Adolescence is a period of positive development. Write your view.
Answers
Adolescence: A unique period of challenge and opportunity for positive development
The teen years offer a chance to alter children's trajectory toward more positive long-term outcomes.
By @SNEHASINGH
The transition from being a child, dependent upon one’s parents, to an independent and self-reliant adult, that is, the adolescent transition, represents one of the most dynamic, broad and influential periods of human development. The changes that occur during this period are sweeping, spanning biological, physical, psychological and behavioral domains of functioning. The breadth of these changes makes the period somewhat risky, given that problems in one domain may spill over and influence functioning in other domains. At the same time though, the transition may also represent an ideal time for interventions, largely for the same reason. Small alterations in one domain could have large, cascading and potentially long-term effects across other domains.
The view that adolescence represents a critical period of development where interventions might be especially beneficial has received growing attention and support in recent years. Indeed, as the articles in this issue reveal, exciting and influential bodies of science are now focusing on understanding how children navigate this transition, how they respond to the challenges the transition presents, and what types of resiliency and protective factors may be particularly important for adolescents during this developmental period (see LaVoie, Pereira, & Talwar for a discussion of such factors). These challenges range from navigating the mobile world — increasingly a central part of large swaths of adolescents’ lives — to managing and regulating stress responses to an increasingly complex social world. In fact, as Hostinger describes, the stress responses themselves are actually affected by that social world. Some of these challenges are an almost inevitable part of most adolescents’ lives, while others are especially influential in the lives of youth who, as a result of familial, neighborhood or societal factors, are already at risk for negative social and behavioral outcomes, including, for example, adolescents’ risk for false confessions following police interrogations (Mandelbaum & Crossman). Of importance, we cannot simply assume that everything in the new lives of adolescents increases their risks: Some of what might be considered challenging may turn out to promote positive development, at least in some ways. As George and Odgers explain, technology may serve as a key means of accessing hard-to-reach youth populations, which allows interventions to be delivered more widely and in novel manners; technology is also helping youth connect with others and giving youth access to enormous amounts of information that they can use to understand their own development, feelings and behaviors. Likewise, for high-risk youth, their sensitivity to emotions, social relationships and stress may make interventions that target emotional development particularly salient and hence effective, as outlined in the contribution by Skeem and Johnson. Understanding how development during adolescence contributes to a broad range of behaviors, perceptions, risks and resiliency has much to offer in terms of interventions. The articles provide exciting ideas about this “critical period” of development — ideas that we all — across academic, policy and practice fields — need to take into account when attempting to facilitate development and functioning throughout childhood.