Changes During Adolescent Period and Their Impact on Education

This essay elaborates on the changes that individuals experience during the adolescent period and how they influence their education and learning. It discusses social and emotional changes, mental and physical changes, and the impact of these changes on education. The essay highlights the importance of providing support and flexibility during this delicate period.

Running head: RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC SKILLS
Research and Academic Skills
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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Outline of the essay
The essay shall elaborate on discussing the main changes that an individual
experience during the adolescent period and how they influence their education and learning.
It is to mention that this essay shall shed light on the various changes in the physical and
mental health of the individuals during puberty or adolescent period. It shall highlight these
changes and shall link them with their educational performance. The main headings of my
essay shall be of “social and emotional changes that individuals experience during
adolescence” “mental and physical changes among the individuals” and “impact of the
changes of adolescent period on education”. Moreover, the essay shall start with an
introductory paragraph and shall end with a concluding paragraph as well. The middle section
of the essay would be the discussion part where the different headings in context to the essay
topic shall be addressed. Several literary works shall be taken into consideration in order to
elaborate the topic on some relevant and evidence based grounds. Some of the sources that
would be cited in this context are mentioned below:
Abarca-Gómez, L., Abdeen, Z.A., Hamid, Z.A., Abu-Rmeileh, N.M., Acosta-Cazares, B.,
Acuin, C., Adams, R.J., Aekplakorn, W., Afsana, K., Aguilar-Salinas, C.A. and Agyemang,
C., 2017. Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from
1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128· 9
million children, adolescents, and adults. The Lancet, 390(10113), pp.2627-2642.
Kelder, S.H., Hoelscher, D. and Perry, C.L., 2015. How individuals, environments, and
health behaviors interact. Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice, 159.
Solberg, A., 2015. Negotiating childhood: Changing constructions of age for Norwegian
children. In Constructing and reconstructing childhood (pp. 129-145).

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Verdejo‐García, A., Verdejo‐Román, J., Rio‐Valle, J.S., Lacomba, J.A., Lagos, F.M. and
Soriano‐Mas, C., 2015. Dysfunctional involvement of emotion and reward brain regions on
social decision making in excess weight adolescents. Human brain mapping, 36(1), pp.226-
237.
Isaacs, S., 2018. The nature and function of phantasy. In Developments in
psychoanalysis (pp. 67-121).
Lozano, L., McKenna, J., Carless, D., Pringle, A.R. and Sparkes, A., 2016. ‘Sorry mate,
you’re probably a bit too fat to be able to do any of this’: Men’s Experiences of Weight
Stigma and Its Implications. International Journal of Men's Health, 15(1).
Martin, A.J. and Steinbeck, K., 2017. The role of puberty in students' academic motivation
and achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 53, pp.37-46.
Moffitt, T.E., 2017. Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A
developmental taxonomy. In Biosocial Theories of Crime (pp. 69-96). Routledge.
Lee, E.Y., Pabayo, R. and Kawachi, I., 2016. Timing of spermarche and menarche are
associated with physical activity and sedentary behavior among Korean adolescents. Osong
public health and research perspectives, 7(4), pp.266-272.
McMahon, E.M., Corcoran, P., O’Regan, G., Keeley, H., Cannon, M., Carli, V., Wasserman,
C., Hadlaczky, G., Sarchiapone, M., Apter, A. and Balazs, J., 2017. Physical activity in
European adolescents and associations with anxiety, depression and well-being. European
child & adolescent psychiatry, 26(1), pp.111-122.

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Adolescence is a period of psychological and physical development of an individual
from the onset of puberty to maturity. Adolescent individuals are no longer children but at the
same time, they also have not yet reached the adulthood. According to Abarca-Gomez et al.
(2017), adolescence are the people who belong from the age range of 13 to 21 years.
However, during adolescence, individuals undergo many changes right from physical to
mental state. According to many researchers and scholars, adolescence also effect the
learning of the children and their academic motivation. This shall elaborate on discussing the
main changes that an individual experience during the adolescent period and how they
influence their education and learning.
Social and emotional changes that individuals experience during adolescence-
Adolescence is a period of huge social and emotional growth and development for children.
A child undergoes several hormonal changes in this stage. They gradually form their
independent learning and identity in order to become an adult. In context to social changes
during adolescent period, young children become busy with working out on who they are and
where they fit in the world. However, as stated by Kelder, Hoelscher and Perry (2015), this
search for an individual identity can be influenced by several factors including family
expectations, cultural background, peer groups, school, media and gender. With the same,
they also seek for more independence and this is possibly to affect their decision making
skills as well as the relationships that they have with their friends and families. Solberg
(2015) have also claimed that children during this period seek for more responsibility as well,
both at home and their school. They get very easily influenced by their friends, particularly
when it comes to the question of their self-esteem, behaviour and sense of self. They look for
new adventure and also, the nature of the development of their brain gets changed gradually.
However, they still carry on developing their control over their impulses. Moreover,
individuals during adolescent are also seen to be developing and exploring a sexual identity

