During adolescence, there’s an incredible variation in the rate of changes that occur as a boy enters his teenage years. In six years, some teenage boys may show some signs of maturity. However, as a parent, it is important to be on the lookout since, in some boys, the symptoms of maturity may appear sooner and in others later (De & Raphaely, 2020). The critical thing to note is that the physical changes in teenage boys in the six years happen at different times for every teenager. Whether the client’s son will become bigger or smaller is normal since every teenager experiences puberty at their respective time (Jensen et al., 2018s). However, biologically, there are some significant hormonal changes that the parent should be aware of that are bound to take place as the boy changes in the next six years. Sexual maturity is the main change in teenage boys resulting from hormonal changes.
When developing sexual maturity, the boy will experience changes in the following order. Initially, the testes ad scrotum will enlarge; however, the penis does not enlarge (Jensen et al., 2018). That will be followed by the enlargement of the penis, which accompanies the testis and the scrotum. The boy will begin to experience his initial pubic hairs, which at this stage are soft, long, and appears around his genitals. Eventually, the hair darkens and becomes courser as it continues to spread (Hudson, 2017). As the boy grows in his teenage years, the hair looks like adult hair in smaller genital areas and may apply to the stomach and the thighs.
Moreover, the teenage boy will encounter increased body size with the arms, feet, hands, and legs sometimes growing faster. With this, expect to see the client’s child becoming clumsy on some occasions. In some boys, the hormonal changes will trigger swelling in their chest; however, it is also temporal while this change is standard (De & Raphaely, 2020). The boy will change his voice, and it will deepen as he grows, which will be accompanied by sweating and oily skin, which is inevitable biological changes in boys (Jensen et al., 2018). The boy will start to grow facial hair on his legs and under his armpit. Lastly, the boy will begin to produce sperm due to the growth of his male body.
The client should understand that the boy will experience changes in his psychological being. The cognitive changes with adolescence will make the boy start thinking more abstractly (Hudson, 2017). His attention will shift to his friends. As the boy seeks his independence, there are possibilities the parent and child will engage in conflicts since the former, being the mature party, will try to control some of his relationships based on experience (Jensen et al., 2018). However, being the experimenting party, he will at times see the client as a barrier to his freedom.
Socially, the adolescent stage will make the boy constantly refine his sense of self. Citing Erikson, Hudson (2017) refers to this stage as identity versus role confusion as the boy questions who he is and who he wants to become. The client’s image of the child at this stage is highly critical since it might contribute to who the child will become in the future. The issue of identity is the parent’s boy might either draw him closer to the parent or push him farther. The parent is required to look out for the types of friends he interacts with. Demonstration of bad habits by adults or the immediate environment forms the child’s methods of deviant behavior. When there is no example to follow for positive behavior, then bad habits occupy a dominant position in daily activities. It is known that the child repeats all the actions reproduced by another person in close proximity. First, he copies these actions unconsciously, and then, if they are completed, he repeats them again and again until the actions become a regular habit.
Therefore, the client’s role as a parent should be distal supervising, and monitoring. It is significant since the behaviors the parent portrays to the son will help determine the person he becomes and the relationship he forges going into the future (Hudson, 2017). The process of personality formation at this age is contradictory since it depends on the social environment in which the teenager is located and its influence on him. In order for the formation of the personality to take place in a positive direction, accessible forms must offer him to understand his feelings and experiences. Offers to teenagers should be given only after a thorough study of their problems. Some of the problems are repeated from generation to generation, while the other part arises in new social conditions, and it is these new ones that need constant monitoring.
References
De, B. M., & Raphaely, V. (2020). How to raise a man: The modern mother’s guide to parenting her teenage son. Hachette Australia.
Hudson, L. (2017). Frames of mind: Ability, perception, and self-perception in the arts and sciences. Routledge.
Jensen, F. E., Nutt, A. E., & Gilbert, T. (2018). The teenage brain: A neuroscientist’s survival guide to raising adolescents and young adults. Findaway World.