INTRODUCTION
Adolescence, the transitional stage of development between childhood and adulthood, represents the period of time during which a person experiences a variety of biological changes. He or she encounters a number of emotional issues. Adolescence is marked by accelerated physical growth, development of reproductive organs, and changes in functioning of the neuroendocrine system. Adolescents experience frequent shifts of moods and emotional turbulence prompted by increased production of hormones. They go through different types of changes physical as well as psychological. Adolescents are often subjected to various sufferings and struggle, especially those who are from poor families. They are often targeted and sexually abused by their own family members. Very many times, they are even assaulted by their own fathers and brothers. Most of the times, minor girls are treated like animals. They become like vegetables in the hands of agents who buy and sell them as it is done with vegetables. In this paper, I will present the changes and challenges which the adolescents undergo during the growth as human beings and how they become victims of various sociological and other aspects in the society.
CHAPTER ONE
CHANGES IN ADOLESCENCE
Adolescence (12 - 18 years old) is a particularly hard time for children. They experience all kinds of new changes in their bodies and in their feelings. They often feel misunderstood as they struggle to leave behind their childhood and become adults. It is of the utmost importance to recognize that the huge fund of energy of the adolescent is due not simply to sexual development and indeed not simply to the endocrine system, but in part to an accentuation of the process of growth. This is connected with the fact that there is typically in adolescence enormous increase in activity in connection with almost everything from sports and horseplay to science and religion and philosophy, depending on the individual and the group. There is a deepening and a broadening of life. This is in some degree a direct or indirect expression of sex energy, but it is as profound and as extensive as personality development itself. Adolescence has commonly been characterized by issues such as rebellious behaviour, lying, cheating, school performance problems, negative attitudes, disobedience and disrespect, sibling rivalry, drug and alcohol abuse, pressures from peers, depression, and issues of sexuality.
1.1 Physical Changes
The adolescents go through different types of changes during these periods. The onset of early adolescence is marked by rapid physical change. The changes associate with puberty a height spurt, the maturation of the reproductive systems, the appearance of secondary sex characteristics and redistribution of body weight.
1.1.2 Puberty
Puberty is the stage where a child transforms from physical immaturity into becoming capable of reproduction. One of the first visible signs of puberty is a growth spurt - both in the child's size and shape. Boys experience the increased height and muscle mass. Boys often loose fat and become more angular and muscular, making them stronger as well.
The onset of puberty in girls occurs at approximately 11 years of age. They experience a growth in their breasts and a hip expansion. Sex organs change and mature and girls experience menarche, or their first menstruation.
1.1.3 Peer Interactions
Relationships with peers change at this time as well. Peer interaction increases even more than it did during middle childhood. High school students spend twice as much time with their peers outside school as they do with their parents or other adults. Adolescent peer groups function with less guidance and control from adults than do the peer groups of younger children. Instead of being confined to local neighbourhoods, adolescent peer groups draw their members from many neighbourhoods. As adolescents increasingly distance themselves from adults, most seek out members of the other sex. This gender reorganization is a major reason for reorganization of peer groups during adolescence. Peer groups increase in size at the same time that friendships and other close relationships increase in intensity.
1.1.4 Friendship
Both girls and boys develop intense friendships with other same sex children, who share the same interests. Girls, in particular, develop more intense intimate relationships with a few other girls. Boys develop less intense relationships with a greater number of other boys. Close friendships in the teen years have been seen to have positive benefits to the children. Although their general attitudes may be well formed, adolescents continually acquire new attitude, or changing their attitudes, toward specific people and objects.
1.1.5 Parental Relationships
With respect to the teen years, parental relationships and parents' authority over their children decreases in relation to that of their children's peers. This is due to the increased time that children spend with their peers. The parent must now exercise even more authority through persuasion than they did earlier. However, it is good to know that most adolescents share their parents' values, and most prefer to talk about conflict rather than use outright anger and rejection to resolve a problem. Conflicts with parents at this time seem to center around on matters of taste, which may reflect larger issues of control.
1.1.6 Identity
Identity develops a great deal during the adolescent years. Existing identity and personality must be integrated with new sexual capacities and social relationships. There is a marked decline in self-esteem at the onset of adolescence, especially among girls. This reflects the difficulties that teens have adjusting to biological and social changes. Self-esteem should rise throughout adolescence as the new teen adjusts to these changes. Identity formation is an activity that teens actively seek. They attempt to categorize themselves and define themselves through certain activities.
1.2 Emotional Changes
It is generally accepted that the emotions add richness to life. During adolescent period various emotional changes take place.
“Adolescents are excessively egoistic, regarding themselves as the center of the universe and the sole object of interest, and yet at no time in later life are they capable of so much self-sacrifice and devotion. They form the most passionate love relations, only to break them off as abruptly as they begin them. On the one hand, they throw themselves enthusiastically into the life of the community and, on the other hand, they have an overpowering longing for solitude.”
1.2.1 Affection or the Tender Emotions
Affection is a two-way process. Not only should the adolescents receive affection but they should be trained to become interested in the well-fare on others.
1.2.2 Love as Associated with Sex
Strong affection and physical attraction combine to represent the emotion usually referred to as love between the sexes. The normal, healthy adolescent experiences great emotional satisfaction from companionship with a member of other sex. The adolescent may become attracted to one or more members of the opposite sex.
1.2.3 Anger and Aggressive Behaviour
Most adolescents experience anger when their wishes are not fulfilled. This emotion arises out of personal feelings of insecurity. They are more subtle in their expression of anger, yet just as devastating. They make use of sarcasm and ridicule.
