Adolescence development

Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood. Adolescence is a time of big social changes, emotional changes, physical changes (puberty) and changes in relationships. These changes show that your child is forming an independent identity and learning to be an adult. However, the many physical, sexual, cognitive, social, and emotional changes that happen during this time can bring anticipation and anxiety for both children and their families. Understanding what to expect at different stages can promote healthy development throughout adolescence and into early adulthood.

Children and their parents often struggle with changing dynamics of family relationships during adolescence. Many people think that adolescence is always a difficult time, and that all teenagers have bad moods and behave in challenging ways. In fact, some studies show that only 5-15% of teenagers go through extreme emotional turmoil, become rebellious or have major conflicts with their parents. But parents are still a critical support throughout this time.

Social and emotional changes are part of your child’s journey to adulthood. You have a big role to play in helping your child develop grown-up emotions and social skills. Strong relationships with family and friends are vital for your child’s healthy social and emotional development.

Here are some ideas to help you support your child’s social, physical and emotional development:

• Help your child anticipate changes in his or her body. Learn about puberty and explain what’s ahead. Reassure them that physical changes and emerging sexuality is part of normal, healthy development. Leave room for questions and allow children to ask them at their own pace. Talk to your pediatrician when needed.
• Start early conversations about other important topics. Maintain open communication about healthy relationships, sex, sexuality, consent, and safety (such as how to prevent sexually transmitted infection and pregnancy, and substance use). Starting these conversations during early adolescence will help build a good framework for discussions later.
• Talk about relationships, sex and sexuality. If you talk about relationships, sex and sexuality in an open and non-judgmental way with your child, it can promote trust between you. But it’s best to look for everyday times when you can easily bring up these issues rather than having a big talk. When these moments come up, it’s often good to find out what your child already knows. Correct any misinformation and give the facts. Use the conversation as a chance to talk about appropriate sexual behaviour. And let your child know you’re always available to talk about questions or concerns.
• Be a role model. You can be a role model for positive relationships with your friends, children, partner and colleagues. Your child will learn from seeing relationships that have respect, empathy and positive ways of resolving conflict. You can also role-model positive ways of dealing with difficult emotions and moods. For example, there’ll be times when you’re feeling cranky, tired and unsociable. Instead of withdrawing from your child, you could say, ‘I’m tired and cross. I feel I can’t talk now without getting upset. Can we have this conversation after dinner?’
• Get to know your child’s friends. Getting to know your child’s friends and making them welcome in your home will help you keep up with your child’s social relationships. It also shows that you recognize how important your child’s friends are to your child’s sense of self. If you’re concerned about your child’s friends, you might be able to guide your child towards other social groups. But banning a friendship or criticizing your child’s friends could have the opposite effect. That is, your child might want to spend even more time with the group of friends you’ve banned.
• Listen to your child’s feelings. Active listening can be a powerful way of strengthening your relationship with your child in these years. To listen actively, you need to stop what you’re doing when your child wants to talk. If you’re in the middle of something, make a time when you can listen. Respect your child’s feelings and try to understand his perspective, even if it’s not the same as yours. For example, ‘It sounds like you’re feeling left out because you’re not going to the party on Thursday night’.
• Be open about your feelings. Telling your child how you feel when she behaves in particular ways helps your child learn to read and respond to emotions. It also models positive and constructive ways of relating to other people. It can be as simple as saying something like ‘I felt really happy when you invited me to your school performance’.
• Focus on the positive. Keep conversations with your child positive. Point out strengths. Celebrate successes. There might be times when you seem to have a lot of conflict with your child or your child seems very moody. In these times, it helps to focus on and reinforce the positive aspects of your child’s social and emotional development. For example, you could praise your child for being a good friend, or for having a wide variety of interests, or for trying hard at school.
• Honor independence and individuality. This is all part of moving into early adulthood. Always remind your child you are there to help when needed.
• Looking after yourself. It’s easy to get caught up in your child’s needs and the daily tasks of getting children to sporting and social activities. Even with all this going on, looking after yourself and making time for the things you enjoy can keep you feeling positive about parenting your teenage child.

Be supportive and set clear limits with high (but reasonable) expectations. Communicate clear, reasonable expectations for curfews, school engagement, media use, and behavior, for example. At the same time, gradually expanding opportunities for more independence over time as your child takes on responsibility. Youth with parents that aim for this balance have been shown to have lower rates of depression and drug use.

