Life Span Development of Adolescents, Early and Middle Adulthood

FIVE IMPORTANT FEATURES OF DEVELOPMENT

Boys

• LH/ISIH and FSH stimulate the somniferous tables and testosterone secretion.
• Testicular enlargement
• Testes have two primary Functions to produce hormones and to produce sperms
• Voice change under the influence of androgens, the larynx (voice box) grows in both gender, but is far more prominent in boys causing the male voice to drop on octave occasionally accompanied by cracking breaking sounds in early stages.
• Mole musculature and body shape by the end of puberty.

Girls

• Menarche and first menstrual cycle occurs as a result of the release of FSH
• Increase in Estrogen – widening of the pelvis
• Fat distribution increases in the breasts, hips and the thighs
• Body odour, skin changes and acne
• Vagina, uterus and ovaries – mucosal surface of the vagina changes in response to increasing levels of estrogen, becoming thicker and duller pink in colour. Whitish secretions (Physiologic leucorrhea.
• Adolescent brain may be especially sensitive to new memories, social stress, and drug use Summary. However, a small number of studies do support that memory formation,
• social stress and drug use are processed differently in the adolescent brain compared to other periods of life.

Adolescence is often viewed as a period of irrational and risky decision making – with eye tracking, adolescents information processing.

Adolescent emergent processes are those that develop from childhood to adolescence and then remain largely stable into adulthood. Finally, adolescent specific changes are those that emerge uniquely during adolescence but are not present in either child or adulthood.

Early Adulthood (Age 19 – 40 years)

• Physical abilities are at its peak including muscle, strength, sensory abilities and cardiac function.
• Aging process begins in early adulthood and characterized by changes in the skin. Vision and reproductive capability,
• Physical maturation I complete although our height and weight may increase.
• Increase in libido
• Reproductive capacity starts to decline.

Cognitive Development of early adulthood

During early adulthood, cognition begins to stabilize, reaching a peak around the age of 35 years. Early adulthood is a time of relativistic thinking in which young people being to become aware of more the simplistic views of right vs. wrong. They begin to look at ideas and concepts from multiple angles and understand that a question can have more than one right or wrong answer. The need for specialization results in pragmatic thinking, using  logic to solve real world problems, while accepting contradiction, imperfection and other issues. Finally, young adults develop a sort of expertise in either education or career which further enhances problem-solving skills and capacity for creativity.

Adolescence is often viewed as a period of irrational and risky decision making – with eye tracking, adolescents information processing.

Adolescent emergent processes are those that develop from childhood to adolescence and then remain largely stable into adulthood. Finally, adolescent specific changes are those that emerge uniquely during adolescence but are not present in either child or adulthood.

Early Adulthood (Age 19 – 40 years)

• Physical abilities are at its peak including muscle, strength, sensory abilities and cardiac function.
• Aging process begins in early adulthood and characterized by changes in the skin. Vision and reproductive capability,
• Physical maturation I complete although our height and weight may increase.
• Increase in libido
• Reproductive capacity starts to decline.

Cognitive Development of early adulthood

During early adulthood, cognition begins to stabilize, reaching a peak around the age of 35 years. Early adulthood is a time of relativistic thinking in which young people being to become aware of more the simplistic views of right vs. wrong. They begin to look at ideas and concepts from multiple angles and understand that a question can have more than one right or wrong answer. The need for specialization results in pragmatic thinking, using  logic to solve real world problems, while accepting contradiction, imperfection and other issues. Finally, young adults develop a sort of expertise in either education or career which further enhances problem-solving skills and capacity for creativity.

Five changes in Middle Adulthood

• Skin changes and muscle changes
• Vision – Lens loses its capacity to adjust to objects at varying distances, problems reading small print.
• Decreases in strength/co-ordination
• Loss of neurons thus the processing of information slows down.
• Gray hair, hair loss wrinkles and age spots

Cognitive Development in Adolescence

• Adolescence marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. Cognitive development is the progression of thinking from the way a child does to the way an adult does. There are four main areas of cognitive development that occur during adolescence including the ability, to explore a full range of possibilities inherent in a situation. Think hypothetically contrary fact situations use a logical thought process
• Adolescents develop the ability to think abstractly. Adolescents move from being concrete thinkers, who think of things that they have direct contact with or knowledge about, to abstract thinkers, who can imagine things not seen or experienced. This allows adolescents to have the capacity to love, think about spirituality’s participate in more advanced mathematics.
• Consider many points of view. This means to compare or debate ideas or opinions.
• Think about the process of thinking. This means being aware of the act of thought processes. (University of Rochester medical center health encyclopedia).

