# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Children go through many rites of passage that mark their physical development. Toddlers transition from infant car seats to booster seats, elementary kids finally become tall enough to ride the most intense roller coasters, and teenagers outgrow shoes at an astonishing pace. However, measuring a child's emotional and mental progress can be more challenging. As a result, it's helpful for parents and healthcare providers to understand the influences that may cause developmental delays.

What are the factors that influence growth and development? Biology, the environment, relationships, and many other forces shape children. These seen and unseen influences affect identity, personality, physical health, and overall well-being. Explore some of the most significant developmental factors and learn how counselors can help children and teenagers meet milestones.

Defining growth and development

Growth and development may seem like synonyms in most contexts, but they have very different meanings when discussing childhood.

Healthcare professionals use the term 'growth' to refer to physical changes that take place inside humans' bodies from conception to adulthood. Typically, healthy children get taller and gain weight as they age. Other measures of growth include: ¹

Head circumference

Limb proportions

Skeletal maturity

Replacement of primary, or baby, teeth with permanent teeth

By contrast, 'development' refers to the advancement of humans' cognitive and psychomotor abilities. ¹ Counselors and pediatricians use developmental milestones to monitor children's progress in these areas. Examples of standard milestones include: ²

Rolling over by six months

Crawling by nine months

Obeying basic instructions at twelve months

Walking independently by eighteen months

Kicking a ball by age two

Turning the pages in a book independently by age three

Cutting paper with scissors by age four

Counting to 10 by age five

Children who don't meet typical growth and development markers may have conditions that require timely intervention from a specialist. ²

What are the two main factors that influence growth and development?

Humans are complex organisms, making it challenging to determine which factors impact development the most. For instance, a child may refuse to learn to swim due to a traumatic experience, parental fears, self-consciousness of their body, or a combination of these influences. ³

These two significant factors affect all children to varying extents as they age:

1. Genes

Children inherit genes from their parents, and these microscopic DNA strands can have a considerable impact on physical growth. For instance, genes determine approximately 80% of a person's adult height, and environmental factors like nutrition affect the other 20%. ⁴ Also, a 2020 study reveals that genes influence head circumference and childhood intelligence. ⁵

Genes also shape children's physical and mental health. Some infants are born with genetic disorders caused by mutations in their DNA strands. Conditions like Down syndrome, a chromosomal disorder, and spina bifida, a congenital spinal disability, significantly disrupt children's growth and development. ⁶

2. Parenting

Parents or guardians also play a crucial role in children's growth and development. Parenting styles affect children's behavior, cognitive processes, and personalities. For example, positive parenting practices like creating mealtime routines and feeding healthy snacks help children self-regulate their diet and weight. ⁷

Similarly, authoritative parents with clear behavioral rules tend to raise confident and independent children. By contrast, kids raised by uninvolved parents may struggle to regulate their emotions and develop healthy social relationships. ⁸

Other significant factors for growth and development

Many other factors influence growth and development from conception to adulthood, such as:

Socioeconomic influences

Family income and level of education contribute to children's physical and cognitive growth. On average, kids born in families with high socioeconomic statuses grow taller than their lower-status peers. ¹ They're also more likely to engage in physical activity and organized sports, boosting their health and social relationships. ⁹

In addition, socioeconomic factors impact mental well-being. A 2020 meta-analysis of population-based studies detected a link between low socioeconomic status and child psychopathology. Children raised in poverty are more likely to experience challenges like housing instability and traumatic experiences. As a result, they develop mental disorders at higher rates than youth from wealthier families. ¹⁰

Environmental factors

Children grow up surrounded by external influences that impact growth and development in complex ways. Environmental factors include climate, cognitive stimulation, diet, friends, housing conditions, infections, pollution, and stress. ¹¹ Many of these forces, like pollution and weather, can negatively affect developing children. For example, a 2022 study reported that air pollutants affect child neurodevelopment, leading to poor academic performance. ¹²

Peer relationships also shape cognitive development. Children who experience bullying perform worse on cognitive tests, have more behavioral issues, and get lower grades than non-bullied children. ¹³

The role of counselors in children's growth and development

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that around 17% of American children have developmental disabilities or delays. Kids who experience these issues fail to meet one or more developmental milestones on schedule. ¹⁴

Early intervention by counselors and other professionals can get children back on track. For example, counselors can provide behavioral treatment to help kids with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) regulate impulsive behaviors and stay on task at school. Counselors can also collaborate with schools to develop reward systems for children with ADHD. ¹⁵