Discuss risky behaviors (such as sexual activity and substance use) and their consequences. Be sure to set a positive example yourself. This can help teens consider or rehearse decision-making ahead of time and prepare for when situations arise.

Honor independence and individuality. This is all part of moving into early adulthood. Always remind your child you are there to help when needed.

The adolescent years can feel like riding a roller coaster. By maintaining positive and respectful parent-child relationships during this period, your family can (try to) enjoy the ride.

Every child experiences changes at a different rate. If you’re concerned about your child’s rate of development or you have concerns about your child’s changing body, thinking or behavior, you could start by talking to a school counselor or your doctor. If you’re really worried, you could look for a counselor or psychologist. You don’t need a referral, but you might prefer to have your doctor recommend someone.

Physical development in adolescence

Puberty

Puberty is the time in life when a boy or girl becomes sexually mature. Puberty is a process that usually happens between ages 10 and 14 for girls (can start as early as age 6 or 7) and ages 12 and 16 for boys (can start as early as age 9). Puberty causes physical changes, and affects boys and girls differently. These physical, psychological and emotional changes signal your child is moving from childhood to adolescence. Most girls finish puberty by age 14. Most boys finish puberty at age 15 or 16.

There’s no way of knowing exactly when your child will start puberty. Early changes in your child’s brain and hormone levels can’t be seen from the outside, so it’s easy to think that puberty hasn’t started.

Puberty is a process. It occurs for several years. Puberty can be completed in about 18 months, or it can take up to five years. This range is also completely normal.

Puberty is made up of a clear sequence of stages, affecting the skeletal, muscular, reproductive, and nearly all other bodily sys­tems. Physical changes during puberty tend to be more gradual and steady. This is comforting to many parents who feel childhood passes much too quickly.

Changes in puberty include:

• physical growth and development inside and outside children’s bodies
• changes to children’s sexual organs
• brain changes
• social and emotional changes.

Girls key physical changes in puberty:

• The first sign of puberty is usually breast development.
• Then hair grows in the pubic area and armpits.
• Acne can occur.
• Menstruation (or a period) usually happens last.

If you have a daughter, these are the main external physical changes in puberty that you can expect.

• Around 10-11 years
  • Breasts will start developing. This is the first visible sign that puberty is starting. It’s normal for the left and right breasts to grow at different speeds. It’s also common for the breasts to be a bit tender as they develop. If your child wants a bra, a soft crop top or sports bra can be a good first choice.
  • Your daughter will have a growth spurt, and she’ll get taller. Some parts of her body – like her head, face and hands – might grow faster than her limbs and torso. This might leave her looking out of proportion for a while. On average girls grow 5-20 cm. They usually stop growing at around 16-17 years.
  • Your daughter’s body shape will change. For example, her hips will widen.
  • Your daughter’s external genitals (vulva) and pubic hair will start to grow. Her pubic hair will get darker and thicker over time.
• Around 12-14 years (about two years after breast development starts)
  • Hair will start growing under your daughter’s arms.
  • Your daughter will get a clear or whitish discharge from her vagina for several months before her periods start. If the discharge bothers your daughter, you could suggest she uses a panty liner. If your daughter says she has itching, pain or a bad or strong odor, check with a doctor.
  • Periods will start. This is when the lining of the uterus (womb), including blood, is shed every month. Your daughter might get pain before and during her period, like headaches or stomach cramps. Her periods might be irregular at first.

Boys key physical changes in puberty:

• Puberty usually begins with the testicles and penis getting bigger.
• Then hair grows in the pubic area and armpits.
• A small amount of breast tissue develops.
• The voice deepens.
• Muscles grow and strengthen.
• Acne can occur.
• Facial hair appears.

If you have a son, these are the main external physical changes in puberty that you can expect.

