Puberty is, by far, the most psychologically and socially difficult of the life cycle changes. There are a number of tasks that adolescents struggle with: achieving comfort with their bodies, developing an identity separate from their parents’, trying to prove their capacity to establish meaningful intimate and sexual relationships, beginning to think abstractly and futuristically, and establishing emotional self-awareness (Gemelli, 1996).
Figure 8.1
This graph illustrates the average ages when boys and girls go through the major bodily changes of puberty.
Source: From School Age Pregnancy and Parenthood by Jane Lancaster, p. 20, Aldine de Gruyter, 1986. Reprinted by permission.
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Spermatogenesis
begins
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Age in years
The age sequence of pubertal maturation in boys and girls
We will examine these stages by splitting adolescence into three general stages: early adolescence, middle adolescence (or “adolescence proper”), and late adolescence (Lawlis & Lewis, 1987).