Further, counselors can support healthy mental and social development. Interpersonal psychotherapy teaches children and teens strategies to handle relationship conflict, while cognitive behavioral therapy enables children to alter negative thought patterns. Counselors may also provide family counseling to help parents better support their children's development and learn strategies to handle mental conditions. ¹⁶

Enhance your counseling expertise with an online M.S. from Marquette University

Counselors play a pivotal role in supporting healthy growth and development for children and adolescents as well as adults. An online Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Marquette University will help you develop comprehensive expertise. The innovative curriculum prepares you to diagnose, treat, and prevent psychopathology in patients from diverse populations. You'll also sharpen your skills as you participate in clinical training experiences and learn how to advocate for patients. For an exceptional education based in Jesuit values and traditions, speak with a Marquette University Admissions Advisor today to learn more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Factors that influence growth and development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Children go through many rites of passage that mark their physical development. Toddlers transition from infant car seats to booster seats, elementary kids finally become tall enough to ride the most intense roller coasters, and teenagers outgrow shoes at an astonishing pace. However, measuring a...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Countless factors, from family and environment to genes and biology, influence a child's growth and development. Scientists in the NICHD's Section on Child and Family Research study how these factors affect the physical, mental, and social development of growing children, along with their health and well-being.

Dr. Marc H. Bornstein is senior investigator and head of the Section on Child and Family Research, within the Division of Intramural Research. We asked Dr. Bornstein to explain the work he and his colleagues do, why it's important to study child development, what they've learned so far, and what's next for their research. Read more to find out what he had to say.

What are some of the major research questions that your lab is working to answer right now?

We have two major lines of research. First, we study children longitudinally as they grow from infancy through young adulthood, which allows us to trace the same child's functioning over time to understand how various aspects of behavior and experience interact with and influence one another. For example, in a recent investigation, we found that children with poorer social skills at age 4 behaved more anxiously and aggressively at age 10 and more aggressively at age 14. This study suggests that training preschool children to get along well with others and pick up on social cues may benefit them in later childhood and adolescence.

We also study children's development around the world. Most of what science knows today about child development has been learned from studies of mothers and children in Western nations and can't be generalized to all children in all cultural groups everywhere. Only by studying children in a variety of cultures can we begin to understand universal similarities and cultural differences in development. In a recent study with 1,247 families with 8- to 10-year-old children on five continents, we investigated how feeling accepted or rejected by their parents affected children's behavior. Our results showed that children who felt rejected by their parents were more likely to behave aggressively and anxiously, have trouble in school, and have a hard time connecting with others. This study showed how important it is for children everywhere to feel that their parents accept them.

What are some of the main approaches you use in research?

We use many approaches to get a wide range of information from multiple perspectives. We watch families interacting together at home and in the laboratory. We ask parents to evaluate their own behavior and that of their children, and we ask children to evaluate their own behavior as well as that of their parents. We ask teachers to assess their students, and we do standard tests of children's intelligence, success in school, and adaptive behavior. We conduct psychophysiological and neuroscience experiments and use self-report data to measure environmental and socioeconomic influences on children's growth and development.

What has your research revealed on the effects of sociodemographic factors on development? Why are these factors important to examine?

In our Section, we study many different types of families. For example, we have been following the growth and development of a group of children adopted as healthy infants, comparing them with a group of babies born into their families. We found that relationships between adoptive mothers and infants and non-adoptive mothers and infants were very similar when the infants were 5 months of age, but that by the time the child was 4 years old, mother-child relationships in adoptive families were less harmonious. This is especially interesting because the adopted children were just as healthy and well-adjusted as their peers. Understanding these types of differences can inform our understanding of the long-term effects of adoption on children's development. A more complex picture of adoptive family functioning will deepen our understanding of the balance between risk and resilience that adoption, an important alternative form of family building, holds for children and their parents.

Sociodemographic factors are important to study because they often relate strongly to development. For example, young girls and boys develop at different rates. Ethnic and cultural groups are differentially affected by the same experiences. And low-income families are more at risk for later problems than middle- and high-income families. Understanding which factors put families at risk or protect them from risk can help professionals determine when and how to help families that face challenges.

Your lab has study sites all over the world. Tell us about these international studies and what you've learned from them.

We collect data in 11 other countries so that we can understand which behaviors are universal and which might be specific to a particular culture or community. In one international study, we looked at maternal behavioral responses to crying babies together with the results of brain-scan responses to those cries. We found that mothers in all 11 countries preferentially responded to their babies' cries by picking them up, holding them, and talking to them (instead of distracting them, for example). These universal behaviors, combined with brain scan results, suggest an evolutionary basis for a mother's automatic response to her crying child.