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for themselves and starts communicating with people through different ways such as cell
phones, internet, and social media. All these could significantly affect the way an individual
communications with their friends and how he or she learns regarding this world.
During the period of adolescence, individuals are also seen to develop strong feelings
and some really intense emotions during different times. They moods get changed and the
way they react to certain things, too, changes significantly. Such an emotional ups and downs
could result in increased conflict among them. It is to mention that the brain of the children in
this period is still learning the ways to control and showcase their emotions in grown up
manner. Verdejo-Garcia et al. (2015) have claimed that the adolescent are more sensitive to
emotions. “Young people get better at reading and processing other people’s emotions as they
get older” (Isaacs 2018). When these individuals are developing such skills within
themselves, they could also sometimes be misread the body languages and the facial
expressions. They automatically becomes very self-conscious, particularly regarding their
physical changes and appearance. The self-esteem of the teenage is often influenced by their
appearance (Lozano et al. 2016). Furthermore, children are also noticed to go through
“invincible” stage of acting and thinking as if nothing bad or nothing negative can happen to
them. The decision making skills of the children are still on their process of development and
with the same, the children are still learning regarding the outcomes of their actions.
Impact of these changes of adolescent period on education- As per Martin and
Steinbeck (2017), the onset of puberty could mark a decline in the academic motivation of the
individuals and this in turn could decrease their academic achievement. During puberty
children experience very lower self-confidence and lower value. As a result, this
automatically result in low academic self-efficacy as well as lowered value of school. It is to
mention that puberty is also regarded to be a life changing process by many scholars (Moffitt
2017). The romantic attachments and the friendships that the children get engaged during

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their adolescent period are very significant in relation to their academic developments and
changes. School is the major arena for much of the actions of a child’s life and most often,
these actions not always involve school work and activities. Hence, it is very important for
the children to be learning regarding the human relations along with that of the academic
subjects. But most importantly, there should be a healthy balance in between these two. Or
else, the academic career of the children get worsen gradually. Lee, Pabayo and Kawachi
(2016) have claimed that “a universal physical development in students is puberty, which is
the set of changes in early adolescence that bring about sexual maturity”. By about the age of
ten or eleven, most of the children experience some increased sexual attraction towards the
other gender and this significantly impacts the social life of theirs, in both the school
premises and outside. As per the report of McMahon et al. (2017), by the end of the high
school, about half of the boys and girls are reported to have experienced the sexual
intercourse at least once. Although, it is hard to depend on this proportion as of the privacy
and the sensitivity of the information.
Although puberty accentuates the gender, the role differences, too, at the same time,
accentuate for some of the teenagers. The girls who excel the subject of science or
mathematics in their elementary school might curb her enthusiasm and displays of her
success in these subjects for the fear of limiting her attractiveness and popularity as being
girl. Also, a boy who is not particularly interested in the field of sports might show strong
dedication towards athletics in order to affirm his masculinity in the eyes of his peers and
friends. Similarly, some girls and boys who once worked collaboratively on certain classroom
projects earlier might no more feel that comfortable doing so and seek for other partners.
These type of changes are very common. However, it is to note that these changes do not
influence all the youngsters in equal proportion. An individual student may act like a young
adult on one day, but more like a child the next.

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Hence, from the above analysis it is to conclude that puberty is a life changing
process. Children goes through a vast change during their adolescent period. This period is
very delicate and therefore, a child needs special support during this stage in order to promote
their emotional and social development. With the same, it is also to conclude that adolescent
period has a great impact on the education and learning process of an individual. Hence, both
the parents and the teachers should take special care of children during the period of
adolescent and must respond very supportively and flexibly in order to ensure positive and
productive growth and development of brains and mentality of the children.
References:
Lozano, L., McKenna, J., Carless, D., Pringle, A.R. and Sparkes, A., 2016. ‘Sorry mate,
you’re probably a bit too fat to be able to do any of this’: Men’s Experiences of Weight
Stigma and Its Implications. International Journal of Men's Health, 15(1).

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Martin, A.J. and Steinbeck, K., 2017. The role of puberty in students' academic motivation
and achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 53, pp.37-46.
Moffitt, T.E., 2017. Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A
developmental taxonomy. In Biosocial Theories of Crime (pp. 69-96). Routledge.
Lee, E.Y., Pabayo, R. and Kawachi, I., 2016. Timing of spermarche and menarche are
associated with physical activity and sedentary behavior among Korean adolescents. Osong
public health and research perspectives, 7(4), pp.266-272.
McMahon, E.M., Corcoran, P., O’Regan, G., Keeley, H., Cannon, M., Carli, V., Wasserman,
C., Hadlaczky, G., Sarchiapone, M., Apter, A. and Balazs, J., 2017. Physical activity in
European adolescents and associations with anxiety, depression and well-being. European
child & adolescent psychiatry, 26(1), pp.111-122.
Abarca-Gómez, L., Abdeen, Z.A., Hamid, Z.A., Abu-Rmeileh, N.M., Acosta-Cazares, B.,
Acuin, C., Adams, R.J., Aekplakorn, W., Afsana, K., Aguilar-Salinas, C.A. and Agyemang,
C., 2017. Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from
1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128· 9
million children, adolescents, and adults. The Lancet, 390(10113), pp.2627-2642.
Kelder, S.H., Hoelscher, D. and Perry, C.L., 2015. How individuals, environments, and
health behaviors interact. Health behavior: Theory, research, and practice, 159.
Solberg, A., 2015. Negotiating childhood: Changing constructions of age for Norwegian
children. In Constructing and reconstructing childhood (pp. 129-145).
Verdejo‐García, A., Verdejo‐Román, J., Rio‐Valle, J.S., Lacomba, J.A., Lagos, F.M. and
Soriano‐Mas, C., 2015. Dysfunctional involvement of emotion and reward brain regions on

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social decision making in excess weight adolescents. Human brain mapping, 36(1), pp.226-
237.
Isaacs, S., 2018. The nature and function of phantasy. In Developments in
psychoanalysis (pp. 67-121).