How Early Puberty Affects Adolescent Girls' Mental Health: An Essay.

How Early Puberty Effect The Mental Health Of Adolescent Girls?

Physical changes during puberty

Puberty refers to the stage of the development of a boy or a girl where the process of physical and sexual change is experienced as the individuals become sexually active. During this stage, the body of an adolescent starts developing which is hormonal initiated whereby body starts developing both physical and emotional sexually which are different for both genders and also appear at the diverse set of time. Girls are known to emerge from the ages of nine which earlier than boys which start producing at the age of twelve. The time of developing differs from one person to another according to the environment, the foods that one feeds on, the genetic composition of a person and also nature can affect the body structure of a person (LeMoult et al. 2018, pg. 6).

Some of the sexual changes for ladies include the growth of breast, smoothening of the face while others start developing pimples, ovulation, broadening of hips, and an increase in weight among others. Some of these changes may affect the esteem of the girls which makes them very shy to present themselves before people and denying self-acceptance. In boys, the sexual modifications include; breaking of voice, growing of beards, broadening of the chest, experiencing wet dreams, and weight increase among others.  Like girls, boys are also affected by the breaking of voice which makes them shy off and sometimes try to hide it (Freud, 2018, pg. 17).

During puberty, the bodies of the adolescents become very active sexually and are sensitive when interacting with the opposite gender to appoint that they can talk, share or play together as they used to do from childhood. They start maturing both mentally and physically due to the response of the glands and hormones which makes them behave like mature people. The function of their body and their mind due to their hormonal which makes them start acting like adults, and also they start changing to the undertaking of the adult's role. They also start realizing the need to be clean, taking birth daily, brushing and even applying cosmetics like sprays and makeups to look more beautiful.

The sexual development and changes have been a significant challenge that most adolescents are facing during their early years of growth and development which is brought the rapid evolution of their body functions. The changes are happening unexpectedly which makes the have a tough time to adjust to the changes and others end up denying themselves and thus neglecting their bodies. Adolescent girls have preferences regarding looks, height, body size among others which is as a result of the actors, presenters or a character they admire, whereby they expect to be like the failure to that they esteem is lowered (Jeffery et al. 2018, pg.225).

Effects of physical changes on self-esteem

The ladies are the most affected by the puberty process which mostly affects their behaviors and if they lack guidance they may end up to being ruined morally by the peers. During this time the adolescent needs a very near follow up to man their behavior due to the emotional growth which may drive them very mad and can lead them to indulge in entrusted behaviors. The young girls are mostly affected emotionally, mentally and even socially which affects their interaction with the community. The effects have been so severe even the ladies start losing their character and can be transformed to either positive or a negative form (Wierenga et al. 2018, pg. 109).

As seen earlier puberty is a very critical stage in the human's life which can make or break their life according to how it is handled and the environment the child is growing in. As stated on the topic one of the effects it poses to the individuals include mental health which is one of the sensitive aspects of life. Mental health is very vital for every human being's survival and if it affected slighted and there is malfunctioning the person can lose the value of being a human being to an animal whereby he or she starts acting more or less the same as an animal. Once the mental health is affected slighted the person can lose the typical character and start acting weird which mostly affects his or her social life (Poppelaars et al. 2018).

Some of the mental effects of the puberty process to a lady are feeling conscious about oneself which is caused by is caused by the different developmental process amongst the peers. Once a girl grows up with a friend she expects that they are going to experience everything the same way and at the same time whereby the opposite can be a bother. The girl becomes very sensitive and very uncomfortable before her peers and more so the opposite gender.

Another mental health effect on a girl is that she can start experiencing conflicting thoughts where she does not want to appreciate that she is growing but want to get stuck between childhood and puberty. Many of the ladies are profoundly affected by the early stages of puberty and don't want to build from the child but always wants to be treated like a child even others threaten to commit suicide (Paschall, and Bersamin, 2018, pg 48).

Mental health effects of puberty

Another mental problem that befalls girl child during puberty is identity crisis which is brought about by the peer influence due to the environment she has been brought up in. The identity crisis makes the girl experience uncertain feelings of belonging which comes with the development which leads to one trying to identify her with the right and shift from the older group. For a girl, she starts following her mother or associating her with people they are facing the same passage (Kim, and Hagquist, 2018, pg. 105).

During puberty, the girl starts getting sexual feelings which affects her mind by regulating her past behavior and if not monitored well can be lured easily by her peers. Sexual feelings are vigorous for a lady, and if she is not controlled, she can be affected mentally in a way that she becomes a victim of the sentiments than her controlling them for the right. Also, it is at this point where the peer pressure gets in and can make the little girl run mad and rebellious to her parents and guardians (Auslander et al. 2018, pg. 117).

Puberty is a susceptible stage in the growth of a person, and great care should be taken to make sure the adolescent gets the best environment during the transition to regulate their behavior. One their mental health is affected the mental health is to change the coordination of the psychology is tempered to one can wander in the fate of the evil world.

Some of the signs of affected mental health include; mood swings whereby the girls' moods cannot be predicted, and she becomes complicated to deal with. A girl can also develop shyness whereby it becomes hard to express herself and always considers spending most of the time away from people and alone. Also, she can also be very rebellious and rude as she is not able to express herself and always complaining that no one wants to understand her (Johnson et al. 2018, pg. 156).

It is the mandate of every parent and guardian to keep a strict eye to the adolescent and help the maneuver in the sensitive puberty stage which can ruin her life. It very essential that the parents learn of the signs of the mental effects caused by that transition stage and look for a way of walking the girl out whole that letting her suffer in the fateful hands of the world which can ruin her character and personality for life.

Importance of parents and guardians in guiding girls through puberty

Conclusion

As we have seen earlier the effects and the signs of the puberty developing process, therefore it is essential we highlight a few points on the way of regulating the whole state and bring up a lady who is mental and morally upright without any scars from the past experiences. Some of the means of controlling them are by always preparing them psychologically for the changes before they appear and teach them that it is a normal stage for every lady. Also, the girls should be told about the importance of keeping themselves clean and beautiful so that their self-esteem is not affected (Gartner, and Sterzing, 2018, pg. 14).

Every parent should walk with the children to make sure that as look for their identity they do not fall on shaky hands of the evil companies that instead of helping them grow up well morally will ruin. They should also be advised on their boy-girl relationship which will be risked at this level of their growth whereby a slight mistake can lead to pregnancy because they are sexually active. They should be hidden from anything but the truth be said to them to them to make them aware lest they mess around. Though puberty is an essential stage of transitions in human beings' growth, it should be taken with great care to avoid losing the girls. 

References

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Freud, S., 2018. The transformations of puberty. In Adolescence and Psychoanalysis (pp. 17-42). Routledge.

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Johnson, S., Robertson, I., Cooper, C.L. and Litchfield, P., 2018. Mental Health—The BT Journey (So Far). In WELL-BEING (pp. 149-160). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

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Paschall, M.J., and Bersamin, M., 2018. School-based health centers, depression, and suicide risk among adolescents. American journal of preventive medicine, 54(1), pp.44-50.

Poppelaars, M., Lichtwarck-Aschoff, A., Kleinjan, M. and Granic, I., 2018. The impact of explicit mental health messages in video games on players' motivation and effect. Computers in Human Behavior.

Wierenga, L.M., Bos, M.G., Schreuders, E., vd Kamp, F., Peper, J.S., Tamnes, C.K. and Crone, E.A., 2018. Unraveling age, puberty and testosterone effects on subcortical brain development across adolescence. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 91, pp.105-114.