Kayci Jones
3.1 Module Summary
This module taught me about some of the physiological factors that influence adolescent identity development. Some of these factors include growth patterns and pubertal timing. Growth patterns like changes in height and weight and the timing of these changes can influence adolescent's identity development in situations where they grow very tall before the rest of their peers and feel different, they can begin to identify themselves differently. Maturational timing is when the cascade of pubertal events occur and is another factor in adolescent identity development. I also learned about individual and social factors that contribute to diverse academic experiences. One individual factor would be resiliency which is defined as the ability to adapt in spite of adversity. Children with a higher resilience displayed greater academic success three years later. One social factor would be social class achievement gap reveals students from low socioeconomic status families perform worse than those from high socioeconomic families, often thought to be caused by school's tracking students and placing them in different programs that may or may not be adequately preparing them for a successful future and this tracking is considered the opposite of providing equal opportunity. I learned about how social environments can influence family functioning and adolescent development. Different sociometric nominations which measure children's status within their peer groups, can influence adolescent development. Average children are liked and disliked, popular children are mostly liked and show cooperativeness and supportiveness, neglected children are not liked or disliked and lack in social abilities, controversial children are very much like and disliked but can be both social and aggressive, and rejected children are not liked and display aggressive, disruptive, submissive, and non social behaviors.
Reference:
Anthis, K. (2021). Child and Adolescent Development: A Social Justice Approach. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic
Publishing.
3.3 Growing Up Fast
Early maturing can be defined as children and adolescents whose skeletal age is ahead of their chronological age by more than one year. Discovered through secular trends, which are historical patterns that show varying aspects of generations, changes in environmental factors such as access to medical advances, technological advances, a higher quality of nutrition, or pollutants are likely the cause of early maturing and pubertal timing. Most children and adolescents that are affected by early maturing can reach adult heights much earlier than other children with a less advanced skeletal age despite them being the same age. Early maturing can occur through the development of secondary sexual characteristics like breasts, genitals, pubic hair, or a deepening voice. The timing of these changes can influence adolescent development with regard to the way adolescents view themselves in comparison to others their age. Early maturing can also occur depending on the start of menarche, a girl's first menstruation, and spermarche, a boy's first ejaculation. The timing of these events is an intricate time in adolescents' lives and can not only influence their emotional development, but their physical development as well.
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Reference:
Anthis, K. (2021). Child and Adolescent Development: A Social Justice Approach. San Diego, CA: Cognella
Academic Publishing.
3.5 I Said Pay Attention!
