Adolescent Development Essay

There ar mutual sets between an soulfulness and their favorable environment. There are also at-risk factors twisty in the manner of a developing adolescent t put on interconnects with a series of reciprocal systems. I sight recall as a developing adolescent quickly maturing into adulthood, the umpteen social, economic, external and internal influences that contributed to certain at-risk behaviors. These type of influences bear upvirtuosod me directly and indirectly. I was influenced by the several environments I was in, and I also contributed to influencing the environment or so me.Attempting to exert control over uncontrollable circumstances only lead-in to desperate situations and weighty consequences. However, learning to accept my present circumstances, and how to appropriately oppose to the dangerousship and temptations in life veritable confirmative life changes. one-on-one human development occurs at bottom interconnected and embedded bionomical systems (McWh irter et al, 2013). The ecological systems include the individual, the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and macrosystem (McWhirter et al, 2013).The individual consists of genetic and biological factors, and temper characteristics (McWhirter et al, 2013). The microsystem consists of the nation that the individual comes into direct contact with and who the individual interacts with (McWhirter et al, 2013). The mesosystem is the embedded interconnections between different microsystems and the impact of the interactions that take propose (McWhirter et al, 2013). The exosystem consists of the interconnections between one or more settings that indirectly involve the individual (McWhirter et al, 2013).The macrosystem represents the social blueprint of cultural values, societal structure, gender-role socializations, washing relations, belief systems, and national and international resources (McWhirter et al, 2013). The chronosystem is the interconnection and interaction of th e individual within different environments, and is the transitions that occur during the course of the individuals lifetime (McWhirter et al, 2013). These interconnecting systems are give earred to as the ecological model, and assumes that the individual is continually interacting with his or her environment hat produces constant change due to mutual influences (McWhirter et al, 2013). Part A The ecological Model The core of who I really am involves the combinations of my genetic predispositions, evolutionary and biological components, personality characteristics, and the ongoing process of behavioral, cognitive, and affective experiences (McWhirter et al, 2013). Who I am has a lot to do with my experiences in life, my responses to life events, and the social and environ affable influences and interactions involved.The ecological model provides a greater understanding of how I influence my environment and my environment influences me. This is important because it is through the i nteractions of the ecological systems that help me cave in understand myself and others. The Individual. I entered the world with an umbilical cord wrapped some my neck, struggling to live due to insufficient oxygen intake. As a tiddler I was actually susceptible to illness. As an adult I discovered that I was living with an autoimmune disorder. I have very vivid fragmented memories as a peasant of several remediate office visits.At the personal level, I was a very dreadful, anxious, angry, socially withdrawn child who experienced an unstable, insecure, neglectful, abusive, and dysfunctional home environment. The structure of personality develops in childhood and continues to develop in adulthood (Caspi, Roberts & Shiner, 2005). I genuine a combination of extraversion and introversion traits. These traits show themselves depending on how undecomposed I determine the environment around me to be. As a child I experienced positive and negative emotionality.I at propagation st ruggle with viewing the world as a safe place and occasionally viewed it as threatening. I experienced anxious distress with a tendency toward anxiety, sadness, insecurity, and guilt. As a teenager I experienced darker emotions much(prenominal) as anger, frustration, and irritation. I developed agreeable personality characteristics as a child. In adulthood I some generation struggle with the fear of rejection, self-acceptance, people pleasing tendencies, self-awareness, and feeling comfortable in my surrounding environment and declare skin.I also developed a strong motivation to grasp academically, and have a strong sense of independence. As a child and through my teenage eld I was not al deplorableed to have an intuitive feeling or express individuality, which resulted in the inability or challenge to figure on my own, questioning who I am through life stages, fearful of making decisions on my own and especially decisions I need to attract on behalf of others, and codependen cy issues. The Microsystem. I grew up in a traditional family home for a time creation that consisted of my take, father, and sister.Although, it was considered a traditional two promote household, my father was rarely home, and when he was home he was unavailable. My mother was emotionally unavailable and suffered from manic depression. My mother stayed at home and my father was all out working or pursuing one of his addictions. My family was homeless until I was the age of 5. We had lived and slept in my fathers suburban, randomly stayed with strangers, and at times lived in a recreational vehicle. I assumed responsibility and divvy up of my younger blood relative, my mother, myself, and household chores.I entered the stages of maturity alone and without encourageal support. The lose of positive parenting during my adolescent years made me vulnerable to at-risk risk behaviors much(prenominal) as premarital sex, tobacco use, signification abuse, gang involvement and m ental and social disorders (Clinton & Clark, 2010). At the age of ten I was removed from my parents custody and placed in foster care where my sibling and I were separated and placed in different homes. In the foster system I was only allowed to socialize at