Psychological Development in Adolescence

• Identity – adolescence is time of increased awareness of personal identity and individual characteristics
• Moral development – at this stage, people learn the virtue of fidelity. This means the ability to live by the standard set by society and loyalty. This doesn’t mean blind loyalty, but loving the community you live in and want it to be the best it can be.
• Relationships with family and peers
• Cultural Perspectives.

Cognitive Development: Early Adulthood

• Cognition begins to stabilize, reaching peak around age 35
• This is a time of relativistic thinking in which young people become aware of more than simplistic views of right verses wrong. They begin to look at ideas and concepts from multiple angles to understand that a question can have more than one right or wrong answer.
• The need for specialization results in pragmatic thinking – using logic to solve real world problems while accepting contradiction, imperfection and other issues.
• Young Adults develop a sort of expertise in either education or career which further enhances problem solving skills of the capacity for creativity.

Middle Adulthood (Age 40 – 65 years)

• Two forms of intelligence – crystallized and fluid are the main focus at middle adulthood. Our crystallized intelligence is dependent upon accumulated knowledge and experience. Fluid intelligence is more dependent on basic information – processing skills and starts to decline even prior to middle adulthood.
• Cognitive processing speed slows down during this stage.
• The ability to solve problems and divide attention also slows down
• Practical problem-solving skills tend to increase.

IMPORTANT FEATURES OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Social development theory argues that interaction precedes development, consciousness and cognition is the end product of socialization and social behavior (Leo Vygotsky).

For Adolescents:

Adolescence is the period of developmental transition between childhood and adulthood. It involves changes in personality, as well as in physical, intellectual and social development. During this time of change, teens are faced with many issues and decisions. The following addresses some of the key issues that can have an impact on a teen’s social development.

Self-esteem

This is the component of personality that our positive and negative evaluation, self-esteem relates of how we feel about ourselves. For the adolescent to be successful the parent or care giver must help the child to focus on his or her strength, allow them to makes mistakes. Being over protective or making decisions for them can make them feel less confident. A parent should replace punishment with positive reinforcement, because shame and punishment can make the adolescent feel worthless and inadequate.

 Peer pressure

As children grow, they begin to spend more time with their friends and less with their parents. As a result, friends can influence a child’s thinking and behavior. This is the essence of peer pressure. It can be positive influence, for example it motivates the adolescent to do well in school or involved in sports or church group or other positive activities. If negative it can influence them to try smoking drinking, using drugs, practice unsafe sex or other risky behaviors.

As it relates to Guyana, many teenagers who may come from a single parent household, or the parent or parents are absent due to the type of employment, mainly security, or other shift jobs,  end up pregnant. The boys, may suffer from drug abuse, encouraged to join gangs etc.

A source of strife with parents lies in the way adolescents think. Adolescence fosters adolescent egocentrism, a state of self-absorption in which a teenager views the world from his or her own point of view. Egocentrism leads adolescents to be highly critical of authority figures, unwilling to accept criticism, and to fault others. It also makes them believe that they are the center of everyone else. Such personal fables may make adolescents feel invulnerable to risk that threaten others (Elkind, 1998 Frankenberger, 2004, Tucker Blackwell, 2006).

Nurture your teen’s own abilities and self-esteem so that he or she is not susceptible to the influence of others. At the same time, reinforce the values that are important to you and your family.

For Early Adulthood

Intimacy vs Isolation

Early adulthood according to Eric Erickson is 19 years to 40 years intimacy versus isolation. This stage focuses on forming close relation with others. In early adulthood, an individual is concerned with developing the ability to share intimacy, seeking to form relationships and find intimate love. Long‐term relationships are formed, and often marriage and children result. The young adult is also faced with career decisions. Choices concerning marriage and family are often made during this period. Research shows that divorce is more likely among people who marry during adolescence, those whose parents were divorced, and those who are dissimilar in age, intelligence, personality, or attractiveness. Separation is also more frequent among those who do not have children. Most people who divorce and remarry, their children may experience more than one set of parents. Such alternatives to marriage as “living together” (cohabitation) have become more common. In 1997, the Census Bureau estimated that 4.13 million unwed couples lived in the United States. Work/career choice affects not only socioeconomic status but also friends, political values, residence location, child care, job stress, and many other aspects of life. And while income is important in both career selection and career longevity, so are achievement, recognition, satisfaction, security, and challenge. In the modern cultures of many nations, the careers of both spouses and partners frequently must be considered in making job choices.

