Directions:  Answer each of the following prompts.  Make sure you answer all questions in each prompt to receive full credit.  Answers should be insightful and use information from the text or other sources to back up your argument.  Make sure you cite your sources.  Each prompt should be a minimum of 250 words. 

1.   Students usually rate early adolescence as one of the most difficult stages of development (e.g., physical changes, peer group membership, early dating and sexual experiences, the changing dynamics of the parent-child relationship).  Please describe some issue that faced your cohort of teens.  What were some of the fads, slangs or favorite expressions, peer group issues, school controversies, and typical parent controversies while you were 12 to 18 years old.

2.  Girls typically show a higher incidence of internalizing symptoms of emotional development; boys typically show a higher incidence of externalizing symptoms.  What factors might account for these gender differences?  How might preoccupation with body image contribute to depression, eating disorders, or high-risk behavior for adolescent females?  How might depression lead to high-risk behaviors (alcohol abuse, sexual risk taking, violence in adolescent males)?  What characteristics of adolescence lead older adolescents to minimize the risks of binge drinking?

3.   What are some of the typical changes in the adolescent-parent relationship in early adolescence?  How are these changes related to culture?  Social class?  In thinking about relationships with parents and peers, what different roles or contributions do these two groups play in an adolescent’s cognitive, emotional, and social development?  How is self-concept shaped by complementary and/or conflicting demands from parents and peers?  What factors might be influential as an adolescent develops an ethnic group identity?