Social Media, Early Adolescence: How Parents Keep Up with Changing Environment

Jane Mendle, associate professor of psychology at Cornell University, said confidence in all genders is widespread during adolescence. Mendle, who studies the effects of adolescence on the mental health of adolescents, especially girls, also said that girls’ self-esteem declines sharply during adolescence.

Defining puberty

Adolescence is not as easy to define as most people think, and on average it is a four-year process.

“Pupils are transformative, and it involves changes in almost every area of ​​life,” Mendel said. Although the mark of puberty in girls usually begins with physical changes and ends with a menarche (the first menstrual cycle), there are also significant changes in behavior, emotion and social relationships, she continues.

Girls who predate their peers before their adolescence are at an increased risk of mental health problems, and on average, girls begin adolescence more than in the past few decades. The first stage of puberty now starts at the age of 9 and the later stages of puberty, which is not uncommon.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that the average timing of adolescence now looks like the early timing of adolescence we’re talking about, like the 1970s or the early 1980s,” she said.

Mendel said, “One of the reasons that early adolescence can be difficult is that “physical development, cognitive development and emotional development do not necessarily occur in synchronization.” Mendel said: “When any child starts showing obvious signs of physical development, they find their world changing.” They will be treated by others and will often be granted more autonomy. ”

Because adolescence involves significant social changes, girls who have experienced adolescence earlier “may have a hard time maintaining friendship with friends who have not developed at a similar rate.” She continued: “Even if puberty is defined by its biological characteristics, I think it is a fundamental social transition and a context for children’s experiences, and its development is really formative.”

Adolescence and social media

Nowadays, young people are becoming more tech-savvy and have more digital technology than previous generations. In the past, young girls are curious about puberty and the changes that come with them and may ask their mother or sister for advice, but now they may be more interested in Tiktok and the period tracking app.

In addition to reducing confidence, the youngest groups surveyed by the ROX have also seen the biggest increase in social media use. In the 2023 report, 95% of the 5th and 6th grade girls surveyed said they used social media, while those who used social media to spend more than six hours a day on these platforms, compared to only 9% in 2017. Other surveys on teenage social media have shown similar levels of use.

According to the ROX 2023 Girl Index, social media usage negatively affects girls’ confidence, sleep quality and ability to focus on school.

Hinkelman said that while there are these close correlations between the use of social media in teen girls and the use of reduced confidence, Hinkelman said it is important to remember that this does not mean causality. “I do think [social media] “Some of the existing challenges for girls can be expanded,” she said.

Hinkelman noted that ROX has seen challenges due to adolescence and access to information and technology that have historically affected older girls and younger girls. “It’s kind of like they’re getting older, young,” she said.

Impact on the school

Hinkelman said girls’ mental health decline and increased social media use factors have incorporated factors into the pandemic education situation, which has created pressure on educators.

School counselor Chelsea Tabor said her students are very aware of the permanence of their online footprint. Tabor said that while they rely on social media to connect with friends and maintain relationships, they also worry about conflict because anything they post online can be screenshot and shared with unexpected recipients.

She said that this behavior and the lack of privacy online may prevent girls from having vulnerable conversations when needed.

Over the past few years, Tabor has practiced with students as part of social media hygiene practices. She encourages girls to check out their social media feeds and determines the posts that make them feel inadequate or negative. Tabor then advised them to unfollow these accounts.

Adult and school support for girls

The ROX 2023 Girls Index found that two-thirds of all parents rarely or never monitor their children’s use of social media.

According to Hinkelman, it is important to invest in adults who influence girls’ lives because “the ten people today are really different from those 20 or 30 years ago.” On the support side, the girls surveyed show that they need adults to listen to their voices without judgment throughout their lives.

Adolescence can be an isolated experience, so parents need to make sure their children know that everyone has some form of adolescence, but one’s experience may be different from someone else’s experience.

According to Mendle, research shows that girls who know the pain of puberty and the period after the first period are less. According to Mendle, normalizing conversations about the period and providing opportunities for children to ask questions is an easy way for parents to provide these expectations.

Although social media and the Internet are useful tools for collecting information about periods, girls continue to report information about their parents being the people they rely most on. “But it is undeniable that today’s children are socially and technically very socially and technically from much of the basic research on adolescence,” Mendel said. Parents can search online about their periods and adolescence to help them identify accurate and reliable resources.

Mendel said asking questions is a normal part of adolescence, but young people are not as informed as they should be in this transitional life experience. She continued, it is important for adults to be aware of the impact of the school environment on students’ adolescent experience. Remind children that adolescence is not only a physical transition, but also affects relationships and friendships. It can help students better spend social environments in school.

Self-continuity throughout adolescence

When children go through adolescence, they often think that everything in life is completely different. There is a lot of things that remain the same as children experience changes. According to Mendle, throughout adolescence, young people need to be aware of their own self-continuity—the idea that they are the same person before, during and after. Mendle says the practice of self-continuity is “related to alleviating the psychological effects of adolescence.”

Mendel continued that children may need help connecting their threads before and after post-puberty self. Parents can help connect these threads by discussing with their children the similarities and differences between school environments during the four-year transition period.