Adolescence is defined as the transition to adulthood from childhood. It is associated with emotional, cognitive, and psychosocial development. The change of thought from the manner a child does into an adult's way of thinking is termed as cognitive development. During cognitive development, a child develops hypothetical thinking, advanced reasoning skills such as the ability to traverse a scope of possibilities essential in a situation and employ a logical thought action. Adolescents also advance the capacity to imagine, which enables them to transition from concrete thinkers to abstract thinkers. Concrete thinking involves having thought of things they know about or with which they have direct contact. Abstract thinking, on the other hand, allows them to imagine or experience things unseen. This gives room for adolescents to think about spirituality, and have the ability to love and attach themselves to that feeling. Thinking more abstractly may cause an adolescent to go through a personal fable, which suggests that if the imaginary peer is watching or thinking about them, then the adolescent could be different or unique.
In Angela’s case, Angela had an abrupt adjustment. Being separated from her grandmother and moving into a new environment and new school and having to make new friends all over again is too much for her to handle. The transition involves both physical and psychological changes happening in her. Her attachment to her grandmother is still fresh in her, and she might not have been ready for the adjustment. This might affect Angela's relationship with her peers at her new school. For children to re-organize their thoughts, they should be more active (Kohlberg, (1971) However, she could be shying off from making friends because she is afraid of another change that may force her to move and leave her friends again, therefore, experiencing lower adaptability to the environment. As a result, she could be temperamental and have a low self-esteem, which leads potential friends away. Like an average child, she could bond with her mother being her current caregiver, but the challenge is that Angela's mother is too busy with her work. With the ability to think hypothetically, Angela now reasons that the new environment is not suitable for her due to her mixed-race that is depicted in her physical appearance.
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As Angela's guidance and counselor, I would suggest that she gets to spend as much time as possible with her mother. To achieve this, I would approach Angela's mother by trying to let her understand that adolescent's development is related to environmental influences, social, cultural, and experiences. Social development in adolescence involves establishing a purpose, role, and a sense of identity. A key factor is body image in the growth of a sense of identity and self, especially for girls and peers and family play a key role in supporting and assisting the adolescent in attaining adult roles. A person's inward thoughts, the way they feel and think about others, and themselves are essential for their emotional development. Demonstrating sensitive assets like self-esteem, resilience, and coping skills are most evident during adolescent due to the rapid changes experienced.
Three steps for Angela to improve her self-esteem and maturity
Help Angela focus on progress: - Celebrating every positive action taken, whether it worked or not, trying again and reevaluation when moving forward is a more realistic goal other than perfection. This will enable the adolescent to take criticism in a composed way hence building a more trusting relationship with her mother.
Empathetic listening: - Adolescents like being heard to feel valued. Whether or not Angela’s mother agrees with what Angela is saying, she should listen with compassion so that Angela will feel valued.
Encourage independent growth: - Angela’s mother should provide opportunities for exploration of talents and independent decision-making. When teens experience positive and negative outcomes of their actions, it is easy for them to take charge of a challenging situation on their own. In this case, Angela’s emotional maturity will develop as she transitions into adulthood.
Since Angela’s peers are also transitioning into adulthood, their personalities will be centered on what is happening around them. Adolescent behavior depends on the environment they are in; hence her peers will be responsive to cultural labels and rules of bad and good and right or wrong (Kohlberg, 1971). However, in this case, her peers will respond to her changes in a positive way and learn how to co-exist with others. The reasons for bullying among adolescents vary from child to child. Bullying comes about because of differences in physical appearance, social classes, racial background, and cultural diversity. In (Brown and Gilligan, (1993) article during a research at a school, a teenager explains that some of her peers select friends because they are famous or something, forming a popular clique. This forces the adolescents in her school to alter their personality to feel part of that group and avoid feeling alone and bullied. Another factor that researchers have discovered as a reason for bullying is in an instance where a teen performs better in a class set up. That child performing better than the rest is prone to bullying and sometimes labeled as a 'nerd' because he is different. Concisely, children who have very high or very low self-esteem do bullying.
Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development would approach Angela and her peers at a conventional level where they will maintain the expectations of their groups, family, and nation regardless of immediate consequences. Good behavior helps or pleases others, and one gets approval by being good. Although this approach will work for Angela and her peers, Angela's plan for kindergarteners should be based on the law and order orientation (Kohlberg, (1971) because children in kindergarten are still at the egocentric age. Nonetheless, if Angela is working with her peers, she should use universal ethical-principle orientation since her peers can think logically. This would not align with Gilligan's perspective because her research brings to evidence that most girls at adolescents have difficulties voicing anything and have no choice but to be kind and friendly to their peers regardless of their feelings of dislike toward individual members of their peers.
In conclusion, self-esteem is a pattern of actions and thoughts that become a habit, and since we learn good habits, we can unlearn and reform bad habits that do not serve us. When adolescents understand their self-esteem is a result of their thinking patterns and it is possible to change neurological habits with simple repetition and practice, they become empowered and begin taking steps to make an overhaul of their lives hence taking charge of their lives.
References
Brown, L. M., & Gilligan, C. (1993). Meeting at the crossroads: Women's psychology and girls'
development. Feminism & Psychology, 3(1), 11-35.
Kohlberg, L. (1971). Stages of moral development. Moral education, 1(51), 23-92.
