DEVELOP Adolescent development Flashcards
(36 cards)
What is adolescence?
Word has Latin origin, derived from the verb adolescence, which means, ‘to grow into adulthood’.
When does adolescence start?
Starts with puberty, puberty is period of rapid physical growth and sexual maturation.
Universal but timing varies (between 8-15 years).
-Sex-girl ahead of boys by months or years.
-Genes and ethnicity.
-Weight- malnutrition delays puberty, obesity the reverse.
-Stress- causes puberty earlier.
When does adolescence end?
Generally accepted 18-19.
Social revolution of late 60s + early 70s lengthened adolescence, as university- age students lingered in this stage of life.
Contemporary society, extended education (graduate school) or economic stress (no job and living at home) become the catalyst for lengthening adolescence.
What is the new definition of adolescence?
Begins in biology and ends in cultures. Journey from biological adulthood to societal adulthood (Santrook, 2002).
Outline models of adolesence?
Histrorical perspective: G Stanley Hall (1842-1924). First president of American psychological association.
Viewed adolescence as ‘period of inevitable turmoil’, takes place during transition from childhood to adulthood, particularly focused on aggression and crime.
What is the ‘Storm and Stress model’ of adolescence?
Considers evolutionary, hormonal and environmental factors (e.g. life stressors).
This human development means species go for ‘animalistic’ to ‘civilised’.
Mediated by biology.
Explain the dual system model of adolescence?
Maturational Imbalance Model (Casey et al, 2007).
-suggests imbalance between systems that mature early in development. Imbalance gives rise to adolescent-specific behaviours- such as greater propensity to take risks (Casey, 2015).
What makes up the limbic system?
Cingulate gyrus: ICD, apathy, depression, impaired cognition, motor system.
Ventral Striatum: ICD, impaired reward learning, apathy, depression, anxiety, autonomic dysfunctions.
Hypothalamus: sleep disorder, autonomic dysfunctions.
Amygdala: impaired affective processing, impaired cognition, sleep disorders, autonomic dysfunctions, motor symptoms.
Hippocampus: dementia, impaired cognition, impaired control.
What is socio-emotional processing?
-Ventral Striatum (VS)- responsible for salience of behaviour and motivation.
-Amygdala (AMY)- responsible for emotion processing + fear responses.
-Prefrontal cortex (PFC) + anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)- responsible for executive function, behavioural control and decision making.
What is the maturational imbalance model?
model for ‘affective and incentive-based’ behaviour in adolescence.
-early maturation of subcortical regions e.g. amygdala and ventral stiatum (top line) and late maturation of prefrontal cortical regions (bottom line). Predict nonlinear enhancement in affectively driven (ie. emotion-driven) behaviour during adolescence.
-parts of brain mature in adolescents, get imbalance cause signalling in limbic regions of brain mature faster.
0by adulthood both areas fully matured.
How do adolescents respond to +ve and -ve stimuli?
Trying to explain duel system models of adolescence.
Galvan and McGlennan (2013).
test 2 groups on response to taste:
-15 adolescents (13-17- year olds).
-15 adults (23-25 year olds).
Participants exposed to 2 different types of stimuli.
-Appetitive-sucrose water.
-Aversive- salt water.
=adolescents rate sucrose more positively and salt more negatively-> seem to process stimuli more extreme.
What did FMRI show in Galvan and McGlennan (2013)?
-Ventral striatum more activated by sucrose water in adolescents than adults.
-Caudate more activated by salt water in adolescents than in adults.
-Insular more activated by salt water in adults than adolescents.
How to adolescents respond to fear?
Hare et al (2008).
Test 3 groups on response to emotive faces.
-12 kids (7-12yrs)
-24 adolescents (13-18yrs)
-24 adults.
completed go-no-go task with fearful, happy and all facial expressions as targets and nontargets.
-shows exaggerated amygdala activity compared to adults, shows use bottom-up processing which can make it harder in emotional situations.
Outline risk-taking in adolescents?
Chein et al (2011).
Randomly assigned adolescents (14-18yrs), young adults (19-22) and adults (24-29yrs) to complete series of tasks alone or in presence of 2 same-age, same sex peers.
=increased adolescent risk when with peers, cause heightens sensitivity to potential reward value of risky decisions.
=found brain areas associated with cognitive control, lateral prefrontal cortex less strongly recruited by adolescents than adults, this activity did not vary whether alone or with peers. Lack of activation aligns with what is known about immaturity of this region in adolescence.
=authors concluded presence of peers increased adolescent risk taking by heightening sensitivity to potential reward value of risky decisions.
Outline mental health in adolescence?
Age of vulnerability: some 75% of lifetime mental health disorders have onset before 24yr of age (Kessler et al, 2005).
‘Window of vulnerability’ to risky behaviour (particularly in the presence of peers).
-key time for preserving life- long health.
What did Kessler et al (2005) find out about mental health?
By age of 14yrs half of all cases started and by 24 3/4s.
Anxiety has higher prevalence than any others. Increase from 4-14yrs then it levels off. Behavioural disorders also have an increase but then level off.
Mood + substances misuse disorders low in childhood then increase from onset of puberty.
What is substance use disorder?
Alcohol + drug use/ abuse increases with age during adolescence and peaks in early adulthood.
-Degenhardt et al (2008) investigated by age of onset of substance use with a large sample from 17 countries (N=43,249).
-> alcohol use between 16- 19yrs.
-> cannabis use between 18-19yrs.
->cocaine use between 21-24yrs.
Outline nature and nurture effect on adolescent alcohol use?
Found changing degree of genetic and environmental influences across adolescence on alcohol use behaviour.
-steady increase in influence of genetic factors on alcohol use across adolescence.
-corresponding decrease in influence of common environmental factors (Rose et al, 2001).
What is the link between marijuana users in adolescence and psychotic symptoms?
Findings suggest regular marijuana users associated with increased risk of psychotic symptoms. Bourque et al (2017).
What is the link between cannabis users and psychotic symptoms?
healthy humans, cannabis + principal psychoactive components (THC) produce transient, dose-dependent psychotic symptoms and cognitive effects.
Additionally to the dosage, environmental and genetic predispositions likely to play role in strength of risk cannabis poses to user.
-Only small minority of cannabis users develop psychotic symptoms.
Outline studies detailing the risk of substance use in adolescence?
Rodent studies indicate that, exposure to cannabinoids in adolescence results in structural brain changes and impaired synaptic plasticity, impacting front-limbic systems critically involved in higher brain functions.
Endocannabinoid systems play important role in brain maturation.
Over-activation by CB1R agonists (e.g. THC) during adolescence, and resulting in changes in neuroplasticity, could alter brain maturation and cause long-lasting changes that persist in adult brain.
What is the status of gonadal function in children?
Testis + ovary (i.e., the gonads) differentiated as are the secondary sex organs (e.g. seminal vesicles for men and fallopian tubes in women).
-low level of sex hormones: testosterone (T) for boys and oestrogens (E) for girls.
-low level of GnRH (in hypothalamus) and the FSH/ LH (in anterior pituitary).
What are the biological triggers in puberty?
production of gonadrotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) from hypothalamus triggers puberty.
GnRH stimulates pituitary gland which releases luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).
-two hormones signal female + male sex organs (i.e. gonads) to release sex-dependant hormones.
What is the biological sequence of puberty?
Primary sex characteristics: part of body directly involved in reproduction (e.g. testicles, ovaries, etc).
Secondary sex characteristics: not necessary for reproduction (e.g. acne, breast development, hair, voice changes).