• Around 11-13 years
  • The external genitals (penis, testes and scrotum) will start to grow. It’s normal for one testis to grow faster than the other. You can reassure your son that men’s testes usually aren’t the same size.
  • Pubic hair will start to grow. It will get darker and thicker over time.
• Around 12-14 years
  • Your son will have a growth spurt. He’ll get taller and his chest and shoulders will get broader. Some parts of his body – like his head, face and hands – might grow faster than his limbs and torso. This might leave him looking out of proportion for a while. On average boys grow 10-30 cm. They usually stop growing at around 18-20 years.
  • It’s common for boys to have minor breast development. If your son is worried by this, you can let him know it’s normal and usually goes away by itself. If it doesn’t go away or if your son’s breasts seem to be growing a lot, he could speak to his doctor.
• Around 13-15 years
  • Hair will start growing on other parts of your son’s body – under his arms, on his face and on the rest of his body. His leg and arm hair will thicken. Some young men will grow more body hair into their early 20s.
  • Your son will start producing more testosterone, which stimulates the testes to produce sperm.
  • Your son will start getting erections and ejaculating (releasing sperm). During this period, erections often happen for no reason at all. Just let your son know that this is normal and that people don’t usually notice. Ejaculation during sleep is often called a ‘wet dream’.
• Around 14-15 years
  • The larynx (‘Adam’s apple’ or voice box) will become more obvious. Your son’s larynx will get larger and his voice will ‘break’, eventually becoming deeper. Some boys’ voices move from high to low and back again, even in one sentence. This will stop in time.

Both boys and girls may get acne. They also usually have a growth spurt (a rapid increase in height) that lasts for about 2 or 3 years. This brings them closer to their adult height, which they reach after puberty.

Not all children follow the same pattern of sexual development. Some girls develop breasts at a very young age but have no other signs of sexual development. Some children have pubic and armpit hair long before they show other signs of sexual growth. These changes in pattern are common. However, it’s a good idea for your child to have a check-up with his or her doctor once a year as he or she grows. This gives your doctor a chance to track the changes. Also, it gives you and your child a chance to ask questions.

Changes in body composition and height

Most children have a slimmer appearance during middle child­hood than they did during the preschool years. This is due to shifts in the accumulation and location of body fat. As a child’s entire body size increases, the amount of body fat stays relatively stable, giving her a thinner look. Also during this stage of life, a child’s legs are longer in pro­portion to the body than they were before. On average, the steady growth of middle childhood results in an increase in height of a little over 2 inches a year in both boys and girls. Weight gain aver­ages about 6.5 pounds a year.

A number of fac­tors, including how close the child is to puberty, will determine when and how much a child grows. In general, there tends to be a period of a slightly increased growth rate between ages 6 and 8. This may be accompanied with the appearance of a small amount of pubic hair, armpit hair, mild acne, and/or body odor.

The influence of heredity

Perhaps more than any other factor, your child’s growth and ultimate height will be influenced by heredity. While there are exceptions, tall parents usually have tall children, and short parents usually have short children. Those are the realities of genetics.

Concerns about growth

If your child seems unusually short or tall relative to his friends the same age, talk with your pediatrician. A true growth disorder can sometimes be treated by administering growth hormones; however, this therapy is re­served for young children whose own glands cannot produce this hormone. Doctors do not recommend this treatment for healthy boys and girls who may want (or whose parents may want them) to grow to be 6 feet tall instead of 5 feet 8.

Precocious puberty and delayed puberty

Most of the time, puberty follows the same age ranges. However, there is such a thing as precocious puberty (early onset) and delayed puberty.

• Precocious puberty:
  • In most cases, early puberty is just a variation of normal puberty. In a few cases, there may be a medical reason for it.
  • Talk to a doctor when a young girl develops breasts and pubic hair before age 7 or 8.
  • Talk to a doctor if a young boy has an increase in testicle or penis size before age 9.
• Delayed puberty:
  • Sometimes, delayed puberty is caused by a medical reason. For example, malnutrition (not eating enough of the right kinds of food) can cause delayed puberty. Both early and late puberty can run in families.
  • Puberty may be late in girls who have the following signs:
    • No development of breast tissue by age 14.
    • No periods for 5 years or more after the first appearance of breast tissue.
  • Puberty may be late in boys who have the following signs:
    • No testicle development by age 14.
    • Development of the male organs isn’t complete 5 years after they first show signs of development.

Talk to your child’s doctor about possible causes for the change in puberty pattern. Your doctor may do a physical exam. He or she might suspect a cause for the puberty variation and order some tests, including:

• Blood tests to check hormone levels.
• An X-ray of the wrist to check bone growth.
• A CT or MRI (imaging) of the head to look for a tumor or brain injury.
• Chromosome (gene) studies.

Sometimes the cause can’t be found even after several tests. When no cause is found, no treatment is needed. In some children, a medical cause is found and treated. For example, if the reason for late puberty is lack of hormones, hormone medication can help.

Teenage brain development

As children become teenagers, their brains grow and change. These changes affect their thinking and behavior.