Parents who are divorced, are dissimilar in age, intelligence, personality, or attractiveness. Separation is also more frequent among those who do not have children. Most people who have divorced,  remarry; consequently, children may experience more than one set of parents. Such alternatives to marriage as “living together” (cohabitation) have become more common. In 1997, the Census Bureau estimated that 4.13 million unwed couples lived in the United States. Work/career choice affects not only socioeconomic status but also friends, political values, residence location, child care, job stress, and many other aspects of life. And while income is important in both career selection and career longevity, so are achievement, recognition, satisfaction, security, and challenge. In the modern cultures of many nations, the careers of both spouses and partners frequently must be considered in making job choices.

For Middle Adulthood

In middle adulthood, an important challenge is to develop a genuine concern for the welfare of future generations and to contribute to the world through family and work. Erik Erikson refers to the problem posed at this stage as generativity vs. self‐absorption.

Robert Havighurst lists seven major tasks in the middle years:

• accepting and adjusting to physiological changes, such as menopause
• reaching and maintaining satisfaction in one’s occupation
• adjusting to and possibly caring for aging parents
• helping teenage children to become responsible adults
• achieving adult social and civic responsibility
• relating to one’s spouse as a person
• developing leisure‐time activities

While a midlife crisis is not regarded as a universal phenomenon, during one’s 40s and 65s comes the recognition that more than half of one’s life is gone. That recognition may prompt some to feel that the clock is ticking and that they must make sudden, drastic changes in order to achieve their goals.

Generativity vs Stagnation

It refers to a desire to give to others – to pass something along.  Generativity involves leaving a legacy of one’s self to pass on to future generations – much as we hear about Clinton being concerned about his legacy – what will he leave and be remembered for?  Generativity gives one a sense of immortality, as they have given something that will live on.  Stagnation is sometimes called “self-absorption”.  This occurs when one feels that they have done nothing for the next generation.  Generativity can be developed in a number of different ways – there is more than one way to influence the next generation.  How can we influence the next generation?

Socio Economic Status and Family Type

Studies done by nine different universities, Kimberly G Noble, Elizabeth R. Sowell, articles published in the journal Nature Neuroscience have shown that there is some correlation between a person’s brain structure and the family’s income. If the family is well off, the children have more access to resources; they are likely to develop better cognitively. While other children raised in poorer circumstances brain structure proved to be different.  However, researchers also noted that this theory is not set in stone since the brain can be reshaped. This tells me that there is hope for persons to make a comeback or achieve their potential, if their circumstances change later in life.

It should be noted that the factors affecting the socioeconomic status of the three age groups dealt with in this paper, mostly starts in childhood.  What occurs in the early stages of the developmental process, affects us as we grow older, if not deliberately intercepted and changed. Some factors that are experienced at the age levels were influenced by what happened in the early days of childhood.

Definition: Socioeconomic status (SES): is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person’s work experience and of an individual’s or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation

Economic Development:  According to Business Dictionary, Economic Development is the qualitative measure of progress in an economy. This progress is usually measured in terms of advancement in technology that improves comfort and productivity, the rate of shift from an agrarian to an industrialized economy and the elevation in living conditions for the population across all socio-economic stratifications.

Factors Affecting Economic Development

The factors affecting economic development are diverse and include issues that might seem at first to have little to do with advancement of technology, industry and living conditions.

These factors include social and cultural values, governmental policies and even the personal happiness of the individuals comprising the economic community.

Economic status has two levels – Lower and Higher.

Lower economic status will result in increased risk of illness, disabilities associated with lower SES, longer hospitalizations, greater need for home care, burden on the health care system of the government etc.

When family life is destroyed by divorce, separation, death etc, the economic status at both levels is affected negatively. In 2003, 82% white households were married couple households, 80% Asian, 68% Hispanic and 47% African (HS Bureau of Statistics 2004 b). As a result, cohabitation became more widely accepted and practiced.

What determines one’s Socio-economic status?

(SES) is a theoretical construct encompassing individual, household, and/or community access to resources. It is commonly conceptualized as a combination of economic, social, and work status, measured by income or wealth, education, and occupation, respectively.

The Socioeconomic factors affect:

According to race and ethnicity

From various research and articles about socio-economic factors affecting people, there is strong evidence with regards to race and ethnicity playing a role in the lives of people.

