Understanding Adolescence - Essay On Human Relationships And Life Transitions.

Physical and Cognitive Development

Discuss about the Human Relationships and Life Transitions.

Nursing is a pivotal position to care for young patients whether it is caring for their mental or physical health. Nurses have to understand about the accentuated stress response and changes that these teens are going through at the adolescence stage. (Reese E, 2013) The care management should be managed with sensitivity and rationality. Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood. This transition involves changes that occur in physical being, social development and intellectual being of an individual. These years can be divided into three stages that are:- Early adolescence that is between age 11 to 14, middle adolescence that is between age 15 to 17 and late adolescence that is between age 18 to 21. The physical development that occurs during this stage is termed as “Puberty” as by mid adolescence mostly all youngsters are close to their adult weight and height.

During this stage the intellectual development is about them perceiving the world in concrete terms of right or wrong. They live in the present and therefore rarely think about the long term consequences of their actions. It is by late adolescence that the youngsters projects ideas and situations into the future. Capacity to solve complex problems has also increased considerably during this time. But it is still common for these older teens to act erratically and apply their newfound skills in a reckless manner. According to NMBA standards (2.1) a nurse should never impose his or her personal attitudes and values on others. This is important in working and caring for young adults as they are forming their own identity and are prone to being influenced. Adolescence development depends upon many normative and predictable aspects that shape the development of a teenager. But there are numerous non normative aspects that are not predictable in life but shape and play a crucial role in adolescence life. Some of the examples of these non normative aspects are personal illness, family household moves and losing a friend (Waldinger RJ, 2016). As for emotional development, this stage is when they start to distance themselves from their parents. They are marching towards autonomy that can take various forms as spending more time with friends, less affection, pushing the limits and contentious behavior. (Kilford EJ, 2016).

Young adults still feel the conflict about leaving the security and safety of their homes. Till adolescence a child’s life is revolving around parents and family, but when they step into this stage their social circle increases to friendships with opposite sex, different ethnic and social groups. These peer relationships are important throughout adolescence as they provide a reference point to develop a sense of identity. This sense of identity helps them to develop values and moral judgement (Wainwright L, 2016). This identity and social development during adolescence is well explained by Erik Erikson and his theory about social development. His theory’s core concept is the acquisition of “Ego identity” and the identity crisis that occurs in adolescence. Adolescence according to Erikson is a period where an individual must establish a personal identity and should avoid the dangers of identity confusion and role diffusion. It is in this stage that the individual should make an assessment of his liabilities and assets and how they should use them. They should be able to answer for themselves as who they are, where they come from and what they plan to become.

Emotional Development

During this stage it is crucial that an individual develops a sense of sameness or continuity. If they have not developed it, they should look for ways to search for it. As identity cannot be given by the society or it does not appears as a maturation phenomenon it can only be acquired by sustained individual efforts. If an individual is unwilling to work on his or her identity, than he or she is in danger of role diffusion that can result in confusion, isolation and even alienation.  The most important virtue that has to be developed at this state is the virtue of “fidelity”. This is about adhering to one’s values that generate self identity. Self Identity is about the production of the self concept that involves the linkage of past, present and future. According to Erikson if an individual is living in a period of social change the older generation will not be adequate role models for him or her. Even if older generation wants to be role models for these individuals they may reject them. (Danese A, 2016)

Therefore according to Erikson the importance of peer group can never be overemphasized. Peer group helps an individual to answer the question “Who am I?. Adolescents depend on feedback of others and how others will they react to their choices. Therefore these youngsters are morbidly preoccupied with what they appear in the eyes of others (Streeck-Fischer A., 2015). Puberty is about rapid body growth, sexual awareness and genital maturity. Sexual awareness and genital maturity are two aspects that are different to what the adolescents have experienced before which causes an element of discontinuity with the development that they were having before (Saunders JF, 2016). This causes a “physiological revolution” within the individual that threatens the body image and the identity formation of that youth. Vocational identity is of the greatest concern when it comes to the need to settle for teens. They hold idealized and glamorized conceptions of their goals. Therefore we can find many examples where the goals or aspirations are greater than the individual’s ability.  They idealize “Heroes” like rock musicians, car racers, movie heroes, and athletic champions. During the course of this process the youth over identifies with the “idol” and presumes that they have their “heroes” identity. At this time they revolt against their parents and rebel against their value system and teachings. This autonomy gives birth to separating their own identity from their family and leading a more private life.

