Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood, from the beginning of secondary sexual characteristics to the complete cessation of physical development and the near maturity of psychological and behavioral development.
I. Starting and ending points of puberty
1.Starting point: sexual development
2.The first stopping point: growth and development
3.Second stopping point: psychological and behavioral development
Second, the three characteristics of puberty (or three development)
Sexual development, growth development, and psychological and behavioral development.
Sexual development: the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics and the further development of gonads and sexual organs to maturity;
Growth development: changes in height and body posture – changes in height, height, weight, etc.
Psycho-behavioral development: accompanied by rich spiritual, intellectual, psychological and behavioral changes.
The special characteristics of puberty
Adolescence is the only critical period that is dynamically accompanied by physical, physiological, intellectual and psychological-behavioral development at the same time, so it is the basic golden period that determines the physical and mental health of a person’s life. Whether you are normal or abnormal, you need to experience the sexual development, growth and psychological behavior development of puberty.
Fourth, the characteristics of puberty
Puberty is a period when the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis is activated → gonadal development → development of paraphilias and internal and external genitalia → completion of reproductive function → adult individual with fertility.
Adolescence is actually a group of syndromes, similar to menopause, which can be shifted forward or backward, capped at 0 years of age or even in the fetal stage, and uncapped at a later stage, usually capped by psycho-behavioral development (24 years).
Life is like a trapezoid, adolescence determines the height of the trapezoid, the foundation, the key, good or bad adolescence determines the slope of uphill, the height, determine the length of adulthood, the slope speed of old age.
V. Intrinsic relationship of adolescence
The main feature of puberty: sexual development; the accompanying features of puberty: growth and development, psychological and behavioral development. Adolescence is like an airplane that can fly in the blue sky completely, the fuselage is sexual development, the wings on both sides are growth and development, psychological and behavioral development.
1. Sexual development.
The real starting point of human sexual development – the moment of sperm-egg union (fertilized egg production) → the formation of sex chromosomes (chromosomal sex) → genes determine the further differentiation of sex organs during the embryonic period (gonadal sex and sex of sex organs) → the programmed process determines the process of sexual development, sexual maturation, and sexual decline throughout a person’s life (the fetal period is under the jurisdiction of obstetricians and gynecologists).
The starting point of sexual development in pediatric clinical (pediatric gynecology, pediatric male) – at birth: the sex of external genitalia determines and influences the social (dependency) sex (the scope of the pediatrician’s takeover) → psycho-behavioral sex
Standard starting point of pediatric puberty: onset of secondary sexual characteristics
Standard starting point for adult gynecological puberty: first menstruation
2. Growth and development.
Signs specific to the fetal period and childhood, but estrogen is a key regulator in determining the differentiation and fusion of epiphyseal cartilage growth plates, and the relationship between sex hormones and growth is particularly prominent in the neonatal period (posterior role of maternal sex hormones), infancy (role of physiological feedback period), and puberty (physiological peak velocity period).
3. Psycho-behavioral development.
The effects of sex hormones on psycho-behavioral development are highlighted in puberty (slow rise of sex hormones) and menopause (steep fall of sex hormones).