1.4 Adolescence and emotion

At the onset of puberty, there are clear changes occurring in the brain on a young person’s journey towards emotional maturity. As you will see in the next section, adolescence is a time of great change in brain development, with implications for how young people recognise and regulate their own emotions (Yurgelun-Todd, 2007). These changes also appear to bring about an increased risk of problematic behaviours and emotions (Steinberg, 2005).

Figure 5: Typical trajectory for adolescent emotional development, adapted from Steinberg (2005)

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Diagram showing the trajectory for early adolescence through to late adolescence. From the left-hand side, there is the text: Early adolescence Puberty onset heightens emotions, sensation seeking and importance of rewards. Then there is the text next to this one with: Middle adolescence Increased risk taking Problems regulating emotion and behaviour. And then on the right-hand side there is the text: Late adolescence Maturation of the brain’s frontal lobes allows self-regulation. There is an arrow running through all three, coming from the left and pointing to the right.

Figure 5: Typical trajectory for adolescent emotional development, adapted from Steinberg (2005)

You may remember that young people are beginning to distance themselves from their parents and caregivers. This means that adolescents may find themselves relying on their own slightly ‘wobbly’ emotion regulation capacities at a time when they are facing new social challenges.