Introducing Be Strong Families’ Adolescent Ages and Stages Development Chart
By: Emerson Hawthorne, Former Executive Assistant to the CEO and CPO
Growing up can be hard; trying to understand your child who’s growing up can be even harder. Through the periods of early, middle, and late adolescence, one goes through a whirlwind of changes in different areas: body and mind, independent identity, socialization, and sustainability. Adolescent development presents a lot of change and obvious growth, and it can be difficult to know how to navigate through it and how to support loved ones who are navigating through it.
Thus, a search began to find more information. After going through many charts and articles, we did not find documents that we felt effectively captured the process of adolescent development the way it should be presented. As a society, we are fortunate to have progressed in many ways towards inclusivity; however, the material we found about human development was not reflective of such progress. In response to that, we decided to aggregate and alter what we did find into our own Be Strong Families’ Adolescent Ages and Stages Development Chart Our chart is still a draft—so, with this blog, we are sending it out for comment and we welcome all feedback and suggestions for improvement.
We had three main goals for our Adolescent Ages and Stages Development Chart to broaden the scope of society’s perspective on adolescent development:
1) The first goal was to disestablish binary verbiage around gender. When discussing youth development, it is common to write in binary terms of “boys and girls.” For example, when referring to secondary sex characteristics, it's common to read that “girls grow breasts” or “boys’ Adam’s apples enlarge.” Though this does provide a shortcut for discerning and classifying changes in primary and secondary sex characteristics, it is systematically rigid and excludes members of the LGBTQ+ community—primarily those who are nonbinary, transgender, or intersex.
In efforts to be inclusive, we reworded the vernacular we used to be more encompassing. An important mean to this end was to remove any sense of binary gender and to switch to terms that describe one’s gender assumed when they were born rather than those that assume identity. These terms include “assigned male at birth” (AMAB) and “assigned female at birth” (AFAB). This wording, through the lens of adolescent ages and stages, can effectively describe physical and hormonal development of a person without presuming a key part of their identity.
It’s important to distinguish that, for example, even if someone is AMAB, they might not be a man or use he/him pronouns. The necessity to move beyond the gender binary when discussing adolescent development comes from the conscious avoidance of dysphoria, or the distress/dissociation a person can experience due to the discrepancy between their gender identity and their sex assigned at birth. Describing the development of physical bodies, especially in relation to primary and secondary sex characteristics, can be inherently dysphoric to nonbinary, trans, and intersex individuals, so we did our best to reduce this possibility.
2) Our second goal in creating the Be Strong Families Adolescent Ages and Stages Development Chart was to distance our perspective from assuming that as adolescents become their own person, they do so at the cost of meaningful relationships (such as with their parents and families). The development of identity is a central task of adolescent development—both individually and socially—and doesn’t necessarily involve rejection of those who were important to them during childhood.
In fact, we found that a key part of middle adolescence is clarifying groups central to personal identity and strengthening relationships with them. It’s easy to frame the discovery of one’s self through a lens of individuality, however, personal identity doesn’t always necessarily exist without society. Therefore, it’s illogical to assume that one would necessarily shed important relationships in order to evolve into adulthood. Though some adolescents do actively remove themselves from their families, many still strongly identify as part of their familial group; separation is not a desired norm, rather, a possibility. Interdependence and independence are arguably both healthy adult interpersonal stances that need to be balanced.
3) The final goal was to include gaining consciousness of structural inequality -- "waking up" in colloquial terms -- as a developmental task. We wanted to frame this document in a way that set realistic expectations for those who are developing concerning their environmental context. Discussions around growing up can sometimes be idealized, oversimplified, and sugarcoated, which can lead the person who is developing to assume that, as an adult, they will be entering a world that is fair, equitable, and just. Full-grown adults have the learned understanding and assumed responsibility to inform emerging adults that this is, unfortunately, not the case. The world can be bright and can present fruitful opportunities—but, it doesn’t always for everyone, especially to those who belong to marginalized populations.
Late adolescence, in particular, is a time when one starts to realize the discrepancy between an ideal world and reality. Feelings of anger, frustration, and sadness naturally arise, and it’s often at this stage where individuals start to channel those negative emotions into action or activism. Late adolescents and emerging adults become less self-centered and more aware of the differences between themselves and others, coupled with increased responsiveness for those outside themselves.
Part of adolescent development involves becoming conscious of power dynamics, the way adult society is structured, and how society functions- including dimensions of inequality and bias. An active interest in (or, conversely, an active avoidance of) political activism and constructive engagement in changing the world is a natural and, oftentimes, unexamined part of aging for emerging adults. We included these ideas in the chart to reflect that the internal discovery of external, fallible social systems is a normal and confusing part of growing up.
Supporting adolescents through aging (before and beyond puberty) is crucial to their holistic health. We are offering Be Strong Families’ Adolescent Ages and Stages Development Chart with the hope that it will provide knowledge and support to those who are searching for answers, and clarity and guidance to those who are still growing. The world is constantly evolving; and, so, must our practices.
We created this draft of our Be Strong Families Adolescent Ages and Stages Development Chart through examination of academic materials and a collaborative, participatory process involving a small, diverse group of young adults. We welcome feedback. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below or email: YYA@bestrongfamilies.net with more comprehensive feedback. One of the four objectives in Be Strong Families Strategic Plan 2020-2025 is Disrupt and Co-Create, please join us!
