The Impact of Technology on Adolescents

This assignment delves into the multifaceted impact of technology on adolescents. It examines how digital advancements, social media platforms, and evolving online trends shape adolescent cognitive development, social interactions, mental health, and overall well-being. The analysis draws upon a range of scholarly articles and research findings to provide a comprehensive understanding of this crucial topic.

Psychology in the early years and
adolescent

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
Attachment in Adolescence.............................................................................................................3
Emotional attachment in Adolescents..............................................................................................4
Communication in Adolescence......................................................................................................6
Identity in Adolescence....................................................................................................................7
Has expansion of digital technology changed adolescent different from previous generations......8
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Adolescent is termed as the developmental stage between childhood and adulthood which is
characterized by changes and alteration is physical, mental, emotional, cognitive and behavioural
pattern. This age can be broadly classified into three major stags. The early adolescent age can be
categorized from age 10-13 years (Abraham and Kerns, 2013). Middle adolescence is the age
between 14-16 years and the late adolescence is grouped above the age of 16 years. The age of
adolescence creates different types of pressure which are exerted by family, peer, school and social
groups. It is the most important stage in an individual's life which determines what kind of a person
exists in that male or female (Antunes and Ahlin, 2014).
This report will focus on different concepts of adolescence related to psychological
problems which are linked from childhood to adulthood. It will also include different behavioural
patters associated with growing teenagers. The report will also focus on communication patterns
and emotional attachment with opposite sex. It will also discuss whether digital technology
advancement has changed adolescents from previous generation or not.
Attachment in Adolescence
The attachment ad behaviour in adolescent is manifested very differently and because of this
reason many researchers have presented challenges in studying psychological issues related to
attachment and behaviour in adolescents (Daughters, Gorka and Anderson, 2013). Different types of
attachment have been characterized in adolescents such as relationship with parents, social
competence and relationship with peers, emotional self regulation, behavioural problems and
psychosocial adjustments.
Relationship with parents: Researchers have found that with growing age children and teenagers
starts detaching from their parents and develop interest and attachment with different people in
outside world (Eisenberg, Spinrad and Valiente, 2016). The focus more on becoming self-reliant
which disturbs the child-parent relationship. Many parents develop a psychology that children at
this age are more vulnerable to get influenced easily and may succumb to risk factors associated
with this age. The teenagers try to develop courage and intelligence to cope up with different
problems without running back to their guardians or parents. Based on recent research, it has been
found that individuals whom are judged by their teachers and peers are more competent in social
aspect and are not dependant on parents (Hetherington, 2014).
Attachment and social competence in relationship with peer: Different psychological studies
suggests that children who are securely attached wit peers and parents tends to be more active
socially and develops more lose connections with friends (Kendler and Gardner, 2014). Moreover

they are also found to be more stronger in their persona relationships with opposite sex. They ought
to place themselves at the leadership positions which can boost their self confidence and social
skills. However studies do not suggest that individuals with weaker or less attachment with peers
and parents tends to be socially inactive or incompetent. Only disorganisation in psychological
behaviour can be the results of less attachment in many individuals (Kruger, Fisher and Strout,
2013).
Emotional self-regulation: A different pattern of coping with problems have been noticed in in
individuals who are less secured or attached with their peers (Lantolf, Thorne and Poehner, 2015). A
person who is less attached to someone do not accept further attachment for handling different
mental, emotional or physical difficulties. On other hand, individuals who already have preoccupied
mind tends to seek attachment in order to cope with problems specially connected to emotional
variables (Lillard, Lerner and Palmquist, 2013). Researchers also suggested that coping styles for
different problems also varies according to gender. Both girls and boys handles the same problems
differently.
Behavioural problems and psychological problems: A hypothetical study suggested that many
psychological and pathological problems are the result of different types of behaviours exhibited by
teenagers (Lin, Fan and Chau, 2014). In many cases parents feel that their children need special
attention and care by them in order to progress well in different spheres of life. On other hand a
child feels helpless and dependent due to the paranoid behaviour of their parents which results in
various psychological and pathological issues. Such children are likely to experience Panic attacks,
anxiety, depression and other mental issues. Many individuals who are attached to their parents
tends to get detached with their caregivers and finds a more appropriate solution to cope up with
problems subjected to mental, social and emotional issues (Madigan, Atkinson and Benoit, 2013).
Emotional attachment in Adolescents
Emotional attachment in adolescents is a major development that takes place during teenage
years. Emotional attachment can be with parents, individuals with opposite-sex, peers and friends in
a group (Okado and Bierman, 2015). Some individuals develop the abilities to cope with emotional
stress and problems effectively but some lack behind power and courage to handle it. It often results
in feeling of anxiousness, fear, unhappiness and mental disturbances.
Typical emotional development in adolescence: Typical emotional development in adolescence
brings about significant changes in lifestyles of an individual (Schmidt and et.al, 2016). A
prominent change in physiological growth, development of secondary sexual characters and
psychological patterns is noticed at puberty. Teenagers are more concerned about their freedom,

