Running Head: ADOLESCENTS

Adolescent Paper
Paige Lewen
Professor Billy Blodgett
11/9/2013
Wayne State University

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Introduction
Adolescent means a juvenile between the onset of puberty and maturity. In my years of
adolescents many things happened to me that were good and bad. Between having all different
groups of friends, peer pressure, worrying about my looks, and much more. Breaking down my
adolescent years in three dimensions would include biological, social, and psychological.
Adolescents as it relates to me would involve how hard it was trying to manage school and a
social life. The idea of this paper is to explain how my adolescent years worked out for me and
how I had to deal with my adolescent years with three dimensions.

Biological Dimension
The idea of biological dimension is and adolescent growth spurt, where there are rapid
gains in weight and height (Ashford, Lecroy, 422). In my adolescent stage I could not wait to
grow. I was always known as the short child in school who was always a foot shorter than my
classmates. As the years went on I always stayed a foot shorter than everyone and I thought there
would be no hope in me growing. This helped me to feel some insecurity, because I could not
reach certain items and it was harder for me to play my sports. I am a very good basketball,
soccer, and volleyball player, but I would have to prove myself more than others to make the
teams, because the coaches wanted tall girls to play. Once I hit puberty, which was late for most
girls (I was a freshman in High school) I grew a little bit, to the point that I was not a foot shorter
than everyone else yet I was still shorter than most. I helped myself to get over the fact of being a
little shorter, because I still could do everything I wanted and I did up making every team I tried

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out for in high school. The thing I was most self-conscious about during adolescent times was
my weight. I was not over weight, but I was bigger than most of the girls that I went to school
with. Luckily for me I did have any friends during these years, and I had never been picked on
like other students when it came to weight. The problem with my weight could have been that I
saw myself to be much bigger than everyone else seen me to be. What caused some of my
insecurity would be that my best friend during my adolescent years was the skinniest, prettiest,
popular girl in the grade. Every boy wanted to date her and always be around her. Even though I
had boyfriends at the time also, I felt that I needed to look like her to boost my self-esteem. I am
happy that I did not act on doing anything that could harm me to lose weight to be just like her,
because as I grew up and got out of the adolescent stage I became confident in myself, which
helped me to feel much better about myself. Now that we are twenty one and out of the
adolescent stage that popular pretty girl now has a child, is not happy with her body, and is
married to someone she does not want to be with. I look back at it and think, if I did lose some
weight and have all the boys over me like they were all over her, I would probably be in the same
situation that she is in right now. Puberty was awkward for me, because all of my friends started
their period when we were young such as sixth and seventh grade. I was confused on why I was
not starting mine and if I would ever get a period. Talking to my mother about it she told me that
because I am so active in sports it is possible that you are going to hit puberty later than all of
your friends who are not as active. One day at home, my freshman year of high school I finally
started and I was very scared that it finally happened. If my mother was not there for me to help
and explain to me that I am okay I do not think I would have known what to do with myself.
According to Ashford and Lecroy the endocrine glands produce hormones that create different
bodily changes in the young person (Ashford, Lecroy, 424). During this time the sex glands

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open up which is very confusing during adolescent times. Adolescent boys in my opinion are
only out for one thing, and adolescent girls do not comprehend that. Growing up my mother was
very honest with me and talked to me about sex and answered any questions I had on the topic.
This benefited me during adolescent times because I did not have to feel scared to ask
something, I knew I would always receive an honest answer. Most of the girls I attended school
with were having sex by eighth grade, and I could never understand why. There were many girls
in my eighth grade class that were pregnant before high school. My eighth grade year is when I
met my first serious boyfriend. By serious I mean that we dated from eighth grade until my
freshman year of college. When we first started to date everything went great until around our six
month dating period. He wanted to have sex and I knew I was not ready. Once I said no he got
upset with me and ended up breaking up with me. During adolescent years I felt like a dumb girl,
because the minute he called up and apologized to me I started to date him again. He never did
pressure me again about having sex. My freshman year of high school is when I finally decided
that I wanted to have sex, and looking back at it now I still feel like I was way too young.
Adolescent peer pressure when it comes to boys and sex is something very hard to say no to, yet
a girl still can say no and thats one reason I want to become a social worker is to help teach that
to young adolescents.