Their response to this has more to do with the norms and rules of the group they belong to. Poverty is low key here because it’s not about what they have that placed them in the ethnic group. Money does not determine their level of esteem either. Rather, the sense of belonging and acceptance into that group.  In Guyanese society, this may exist in the Indo Guyanese Hindu groups

According to Educational background

In Education, there is a disparity between whites, blacks, Hispanics and other races because of lower income in the black and minority households. The schools on the other hand, have not done a good job at ensuring the minority groups are educated properly (Books, 204: Scott-Jones, 1995.

The education status of children, often pose as a barrier to learning (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Many parents in the lower income bracket do not set high educational standards for their children. Some of them may also be school dropouts, so they are incapable of helping their children with schoolwork. Some parents might have the knowledge but are too busy making ends meet, so the children suffer.  The area in which the school is also contributes to the educational deficiency of the lower income bracket of the socio-economic scale. Schools in poor districts get less attention, financing etc from the authorities, while schools in the higher income communities with whites get the best. This results in lower test scores. Then children with lower scores do not meet the basic requirement for job placement or enrollment higher education. The school buildings in lower socioeconomic communities are also unkempt and in need of lots of repairs, this is not conducive to learning. Lower income family’s children may be malnourished. This contributes further to the woes of the child’s learning and development. Race also plays a part in the educati8onal background of a child. E.g. Schools in America.

There are also socio-economic differences in the way that parents think about education (Magnuson & Duncan, 2002; Hold, Laursen and Tardif, 2002. Middle and upper-income parents more often think of education as something that should be mutually encouraged by parents and teachers. By contrast, low income parents are more likely to view education as the teacher’s job. Thus increased school family linkages especially can benefit students from low-income families (Zaslow, 2004).

Finance

Families in lower socio-economic brackets have lower financial income as against those who are in the higher income brackets. They live in squalor (savage inequalities, according to Jonathan Kozol 1991) while it’s the opposite for the higher income bracket families.

In Guyana, financial status contributes to better learning or struggles in learning. However, not in the same ways as it affects the North Americans. The lower and higher income households meet in the same institutions, but their report cards may show the difference. There is equal opportunity but the struggle to achieve is harder for the lower income bracket earners.

Differences in Child Rearing

In America and most western cultures differences have been found in child rearing among different socio-economic status (SES) groups (Hoff Laursen &Tardif 2002).

Lower socio-economic status families (a) are concerned that their children live up to society’s expectations; (b) create a home atmosphere that emphasizes parental authority; (c) tend to use physical punishment as the means to discipline.  (d) Are more directive and less controversial with their children.

Higher socio-economic status families are a) concerned with developing children’s initiative and delay of gratification (b) create a home atmosphere in which children are more nearly equal participants and in which rules are discussed rather than being laid out in an authoritarian manner (c) Are less likely to use physical punishment and (d) less directive and more conversational with their children.

Judging between the lower and the higher, the following are noted: (a) the lower (SES) is under pressure to meet societal standards, while the higher is already accepted because of their status. This gives them scope to focus on helping the child to make decisions on their own. The lower will suffer in this case because there are trained to confirm, while the higher is trained to make things happen. (b) the lower tries to keep the parent as central and the main authority, while the higher gives their children to participate in the decision making process. This is great for developing confidence and autonomy in the higher SES. But the lower will develop dependency and may also lack self confidence. (c) When the higher is conversational, it broadens the child’s thinking capacity, ability communicate and bargain for what they want. This augurs well for school as well as the work environment.

Delays in Marriage

Higher rates in premarital pregnancy, sexual habits, relate and or stem from juvenile deviance, loosely defined and enforced norms of sexual behavior etc. These factors contribute to a low socio-economic status for adolescents and adults. It will also affect the offspring of these adults.

REFERENCES

Bridget J. Goosby, Jacob E. Cheadle, Whitney Strong-Bak, Taylor C. Roth, & Timothy D. Nelson. (2018). Perceived Discrimination and Adolescent Sleep in a Community Sample. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 4(4), 43-61. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/rsf.2018.4.4.03

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201503/socioeconomic-factors-impact-childs-brain-structure

https://www.amle.org://faculty.riohondo.edu

Santock.W.John. Children. Dallas Texas: Mc Graw Hill.

http Human Development eight edition, James W. Vander Zanden, Thomas L. Crandell, Corinne Haines Crandell,

Santock.W.John. Children. Dallas Texas: Mc Graw Hill.