self-concepts, self esteem, independency and morality. When emotional state of an individual is
concerned they tends to maintain their develop emotional attachment and relationships with friends,
pees and with people who shows love and affection towards them. Many teenagers are found to get
attracted towards other people in context to romance and physical needs at times. This age is
referred as one of the most complex age because it tends to decrease the capacity to control
emotions and sentiments which finally results in developing impulsive nature towards person of
same or opposite sex (Schwarzer, 2014).
Brain development and emotionality: With growing age a significant change and development is
noticed in brain which is also associated with emotionality of and individual. The brain
development noticed in early and middle adolescence is different from modifications that takes
place at later age of adolescence (Sharma, 2015). The attainment of puberty is early in girls as
compared to boys. Studies suggest that there are different implication which causes behavioural
problems and emotional instability in adolescent at early or later stage of adolescence. An increased
level of emotions and orientation is noticed in early stages of adolescence but this tends to change
in intensify the emotional needs and reactivity. Teenagers demand more attention, love, care and
affection from members of opposite sex in order to stabilize their mental emotional and physical
needs (Sheehan and McConkey, 2015). All the physic and biological changes taking place in body
are responsible for developing emotions and cognition towards others. Emotional changes and
cognitive behavioural patterns are the results of reproductive hormonal changes taking place in
body, however, development of incognitive behaviour is concerned with age, experience and
maturity rather than hormonal effects (Telzer, Fuligni and Galván, 2015).
Problematic behaviour and emotions: Emotional difficulties is directly linked with the problems
associated with behavioural patterns in teenagers. Major difficulties which are caused in
adolescence are related to emotional instability in children (Wellington, 2015). The concept of
clinical child psychology suggests that a younger individual identifies emotional detachment as
typical problem which increases pain and stress with time. Cause and source of emotional
difficulties which is experienced by an adolescent can be justified with the help of different types of
studies. An individual coping with emotional and behavioural problems regards himself/herself as
disturbed person (Ybarra and Mitchell, 2014). These three questions should be addressed at first
place while dealing and counselling individuals with emotional problems.
 When do individual suffering or coping with emotional stress id termed as “disturbed”?
 What are the lethal signs and symptoms that indicates that strict action is necessary to
protect a person from developing anxiety, depression or other stress related problems.
 What are the steps and measures which can help a individual handle these types of problem

