Psychology Early Adolescence		There are also some very distinct psychologic changes that adolescents go through during the course of puberty. It starts with early adolescence, we're talking about kids in the 11-14 year range. Kids are now starting to spend a little less time with their families, they're looking to be a little bit more autonomous, kind of striking out on their own, if you will. There is a lot of emotional lability at this age. These are the kids who are really moody. Their parents will say, "This kid, 6 months ago, was a momma's boy, and now he can't stand me." And the girl may be incredibly moody, as she goes through the phase of menarche. This is an area where they have that tremendous skeletal growth and they're not really sure about how they look. These may be tall, fast growers or they may very well be short kids. Early adolescents may be all over the map in terms of the variability in skeletal growth. There is little insight into cause and effect. They're really not abstract thinkers at all, they're pretty concrete. These kids are pretty impulsive, they really don't think about what they're going to do ahead of time. Return to top of page