Children’s brains have a massive growth spurt when they’re very young. By the time they’re six, their brains are already about 90-95% of adult size. But the brain still needs a lot of remodeling before it can function as an adult brain. This brain remodeling happens intensively during adolescence, continuing into your child’s mid-20s.

Some brain changes happen before puberty, and some continue long after. Brain change depends on age, experience and hormonal changes in puberty.

So even though all teenagers’ brains develop in roughly the same way at the same time, there are differences among individual teenagers. For example, if your child started puberty early, this might mean that some of your child’s brain changes started early too.

Inside the teenage brain

Adolescence is a time of significant growth and development inside the teenage brain. The main change is that unused connections in the thinking and processing part of your child’s brain called the grey matter are ‘pruned’ away. At the same time, other connections are strengthened. This is the brain’s way of becoming more efficient, based on the ‘use it or lose it’ principle.

This pruning process begins in the back of the brain. The front part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, is remodeled last. The prefrontal cortex is the decision-making part of the brain, responsible for your child’s ability to plan and think about the consequences of actions, solve problems and control impulses. Changes in this part continue into early adulthood.

Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, teenagers might rely on a part of the brain called the amygdala to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do. The amygdala is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behavior.

Have you noticed that sometimes your child’s thinking and behavior seems quite mature, but at other times your child seems to behave or think in illogical, impulsive or emotional ways? The back-to-front development of the brain explains these shifts and changes – teenagers are working with brains that are still under construction.

Building a healthy teenage brain

The combination of your child’s unique brain and environment influences the way your child acts, thinks and feels. For example, your child’s preferred activities and skills might become ‘hard-wired’ in the brain.

How teenagers spend their time is crucial to brain development. So it’s worth thinking about the range of activities and experiences your child is into – music, sports, study, languages, video games. How are these shaping the sort of brain your child takes into adulthood?

You are an important part of your child’s environment. You mean a lot to your child. How you guide and influence him will be important in helping your child to build a healthy brain too.

You can do this by:

• encouraging positive behavior
• promoting good thinking skills
• helping your child get lots of sleep.

Behavior strategies for teenage brain development

While your child’s brain is developing, your child might:

• take more risks or choose high-risk activities
• express more and stronger emotions
• make impulsive decisions.

Here are some tips for encouraging good behavior and strengthening positive brain connections:

• Let your child take some healthy risks. New and different experiences help your child develop an independent identity, explore grown-up behavior, and move towards independence.
• Help your child find new creative and expressive outlets for her feelings. She might be expressing and trying to control new emotions. Many teenagers find that doing or watching sport or music, writing and other art forms are good outlets.
• Talk through decisions step by step with your child. Ask about possible courses of action your child might choose, and talk through potential consequences. Encourage your child to weigh up positive consequences or rewards against negative ones.
• Use family routines to give your child’s life some structure. These might be based around school and family timetables.
• Provide boundaries and opportunities for negotiating those boundaries. Young people need guidance and limit-setting from their parents and other adults.
• Offer frequent praise and positive rewards for desired behavior. This reinforces pathways in your child’s brain.
• Be a positive role model. Your behavior will show your child the behavior you expect.
• Stay connected with your child. You’ll probably want to keep an eye on your child’s activities and friends. Being open and approachable can help you with this.
• Talk with your child about his developing brain. Understanding this important period of growth might help your child process his feelings. It might also make taking care of his brain more interesting.

Thinking strategies for teenage brain development

Brain growth and development during these years mean that your child will start to:

• think more logically
• think about things more abstractly and understand that issues aren’t always simple
• pick up more on other people’s emotional cues
• solve complex problems in a logical way, and see problems from different perspectives
• get a better perspective on the future.

You can support the development of your child’s thinking with the following strategies:

• Encourage empathy. Talk about feelings – yours, your child’s and other people’s. Highlight the fact that other people have different perspectives and circumstances. Reinforce that many people can be affected by one action.
• Emphasize the immediate and long-term consequences of actions. The part of the brain responsible for future thinking (the prefrontal cortex) is still developing. If you talk about how your child’s actions influence both the present and the future, you can help the healthy development of your child’s prefrontal cortex.
• Try to match your language level to the level of your child’s understanding. For important information, you can check your child has understood by asking him to tell you in his own words what he’s just heard.
• Help your child develop decision-making and problem-solving skills. You and your child could work through a process that involves defining problems, listing options, and considering outcomes that everyone is happy with. Role-modelling these skills is important too.

