Did You Know...?
Adolescent Development

Read each true/false statement and test your answers by placing your cursor over the question mark.

	Although the age of onset of puberty is variable, the sequence of events is not.
	Adolescence is an emotional time for most teenagers.
	The level of stress in a child’s family can influence the onset of puberty.
	Late-maturing girls and early-maturing boys have the most difficult time adjusting to puberty.
	Physical growth in puberty proceeds from the extremities of the body to the core.
	The typical adolescent needs about 50 percent more calcium, iron, and zinc during the growth spurt than during earlier periods.
	Childhood habits of overeating and under exercising lessen during adolescence.
	Most teenagers use a condom during intercourse.
	In most cases of sexual abuse, overt force is used.
	The early use of drugs such as marijuana makes later drug abuse and addiction more likely, but this outcome is not inevitable.
	Adolescents are able to reason about propositions that may or may not reflect reality, while younger children are still tied to concrete operational thinking.
	Teenagers tend to overestimate their significance to others.
	Unlike younger children, adolescents typically are not egocentric in their thought patterns.
	Adolescents often create an imaginary audience as they mentally picture how others will react to their behavior and physical appearance.
	Boys are more willing than girls to take risks, in part because girls admire risk-taking behavior.
	The competitive educational settings of most secondary schools reflect current developmental research on the best educational system for teens.
	Adolescents are highly motivated students.
	Most American parents disapprove of after-school employment for teenagers.
	Teenagers in Japan rarely work after school.
	The most effective approach to sex education is to provide teens with biological information.
	It is not unusual for young people to delay achievement by joining the military.
	For members of minority ethnic groups, identity achievement may be particularly complicated.
	Thinking about committing suicide is actually quite rare among high school students.
	Worldwide, parasuicide is higher for males but completed suicide is higher for females.
	Arrests are more likely to occur during adolescence and young adulthood than in any other period of life.
	Those who become career criminals show recognizable warning signs long before adulthood.
	Generally speaking, the size of the generation gap has been grossly overestimated.
	During adolescence, peers have a stronger influence than parents on a young person’s development.
	Adolescents who mature late generally are the first to be attracted to members of the other sex.
	Depression and suicide are higher among homosexual than heterosexual adolescents.