CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENCE AND THE PROBLEMS

The most beautiful time is adolescence.
The most sad thing is adolescence.
The most like to be remembered is adolescence.
The most like to forgotten is adolescence.

According to Hurlock (1981) adolescents are those who are at the age 12-18 years. Monks, et al (2000) gave the teen age limit is 12-21 years old. According to Stanley Hall (in Santrock, 2003) the age of adolescence is at range 12-23 years. Based on the given limitations of experts, it can be seen that the beginning of adolescence is relatively the same, but the end of adolescence vary widely. There is even a term also known as an extended adolescence, adolescent and shortened.

Youth is a time filled with problems. This statement is already far advanced in the past, namely at the beginning of the 20th century by the father of Adolescent Psychology which Stanley Hall. The opinion of Stanley Hall at that point which is that adolescence is a period of storm and stress (storm and stress) up to now is still widely quoted person.

According to Erickson, adolescence is a time of identity crisis or identity search. The idea is corroborated by the Erickson James Marcia which found that there were four identity statuses on teenagers that are identity diffusion/confusion, moratorium, foreclosure, and identity achieved (Santrock, 2003, Papalia, et al, 2001, Monks, et al, 2000, Muss, 1988). The characteristics of adolescents who are their processes to seek this identity is also often cause problems in adolescents.

Gunarsa (1989) summarizes some of the characteristics of youth who can give rise to various problems in adolescents, namely:

1.      The awkwardness in the Association and rigor in the movement.
2.      Emotional instability.
3.      There is an empty feeling due to an overhaul of the views and instructions of life.
4.      The presence of opposing and challenging attitude of parents.
5.      A contradiction in itself often becomes the base cause contradictions with the parents.
6.      Anxiety because many things desirable but teenagers do not fulfill them all.
7.      Happy to do experiments.
8.      Love to explore.
9.      Had a great fantasy, delusion, and the hoax.
10.  The tendency to form groups and trends of activities of the group.


Based on the review of the theory of progression, the age of adolescence is the period in the wake of rapid changes, including changes to the fundamental aspects of cognitive, emotional, social and achievement (Fagan, 2006). Most teens are able to cope with this transition very well, but some teens may experience a decrease in psychic conditions, physiological, and social. Some problems of teenagers usually are associated with characteristics in adolescents. The following summarized some of the main problems experienced by teenagers.

Physical and health problems

Many physical changes due to the problems perceived by the early teens when they are experiencing puberty. In teens who have completed the puberty (middle and late teenage) physical problems that occur related to dissatisfaction/their concern for the physical state that usually does not correspond to the physical ideal that you want. They also often compares his physical with someone else's physical or Idol-Idol them. This often results in physical problems they were less confident. Levine & Smolak (2002) States that 40-70% of teenage girls feel discontent on two or more of the parts of his body, particularly on the hips, buttocks, abdomen and thighs. In a research survey also found nearly 80% of these teens are experiencing dissatisfaction with his physical condition (Kostanski & Gullone, 1998). Will this discontent is closely associated with emotions, thoughts, which distress exaggeration about the appearance, depression, low self-esteem, the onset of smoking, and eating behavior (maladaptiv & Shaw, 2003; Stice & Whitenton, 2002). Further, this body image dissatisfaction would be as a gesture of the early emergence of an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia (Polivy & Herman, 1999; Thompson et al).

Not many health problems in adolescents who experienced chronic pain. Many problems are the lack of sleep, eating disorders, as well as the use of illegal drugs. Some accidents, even the biggest cause of death in teenagers is characteristic of those who like experiments and explore with something.

The problems of alcohol and illegal drugs

The use of alcohol and illegal drugs lately has been very poor. Despite attempts to stop it but encouraged drug use cases this did not seem to diminish. There is a distinctiveness to why teens use drugs/drugs that they use different possible reasons for reasons that occur in adults. Santrock (2003) found several reasons why teenagers consume the drug out of curiosity, to increase self-confidence.


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