effectively? (Daughters, Gorka and Anderson, 2013).
Occurrence of developmental problems in adolescence: There are many reason which contribute to
occurrence of developmental problems in teenagers but the use of illicit substance use is one of the
major reason which is reported to cause developmental problems (Abraham and Kerns, 2013).
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 17% of girls and 12% of boys are reported to
suffer from different types of mental disorders due to emotional instability and attachment problem.
The DSM criteria is applied to calculate the extent of mental disorder which a suffers from.
On the basis of scores the intensity and severity of psychological problems is decided.
Scores are calculated from 100 (Lantolf, Thorne and Poehner, 2015). if an individual scores more
than 70 it is assumed that very less degree of psychological problem has affected his/her health. If a
person's score is 60 or less than 60 then a moderate range of mental disorder has affected the mental
state of an individual. If the scores is less than 50 then a severe mental disorder has been resulted
due to emotional instability in teenagers (Okado and Bierman, 2015).
Communication in Adolescence
With growing phase and advancement in technologies a greater impact is seen on the
lifestyles of adolescents. With increasing modes of communication, adolescents have started relying
on social media which enables them to communicate to their friends, relatives, family members and
other individuals.
Changes in communication styles: In this growing world, nearly all the adolescents have been
given the accessibility to communicate to different types of people through telephones, emails,
verbal and face to face interactions but a greater impact of online communication system is seen on
teenagers in today's life (Madigan, Atkinson and Benoit, 2013). Online communication system
provides wide range of communicative resources but it do not give visual cues about the
communication to all the individuals.
Communication and adolescent relationships: All the modes of communication in today's world
helps in satisfying and maintaining interpersonal relationships with different people (Lillard, Lerner
and Palmquist, 2013). A former social networking sites provide an overview of various individuals
who are connected with the sits but these social media do not provide any limit to maintain
relationships in the adolescents years. According to different psychological studies including
teenagers it has been found that social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Orkut have
decreased the intensity of face to face interactions which was more prevalent in earlier years.
Researchers estimated that a human is incapable of maintaining more than 150 relations at a time
but due to advancement all the social sites give access to more than 150 relationships at a time (The

Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families, 2016).
Maintaining a social identity: Adolescents mainly focus on maintaining band developing identities
which can impress and attract different individuals using the same social networking site. Girls on
one hand try to maintain and identity which can impress boys and vice versa (Schmidt and et.al,
2016). One of the main reasons for maintaining an identity is that all the people wants to connect to
their peers, friends and relatives in a better way. According to different studies and researches it has
been found that 32& of boys and 27% of girls try to maintain a fake identity on online media. Some
girls and boys pretend to be younger than they really are and some individuals heighten their social
status more than they actually maintain in real life (Sharma, 2015).
Identity in Adolescence
A significant psychological change has been noticed in adolescents due to the acuteness of
identity. With the development of capacity of thinking with time, a change in cognitive behaviour is
seen in all the teenagers (Hetherington, 2014). They tend to experience changes in social life as they
move away from their childhood and enter into ma new world.
Identity crises during adolescence: The adolescent age is marked as the age of crisis which is
characterized by the loss of body, mental state, morals and beliefs which existed in childhood. An
individual not only develops unreasoning thoughts and conclusion in his/her mind but also creates
different perversion (Lantolf, Thorne and Poehner, 2015). These perversions are generally linked to
sexual perversions in teenagers life. Although adolescence is a phase of life which demands more
attention and care but it also have a crucial impact on personality and development in later stages of
life. Nearly all teenagers desire to achieve solitude and seclusion from the outer world but on other
hand they also desire to establish romantic relationships and friendships in order to give importance
to their life (Eisenberg, Spinrad and Valiente, 2016).
Identity Status: Different identity states reveal that the age of adolescence is considered to be very
complex which leads to confusion, exploration and commitment to various roles in life (Antunes
and Ahlin, 2014). Many teenagers in their earlier or later stages of adolescence tends to experiment
with their gender, friendships, relationships and different aspects of life in order to create a
different identity. Different studies interpret that adolescence is not only the age of confusion or
segmentation from childhood life but it is the age which demands decisions on alternative beliefs
and occupations, exploration to new world and commitment towards different roles in life (Kruger,
Fisher and Strout, 2013). Commitment not only refers to financial investment in a particular
business but it also refers to seriousness and loyalty towards different relations such as friendships,
romantic inclusion and formal relationships.
Sexual identities: The issues of sexual sexual identities have long been studied by different