Psychological Dimension
The adolescent is capable of abstract thought; prior to this stage, the child could only use
concrete thinking or concrete operations (Ashford, Lecroy, 429). During my adolescent times
one of my biggest psychological problems was worrying about where I was going to end up in

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the future. Ever since I was a little child I was pressured to receive good grades. If I were to
come home with a report card that had a grade lower than a B plus I would be grounded from
something for a week. As much as that upset me back then, I am glad my mother did that
because it helps me to do well in school now. During my freshman year of high school the
students were all pressured to think about the future, and how everything you do here will affect
what you do in college. The pressure of all the tests such as ACT was horrible. We were told that
if you do not do well on this test you will not get into college and you will be forced to go to a
community college. At first this did not bother me, because I already knew at that moment I
would be going to Macomb Community for my prerequisites and then transfer, to save some
money. Another psychological problem I had all through my adolescent years would be that I
would think about something, then question myself about why I was thinking that way, or about
what I was thinking about. Piaget (1972) would argue that this thinking is caused by the
characteristics of formal operational thought. When I would think about something such as trying
out for a sports team I would always think I would not make the team. After I had those thoughts
I would then ask myself why did I think that way or why is my thought process always negative.
Once I would go onto the basketball court or any other area of sports all those negative thoughts
would vanish, because I understood I knew how to play and I was good at what I was doing.
Another psychological thought I always had as an adolescent was I needed to receive better
grades than other people. I could never figure out why that mattered to me, considering I was
doing so well that is all that should matter. I am very happy that I grew out of thinking that way,
because it was only harming me by pushing me farther than I needed to go. Other than the
pressure to prepare for the future and to receive good grades, I felt like I did not have that many
psychological problems in my adolescent years. I grew up with a very loving family that was

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very supportive of everything I do and helped me with any questions or problems I would have.
Having the friends I had during my adolescent years helped me to not have so many
psychological problems also, because we were all a group of good kids who cared about school
and where they were going to end up in life. One thing that happened to me now that was never
brought up during my adolescent years was I developed ADD. The reason I feel I developed it
now instead of my younger years is because I have never felt the pressure that I do now. School
work from kindergarten to senior year of high school always came easily to me. Now that I am
going for something I truly want I feel a lot of pressure, especially with all of my due dates for
items that come up to fast.
Social Dimension
The transition into adolescents involves some stress in most families for both adolescent
and parent (Steinberg, 2007). Growing up as an adolescent my parents argued all the time, and
my father cheated on my mother all my life. I would see this and I would push my mother to get
a divorce, but her biggest concern was finances, and how she would be able to take care of my
brother and I, on just her income. Finally one day she had enough and went to a lawyer and filed
for divorce. I was thirteen when this happened, yet I was the happiest child that day. Even before
the divorce the only parent I would listen to and follow rules for would be my mother. She and I
did not see everything eye to eye, and we had a lot of fights. When I was an adolescent I thought
hey I am old enough to do whatever I want, why will she not let me do anything? My mother and
I would get into fights to the point I would just give up and go to my room. Our fights always
involved her not letting me do something I wanted to do, and I would argue that my grades are
good I do my chores so let me do what I want to do. Once I hit sixteen I got a little out of control,
because I had the freedom of a car. When my mother and I would fight that I could not go out

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and do something I would just end up leaving and doing it anyways. I am thankful now that I
grew up and do not fight with my mother anymore, but help her with things and be there for her.
If it wasnt for her I do not know where I would be in life right now, but I know I would not be
doing good and going to school. When it came to diversity I had no problem with it as an
adolescent. My middle school did not have very much diversity in the school, but we were taught
about it. High school years there were not much different diversity in the school either, it was
mainly white and black students only. As an adolescent I took it upon myself to learn about
different diversities, mainly just to learn something new about someone that was different than
me. There were no issues of diversity in my adolescent years, because there was no chance of
there being a problem. The only problem we ever had in middle school and high school would be
gangs against students who were white yet tried to act black and the black people who formed
their own gangs. I was never a part of this and it did not affect my education, so there were really
no problems for me there. Peer pressure as an adolescent to me, is the hardest thing to overcome.
When I was in eighth grade my friend asked a couple of us to come over because she had a
surprise. Once we all show up she shows us a bottle of alcohol she stole from her parents. At first
I knew I should not drink it, but everyone else was doing it so I drank as well. Since that day my
group of friends would do our best to try and find alcohol so we could drink. My mother was not
a drinker so I could never find anything in my home, but everyone else could find alcohol from
their parents. Once we all hit sixteen it got even worse since we could all drive. All of us knew
people who were twenty one such as older siblings or other family members who would buy
alcohol for us. All we had to do was go pick that person up take them to the store and they would
buy whatever kind of alcohol we wanted. After that we would go back to one of our houses and
just drink until we were drunk. The only smart move we all made while doing this was that

