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Lord, true source of light and wisdom, give me a keen

sense of understanding, a retentive memory, and the
capacity to grasp things correctly. Grant me the grace to
be accurate in my expositions and the skill to express
myself with thoroughness and clarity. Be with me at the
start of my work, guide its progress and bring it to
completion. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER BEFORE STUDY

by St. Thomas Aquinas
Lesson 3
Developmental Stages in Middle
and Late Adolescence
DEVELOPMENTAL TASK IN ADOLESCENCE
Growing up is never easy. You need to master various
developmental tasks to cope with challenges and to
prepare yourself for the next developmental stage.
According to Robert Havighurst, Developmental
Tasks refer to the specific knowledge, skills, attitudes,
and functions that a person needs to acquire and, in turn,
be able to demonstrate at particular periods in his or her
life.
Knowing these tasks is very useful.:
• They are your guide to know what is expected of you.
• They show you the things that you will encounter in
the next stage.
Thus, you become motivated to do what society expects
you to.
 In this Lesson, we will focus on Havighurst's developmental tasks during
adolescence. These tasks are as follows:

(1) achieving new and more mature relations with age mates of both sexes;
(2) achieving a masculine or feminine social role;
(3) accepting one's physique and using one's body effectively;
(4) achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults;
(5) preparing for marriage and family life;
(6) preparing for an economic career;
(7) acquiring a set of values and an ethical system as a guide to behavior-developing
ideology; and
(8) desiring, accepting, and achieving socially responsible behavior.
Three stages in the
Adolescence Period
1. Early Adolescence
2. Middle Adolescence
3. Late Adolescence
I. Early Adolescence
(happens when you are 12-13 years old)
Your primary developmental task at this stage involves: adapting to
biological and mental development.

A. Adapting to Biological Development

An adolescence needs to accept one’s physique and use one’s body effectively. You must
embrace the fact that you are physically maturing, and you know how to take care of your
body.

• You have to accept that you are already capable of reproduction. This acceptance will
help you start to think more responsibly of your body.
 B. Adapting to Mental Development

• You need to be comfortable with the way you look.

Accepting these facts help you to experience less
emotional tension and learn ways handle challenges, as
you grow more comfortably in this developmental stage.
 II. Middle Adolescence (14-16 years old)
The primary developmental task at this stage involves: achieving new and
more relations with age mates of both sexes and achieving emotional
independence from parents and other adults.

A.Emotional independence from parents and other adults

Mastery in this task suggest that you need to be physically self-reliant and
psychologically independent from your parents. You need to put away your
childish ways and start doing things by yourself. Achieving mastery at this
developmental task does not happen overnight, you must work hard and be
patience. Always remember that you can do it!
B. Achieving new and more relations with age mates of both sexes

 Further, another task during the middle adolescence stage is becoming more adept
in social settings and more capable of establishing intimate relationships.
 At this stage, rejection and peer pressure may be inevitable.
 One of the exciting features of teenage years is the attraction that you feel to
another person. You tend to have crushes, and you discover that dating is usually
a fun activity.
 At this stage, you are also more concerned with knowing who you are, not only
as a person who can do things independently but also as a person who is
interdependent.
III. Late Adolescence (17-20 years old)
At this stage, you should have already formed attitudes, learned
skills, and established relationships that will give you the bases of
what kind of person you are and what kind of life you want to lead.
Late Adolescents focused on:

(1) planning and preparing for marriage and family life,

(2) preparing for economic career,
(3) acquiring set of values and ethical system and,
(4) designing and achieving socially responsible
behavior.
 ADOLESCENTS IN THE 21ST
CENTURY
Your parents and grandparents lived in a world characterized by a culture of
hard work. With all these technological developments, adolescents are less
likely to be as patient and productive as their parents and grandparents.

• You are accustomed to having what you want right away. Thus, you
sometimes feel bad when you do not get what has been promised to you.
• As a results of advancements in telecommunications today’s Romeos and
Juliets do not anymore write love letters; instead, they merely text, “I luv u.
Tayo na ba?”. This implies that entering into romantic relationship is easy.
• Materialism characterizes the youth today. These material
possessions become status symbols for adolescents nowadays.
Status Symbols, according to Hurlock (1982), are prestige
symbols that tell others that the owner is of higher status than
other people. These symbols become the bases of their security,
of being accepted, and of their personality.
Modern teenagers are described as digital natives, who are
tech savvy, capable of easily accessing information, and capable
of multitasking.
An equally important factor that contributed to the shaping of the
personality of today’s adolescents is family structure.
Are you a Responsible Person?
Taking charge or assuming responsibility is the ability
to choose your own responses (Covey, 2004) to
encountered circumstances. It is taking ownership or
accountability of your behaviors, without making
excuses or blaming others for your mistakes.

Characteristic of a Responsible Person

1. A strong sense of self-esteem
2. The capacity for empathy.
3. Knowing right from wrong.
4. Developing good judgment.
 Lesson 4
The Challenges of Middle and Late
Adolescence
 Growing up is never easy. You are faced with a lot of
challenges. These challenges are rooted in the various changes
that happen in adolescents.

