What are the development tasks and challenges experienced during adolescence

Middle adolescence is marked by the emergence of new thinking skills. The intellectual world of the young person is suddenly greatly expanded. Although peers still play an important role in the life of middle adolescents, they are increasingly self-directed. Their concerns about peers are more directed toward their opposite sexed peers. It is also during this period that the move to establish psychological independence from one's parents accelerates. Much of their psychological energies are directed toward preparing for adult roles and making preliminary decisions about vocational goals. Despite some delinquent behavior, middle adolescence is a period during which young people are oriented toward what is right and proper. They are developing a sense of behavioral maturity and learning to control their impulsiveness.

Late adolescence is marked be the final preparations for adult roles. The developmental demands of late adolescence often extend into the period that we think of as young adulthood. Late adolescents attempt to crystallize their vocational goals and to establish sense of personal identity. Their needs for peer approval are diminished and they are largely psychologically independent from their parents. The shift to adulthood is nearly complete.

Adapted from: Ingersoll, Gary M. (to be published). Normal adolescence. Bloomington, IN: Center for Adolescent Studies

These are only some of the crucial challenges and tasks facing adolescents. There are undoubtedly many more. It is crucial to consider approaches and ideas to help your teen cope with these challenges in constructive, useful ways. Fundamentally, the quality of the family experience is based on certain aspects. These include creating a space where the teen feels emotionally understood by the parents, are able to have fun with the family, have rules (where some are negotiable), and understand the roles and structures in the family.

The teen years are chaotic and overwhelming in both the scope and number of normal developmental challenges facing the teenager, even without depression, anxiety, attention deficits, executive functioning deficits and learning differences that visit so many of our teenagers.  The following is a brief summary of the most significant developmental issues our teenagers face:

  1. Physical transformation; probably the most obvious changes are physical; the teenager is literally transforming from a child to an adult physically, a transformation that is disorienting to both the teenager and everyone around him/her.
  2. Sexual development; the teenage years witness the emergence of sexuality, with all of its hormonal changes, all of its ups and downs and all of its emotional complications.
  3. Separation from parents; the teenager is on a crash course of how to live life with primary dependence on him/herself rather than being guided, taught and supported by parents.
  4. Identity v. role confusion; with growing independence comes the whole challenge of a teenager learning who he/she is and what role he/she will play in the world regarding friends, family, jobs, etc.
  5. Social issues/group identity v. individuality; with growing adulthood comes the challenge of learning what groups and communities a person wants to be part of and how those groups and communities impact their own sense of individuality.
  6. Growing responsibility; a substantial challenge for any teenager is learning to bear the personal responsibility of living a healthy, productive, compassionate and caring adult life.
  7. Known/safe/familiar v. forward movement into world; the teenager now begins to experiment by moving from what he/she knows to how he/she will be as an individual in the world.
  8. Altered consciousness v. sobriety; we know that the teen years are when the urges arise to experiment with altering consciousness; teenagers have to learn whether to experiment with drugs and alcohol and, if so, to what extent
  9. True self v. false self; the teenager, in individuating from his/her family, begins to learn who he/she truly is and how that true self relates to ways they may have pretended to be.
  10. Purpose/meaning v. realism/practicality; the teenager is struggling mightily with what constitutes purpose and meaning in their lives and how real and practical those are.
  11. Faith v. cynicism (spirituality); the teenager is also beginning to deal with what we would broadly call spirituality, whether to have faith or not, whether to engage in cynicism or push through that.

Most of us have either purposely blocked out our memories of this critical age or engaged in “convenient memory,” remembering only the most positive parts of it.  When we really focus on all things teenagers are going through, even without psychological and emotional complications, we can see how important these years are.

In future posts, I will discuss in further detail developmental issues teenagers face.

To find out how Jeffrey Miller can help you or your child, adolescent, or teen, call him at (650) 321-0410 or email him at [email protected].