Teenagers

I have been in a child development class this semester and today we learned a lot about the physical development of adolescents. It was very interesting to me. I have a heart for the inner city children and youth and often times these are single parent families. We learned today how much the biological father has a role in a young girls life. Some quotes from the book...

"The relationship with the father seems particularly important. In one longitudinal study, girls who, as preschoolers, having a close, supportive relationship with their parents--- especially with an affectionate, involved father--- entered puberty later than girls whose parental relationships had been cold or distant or girls who were raised by single mothers. "

"Because both a father's absence and early pubertal timing have been identified as a risk factors for sexual promiscuity and teenage pregnancy, the father's early presence and active involvement may be important to girls; healthy sexual development."

Another thing we talked about was how the father treats a daughter with respect and opens doors for her and treats her like a man should it shows her how she is to be treated by her future boyfriend and husband. When the father isn't present often times the girl doesn't have a high standard and doesn't always have this since of worth.

I can see this playing out in girls all around me today. I know that this is an issue and it is growing greater and greater every day with the increasing in divorce rates. It breaks my heart to see this go on. I understand that some people can not help their situation but it still breaks my heart.

The other interesting thing we talked about today is how the brain develops. Teens tend to use a different part of the brain to make decisions than adults do. Therefore they often don't have the best judgement in their decisions. They don't have the same warning systems that adults do and they don't always see how their actions will play out. This also causes them to think that they are invincible.

I found this interesting because I think it helps explain why teenagers often make bad decisions. I wonder if the combination of entering puberty earlier, not having a father in your life to help set a high standard in a boyfriend, and poor decisions leads to teenagers having sex.

These are just my thoughts and observations after sitting in class for an hour and a half talking about it. I find it all very interesting.