Understanding pre-adolescence and adolescence

1. General characterization of this stage
   During preadolescence and adolescence, individuals face a crucial stage marked by decisions about their school and professional future, necessitating coherent guidance. This period involves significant contradictions between childlike behaviours and the need for protection, juxtaposed with new attitudes driven by autonomy and societal expectations. Maturation focuses on developing self-identity and independence, with a key aspect being the detachment from family tutelage. The distance between societal demands and individual capabilities, as well as reciprocal expectations, becomes more evident during this phase. Three distinct stages of development can be identified:
   • Puberty (10-14 years):
     o Dominated by the growth spurt and sexual development.
     o Significant implications for mental development and sociability.
   • Adolescence (14-18/20 years):
     o Dominated by adaptation to the adult state.
     o Involves the process of identity formation (“Who am I?”).
     o Characterized by significant intellectualization of behavior.
   • Prolonged Adolescence (18/20-24/25 years):
     o Dominated by primary psychological integration into the requirements of a profession.
     o Involves adaptation to conditions of independence and marital options.
     o Extends beyond traditional adolescence into early adulthood.
2. Physical and Psychological development during adolescence are marked by several characteristics.
   a. Physical:
   • Acceleration and Intensification of Growth: Growth spurts occur, often impetuously, leading to moments of fatigue, headaches, and irritability. Growth is more noticeable in height, but it doesn’t happen simultaneously for all body segments.
   • Muscular Development: The musculature develops, leading to increased physical strength and power.
   • Changes in Physionomy: The face undergoes changes foreshadowing adult features, impacting self-image and sometimes causing irreversible complexes.
   • Sexual Maturation: Sexual maturation includes the appearance of hair, growth of sexual organs, and the initiation of sexual gland functioning.
   • Voice Changes: The voice undergoes changes, particularly during puberty.
   The culmination of puberty is tense and conflict-ridden. Psychologically, growth and maturation create discomfort, including muscle pains, acne, profuse sweating, and skin sensitivity. Adolescents may experience anxieties and tension, and without adequate emotional and moral support, these challenges can lead to neurotic or violent reactions, sometimes even criminal behavior.
   b. In terms of psychic development during adolescence:
   Sensitivity:
   • Visual sensitivity widens, with increased visual acuity, aesthetic sense, and color sensitivity.
   • Auditory sensitivity enhances, enabling the interpretation of verbal intonations in communication. Teenagers use intonation nuances to convey different meanings.
   • Sense of smell develops, with increased attention to hygiene.
   • All senses, including posture, walking, and tact, develop, especially in emotionally charged relationships.
   Cognitive Development (Piaget’s Theory):
   • Adolescents transition from concrete operations to formal operations, engaging in hypothetical-deductive reasoning and reversible operational thinking.
   • Cognitive skills include the reactivation of curiosity, formal logic building, causal thinking development, and the ability to reason hypothetico-deductively.
   • Progression in formal thinking varies among individuals, and not all reach the formal operations stage.
   Language:
   • Adolescent language enriches with abstract concepts and becomes a key tool for formal thinking.
   • Vocabulary expands, verbal expressions become more complex, and a specific language, sometimes with strident expressions, is often used in group settings.
   Memory and Learning:
   • Logical memory becomes central, increasing organization and rationalization of material.
   • Adolescents develop their own memorization style, memorizing abstract information and expanding mental operations.
   • Cognitive development includes increased attention, concentration, effective problem-solving strategies, and the development of meta-cognitive skills.
   David Elkind’s Perspective:
   • Elkind notes an immaturity in adolescent thinking due to insufficient brain maturation, allowing emotions to influence rational thinking.
   • Adolescent egocentrism is characterized by unrealistic expectations, indecision, and a sense of invincibility.
   • Identity formation involves constant search and experimentation with identities.
   • The myth of invincibility is a significant characteristic, with teenagers believing that nothing bad can happen to them due to their intelligence or luck. This influences their attitude towards risk.
3. Socio-emotional Development of Adolescents:
   Emotions:
   • Emotional experience is nuanced in adolescence due to involvement in various life situations.
   • Relations with the opposite sex become more structured and coloured.
   • Increased mimic mobility, expressiveness, and internal emotionality.
   • Preadolescence and later stages show heightened excitability and hypersensitivity.
   • Mood fluctuations and rapid transitions may lead to inconsistency in manifestations.
   • Difficulties in regulating voluntary acts, with decisions often driven by emotional factors.
   • Criticism and constraints from adults can intensify emotional reactions, leading to defiance.
   Sociability:
   • The need for association and communication directs adolescents toward same-age groups.
   • Group association has positive effects but carries risks due to social immaturity, suggestibility, and the need for independence.
   • Discreet supervision is necessary to prevent groups from veering into juvenile delinquency.
   Personality Development (Erikson’s Theory):
   • Adolescents face an identity crisis, either resolving it positively or experiencing role confusion.
   • Identity is built on multiple levels: physical, sexual, intellectual, and social.
   • Adolescents seek to form personal and vocational identities and try various roles.
   • Confusion of roles leads to the frequent question: “Who am I?”
   • Failure to acquire a clear, lasting identity results in role diffusion and confusion between self-image and desired identity.
   • Educational goal: Train autonomy, as failure in adolescence can impact the individual’s entire existence.
   Gender Differences in Identity Development: Girls tend to postpone identity development until finding a life partner.
   Positive and Negative Effects of Identity Development:
   • Positive effects include perceiving oneself as a consistent person with a strong identity.
   • Negative effects involve confusion about one’s identity, leading to indecision, especially regarding vocation and sexual orientation.
   • External pressures can cause disorientation, despair, and, in extreme cases, adoption of a negative identity.
   James Marcia’s Extension of Erikson’s Theory:
   • Balance between identity and confusion achieved by making a commitment.
   • Four identity postures based on the presence or absence of crisis and commitment:
   • Realization of identity: Exploration, commitment, maturity, high self-esteem.
   • Moratorium: Active exploration, crisis without commitment, ambivalence.
   • Foreclosure: Commitment without crisis, authority-driven, satisfaction but rigidity.
   • Diffusion of identity: No crisis, no commitment, insecurity, low ego development, high anxiety.
4. Characteristics of the Educational Process in Adolescence:
   • Recognition of Adolescence as a Unique Stage:
     o Adolescents should be taken seriously and treated neither as children nor as adults.
     o Acknowledgment of their transitional stage with inconsistency, uncertainty, and masked self-confidence.
   • Individualized Approach:
     o Each adolescent is treated differently based on the specificity of their problems and behavior.
     o Avoiding generalizations about adolescents and recognizing their uniqueness.
   • Balanced Freedom of Movement:
     o Ensuring freedom of movement for adolescents.
     o Avoiding extremes: hyper-protective attitude, excessively permissive behavior, or hyper-authoritarian constraints.
     o Treating adolescents as dialogue partners rather than imposing decisions on them.
     o Allowing communication and analysis of decision alternatives, with the final decision belonging to the adolescent.
   • Respect and Trust:
     o Providing adolescents with respect and trust.
     o Recognizing that lack of respect and trust can lead to communication barriers and rebellious behavior.
     o Encouraging open and honest dialogue between adults and adolescents.
     o Facilitating an environment where adolescents feel respected and valued.
     

In summary, working with adolescents requires a nuanced and flexible approach (read more here). Recognizing their unique characteristics, providing individualized attention, maintaining a balanced approach to freedom, and fostering respect and trust are key principles in effective educational practices during adolescence.