Milestones and Challenges of psychosocial development during adolescence

Milestones and Challenges of psychosocial development during adolescence

Research question: What are some of the milestones and problems that adolescents experience?

Adolescence is a stage of transition between childhood and adulthood. It represents a time during which an individual may experience various emotional and biological changes. During this time, the adolescent may experience several conflicts and dysfunctions that may impair their psychosocial development. Psychosocial development refers to how one’s psychological development relates to their social environment. This is one of the main elements of Erik Erikson’s stages of development. During adolescence, the individual figures out their identity as well as how their peers, parents, and general social environment affects their psychological development. While several exciting changes occur during this stage, there may be causes of dysfunction that may lead to confusion. The psychosocial dysfunctions during this stage are the behavioral and emotional disorders that are often synonymous with the external and internal conflicts. Some of these disorders include anxiety, depression, aggression, delinquency, truancy, and educational difficulties. The most impacting causes are often in school and home environments. These are the main areas of socialization. Therefore, this research question will help in understanding the various milestones and challenges that take place during adolescence. It will help in applying the theories of development and particularly during this stage, to understand multiple behavioral changes seen among adolescents.

Annotated Bibliography

Bista, B., Thapa, P., Sapkota, D., Singh, S. B., & Pokharel, P. K. (2016). Psychosocial problems among adolescent students: an exploratory study in the central region of Nepal. Frontiers in public health, 4, 158.

This source is an empirical study of the psychosocial problems among adolescents. It looks at the impact of school and educational institutions during this stage, especially on psychological development and identity formation. The author attempts to assess the prevalence of challenges in the psychosocial domain of adolescents and how they relate to the family-related factors among students in Nepal. The main finding of this study is that if there have to be interventions for psychosocial dysfunctions among adolescents, they need to target the adolescents, community stakeholders, and caregivers and put special emphasis on the school setting. This source is essential in this research as the authors attempt to define the concept of psychosocial development. Through this, one can understand how any dysfunctionality would affect the process of growth during this stage. The author also gives statistics on how the school context interrelates with the home settings to influence the development of adolescents. This is a strong aspect of this source since these are the main points of socialization among students. The major weakness of this source is that it assumes that every student in the world has the same environment as those in Nepal. This assumption gives it a bias. Nevertheless, it would be essential when applying the aspect of dysfunctionality among students globally.

Gaete, V. (2015). Adolescent psychosocial development. Revista chilena de pediatria, 86(6), 436-443.

This article gives a general look at the psychosocial development aspects during adolescence. The author’s main argument that pediatricians need to have more knowledge of the health of adolescents. As one gets to move from childhood to adulthood, many adolescents maintain the doctors they had since birth. However, several changes during adolescents may impede the provision of care. The author asserts that this stage of development is often marked with more autonomy and the establishment of identity. Significantly, the article divides the stages of adolescence into early, middle, and late adolescence. It looks at the development of individuality and that of the various aspects of identity. This is the main strength of this article since it describes the various social, cognitive, psychological, sexual, and moral changes that young people go through in these three stages. It looks at the psychosocial changes as prerequisites of providing healthcare to adolescence, especially pediatricians.      However, the main weakness of this article is that it gives a generalization of the issue. It does not differentiate the various social settings and the relations to the various changes of this stage. Nevertheless, this is a source that would help in understanding the psychosocial development milestones in adolescents in general. It would help to focus on the essence of psychosocial development as a prerequisite to offering the best healthcare to individuals going through the confusing and conflicting stage.

 Meca, A., Sabet, R. F., Farrelly, C. M., Benitez, C. G., Schwartz, S. J., Gonzales-Backen, M., … & Picariello, S. (2017). Personal and cultural identity development in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents: Links with psychosocial functioning. Cultural diversity and ethnic minority psychology, 23(3), 348.

This source is a comprehensive look at the aspect of identity during adolescence. It looks at the direction taken by the personal and cultural integrity of Hispanic immigrants in the US. The own identity refers to the coherence and confusion, while the cultural identity relates to their ethnic concepts during the formation of character. The study samples more than 300 Hispanic adolescents in Miami and Los Angeles to determine the development of identity and its links with psychosocial functioning. The main finding of the study is that there is a bidirectional relationship between ethnic and personal identity as well as the US identity. However, the research shows that when there is an indirect relationship, there is a likelihood of aggression and rule-breaking among adolescents. Therefore, the author argues that due to the direct impacts of confusion and coherence on the outcomes, it would be important to target personal identity formation for any intervention. However, there may be a need to consider cultural identity in settings where there is some ambivalence towards Hispanic adolescents who recently immigrated. This would help in promoting positive development. This source will help in understanding the impact of migration on adolescent development. It helps in understanding how a change in the environment affects the formation of identity. It also helps to know how delinquency is linked to the social climate and psychosocial development among the adolescent. The main strength of this source is that it looks at different kinds of identities that an adolescent has to contend with while developing. It also looks at the way different settings affect the development of an immigrant adolescent. However, the main weakness of the source is that it does not take a comprehensive look at the general psychosocial aspect but only emphasizes the interplay between cultural and personal identity. The source will, however, help to get the various impacts that immigration and culture have on the psychosocial development.