According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, teenagers have a series of core developmental landmarks in common.
EARLY ADOLESCENCE
(12 to 14 years)
- Struggle with a sense of identity
- Experience moodiness
- Express feelings by actions rather than words
- Begin to place more importance on friendships
- Pay less attention to parents
- Search for new people to love (in addition to parents)
- Begin to notice and react to peer pressure
- Gravitate toward same-sex or group activities
- Experiment with masturbation
- Worry about being "normal"
- Begin to test rules and limits
yvonne allsopp, Mount Vernon, NY 09/23/07
I wish i would have read this article when my daughter was 12 and 13; it would have saved me a lot of stress
Read more comments