Early Adolescent Students' Social and Psychological Development

            In this Kappan article, California State University/Chico professor Diana Coyl describes four areas in which early adolescent students develop. As children get older, they are less amenable to adult influence, says Coyl. As a result, the early adolescent years are prime time for effective prevention and intervention before negative effects on social and academic success take hold.

            · Obesity and body image - The number of obese children in this age group has doubled since 1980, reaching 17% in 2006, accompanied by an increase in high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type II diabetes, sleep apnea, and bone and joint problems, as well as teasing and low self-esteem. Some girls whose weight is within the normal range think they're fat because of the media's portrayal of ideal body types, leading to poor body image and unnecessary dieting.

            · Media and technology - Increasing numbers of students have cell phones, personal computers, and electronic games. About 82 percent of seventh graders spend about 6½  hours a day immersed in electronic media. Many children multitask on several devices at once, which reduces the quality of attention to any one task or person. "Although children may claim that they can work better while listening to music or using media devices," says Coyl, "research consistently shows that when individuals' attention is divided, their errors increase significantly and projects take twice as much time or more to complete." Text messaging and e-mailing reduce face time and provide less access to other people's emotions and the "rich language of nonverbal communication", and the time families spend in dinner-time conversation is much lower.

            · Self-understanding - Children increasingly see themselves in terms of social comparisons and interactions - popular, nice, helpful, smart, or dumb. They also get better at taking the perspective of another person, experiencing more than one emotion at a time, and developing appropriate emotional responses to different situations. All this influences children's academic self-concept, level of effort, and actual performance.

            · Social competence - Bullying, whether physical, relational, or electronic, damages children's psychological and emotional well-being and school performance. Close friendships have the opposite effect, buffering children against emotional harm, boosting academic achievement, and developing self-assurance and social adjustment through companionship, common interests, loyalty, and intimate disclosure. Students without friends are less likely to be successful socially or academically, as are children involved in friendships characterized by conflict, dominating behaviors, rivalry, and betrayal.

"Kids Really Are Different These Days" by Diana Coyl in Phi Delta Kappan, February 2009 (Vol. 90, #6, p. 404-407), available for purchase at http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kappan.htm

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