CHAPTER TWO
COMMON PROBLEMS
In a perfect world, children and teens would grow up to be happy, healthy, functioning adults. However, there are hundreds of influences that they encounter throughout their early lives that will have an impact on their development - both in negative and positive ways. There are various issues and disorders that adolescents may face in the turbulent times of their teen years. An adolescent feels all kinds of pressures - from parents, school and peers. They are in a transitional period where they move from childhood to adulthood. Today’s adolescents face a number of pressing public health problems like-Unintentional injury, suicide, homicide, unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, etc. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among our young people are usually preventable. While most teenagers escape a close brush with death, each year thousands of American youth are not as fortunate.
2.1 Motor Vehicle Accidents
Motor vehicle accidents kill more teenagers than all other causes combined with 15,000 deaths reported annually from automobile related injuries alone. Alcohol and other drugs are known to be factors in many of these fatalities.
2.2 Suicide
Another sobering statistic is that the rate of adolescent suicide has tripled over the past three decades to 5,000 per year. It is estimated that there are 50-200 attempts for every death by suicide. Many adolescents also succumb to pressures on how to look, feel and act in a society obsessed with people’s appearances and with the desire for immediate gratification.
2.3 Eating Disorders
Eating disorders have also become very common as the preoccupation with thinness supersedes a desire to be healthy and teenagers often resort to desperate or even dangerous methods of weight control.
2.4 Conduct Disorder
Conduct disorder is a complicated group of behavioural and emotional problems in youngsters. Children and adolescents with this disorder have great difficulty following rules and behaving in a socially acceptable way. They are often viewed by other children, adults and social agencies as "bad" or delinquent, rather than mentally ill.
2.5 Social Network
There is the presence of other psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviours, mania and aggressive tendencies, in teens who have a strong Facebook presence. It develops increased absence from school and likelihood of developing stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression, in teens who overdose in technology on a daily basis, including Facebook and video games. It also lowers the reading retention rates for students who most frequently had Facebook open on their computers during the 15-minute study period
2.6 Alcohol and Drug Abuse
In the 15-21 year age range, 50% of deaths (from accidents, homicides, suicides) involve alcohol or drug abuse. Drugs and alcohol also contribute to physical and sexual aggression such as assault or rape. Possible stages of teenage experience with alcohol and drugs include abstinence (non-use), experimentation, regular use (both recreational and compensatory for other problems), abuse, and dependency. Repeated and regular recreational use can lead to other problems like anxiety and depression. Some teenagers regularly use drugs or alcohol to compensate for anxiety, depression, or a lack of positive social skills.
American high school age youths have a higher level of illicit drug use than those of any other industrialized nation. Roughly 60% of American students try an illegal drug such as marijuana, amphetamines, heroin and other opiates, cocaine or barbiturates. Alcohols depress the central nervous system. Although many people think that alcohol makes one “high” at its greatest levels of concentration, it can cause death by suppressing the breath.
2.7 Sexual Abuse
Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened, and the legal procedure for validating an episode is difficult. The problem should be identified, the abuse stopped, and the child should receive professional help. The long-term emotional and psychological damage of sexual abuse can be devastating to the child.
Child sexual abuse can take place within the family, by a parent, step-parent, sibling or other relative; or outside the home, for example, by a friend, neighbour, child care person, teacher, or stranger. When sexual abuse has occurred, a child can develop a variety of distressing feelings, thoughts and behaviours.
Very often minor girls are abused by their own fathers. For instance, a 14 years old girl from Kerala was allegedly raped by her own father. He even allegedly pushed her into the sex trade. She states that “A heavily- built man assaulted me. I bled profusely.” She complained to the police that her father had pushed her into and organized sex racket. It now turns out that over 18 months she was abused by 130 people across Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Most of the time minor girls are treated like animals. They become like vegetables in the hands of agents who buy and sell them as it is done with vegetables. “Minor girls are much sought after in the flesh trade. When a minor girl reaches a pimp, she alerts her clientele. There are people who are willing to pay Rs 1 lakh for a minor girl.” Sex rackets are like whirlpools. Once a victim gets sucked into it, she cannot escape. They become helpless and hopeless in their lives. No remedy is found for their psychological and physical wounds especially for their social wounds. They are deprived of their basic right to live as human beings with a dignity. “The more time people are deprived of, the more life they are deprived of.”
Each year in this country one million (one in ten) teenage girls become pregnant. The vast majority of these pregnancies are unplanned. There are also more than three million cases of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, reported among adolescents every year in this country.
Homeless youths are vulnerable to victimization, including robbery, rape, and assault. Also, homelessness often leads to initiation or escalation of substance use. High rates of externalizing and internalizing problems, including psychosis, have been found among this population. Moreover, high rates of risky sexual behaviour, including prostitution and survival sex (sex in exchange for money, drugs, or shelter); place these young people at risk for victimization and sexually transmitted diseases.
CONCLUSION
The adolescence is a very fragile period of a child. He or she goes through a various biological and psychological changes during this period. The adolescent period decides the future of a child. If a child receives due attention and guidance during this period then she or he realizes the value of life. In adolescence there is activation and a sensitization of the whole living system; and whatever interests are already there, whatever skills already exist, whatever values have taken shape earlier as a result of growth and learning, are ready for intensification, fresh direction. Skills , values, outlooks toward life tend to achieve more definite form and to be stimulated enriched, organized, enthusiastically cultivated, so that often the ground plan of life is laid in a relatively short time in this period of the first great accentuation of one’s powers. They should be handled very carefully so as to avoid any misunderstanding during their early life. Usually they find very difficult to adjust with the changes in their own body. In other words, the changes in their body challenge them badly. Let the children know the value and purpose of their life.
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