Sleep and teenage brain development

During the teenage years, your child’s sleep patterns will change. This is because the brain produces melatonin at a different time of the day. This makes your child feel tired and ready for bed later in the evening. It can keep your child awake into the night and make it difficult for her to get up the next morning.

Sleep is essential to healthy brain development. Try the following tips:

• Ensure your child has a comfortable, quiet sleep environment.
• Encourage ‘winding down’ before bed, away from screens including phones.
• Reinforce a regular sleeping routine. Your child should aim to go to bed and wake up at regular times each day.
• Encourage your child to get enough sleep each night. On average, teenagers need 8-10 hours each night.

Risk-taking behavior and the teenage brain

The teenage brain is built to seek out new experiences, risks and sensations – it’s all part of refining those brain connections.

Also, teenagers don’t always have a lot of self-control or good judgment and are more prone to risk-taking behavior. This is because the self-monitoring, problem-solving and decision-making part of the brain – the prefrontal cortex – develops last. Hormones are also thought to contribute to impulsive and risky behavior in teenagers. Teenagers need to take risks to grow and develop. You can support your child in choosing healthy risks – like sports and travel – instead of negative ones like smoking and stealing. All risk-taking involves the possibility of failure. Your child will need your support to get over any setbacks.

Stress and the teenage brain

With so many changes happening to your child’s brain, it’s especially important that your child is protected and nurtured. The incidence of poor mental health increases during the teenage years. It’s thought this could be related to the fact that the developing brain is more vulnerable to stress factors than the adult brain.

Teenage stresses can include alcohol and other drugs, high-risk behavior, experiences like starting a new school and peer pressure, or major life events like moving house or the death of a loved one. But too much protection and attention might not be good for your relationship either.

Instead, staying connected and involved in your child’s life can help you to learn more about how your child is coping with stress. It can also help you keep an open relationship with your child and ensure that your child sees you as someone to talk to – even about embarrassing or uncomfortable topics.

It’s thought that children are more likely to be open to parental guidance and monitoring during their teenage years if they’ve grown up in a supportive and nurturing home environment.

Every teenage child is unique, and teenagers respond to stress in different and unique ways. You know your child best, so it’s OK to trust your instinct on how to support your child if he’s going through a stressful time. It’s also OK to ask for help from friends, family members or professionals like your doctor.

Social development in adolescence

Identity

Young people are busy working out who they are and where they fit in the world. You might notice your child trying out new things like clothing styles, music, art or friendship groups. Friends, family, media, culture and more shape your child’s choices in these years.

Independence

Your child will probably want more independence about things like how he gets to places, how he spends his time, who he spends time with, and what he spends money on. As your child becomes more independent, it’ll probably mean some changes in your family routines and relationships, as well as your child’s friendships.

Responsibility

Your child might be keen to take on more responsibility both at home and at school. This could include things like cooking dinner once a week or being on the school council.

New experiences

Your child is likely to look for new experiences, including risky experiences. This is normal as your child explores her own limits and abilities, as well as the boundaries you set. She also needs to express herself as an individual. But because of how teenage brains develop, your child might sometimes struggle with thinking through consequences and risks before he tries something new.

Values

This is the time your child starts to develop a stronger individual set of values and morals. She’ll question more things, and she’s also learning that she’s responsible for her own actions, decisions and consequences. Your words and actions help shape your child’s sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

Influences

Your child’s friends and peers might influence your child, particularly his behavior, appearance, interests, sense of self and self-esteem. You still have a big influence on long-term things like your child’s career choices, values and morals.

Sexual identity

Your child might start to have romantic relationships or go on ‘dates’. But these aren’t always intimate relationships. For some young people, intimate or sexual relationships don’t occur until later on in life.

Media

The internet, mobile phones and social media can influence how your child communicates with friends and learns about the world.

Emotional development in adolescence

Moods and feelings

Your child might show strong feelings and intense emotions, and her moods might seem unpredictable. These emotional ups and downs can lead to increased conflict. They happen partly because your child’s brain is still learning how to control and express emotions in a grown-up way.

Sensitivity to others

As your child gets older, he’ll get better at reading and understanding other people’s emotions. But while your child is developing these skills, he can sometimes misread facial expressions or body language.

Self-consciousness

Teenage self-esteem is often affected by appearance – or by how teenagers think they look. As your child develops, she might feel self-conscious about her physical appearance. She might also compare her body with those of friends and peers.