Personal Identity and Social Development

The development of a healthy and positive self esteem is crucial in transitioning from a child to a young adult. Self esteem plays a crucial part in understanding an individual’s behavior. It is how we value ourselves and how we think about, affects our behavior. There are two aspects of self esteem that are self respect and self confidence (Piko BF, 2016). Self confidence is about choosing our actions and goals. It is about our belief in succeeding and accomplishing our goals. Whereas self respect is about values and principles that ensure that we make moral choices. Self respect is our personal worth that is based on how we rate ourselves. Self esteem is crucial during the adolescence years as they notice changes in their body and thinking. They notice changes in the surroundings around them. Coping with issues is about developing an individual’s self esteem. During childhood these children depend on their parents and families for decisions and support but now in adolescence stage they do not want to ask their parents for advice. They tend to listen to friends and peers who they can relate to rather than listening to family members and teachers. (Tunca B., 2016)

The sense of transition that a teenager goes through interferes with the ability to adapt and therefore leading them to lose trust in the treatment and care. The NMBA standards (8.1) state that nurse we have to recognize that individual’s progress or expected progress differs therefore we have to make care plan accordingly. There is a biological difference between an adult brain and a teen brain and this is a salient point that people who are treating a youngster have to keep in mind. Therefore when planning a care plan for a youngster the health care workers should remember that the irrational, moody and reckless behavior is all about the cognitive controls that are still “under construction” (Guassi Moreira JF, 2016). We need new research that can highlight and uncover the performance of nurses in care settings with adolescence suffering from chronic and stigmatized conditions. Only then the care of non adult in an adult care setting will be done properly.

References 

 Danese A., Lewis S., (2016). Psychoneuroimmunology of Early Life Stress: The Hidden Wounds of Childhood Trauma?. Neuropsychopharmacology , 198-205.

Guassi Moreira JF., Van Bavel JJ., Telzer EH. (2016). The Neural Development of 'Us and Them'. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci , 134-140.

Kilford EJ., Garrett E., Blakemore SJ. (2016). The Development of Social Cognition in Adolescence: An Integrated Perspective. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. , 183-189.

Piko BF., Varga S., Mellor D. (2016). Are adolescents with high self-esteem protected from psychosomatic symptomatology?. Eur J Pediatr , 785-792.

Reese E., M. E Myftari., McAnally HM., Chen Y, Neha T., Wang Q., Jack F., Robertson SJ. (2013). Telling the Tale and Living Well: Adolescent Narrative Identity, Personality Traits, and Well-Being Across Cultures. Child Dev , 77-89.

Saunders JF., Frazier LD. (2016). Body Dissatisfaction in Early Adolescence: The Coactive Roles of Cognitive and Sociocultural Factors. J Youth Adolesc , 152-160.

Streeck-Fischer A. (2015). Identify Formation Difficulties in Immigrant Adolscents: Three Cases From Germany. Am J Psychoanal , 438-453.

Tunca B. (2016). Self-esteem discrepancies and identity-expressive consumption: Evidence from Norwegian adolescents. Int J Psychol. , 122-136.

Wainwright L., Nee C., Vrij A., (2016). "I Don't Know How, But I'll Figure It Out Somehow": Future Possible Selves and Aspirations in "At-Risk" Early Adolescents. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol , 189-196.

Waldinger RJ., Schulz MS.,(2016). The Long Reach of Nurturing Family Environments: Links With Midlife Emotion-Regulatory Styles and Late-Life Security in Intimate Relationships. Psychol Sci , 15-19.