CHANGES IN

ADOLESCENTS
MORAL - SPIRITUAL
ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
- Controlled growth during
childhood and the changes during
puberty.
- made up of a set of organs called
endocrine glands.
- direct your growth. produce
hormones, which are released
into the bloodstream and travel
to other organs and tissues where
they stimulate growth and
regulate activity.
 PITUITARY GLAND
- affects your growth more than any
other gland.
- produces many kinds of hormones and
one of these is the growth hormone.
- hormone regulates the development of
long bones and muscles in the body.
- causes growth throughout childhood
and adolescence and helps your body
reach its adult size or height.
- when your pituitary gland starts
making growth hormones, your growth
spurt begins.
 PITUITARY GLAND
- releases hormones that cause
your reproductive glands to
become active produces many
kinds of hormones and one of
these is the growth hormone.
- Important changes occur inside
and outside your body as your
reproductive organs become more
active.
 SEX HORMONES:
- Testosterone – male (testes)
- Estrogen – female (ovaries)
- stimulate the many physical changes that
adolescents go through during puberty.
Secondary sex characteristics:
* development of the breast.
* appearance of maxillary and
pubic hair, and others.
* Boys’ testes also begin to produce
sperm cells.
• Girls’ ovaries begin to develop egg
cells
 PHYSICAL CHANGES
• rapid increase in height and weight.
• Changes in circulatory and respiratory systems.
• Body composition.
• Primary sex characteristics are changes directly related to sexual
reproduction:
- reproductive organs of both boys and girls grow and develop.

boys - experience their first release of seminal fluid or ejaculation

from the penis.
girls - experience menarche or the first release of blood and fluids
from the vagina, later called menstruation.
 PHYSICAL CHANGES
• Secondary sex characteristics are changes not directly related to sexual reproduction.
Boys
• The voice becomes deeper.
• The Adam’s apple becomes bigger.
• The shoulders become wider than the hips.
• Hair grows on the face, body and pubic area.
• The skin on the upper arms and thighs becomes rough.
Girls
• Breasts develop.
• The hips become wider than the shoulders.
• Hair grows on the underarm and pubic area.
 MENTAL OR INTELLECTUAL
CHANGES
• experience rapid mental development.
• changes in the structure of the brain.
• development of their intellectual ability makes adolescents less accepting of what others say.
• make better decisions because they can evaluate risks and rewards better.
• tendency to become bored with routine activities; they need to be challenged.
• already capable of thinking deeply.
• think less of themselves.
• control and coordinate their thoughts with their actions.
• focus their attention on what they want to listen to.
• improvement in adolescents’ memory and speed in thinking.
 EMOTIONAL CHANGES
• more responsive to rewards and stress.
• more emotional and this makes them open to being
hurt or in danger.
• boys are also sexually active and become more
aggressive.
• girls become self-conscious because of the changes that
are happening to them that gives them a feeling of
insecurity.
 SOCIAL CHANGES
• Very self- conscious. They consider approval of friends and
other adolescents or peers as very important.
• Enjoy being with friends, so they stay longer with them after
school.
• Friends who share the same interest with them.
• Adolescents who grow up with family members showing love,
guidance and support for each other are less likely to get
involved with bad company and engage in fights, vandalism,
smoking , drinking, or drug sessions.
 MORAL-SPIRITUAL
CHANGES
• begin analyzing themselves during this stage.
• analyze their strengths and weaknesses.
• learn that house rules imposed by their parents are there to
promote order and harmony at home.
• begin to distinguish between rules that are negotiable and
those that are non-negotiable. Non-negotiable rules, like
smoking, are imposed because they are for their own good.
• boys and girls realize what they could become in the future.
 REMEMBER!
• Changes that happen during puberty are normal to
adolescents.
• You have to know and understand these changes so that they
will not surprise nor scare you.
• They are a normal part of your growth and development as a
person.
• Learn how to cope with them in appropriate ways.