Decision-making

Your child might go through a stage where he seems to act without thinking a lot of the time. Your child’s decision-making skills are still developing, and he’s still learning that actions have consequences and even risks sometimes.

Changes in relationships in adolescence

One of the big changes you might notice is that your child wants to spend more time with friends and peers and less time with family.

At the same time, it might seem like you and your child are having more arguments. This is normal, as children seek more independence. It’s also because your child is starting to think more abstractly and to question different points of view. On top of this, your child might upset people without meaning to, just because she doesn’t always understand how her words and actions affect other people.

It might help to know that conflict tends to peak in early adolescence and that these changes show that your child is maturing. Even if you feel like you’re arguing with your child a lot now, it isn’t likely to affect your relationship with your child in the longer term. But it might be a good idea to develop some ways of managing conflict to help you through this stage in your relationship.

Adolescence stage

Early Adolescence (ages 10 to 13)

During this stage, children often start to grow more quickly. They also begin notice other body changes, including hair growth under the arms and near the genitals, breast development in females and enlargement of the testicles in males. They usually start a year or two earlier in girls than boys, and it can be normal for some changes to start as early as age 8 for females and age 9 for males. Many girls may start their period at around age 12, on average 2-3 years after the onset of breast development.

These body changes can inspire curiosity and anxiety in some―especially if they do not know what to expect or what is normal. Some children may also question their gender identity at this time, and the onset of puberty can be a difficult time for transgender children.

Early adolescents have concrete, black-and-white thinking. Things are either right or wrong, great or terrible, without much room in between. It is normal at this stage for young people to center their thinking on themselves called “egocentrism”. As part of this, preteens and early teens are often self-conscious about their appearance and feel as though they are always being judged by their peers.

Pre-teens feel an increased need for privacy. They may start to explore ways of being independent from their family. In this process, they may push boundaries and may react strongly if parents or guardians reinforce limits.

Middle Adolescence (ages 14 to 17)

Physical changes from puberty continue during middle adolescence. Most males will have started their growth spurt, and puberty-related changes continue. They may have some voice cracking, for example, as their voices lower. Some develop acne. Physical changes may be nearly complete for females, and most girls now have regular periods.

At this age, many teens become interested in romantic and sexual relationships. They may question and explore their sexual identity―which may be stressful if they do not have support from peers, family, or community. Another typical way of exploring sex and sexuality for teens of all genders is self-stimulation, also called masturbation.

Many middle adolescents have more arguments with their parents as they struggle for more independence. They may spend less time with family and more time with friends. They are very concerned about their appearance, and peer pressure may peak at this age.

The brain continues to change and mature in this stage, but there are still many differences in how a normal middle adolescent thinks compared to an adult. Much of this is because the frontal lobes are the last areas of the brain to mature―development is not complete until a person is well into their 20s! The frontal lobes play a big role in coordinating complex decision making, impulse control, and being able to consider multiple options and consequences. Middle adolescents are more able to think abstractly and consider “the big picture,” but they still may lack the ability to apply it in the moment. For example, in certain situations, kids in middle adolescence may find themselves thinking things like:

• “I’m doing well enough in math and I really want to see this movie… one night of skipping studying won’t matter.”
• Do I really have to wear a condom during sex if my girlfriend takes the pill?”
• “Marijuana is legal now, so it can’t be that bad.”

While they may be able to walk through the logic of avoiding risks outside of these situations, strong emotions often continue to drive their decisions when impulses come into play.

Late Adolescents (18-21 and beyond)

Late adolescents generally have completed physical development and grown to their full adult height. They usually have more impulse control by now and may be better able to gauge risks and rewards accurately. In comparison to middle adolescents, youth in late adolescence might find themselves thinking:

• “While I do love Paul Rudd movies, I need to study for my final.”
• “I should wear a condom…even though my girlfriend is on birth control, that’s not 100% in preventing pregnancy.”
• “Even though marijuana is legal, I’m worried about how it might affect my mood and work/school performance.”

Teens entering early adulthood have a stronger sense of their own individuality now and can identify their own values. They may become more focused on the future and base decisions on their hopes and ideals. Friendships and romantic relationships become more stable. They become more emotionally and physically separated from their family. However, many reestablish an “adult” relationship with their parents, considering them more an equal from whom to ask advice and discuss mature topics with, rather than an authority figure.