In addition to our own cross-cultural research program, we are collaborating with two international groups. The first collaboration, with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and a group of leading scientists, surveys about 2 million families in 50 low- and middle-income countries to examine protective and risk factors in child development. The second collaboration, with the Parenting Across Cultures Project , is studying the long-term effects of parenting on children's and adolescents' development in nine countries on five continents.

What are you discovering through your research program on neuroscience and behavioral pediatrics?

As I mentioned, we also conduct neuroscience experiments, using eye-movement tracking, brain scans, and heart monitoring. In one study, we found that as early as 3 months of age, babies' brains respond differently to images of their mothers' faces than to the faces of similar-looking female strangers. Our infant research shows that those connections deepen between 3 months and 6 months of age.

Our research also explores various topics in behavioral pediatrics, such as: the effects that pediatric cancer can have on an infant's development; parental depression and child development; development following preterm birth; autism spectrum disorders; and prenatal nutritional supplementation. Studying atypical development is valuable in itself and often helps to shed light on normal development, and vice versa.

What do you see as the most promising future directions for the field of child development research? And, why is continued research in these areas so critical?

Long-term studies tracking child and family development over time are critical to understanding which factors lead to later positive or negative outcomes. Our program of research is poised to come full circle as the children we've studied since infancy begin independent lives, establish homes and families, and become parents themselves. The opportunity to study multiple generations of a single family is rare and valuable and can only be carried out in organizations like the NICHD. We look forward to reaping the benefits of this significant study.

What advice do you have for new investigators who would like to start a career in this area?

The field of child development is increasingly sophisticated, complex, and multifaceted. Generous, committed mentors are critical, and knowledge of advanced statistical techniques is essential. But finding one's own area of passionate interest and following it are the ultimate keys to professional growth, scientific contribution, and personal satisfaction.

Based on all you've learned about child development from your research, do you have any major take-home messages for parents?

Parents know their own children better than anyone else does. However, the more they learn about child development, the better able they will be to understand and appreciate their children. Being familiar with development helps parents put their child's behavior into context and more accurately evaluate it and therefore parent more effectively.

Parents should also realize that no two children are alike. Carefully observing their children and respecting and valuing each child's particular areas of strength and weakness allows parents to capitalize on the former and shore up the latter.

Parents should also understand that early experiences and interventions are important. Talking and reading to babies before they can even understand language makes a positive difference. But, at the same time, parents should temper the urge to over-stimulate their children. More is not always better, and children need time to play, to learn at their own pace, and to pick and choose activities that interest them.

Finally, parents should learn to respond sensitively to their children. A child learns to trust the person who sensitively interacts with him or her, and this trust, in turn, provides a firm foundation for all of later learning, growth, and development.

More Information

For more information about topics related to child development, explore the following links:

Originally Posted: September 29, 2014
All NICHD Spotlights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Exploring Factors That Influence Child Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Countless factors, from family and environment to genes and biology, influence a child's growth and development. Scientists in the NICHD's Section on Child and Family Research study how these factors affect the physical, mental, and social development of growing children, along with their health and well-being.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
PUBERTY

Puberty, a normative developmental transition that all youth experience, is shaped by both social and biological processes. Although often misconstrued as an abrupt, discrete event, puberty is actually a gradual process occurring between childhood and adolescence and one that takes many years to complete ( Dorn and Biro, 2011). Biologically, puberty involves a series of complex alterations at both the neural and endocrine levels over an extended period that result in changes in body shape (morphology), including the maturation of primary and secondary sex characteristics during late childhood and early adolescence and, ultimately, the acquisition of reproductive maturity ( Dorn and Biro, 2011; Natsuaki et al., 2014).

Two biological components of puberty, adrenarche and gonadarche, are relevant in understanding the link between puberty and adolescent wellbeing. Adrenarche, which typically begins between ages 6 and 9, refers to the maturation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, during which the levels of adrenal androgens (e.g., dehydroepiandrosterone and its sulfate) begin to increase. While adrenarche begins in late childhood, levels of adrenarchal hormones continue to rise throughout adolescence, peaking in the early 20's ( Blakemore et al., 2010). Adrenal androgens contribute to the growth of pubic and axillary hair. Gonadarche typically begins in early adolescence, at approximately ages 9 to 11, and involves the reactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis (for a review, see Sisk and Foster, 2004). The rise of gonadal steroid hormones to adult levels occurs as a result of HPG reactivation and is primarily responsible for breast and genital development in girls.

