Developmental Characteristics of
Adolescents
Ages 16-19 Years
Social
Development
- Family
- seeks parental advice and support for decision
making
- enjoys and seeks freedom
- makes more independent judgments
- needs consistent negotiable guidelines
- needs to assert independence
- feels ties to home and family
- feels ambivalent toward moving away from parents toward
independence
Peers
- is looking for a permanent relationship
- continues to make choices and decisions in response to peer
influences
- uses group activities as outlets for feelings
School
- feels the responsibility for making career
decisions
Self
Development
Emotions
- worries about the future
- operates with increasing empathy
- is anxious about forming intimate relationships
- may be in love
- may be able to become more open and vulnerable in
relationships
-
Values
- is integrating values into a personal philosophy
- continues to develop personal ethical standards and moral
codes
- makes personal commitment to causes
- may adopt a rigid value system
- may express righteousness, a lack of ambiguity
- begins to express outlooks and make judgments tempered by
fairness and moderation
Self
- moves toward firm decisions regarding post-secondary career
or school choices
- seeks permanence in intimate relationships
- seeks assurances about economic security
- experiences doubts
- possesses a strengthening sense of personal
identity
- may think he/she "knows it all"
- is open to information provided by trusted adults
- experiences an illusion of immortality
- begins the transition to independent living
- may define self in terms of career goals
Intellectual Development
- continues to refine language and thinking
abilities
- continues to refine reasoning skills
Physical Development
- experiences slowing or completion of physical
growth
- experiences increase in strength, endurance,
coordination
- experiences completion of or continued skeletal
growth
Developmental Tasks of Adolescence
- to establish independence
- to think, reason, and verbalize abstractly and
conceptually
- to be comfortable with one's own body
- to control one's impulses, functions, and
capacities
- to build new and meaningful relationships
- to seek economic and social stability
- to develop a workable value system
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