Changes in Self Image during Adolescence - Essay Example

Adolescent girls and their image Adolescence is a period of transition in young boys and girls, from childhood to adulthood. This moment is experienced mostly in the early teenage years and may extend to the late teenage years in both boys and girls. Generally, girls begin their adolescence period earlier than boys do. Late adolescence is mostly a common phenomenon in boys as it becomes persistent in some until the early twenties. It is the time when the teenagers leave behind their childhood behaviors and embrace the adult behaviors. This has not always been an easy task for both the parents and the adolescents themselves. A research carried out by Blyth, Simmons and Carlton-Ford on the adolescents show that the adolescence period is characterized by intense hormonal influence on the young minded teenagers coupled with a strong urge for self-identity and self-dependence among the adolescents (Blyth et al 109). This often results in the change in their behavior, likes and dislikes as well as emotional vagaries as these teenagers struggle along the long bridge of transition into adulthood. The High school age is characterized by numerous complexities as it marks a period of transition from childhood into adolescence, for the girls, this is often an issue that seeks to define and affect her perceptions and self image. These perceptions go beyond her and also affect those around her including her teenage friends, parents and other adults and require a sound understanding and proper management of one’s self. The teenage high school girl is faced with many challenges during her struggle with the adolescence stage. First is the much workload at school and academic excellence to join best college. This is always the greatest stress causing feeling in the high school adolescents and is the prime cause of heir wanting to withdraw from everyone especially those of their own families in order for them to concentrate fully in shaping their future lives. Baltes in his journal Longitudinal and cross-sectional sequences in the study of age during early adolescence, notes that, alongside all these the teen is also faced with the need to recognize and identify herself with responsibilities in the society as far as her social life is concerned. This is always accompanied with mixed reactions and emotional influences on the young girl. The aspect of moods change and mixed reaction then sets in as the teen girl is unable to fully identify herself amidst the intense struggle (Baltes 163). The need to make strong and mature decisions continuously battle with the childhood mistakes for a place in the teens mind making the teen to be somehow confused on what she is really up for in life. This stage is often confusing to both the parents and their teenage children as each of them fails to understand the erotic behaviors of the maturing teenager. During high school several physical developmental changes often occur in the teenage girl for instance the change in body size and the expansion of the body organs such as the broadening of the hips, smoothening and softening of the face as well as the protrusion and the emergence of the facial bones. As these occur hormonal influences become more prominent for instance the onset of menstruation in girls during which the girls’ bodies experience a strong desire for sex. The effects of this on the girl child often lead to the rampancy in her engagement in pre- marital sex with other men. Some who fears getting pregnant or just having sex with a man may find himself getting involved in lesbianism and such related abuse in order to overcome their sexual desires. This is mainly common especially at the early dates of the menstrual cycle when the hormonal influence is more intense and the urge for sex stronger on them. All these changes signify the onset of adulthood in the growing girl. At around sixteen the teenage girl gets closer to their adult heights and their breasts grow to the size of a woman exposing them more to pregnancy if biologically sound. The girl’s intellectual capacities also take a new dimension whereby the girl has an interest in engaging in deep abstract thoughts of the current world that previously did not concern her. As these characters deepen in high school teens right into early adulthood years the teenage high school girl is confronted with the ability to insert in her brain the moral dilemmas of life as she becomes aware of them often resulting in confusion in their lives. According to Abramowitz et al, these teenagers start becoming more demanding on their rights, becomes less interested in family engagements and household chores and in some cases less willing to agree to parental guidance. This irritates the parents so much as they feel a sense of disrespect in their children “As the teenage girl becomes aware of what surrounds her and her continued breaking loose from her parents, she becomes more liable to crimes such as drug and substance abuse, unprotected sex and the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases” (Abramowitz, et al 25). The decay in character comes about as the teen girl starts going out with friends of the opposite sex, some of them not of sound characters. With a feeling that she can take good care of herself while away from her parents, the young girl becomes easily swayed into such practices taking it as normal at the beginning and the urge grows strong as she gets deeper into it hence the addiction. At this time, the teenage girl is involved in a struggle for independence from her family cocoon and breaks the ties for parental control in order to develop, into a fully self-driven person. Some teens easily sail through their adolescence transition while to others it is certainly a hard task to complete. For the girls, a kind of abnormality increases as they experience mood swings both in school and at home which may be confusing to both the teachers and parents alike. For instance, sometimes they may end up locking up themselves in their rooms and would not want to talk to or listen to no one, while at certain times they are very jovial and enthusiastic fellows. It is at such times when the teens are likely to defy sternly their parents’ directives and most girls are likely to run away from their homes if the parents become too hard on them or attempt or even commit suicide. An elaborate understanding of the teenage life is therefore very essential for the parents in order for them to be able to get along with their changing girls. Feldlaufer, Midgley and Eccles argue that most teens in their adolescence periods are often confronted with certain chronic diseases mostly induced by their constant hormonal and emotional influences. These include such diseases as diabetes, cancer and cystic fibrosis all brought about into the teen’s life by the changes in their eating styles mostly influenced by their bodily requirements and hormonal dictation and to a large extent a desire to take on a popular body size of most teens (Feldlaufer et al 147). Any sense of sympathy and worry in their teachers and parents concerning their sicknesses may certainly induce doubt in their minds about the state of their health only worsening their condition. The teen girl therefore becomes more sensitive to emotional changes. The development of the acute sense of emotional surges affects the teen girls’ relationship with their juniors. In order to suppress these emotions, the teen girls tend to dictate their authorities on their juniors leading to the bullying aspect in high school girls. The common phenomenon of moods swing in adolescent girls is as well a common cause of bullying among high school girls on their juniors. The other cause of bullying in high school girls according to Felner is their strong desire for men, seeing every mature girl around as a potential competitor for the same man; the adolescent girls develop attitudes towards fellow girls who seem to be equally more outstanding and attractive to other men. This often results in these girls being mistreated by other girls with whom they compete for men most teenage girls at adolescent look forward to attracting men by being outstanding in character, modeling their shapes… and usually want to outdo all others around them leading into dislike for other people of the same sex” (Felner, et al 457). An adolescent girl is more receptive to emotional disorders and any sense of emotional or stress onset in their families such as divorce or continued violence can easily rob them of their sense of good morals and make them deviate from the path of developing into a good person in the future. Such girls can begin to disappear from their homes in fear of seeing their parents or family members quarrel (Felner et al 450). While at the peak of her adolescent life, the level of anxiety in both boys and girls increases. As the teenage girl go through her adolescence period, her level of anxiety mostly on abstract things such as love, comfort and protection increases. This is the major contributing factor for the teenage girls wanting to have boyfriends for love and protection. In mixed schools, a common phenomenon then sets in for relationships and pairing of boys and girls pegged on the satisfaction of their sexual desires. These are all engineered by the girl child wanting to handle her hormonal tortures by satisfying herself sexually. If these levels of anxiety exceed the limits, the girls they may end up dropping out of school to start up a family all together. A teenage girl is therefore not guided by the binding laws of nature in marriage rather than her exaggerated assumption of having a lover boy who can satisfy her sexual needs at the time when these needs rise to the peak (Felner et al 453). Another factor that is eminent in adolescent girls regarding her image is the panic disorder that is most common at the age of about sixteen to nineteen years. A panic attack is a situation whereby the teen is overwhelmed with an abrupt feeling of deep anxiety over certain issues sometimes coming without any noticeable cause. This often results into some teenage girls being over optimistic about what they want in life, the schools they want to go attend. The kind of clothing they would want to see their parents in, the house to live in, and the vehicles they want their parents to have can sometimes be accompanied by the development of phobias in teenage girls over certain people and things. Felner notes, “The panic disorder can sometimes cause phobia in girls especially if these requirements are not met by the people targeted” (Felner et al 451). As a result, some girls will start avoiding their homes in favor of the others that they presume to be better than theirs. In conclusion, the foregoing discussions suggest that the adolescent girl is a very complex person in her own self and even in the society. The dispositions of the teenage behaviors in an adolescent girl are more of abstract than physical as in boys making it more complex to understand the girls as compared to boys. Any attempts to suppress these vagaries in the behavior of the maturing girls against their pleasures therefore often lead to frustrations in their lives. There is great need therefore for parents and the whole community to understand this somewhat tricky period of transition in teenage high school girls in order to help them mold their lives into responsible members of the community. Parents and teachers should always offer counseling sessions for the young maturing girls to help them create a better image of themselves. Misunderstanding of adolescents can disorient their future characters. Works cited Abramowitz, R. H, A.C, Petersen and I.E Schulenberg. "Changes in self image during adolescence." Patterns of adolescent self- image (1984): 19- 28. Baltes, P. B. "Longitudinal and cross-sectional sequences in the study of age during early adolescence." Human Development 3 (1968): 145-171. Blyth, D.A., R.G Simmons and S Carlton-Ford. "The Adjustment of early adolescents to school transitions." Journal of Early Adolescence 3 (1983): 105-120. Feldlaufer, H., C. Midgley and J. S Eccles. "Student, Teacher, and Observer perceptions of the classroom environment before and after transition to junior high school." Journal of Early Adolescence 8 (1988): 133- 156. Felner, R.D., J. Primaverra and A. M Cauce. "The impact of Transition: A focus for preventive Efforts." American Journal of Community Psychology 9 (1981): 449- 459. Read More