My Child's Puberty Already? I Wasn't Ready For This!
Throughout most of human history, adolescence (the time between childhood and adulthood) was only a few years in length. In the modern era, adolescence has been extended at both ends.
The physical manifestations of puberty have been occurring at earlier ages - particularly among girls. The average age of menarche has been declining four months per decade for the past century. Some of the proposed explanations for this change include better nutrition and health, childhood obesity (higher body mass may lead to earlier onset), and the effects of pesticides and fertilizers.
In addition, entry into adult roles is delayed for the majority of the population until at least 20 years of age.
This means that many youth spend close to a decade with sexually mature bodies and reproductively-activated brains prior to taking on adult status in society. No wonder you (and your child) weren't ready for this!
Although there is a considerable range in the age at which the markers of pubertal development are achieved, the mean start of the growth spurt is at nine years for girls and 11 years for boys, with the peak rate of change at 11.5 years for girls and 13.5 years for boys. For most boys, the pubertal sequence usually begins between 10 and 13.5 and may end between 13 and 17; for girls, menarche between age nine and 15 is considered within the normal range (average 12.5). This means that by the time menarche arrives, most of your daughter's pubertal changes have already occurred.
Puberty is a time of rapid change
Puberty can dramatically intensify emotions. Adolescents suddenly develop the capacity to feel sadder, more euphoric, more anxious, and angrier, and also to experience these more intense affective states for longer periods of time. It would be nice if the ability to self regulate grew in concert with this onslaught of emotional intensity. However, cognitive development and the maturation of regulatory systems is not driven by puberty. So, the onset of puberty also marks the onset of a period of particular vulnerability.
Before puberty, children have lower levels of arousal and motivation and parents take a much greater role in decision making. By the time adolescents are approaching adulthood, their frontal lobe development allows for stronger executive functioning (self regulation) and the emotional storm of puberty is waning. However, during adolescence, emotional intensity is enhanced but the ability to control those emotions has not yet developed. As Steinberg and colleagues have noted, adolescence is like "starting an engine without yet having a skilled driver."
Vulnerabilities increase with adolescence
The mismatch that arises in early adolescence between biology, cognitive ability, and environmental demands creates special vulnerabilities for certain types of emotional and behavioral difficulties. In particular, issues that involve the regulation of affect (e.g., depression, social anxiety, intense conflict with parents), appetite (e.g., substance abuse and dependence, eating disorders), and impulsivity (e.g., antisocial behavior, excessive risk-taking) are more likely to arise during this period.
Some children are at greater risk for the development of mental health problems during early adolescence (see Factors That Increase Risk on next page).
Although higher risk does not inevitably lead to bad outcomes, when risk is high we must do our best to encourage healthy development by providing extra support and intervention during early adolescence. Intervention is most effective when problems are manageable. Although we can still create positive change when puberty is in full force, children may tend to be more open prior to puberty (or sometimes, again later when things start to settle down). Setting the stage for later development is the wisest course.
Factors That Increase Risk in Early Adolescence
|
Puberty starts before physical changes become apparent
Sometimes a child's puberty sneaks up on us; many hormonal changes may begin as early as elementary school. The greatest impact of hormones on emotions and moods is during the early stages of puberty, especially for girls. Hormonal changes occur throughout puberty, but by the time of menstruation, the worst (at least biologically) is probably over. We think of the teens as the worst years for mood instability but it is likely that there is more biologically determined variability during pre-adolescence. This may be a period where children are very difficult and moody - you might feel as if your child is constantly experiencing PMS or menopause, even though you know this cannot be so!
During this time, underlying emotional issues are likely to worsen or change, because of the influx of hormones and the stress on the child and also because of the changing demands placed on the parent. Remember, everything is changing during early adolescence - and if it is a challenge for you to make sense of, imagine what it is like for your child. If you are frantic that your early-maturing child is only eight and you are not sure you can make it to 17, take heart, it will probably get easier.
Earlier puberty increases risk
Despite the fact that it will get easier, the challenges of puberty are greater for those who go through puberty earlier than their same-aged peers - they are especially vulnerable to a wide range of affective and behavioral disorders. Early-maturing girls (and, to a lesser extent, boys) show higher rates of all sorts of adjustment difficulties, including depression and suicide, delinquency, risk-taking, and other emotional and psychological difficulties. The issues described below may be of a greater magnitude for early-maturing adolescents, as the gulf between their pubertal development and their cognitive and social development, discussed below, is even greater.
Everything Is Changing?
|
Many problems of puberty are issues of self-regulation. Adolescence is a time when there is an increased need to regulate emotions and behavior in accordance with long-term goals and consequences, often with less assistance from adults who provided structure and guidance during childhood. Keep in mind, this new level of self-regulation must be achieved at the same time that maturational changes make emotions stronger and more intense and adolescents' lives in are also undergoing change.
Puberty leads to changes in the brain more than a decade before mature judgment and self-control are achieved. Difficulties can be related to under-regulation (e.g., conduct problems) or to inappropriate regulation (e.g., excessive rumination leading to depression). In either case, adolescents must be protected from extremes by the contexts they live in.
Environments that provide support, control, and predictability are protective and help to prevent or minimize problems.
Choices, choices, choices
Adolescence is a time of mismatch between rapidly changing emotional and motivational systems and the more slowly maturing systems of self-control. Pre-adolescents are dealing with increasingly more difficult decision-making and challenges to self-control, in environments that activate many arousing but conflicting feelings and desires; they need to navigate complex choices and considerable ambiguity.
In recent decades, there has been a shift toward more autonomy for teens and a dramatic increase in the range of options available (from choosing among various sources of entertainment, to choosing among educational or vocational pathways).
Today's adolescents face earlier and more complex decisions, and a greater number of decisions than their parents did. In many ways, what we ask of middle-school students is what we used to ask of high-school students. In addition, emerging technologies (such as computer games, instant messaging, email, and chat rooms) have created a whole new environment for adolescents to navigate, often without the benefit of oversight by adults.
During this transitional period of early adolescence, when arousal is high and the ability to regulate oneself is underdeveloped, your child needs the assistance and protection provided by a structured and supportive environment. It is important that adults are aware that the engine of puberty has started and do their best to guide the car around the track, but they must remember that, at this point, the parent taking complete control of the car is no longer possible.
Even for children who enter the transition with vulnerabilities, parents and others in their environment play a key role in making things better or worse. Early adolescents need others to help them develop the ability to selfregulate and to protect them from the harmful effects of deficits in this ability until these capabilities mature. As noted above, this time is particularly risky for those who have little support or who are highly vulnerable because of biologically based deficiencies in the ability to regulate themselves.
Adolescent-parent relationships characterized by warmth, support, and monitoring appropriate to the context and the child's developmental level, as well as clear expectations for positive behavior, are associated with positive development. If in doubt, focus on your relationship. This transition presents many challenges for parents of adolescents. However, with support you can navigate this period together, even if you weren't ready for it!
REFERENCES
Feldman, S.S. & Elliott, G. R. (1990). At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent. Harvard University press: Cambridge, MA.
Santrock, J. W. (2004). Life-Span Development, 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York.
Steinberg, L., Dahl, R., Keating, D., Kupfer, D.J., Masten, A.S., & Pine, D. (2006). The study of developmental psychopathology in adolescence: Integrating affective neuroscience with the study of context. In D. Cicchetti (Ed.) & Donald J. Cohen, Developmental Psychopathology, Vol, 2, Developmental Neuroscience, 2nd Ed, John Wiley & Sons: New York.