what are the challenges faced by early developing adolscent females and late develping adolescent males? what can parents do to help their teenage daughters and sons deal with these challenges?

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Adolecence

-Adolescent Development Mark Canne October 23 , 2007 Adolescent development does not necessarily follow a similar pattern for every individual as the multidimensional phase spans through in a quite complex way . At a time of transition from childhood to adulthood traditionally , a period of rapid physical growth is flung upon the individual amidst brief periods of remission . In the last century however , the onset of physical change has occurred at increasingly younger ages , increasing the likelihood that the psychosocial and cognitive changes will lag behind (Neinstein , 2002

. Physical changes thereby vary among adolescents as children of the same age critically vary in the growth and sexual development . For some , the rates of change occur and happen at different times as adolescents experience puberty in his /her own way and time . While it is interesting to observe pubertal changes in adolescents , the tremendous cycle brings about a cacophony of questions among the concerned age group . Some teens develop earlier than others and deal with changes earlier than others

For others , maturity may occur later than others and more pronounced is the variation of pubertal changes between males and females (Lerner and Galambos , 1998 : 414 . Adolescents of the same age do not necessarily follow a similar pattern of change and the comparison is quite pronounced between both genders . In females , the Luteinizing Hormone stimulates the ovarian cells to produce androgens and progesterone and stimulates ovulation and FSH increases estrogen production earlier compared to males whose LH stimulates testosterone production and FSH stimulates gametogenesis at a later stage (Neinstein , 2002 . The onset of puberty varies , as female pubertal development begins on average at 11 .2 years of age (range 9 .0 - 13 .4 ) and lasts about 4 years while male puberty development begins on average at 11 .6 years of age (range 9 .5 - 13 .5 (Rosen and Foster , 2001 :310 .Up to and during puberty , girls develop physically and mature much faster than the male counterpart (Brayer , 1986 :247

To say that adolescents encounter a lot of changes and challenges during this period of human development is an understatement . When each gender is marauded with varying levels of change , one goes through a critical stage in a short period of transition from childhood to adulthood . We shall identify the changes for males and females across this developmental stage in to arrive at a comparison between both sexes .Physical Challenges The earliest signs of puberty for females include the emergence of physical changes that occur at different rates and intensity . On the average , breast budding along with pubic hair growth signals the initial phase of a female 's growth spurt that reaches its peak about one year and one month after breast development begins . Menarche , or the onset of menstruation starts typically one year after at an average age of 12 years old (Brayer , 1986 : 247 . The male equivalent of menarche is spermarche which is characterized by the first ejaculation of sperm (Beckett , 2002 :113 . Testicular enlargement is the common physical...