discipline, and attended perform depending on whether or not my foster parents at the time deemed it necessary.My sister and I went through several foster home placements which resulted in the mischief of security, the loss of our personal possessions, and sense of belonging. Being bounced from home to home, it was difficult maintaining a close friendships with others. I developed an internal mechanism of creation companionate with everyone, but not allowing myself to develop a close friendship with others. As I gained independence and freedom in my later teen years and early adulthood, I became more involved in church. The Mesosystem. I grew up in a rural union with a lack of agnatic involvement.There were no real estab lished mesosystem relationships. The environment was inconsistently positive and very negative at times. Since school was my outlet, I strived for academic faithfulness and successfully achieved it. School seemed to be the only sense of stability. The Exosystem. Outside agencies that developed policies and created public resources were an indirect benefit to me as an adolescent and young adult. During childhood, I was able to eat lunch at school, and enjoy two-timing(a) activities such(prenominal) as Campfire Girls, cheerleading, and Key Club.I was given accessibility to the basic involve that my parents could not afford such as cloths, food, and shelter. As an adult, several community resources helped my daughter and escape and terminate a domestically violent relationship. The Macrosystem. During adolescence I was exposed to abuse, neglect, and violence first hand and via the television. My father grew up in the south and was very racialist toward certain nationalities and race s of people. The cultural context consisted of low socioeconomic status (SES), poverty, and experiencing our Native American ethnic background and world exposed to several conflicting belief systems.I grew up on a culture where corporate punishment was an acceptable practice. The culture treasured individuality, independence, and self-reliance. I grew up in poverty with a prevailing plague rate not as noticeable as it is today. Social norms include the overuse of antibiotics (McDonnell Norms Group, 2008), and the use of drugs and alcohol were socially acceptable. Chronosystem. A pattern of environmental events, transitions, and sociohistorical circumstances contributed to my development over my lifespan. Both of my parents lived disloyal and adulterous life styles.Overtime, there unhealthy and dysfunctional patterns of relating to severally other resulted in a separation. My father died when I was 17 years old. My parents mating legally dissolved at the time of my fathers death . My mother remarried multiple times. My sister and I were exposed to their dysfunctional lifestyle, which tremendously squeeze our lives. I personally, transitioned through many of life events by experiencing two divorces, being a single-mother of four children for quit sometime, remarrying and adjusting to a blended family, the loss of my oldest daughter, and approach the social political arena at work.Part B At-Risk manoeuver Metaphor The At-risk tree is an analogy that allows people to understand the range of issues involving at-risk adolescence (McWhirter et al, 2013). The domain of the tree represents the individuals societal environment (McWhirter et al, 2013). The roots refer to family, school, and peer groups that connect the tree to the primer coat (McWhirter et al, 2013). The trunk represents the developing attitudes and behaviors of each child (McWhirter et al, 2013). The branches of the tree represent the attitudes and behaviors that lead to specific risk categori es (McWhirter et al, 2013).The soil of my family growing up consisted of poverty, low socioeconomic status (SES), judgmental and racist attitudes, abusive and neglectful home environment, and conflicting belief systems. The three particular roots are family, school, and peer groups (McWhirter et al, 2013). My parents inability to raise my sister and me in a loving, secure, stable, and nurturing environment, and expose us to family conflict, abuse, neglect, lack of parenting, being emotionally unavailable, and an unstructured home environment contributed to my dysfunction and the at-risk behaviors in my life.The school system was unaware of our life circumstances and did not any support. My sister ended up dropping out and getting involved with drugs. I became sexually involved with my boyfriend at the age of 15 and became pregnant at the age of 16. My daughter gave me the drive to continue my education and go after academically in order to provide her with a better life. I was wi thdrawn during my adolescence and teenage years. Although, I made intent to get on with everyone, I did not associate with everyone. The peer group I involved myself in strived for academic excellence and engaged in positive extracurricular activities.The trunk of the at-risk tree representing my life consisted of low self-esteem, and depression. The branches of at-risk categories in my life were high-school dropout, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and suicide. I was at risk for teen maternal quality and became pregnant at the age of sixteen. I succumbed to sexual activity with one partner in high school that resulted in teen pregnancy. I was very fortunate that at risk behaviors did not escalate. My tree was unkept and bruised and produced damaged fruit. Instead of running to quick gratification I wise(p) to run to God. I found my value and security in Christ.My branches although bruised finally healed and produced good, healthy fruit. It took a lot of effort, drive, mo tivation, will, and trusting God in the midst of temptation and hardship. I was fortunate to have a multifariousness of Gardeners in my life from Christian counselors, law enforcement, human service workers, jejuneness group leaders, Sunday school teachers, and church mentors who helped me redirect my lifestyle. I well-educated how to be academically successful, a loving, supportive, caring mother to my children, a hard worker of integrity, and to do the right thing when the wrong thing seems easier at the time being.