adolescence

The stage that comes after childhood and that ranges from puberty to the full development of the organism is known as adolescence. The term comes from the Latin word adolescent.

Adolescence is, in other words, the transformation of the infant before reaching adulthood. It is about a change of body and mind, but that not only happens in the adolescent himself, but also combines with his environment.

It should be noted that adolescence is not the same as puberty, which starts at a specific age as a result of hormonal changes. Adolescence varies in duration with each person. There are also differences in the age at which each culture considers that an individual is already an adult.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), worldwide the statistics show that one in five individuals goes through adolescence. Within this total, 85% live in low-income nations or middle income. On the other hand, about 1.7 million adolescents die each year.

When we talk about the stage of adolescence, we are talking about a fundamental series of changes both psychological and physical. In this last aspect, it should be emphasized that the most obvious are the growth in height, the increase in weight and body fat, the evolution of what is teething or the growth of muscles.

However, it is true that although these changes occur in both boys and girls, each gender also has its own physical evolutions. Thus, for example, male individuals see how hair appears in areas such as the genitals, mustache or armpits and also witness the growth of their sexual organs.

Female adolescents, on the other hand, in addition to experiencing hair growth on their bodies, suffer what is known as menarche, which is the first menstruation. An especially significant event that will undoubtedly mark a new stage in their lives.

Among the main changes that a person experiences in their adolescence, appear the development of abstract and formal thought, the establishment of sexual identity and the solidification of friendships with likely group experimentation with alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and even drugs.

According to psychology, teenagers fight for identification of the self and by structuring its existence based on that identity. It is a process of self-affirmation, which usually appears surrounded by conflicts and resistance, in which the subject seeks to achieve independence.

In this sense, the aforementioned psychology carries out a classification of the main problems that take place during adolescence. Thus, it determines that there are problems of a sexual, emotional, school, behavioral, eating, drug or even abuse nature.

And all of them are largely due to the set of physical changes and mental development that young people experience. Situations to which they must adapt but which at first find it difficult to assimilate, which is why they find themselves in a complicated position with themselves.