Moving into Adolescence: The Impact of Pubertal Change and School ContextRoberta G. Simmons From the sociological point of view, adolescence traditionally has been described as a period of physical maturity and social immaturity. Adolescents reach physical adulthood before they are capable of functioning well in adult social roles. The disjunction between physical capabilities and socially allowed independence and power and the concurrent status ambiguities are viewed as stressful for the adolescent in modern Western society. It has been assumed that the need to disengage from parents during these years will result in high levels of rebellion and parent-child conflict. Moving into Adolescence follows students as they make a major life course transition from childhood into early adolescence.Substantial controversy has been generated within the behavioral sciences concerning the difficulty of adolescence as a transitional period. On the one hand, there are those who characterize the period as an exceptionally and necessarily stressful time in the life course. On the other hand, many investigators treat this view of adolescence as their straw man. To them, the supposed tumult of adolescence is just that--supposed and mythical. The purpose of this book is to study the transition from childhood into early and middle adolescence in order to investigate change along a wide variety of psychosocial dimensions with a particular focus on the self-image.The authors investigate the impact of timing of pubertal change and also the movement from an intimate, elementary school context into a large-scale secondary school environment. The first major movement into a large-scale organizational context may cause difficulty for the child, as may the dramatic changes of puberty. In addition, gender differences and changes in gender differences are studied. Both short- and long-term consequences of transition are examined focusing on is the role of pubertal change and school transition. |
Contents
Preface | |
2 | |
GENDER AND GRADELEVEL EFFECTS | |
THE IMPACT OF PUBERTAL TIMING AND PHYSICAL | |
The SocialPsychological Effects of Puberty on White Females | |
THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT | |
The Effects of Type of School Environment Upon Peer Relation | |
9 | |
FACTORS THAT MITIGATE OR AGGRAVATE | |
12 | |
13 | |
14 | |
Correlations of Developmental Timing with | |
LISREL Measurement Models for SelfEsteem | |
Measurement of the Tasks of Adolescence | |
Author Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
academic adjusted change scores adult analysis Analysis of Variance Baltes Blyth body image boys and girls Chapter child cluster correlations dependent variables earlier early adolescence early developing girls entry to adolescence evaluation expect extracurricular activities extracurricular participation females findings gender differences Grade 9 grand mean greater height and weight height growth high school cohort high school girls Hºw impact independence indicate individual involved junior high school K-8 cohort K-8 school late developers less longitudinal males menarche menstruating middle adolescence negative change negative effects ºil older one’s opposite sex opposite-sex popularity outcome variables parents peers perceived physical pubertal change pubertal development relationships Repeated Measures Rosenberg sample school problem behavior school transition school type self-image seventh grade significant differences significantly Simmons sixth grade social class standardized coefficients Table tenth grade variance victimization weight are controlled yºu youngsters yºur