Adolescence is a psychological and social change that grows a young

person from childhood to young adult independence and identity;

puberty is a chemical and physiological change that leads to sexual
maturity. Adolescent change often begins earlier than puberty; but
when puberty coincides with the onset of adolescence, the adolescent
process can become more emotionally intense.

1. EMOTIONAL CHANGES

a) Feeling overly sensitive

During puberty, since your body undergoes many changes, it is

common to feel uncomfortable about them and become overly
sensitive about your physical appearance. As a result you may feel
irritated quite easily, lose your temper or feel depressed.

b) Looking for an identity

Since you are in the process of becoming an adult, you may feel inclined
to figure out what makes you unique as a person.. You may try to figure
out how you are different from others and how you fit into the world.
This may eventually lead to some sort of a struggle to become more
independent of your parents and family.

c) Feeling uncertain

Since you're not completely an adult and are not a child anymore,
puberty can potentially lead to uncertain times. As a transition phase,
you may begin to wonder and think about new and unfamiliar aspects
of life such as career, livelihood and marriage. This uncertainty
becomes more evident when the expectations that people close to you
have from you also change.

d) Peer pressure
With the onset of puberty, your conversations with your friends will
increase. Your peer group and you are likely to be influenced by what
you see around you in popular media and the culture that is
represented through them.

This maybe uncomfortable at times and would probably even change

your likes and dislikes.

e) Conflicting thoughts

Since you are somewhere in between as a teenager during puberty, you

may feel stuck between how you were as a child and how you wish to
be as an adult. For example, you might want to be more independent
and at the same time, might also look for support from your parents.

2. PERSONAL APPEARANCE

Usually beginning during early to mid-adolescence (around ages 9 – 15),

unfolding over a period of 1 ½ to 3 years, puberty culminates in sexual
maturity -- the capacity to produce eggs or sperm. In addition, this
hormonal process causes changing alterations in manly and womanly
appearance as well.

Now the young person feels anxiously at the mercy of bodily changes
not in their control.

There is self-consciousness and worry about how their growing older

body is turning out.

There is an increased need for physical privacy.

There is more time devoted to self-inspection and social preparation.

There is more peer attention paid to personal appearance to the good

(admiration) and to the bad (teasing.)
There is more awkward social association with the
other sex after childhood years spent mostly with same-sex friends.

There is an awakening of sexual interests and fantasies as more girls

turn to romance fiction and more boys to pornography.

There are concerns about gender definition of womanliness or

manliness and how to express them.

There is an increased preoccupation with managing one’s looks

because they can affect how one is identified, how one is treated, how
one fits in, and how one belongs.

3. PHYSICAL CHANGES

a) Girls:

If you have a daughter, these are the main external physical changes in
puberty that you can expect.

Around 10-11 years

Breasts will start developing. This is the first visible sign that puberty is
starting. On average girls grow 5-20 cm. They usually stop growing at
around 16-17 years.

Around 12-14 years

Hair will start growing under your daughter’s arms. Girls’ get a clear or
whitish discharge from her vagina for several months before her
periods start. Periods will start. This is when the lining of the uterus
(womb), including blood, is shed every month. Her periods might be
irregular at first.

b) Boys:
Around 11-13 years

The external genitals (penis, testes and scrotum) will start to grow. It’s
normal for one testis to grow faster than the other. Pubic hair will start
to grow. It will get darker and thicker over time.

Around 12-14 years

Male’s have a growth spurt. They get taller and his chest and shoulders
will get broader. Some parts of his body – like his head, face and hands
– might grow faster than his limbs and torso.

It’s common for boys to have minor breast development.

Around 13-15 years

Hair will start growing on other parts of your son’s body – under his
arms, on his face and on the rest of his body. His leg and arm hair will
thicken. Some young men will grow more body hair into their early
20s.Male’s start getting erections and ejaculating (releasing sperm).

Around 14-15 years

The larynx (‘Adam’s apple’ or voice box) will become more obvious.
Boys’ larynx will get larger and his voice will ‘break’, eventually
becoming deeper.

4 . EMANCIPATION

Emancipation of minors is a legal mechanism by which a minor is freed

from control by their parents or guardians, and the parents or
guardians are freed from any and all responsibility toward the child.

Parents have a number of legal and equitable duties while bringing up

their biological child. Failure to meet these requirements will result in
the court taking legal action against the child's parent or parents unless
he or she is not their biological child, such as a stepchild adopted
informally. Children have expectations from parents but legally they
owe nothing to their parents. Although rules vary in different
households, legally the child does not have to comply.

5. SOCIAL ADJUSTMENTS

A number of social problems crop up in the period of adolescence. The

social contacts of the person expand from infancy to maturity. In
infancy a child's social contacts are with one person, usually its mother.
From the early childhood onwards the mother-child relationship
normally expands as the child comes into contact with the other
members of family.

When the child moves outside his family circle, he establishes contact
with other children of his own age. When he takes admission in the
school the peer group expands.

Here he meets his teacher. Adolescence is the stage of development

which produces a number of problems for the person. These problems
arise out of the adolescent's adjustment with following social groups:

(a) Family;

(b) School;

(c) Associates of one's own sex; and

(d) Associates of the other sex.

Every father or mother thinks that his son or daughter is a psychological

extension of himself, and when the adolescent slips along into the
outside world, he or she feels that he or she is losing a part of himself
or herself. As the adolescent becomes more independent he needs not
so much care, direction, and attention of his parents, which parents still
think necessary for his existence and well-being.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Biology by Dr. K.K. Gupta (Selina Publishers)

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_of_minors
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescence
 http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/physical_changes_teenagers
.html