sexual intercourse being a risk, can lead to unwanted pregnancy and being infected with STIs such as HIV/AIDS. But then, the diseases can be controlled using contraceptives, for instance, condoms. Sexual harassment has also been an issue of major concern in the adolescence stage since it affects a person psychologically. Sexual harassment involves actions or comments which are intended to reduce one's self-esteem or to hurt. It focuses on someone’s physical appearance, sexual orientation, and sexual activity.
Sexual harassment can happen in social media or the workplace and other public spaces such as schools. A weapon against this is shifting mindsets and understanding a person’s behavior. American Psychological Association is the best article that can guide a person on the changes that occur during adolescence.
Teen Options to Prevent Pregnancy is an 18-month program that help adolescent mothers from low-income backgrounds. Its main objective is to promote healthy birth spacing. Though indirectly, the program is effective in physical development because the individuals it targets are taught about physical changes in adolescence and how to cope with such developments. Through the skills passed to the teenage mothers by the nurses or community workers, teenage mothers get the ability to think about the challenges they encounter as teenage mothers logically. The program hence is useful in the cognitive development of the target audience. For psychosocial development, the program is very effective since educators ensure skills acquisition by the target audience, but then they allow them to make autonomous decisions when it comes to birth planning.
