Adolescence: Characteristics, Needs, and Intervention Strategies
This interaction aims to: increase intimacy, seek new experiences, test maturity, update with peers, and investigate the mysteries of love. Masturbation is often the first sexual experience for many adolescents. This stage is where sexual orientation manifests; attraction to the opposite sex indicates heterosexuality, while attraction to the same sex indicates homosexuality. A primary concern at this early age is the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
Interpersonal relationships within the peer group are crucial; adolescents need a friend or group for constant support. These relationships are characterized by long-term commitment, trust, intimacy, communication, affection, and mutual understanding, serving an integrative function in society. However, this group can also be a source of negative influences, such as drug use and peer pressure. Family relationships may experience tension due to the generation gap and the adolescent’s changing need for autonomy, though this does not necessarily mean permanent damage.
These changes are reflected in physiological developments, a sense of invincibility, risk-taking behavior, self-centeredness, feelings of being constantly observed, fear of ridicule, the initiation of formal thought, an expanded worldview, the importance of a support group, a redefinition of physical development, and a shift in values. The needs of adolescents during puberty include defining their identity, understanding psychophysical changes, joining a group, adapting to school changes, finding understanding and affection, developing hypothetical-deductive thinking, and exploring.
During middle adolescence, individuals seek cultural values, specify personalization and socialization, integrate love and sex, implement operational thinking, participate in socio-political activities, and consider their professional future. Late adolescence involves choosing a career, planning for the future, rebuilding family life, accepting rights and duties, cooperating socially, and establishing a value system.
Intervention strategies for adolescents are preventative, aimed at specific problems, and focused on patients showing disturbances. Developing skills is crucial at this age. Early social skills include listening, starting and maintaining conversations, and asking questions. Advanced skills involve asking for help, getting involved, apologizing, and convincing others. Feelings-related skills include recognizing, expressing, understanding, and respecting one’s own feelings. Alternatives to aggression include asking permission, sharing, helping, negotiating, responding to jokes, and avoiding fights. Abilities to cope with stress include making complaints, demonstrating sportsmanship, defending friends, and responding to accusations. Planning skills involve making decisions, setting goals, and concentrating on tasks. This model is implemented through verbal instruction, imitation, feedback, and reinforcement.
Teens often experience feelings of love easily, sometimes dissociating the physical from the sentimental. As Fineltain Ludwig stated, “The teenager is a strange, innocent as an angel, proud as a prince, brave as a hero, vain as a peacock, lazy, indomitable as a bull, irritable as a lady.” Stanley Hall noted, “The teenagers live in a permanent state of spiritual intoxication,” and Plato observed, “The teenagers live in a permanent state of spiritual intoxication.”
25. Adolescence: Characteristics, Needs, and Intervention Strategies.
Biological changes mark the onset of adolescence, but it is also characterized by significant psychological and social transformations. Hormonal changes during puberty lead to physiological changes, including the maturation of sex organs and the ability to reproduce. This is known as pubescencia. The true meaning of this stage is the maturation of personal autonomy. The adolescent experiences confusion and conflict in three areas: the conquest of maturity as a responsible personality, the achievement of independence, and the development of a unique persona. Puberty is the process leading to sexual maturity, while adolescence begins and ends with biological changes. According to Horrocks, social changes mark the end of adolescence, including the establishment of sexual identity, the ability to maintain professional commitments, the acquisition of personal values, and reciprocal relationships.
Major physical changes at this stage are called primary sex characteristics. In girls, this includes enlarged ovaries and menstruation (menarche). In boys, it includes the development of the penis, testicles, prostate, and urethra, as well as the first ejaculation (semenarquia). Secondary sex characteristics include the growth of pubic and underarm hair in girls, breast development, and in boys, the growth of pubic, facial, and underarm hair, as well as voice changes. The uncertainty associated with these developments is closely related to self-confidence and social environment, impacting identity creation.
In cognitive development, Piaget’s theory suggests that adolescents reach the highest level of development, characterized by abstract thinking. They develop prosocial thinking skills, logic, and the ability to understand verbal statements and proposals rather than concrete objects. They can understand symbolic abstractions and metaphors and develop hypothetical-deductive thought, forming hypotheses and then testing them through deductive thinking. Adolescents at this stage are often egocentric, critical of authority figures, argumentative, self-conscious, focused on themselves, and indecisive. They may also exhibit apparent hypocrisy.
In social development, adolescents establish closer ties with their peer group, first with the same sex and then with the opposite sex, to consolidate relationships. Adolescence is a time of searching for personal identity, with the self as the central element, integrating bodily, mental, social, and moral aspects. Professionals must emphasize the observation of sexually transmitted diseases, accidents, suicides, and nutritional issues such as obesity, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia. These conditions are treated with nutritional therapy, cognitive techniques, behavior modification, and psychotherapy. Thought and sexual behavior are characteristic of adolescents, often involving intimate touching, which can develop into feelings and behaviors ranging from sympathy and friendship to courtship.