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Their emotions are becoming much more complex and although schools make an attempt to prepare youth for the changes ssociated with puberty the fact remains that until an individual doesn’t experience it on their own they are still going to be faced with many challenges. Puberty or the transition between childhoods to adolescence is affected by a number of factors, such as gender, culture or sub-culture, and history. The focus of this assignment will be the similarities and differences in adolescent development between females and males.
Although each person has their own personality and a way of coping with situations these characteristics are also determined by their gender. The fact that you are women or men does affect the way you behave. Whether it is the reaction to stress or the way one addresses an emotional situation there are some components that are specifically associated with one gender or another and the same applies to adolescent development. One of “the first outward sign of puberty is the rapid gain in height and weight known as the growth spurt” (Berk, 2010).
Statistically girls began this transition a little sooner then boys which stat shortly after 1 2 years old while girls began at about 10 years old. Although females tend to be heavier toward the beginning of puberty due to the hormonal secretion this does balance out with time when boys tend to be heavier. There are a number of other physical similarities, which include the presence of hormones, which may seem specific to either men or women. Although we think of estrogens as female hormones and androgens as male hormones, both types are present in each sex but in different amounts The boys testes release large quantities of the androgen testosterone, which leads to muscle growth, ody and facial hair, and other male sex characteristics. ” (Berk, 2010). With time the presence of estrogens in the male body decreases while testosterone increases and vice versa in the female body. The presence of these hormones does account for some traits, which are specific to the opposite sex, for example, males to experience some temporary breast enlargement until the hormone level balance out.
This does contribute to some similarities in the way women and men behave and react to life situations. Another effect that this may have on the developing body is the ay the react to stressful situations because “significant gender differences were identified for the increasing aggression and high-aggression trajectories. Specifically, in the increasing aggression trajectory, girls’ aggression levels were lower than boys’ levels at age 10” (Xie, Drabick, & Chen, 2011). Females tend to have a better control of their emotions while males were more inclined to act before considering their actions.
There are also a number of cognitive developmental factors which tend too be specific to either one of he genders. “Boys tend to endorse masculine/instrumental traits to a greater extent than girls; girls tend to endorse feminine/ expressive traits to a greater extent than boys” (Mehta & Strough, 2010). Males tend to focus more so an activities which involve physical strength and endurance such sports and or athletics while females, although still interested in sports, are incline to focus on music and clubs involving socializing and event organizing. Females more often report using social support, rumination, and primary control strategies. Males more often use avoidance or with increasing age passivity’ (Perry, 2011) Regardless of what similarities and differences there may be between the two genders there are always gong to be some things specific to men or women which both genders will posses. There is no characteristic that is solely specific to either one of the sexes even when it comes to their development. References Berk, L. E. (2010) Development Through the Lifespan (5th ed. ).