historians and sociologist to determine the difference between sexual identities and orientation
(Ybarra and Mitchell, 2014). There is a great difference in identity and orientation in sexual context.
Sexual orientation can be defined as physical, mental, sexual, attractive and romantic behaviour
towards people of same or opposite sex. On other hand sexual identity is a term which is related to
person's own perception,conception and thoughts about themselves or others. Sexual identity and
sexual orientation also focuses on the sexual behaviour of an individual in order to determine the
sexual identity (Eisenberg, Spinrad and Valiente, 2016). Basically sexual behaviour is concerned
with different acts performed by an individual with the intension of establishing sexual contact in
people with same or opposite sex.
The concept of sexual identity and behaviour in western society has changed with course of
time. In earlier time, sexual activity was only regarded as a source of biological production. Later
on with the advancement, it is not only regarded as key of reproduction but is is also a root to
harmless pleasure in all the individuals (Lin, Fan and Chau, 2014).
Has expansion of digital technology changed adolescent different from previous generations
Extraordinary advancement in technologies have enabled individuals of all the ages to
access different applications and programs but a greater impact of digital technologies have been
seen on teenagers (The Digital Revolution and Adolescent Brain Evolution, 2016). Children in their
teenage years are ready to adapt all advancement in the field of science which can enhance their
identity, status, relations and friendships. The pattern of learning, reading playing , interacting and
living have been drastically changed in recent years as compared to lifestyles in earlier generations.
Due to the digital advancement in today's generation a difference in brain evolution mechanism is
noticed in teenagers (Telzer, Fuligni and Galván, 2015).
According to various research and studies, it has been estimated that 35% of teenagers are
engaged in interacting with different digital technologies for average 9 hours a day in many
countries of the world. This percentage increased from 29% in 2013 to 35% in 2015. Many
teenagers are found to be using more than two digital devices at a time (Daughters, Gorka and
Anderson, 2013). The advancement in digital technologies had a major impact on modes of
communication perceived by adolescents. An individual who uses social media for interaction is
supposed to spend more than 11 hours a day which disturbs the overall academic career of the
teenager. A greater impact of digital technologies is seen on the health of an adolescent. Although
advancement in digital science have provided a unique overview of different positive adaptations on
the mind of a teenager but it has also resulted in loss of neural activity with increased use of these
technologies (Hetherington, 2014).

According to different research and surveys, more than 38% of teenagers in the age group of
13-17 years were reported to be mentally harassed on online networking sites by individuals of
same or opposite sex. This increased from 38% in 2010 to 47% in 2014. Due to the increased use of
different types of messaging application such as Snapchat, dating sites and other messaging services
more number of girls were found to be bullied by boys (Lantolf, Thorne and Poehner, 2015). 22%
of girls and 16% of boys were cyber bullied according to surveys conducted in 2014. Digital
technology has played a major role in changing the lifestyles of people in a positive way but it also
have a very negative impact on lives of teenagers. The life which people of earlier generation spent
was far better than the life which is spend by today's teenagers (How Technology is Changing the
Way Children Think and Focus, 2016). The advancement has lead to develop more problems
associated with teenagers life.
CONCLUSION
The overall study was based on psychological behaviours in adolescents in early, middle
and later stages of adolescence. It also includes detailed study on types of attachments with parents,
peers and friends in teenagers life. It also focused on issues of emotional instability, emotional
attachment and occurrence of behavioural and developmental problems in later stage of adolescent
years. More focus was laid on different ways of communications used by teenagers to communicate
with different people around them. It can be through telephonic conversations, social networking
sites and face to face interactions. It also included various issues related to maintaining teenagers
personal as well as social identity in order to impress and attract people of same or opposite sex.
Lastly, a detailed description was included on the topic of digital advancement and changed brought
about on the life of teenagers in today's generation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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and cortisol reactivity on adolescent risk taking. Journal of abnormal child psychology. 41(5).
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of Contemporary Issues. 13(3). p.219.
Hetherington, E.M., 2014. Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage: A risk and
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Wellington, J., 2015. Educational research: Contemporary issues and practical approaches.
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