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whoevers home we were at we would stay the night, so no one would drink and drive. I knew
this was all wrong, considering we were so young and not of age, but I felt that I was always
being pressured into it, so I gave in and continued to join. Another thing I thought of was the idea
that I come from a long line of alcoholics, and maybe I just did not want to say no. another thing
that happened to me in eighth grade was my best friend at the time (the pretty popular girl) was
dating a boy who was very heavy into marijuana. It was Halloween and her, her boyfriend, my
boyfriend, and I were trick or treating and her boyfriend told us that we were going to go into the
field. We went there and he starting lighting a joint and started to pass it around to everyone.
Once it passed to me I automatically said no I do not do stuff like that. Surprisingly all he said
was okay that is fine good for you. I was expecting everyone including my best friend and
boyfriend to pick on me until I smoked with them but they did not. My freshman year of high
school my boyfriend was smoking marijuana in his garage while he told me to come visit him.
When I got there he and his friends were smoking, and playing video games. I was sitting there
watching them wondering to myself what all the excitement was to getting high. I asked my
boyfriend if I could smoke with them and he looked at me shocked, but he said yes. At first I
coughed hard and thought I did not like it, but I continued to smoke with them. After that day I
would smoke with my boyfriend every day or every time I was with him. My best friend smoked
all the time with her boyfriend, so one day when her and I were hanging out I asked if she
wanted to smoke. As usual she was shocked at what I said, but she wanted to smoke with me. At
this point I have been smoking all the time then I hit sixteen. When I received a car for my
birthday I went to pick everyone up and of course they wanted to smoke with me for my
birthday. I have never smoked and drove before, but I still said yes and continued to drive around
while we were all smoking. Every day for school since I had a car I would pick up my best friend

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and as we were driving to school we would smoke marijuana. We would also sneak out of school
during lunch just to go smoke some more and then eat lunch off campus. One thing that did
surprise me about marijuana is the fact that I never messed up my education I was still getting
very good grades while I was smoking. My male best friend was also into smoking and he was a
year older than me, which mean he had a car before anyone else that I was friends with did. He
had his car at school one day and the police brought search dogs onto the campus. The dogs ran
up directly to my friends car and started barking like crazy. They called him out of class and had
him open his car. Turns out he had a tiny piece of marijuana in his car and he got himself
arrested. My female best friend had gotten arrested two days prior, because she was caught
smoking marijuana. Both of them ended up with no jail time, but they were put on one year
probation, and had to go drop three times a week. At this point I completely stopped smoking
marijuana and stuck to worrying about school and my future. A year goes by and both of my
friends get off of probation, the first thing they do is both of them call me and ask if I want to
smoke with them. I told them that I have not smoked in a year and I do not want to pick the habit
back up. I told them that I would hang out with them whenever they would like, and I do not care
that they smoke. Still to this day I have not smoked marijuana again and I have no plans to
smoke it in the future. During my adolescent years I had a big group of friends that back then I
thought we would all always be friends. We did everything together, and we all knew so much
about each other. I am no twenty one years old and out of all those friends which were around
seven of us I do not talk to any of them except for one. My male best friend from eighth grade is
still my best friend today. He has a child who is my god son and we are closer than ever. The
worse part about not being friends with everyone else from my adolescent years is the idea that I
do not like who they have all become. My female best friend as I mentioned earlier married

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someone she does not love and got pregnant on accident. Another friend from my adolescent
group ended up stealing 4,000 dollars from my home and still will not admit to it. The rest of my
friends from adolescent days went off to school and neither one of us did anything to stay in
contact with each other. One thing I never understood as and adolescent and I do not understand
now is why girls feel the need to talk bad about one another. The girls that I was friends with
would talk about each other so negatively, and it made me think about what they said about me
when I was not around. Once I graduated high school I started hanging out with my male best
friend, friends. Today a good majority of my friends are all guys. There are two girls in my life
that I go to for everything, but other than that I spend all my free time with my male friends. I
feel protected when I am around them, and there is no drama between males, or not nearly as
much as girls. My social dimensions during my adolescent times were good and bad I realized
that drugs and alcohol does not make you look cool, and I also realized what it means to have
real friends and fake friends.
Conclusion
My adolescent years ranged from me doing really good in life, to me doing certain things
that I will never regret, but learn from. Knowing I still have one real friend that came out of my
adolescent times, is a great feeling. If it were not for my mom during my adolescent years I
would have gone crazy. I certainly would not be on a good path like I am right now. The reason I
wanted to go into social work is to work with adolescents with drug and alcohol problems. I will
work with adults also with these problems, but my main goal is to help adolescents who can stop
young and do something good with their lives. The idea that I have done both drugs and alcohol
as an adolescent I feel that I would be able to connect much better with the children, than say
someone who never tried any drugs or alcohol, or someone who just comes out and says it is bad

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you need to stop doing whatever it is you are doing. I feel that an adolescent would open up more
with me about why they are doing what they are doing, because they know I have been in the
same boat with them when I was their age, and in the end I made something out of my life which
is worth it all. Adolescent times are very rough when it comes to peer pressure and just trying to
figure out who you are in general. In my practice as a social worker I would like to help make
this time for children to be as un stressful as it can be, so they will not turn to drugs and alcohol
in the end.

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References

Ashford, J. B., & Lecroy, C. W. (2010). Human Behavior In the social Environment A
multidimensional Perspective (5th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

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