What causes risky behaviors? Santrock (2012) cited the

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL approach in emphasizing that Biological,
Psychological, and Social factors interplay and contribute to
create problems that you need to overcome during adolescence.
 BIOLOGICAL OR
PHYSICAL FACTORS
Such as genes, puberty, hormones, and brain
development cause challenges that adolescents need
to face. Hormonal changes that teenagers go through
during puberty have been linked to higher rates of
depression and heightened sex drives. The
development of the prefrontal cortex after amygdala
has been linked to risk-taking behaviors and sexual
experimentation (Casey et al., 2011). While the
prefrontal cortex is still developing, your brain may
not be able to process what you feel and control your
actions. This mental inability, in turn, may cause
problems.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL
FACTORS
One of the most difficult challenges that you encountered as a
teenager is finding a sense of identity.
Successful formation of your identity will lead to healthy
academic, social, and psychological functioning. The absence
of concrete self-identity causes heightened emotionality that
usually causes problems. Sometimes, mood swings become
too erratic and negative, resulting in relationship problems and
depression. Your views about your experiences get affected by
your feelings, leading to difficulties in understanding them. If
you have become used to getting what you want, then self-
control may become an issue. If self-control is not mastered,
concerns regarding drug abuse, computer gaming, and other
delinquent behaviors may emerge.
 SOCIAL FACTORS
These factors include the family, peers, school, socioeconomic
status, and immediate environment. During adolescence, you spend
more time with your peers, which may have negative effects on
your attitudes and behavior. Rejection may cause depression if not
handled well. Hanging out with friends who have negative attitudes
has a big influence on your personality development. Nowadays,
adolescents start romantic relationships at an earlier age and thus
suffer various consequences. Rejection causes low self-esteem,
which leads teenagers to engage in activities that put their health
and dignity at risk.
Also, there are studies that prove that poverty is linked to many
problems that adolescents are vulnerable to (Santiago et al., 2011).
Adolescents who live in an unhealthy environment are in higher
risk for developing problems (Chen et al., 2011). Moreover,
adolescents who came from non-intact families due to nonmarriage,
separation, parent(s) working abroad, and death usually experience
problems.
 Pitfall and Challenges of Adolescence
At this point, you will learn about some of the common pitfalls and challenges
that adolescents encounter, namely:
• The Use of drugs is often due to peer pressure. Sequentially, it starts with
drinking alcoholic beverages, smoking cigarettes, smoking marijuana, and
eventually using or abusing other illegal Drugs.
• Computer gaming is really a popular recreational activity. Adolescents get
hooked to them not only because they are fun but also because these games
provide opportunities for adolescents to express what they feel, create their own
world, and, most importantly, find their identity in the characters in the game.
However, because adolescents have created their own world in the game, they are
sometimes unable to distinguish reality from the virtual one. Computer game
addicts neglect time orientation because they are virtually living inside the
electronic world. The more some adolescents feel pressured at home and in
school, the more they find themselves in front of their computers.
• Some teenagers today Run away from home for different reasons.
Their reasons range from their parents hurting them physically, feeling
unhappy at home, to using it as a means to get what they want.
• As teenagers normally experience Heightened sexual desire, due to
hormonal changes that occur in their body during this stage, they try
to engage in sexual activities and sexual explorations accentuated by
the proddings of their peers. Based on data from the Department of
Health (DOH) on the transmission of the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) (2014), the most number of persons who become infected
with HIV are teenagers.
• As a result, Teenage pregnancy becomes rampant nowadays.
Combined with social media which expose sexual exploitations,
teenage pregnancies have increased.
 Another challenge that you may encounter is Depression.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, fifth edition (DSM 5 ed.), at least five of the nine
symptoms represent a change in the individual's functioning
(observed during a two- week period):
(1) depressed mood most of the day;
(2) markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all,
activities most of the day;
(3) significant weight loss or weight gain, or decrease or increase
in appetite nearly every day;
(4) insomnia or hypersomia nearly every day;
(5) psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day;
(6) fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day;
(7) feelings of worthlessness or excessive or
inappropriate guilt nearly every day;
(8) diminished ability to think or concentrate, or
indecisiveness, nearly every day; and
(9) recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal
ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or
a specific plan for committing suicide. High rates of
depression may be accounted to heightened emotionality
of adolescents.
• Suicide is usually associated with depression. It
is closely related with a sense of hopelessness,
low self-esteem, and high self-blame (O'Donnell
et al., 2004). Reasons for attempting and
committing suicide have become less serious,
such as being reprimanded by parents, having his
or her request denied, and having his or her gadget
taken away.

Knowing these pitfalls and challenges will help

you avoid being trapped to difficult situations.
 Strategies to cope with
Challenges
The challenges that you normally face may be stressful
and painful. To be able to cope well and make sure to
emerge in this journey victoriously, here are some
strategies that may help you do so (Sevilla, 2000).

1. Learn to accept what you feel.

2. Identify your vulnerabilities.
3. Develop your talents and interest.
4. Become more involved with others.
5. Seek help when needed.
END
 DOMINICAN BLESSING
May God the Father bless us. May God the Son
heal us. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us and
give us eyes to see with, ears to hear with, and
hands to do the work of God with, feet to walk
with, and a mouth to preach the word of
salvation with, and the angel of peace to watch
over us and lead us at last, by our Lord’s gift, to
the kingdom. Amen.