The consequence of these complex changes in HPA and HPG axes at the neuroendocrine level is a coordinated series of visible, signature changes in body parts. These include a growth spurt, changes in skin (e.g., acne) and in body odor, the accumulation of body fat (in girls), the appearance of breast budding (in girls) and enlargement of testes and increased penis size (in boys), the growth of pubic and axillary hair, the growth of facial hair (in boys), and the arrival of the first period (i.e., menarche, in girls). Key pubertal events are highlighted in Figure 2-1; however, as discussed next, there is a great deal of variation in the timing and tempo of these events.

It is useful to distinguish three distinct yet interrelated ways to conceptualize individual differences in pubertal maturation. Pubertal status refers to how far along adolescents are in the continuum of pubertal maturation at any given moment. For instance, if an 11-year-old girl has just experienced menarche, she is considered to have advanced pubertal status because menarche is the last event that occurs in the process of the female pubertal transition. Pubertal status is inherently confounded with age, because older adolescents are more likely to have attained advanced pubertal status.

Pubertal timing, on the other hand, refers to how mature an adolescent is when compared to his or her same-sex peers who are of the same age. In other words, pubertal timing always includes a reference group of one's peers. For example, a girl who experiences menarche at age 10 may be an earlier maturer in the United States, because her menarcheal timing is earlier than the national average age for menarche nationwide, which was found to be 12.4 years in a cohort of girls born between 1980 and 1984 ( McDowell et al., 2007). Only 10 percent of girls in the United States are estimated to have experienced menarche before 11.11 years of age ( Chumlea et al., 2003), suggesting that the girl in this example would be considered to have early pubertal timing. Unlike pubertal status, pubertal timing is not confounded by age because, by definition, pubertal timing is inherently standardized within same-sex, same-age peers typically residing in the same country.

Pubertal tempo is a within-the-individual metric that refers to how quickly a person completes these sets of pubertal changes. For example, some boys may experience a deepening of their voice and the development of facial, axillary, and pubic hair all within a matter of months, whereas other boys may have a gap of several years between voice-deepening and the development of facial hair. Pubertal tempo has gained more attention recently with the rise of sophisticated longitudinal methodology and the resulting availability of longitudinal data on pubertal maturation (e.g., Ge et al., 2003; Marceau et al., 2011; Mendle et al., 2010).

Regardless of the metric used, most of the research on adolescent pubertal development has focused on girls. We know comparatively little about the processes, correlates, and outcomes of pubertal maturation in boys, except for the well-replicated findings that girls typically begin and complete puberty before boys. Evidence is now emerging that the relationship between puberty and structural brain development in the amygdala and hippocampus region may differ by sex ( Satterthwaite et al., 2014; Vijayakumar et al., 2018). These sex differences in associations between brain development and puberty are relevant for understanding psychiatric disorders characterized by both hippocampal dysfunction and prominent gender disparities during adolescence.

It is also important to consider the pubertal development of transgender and gender-nonconforming youth. Transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals usually identify as a gender other than the one they were assigned at birth ( Sylvia Rivera Law Project, 2012). Individuals who are gender-nonconforming may identify as transgender, genderqueer, gender-fluid, gender-expansive, or nonbinary. Puberty is a time that can be enormously stressful, and the fear of developing-or the actual development of-secondary sexual characteristics that do not match a child's gender identity can be intense and even destabilizing ( de Vries et al., 2011). Some transgender and gender-nonconforming youth might take medications that block puberty. Although puberty blockers have the potential to ease the process of transitioning, the long-term health effects of these drugs are not yet known ( Boskey, 2014; Kreukels and Cohen-Kettenis, 2011).

The Role of Early Experiences on Pubertal Timing and Tempo

Maltreatment

One of the most widely studied early experiences related to pubertal development is child maltreatment, and in particular, sexual abuse. A series of studies shows that the age of menarche tends to be lower for girls who experienced child sexual abuse as compared to girls who have not experienced this ( Bergevin et al., 2003; Natsuaki et al., 2011; Romans et al., 2003; Turner et al., 1999; Wise et al., 2009). Trickett and Putnam (1993) suggested that the trauma of child sexual abuse introduces physiological as well as psychological consequences for children, including accelerated maturation by premature activation of the HPA and HPG axes. In addition, some studies have observed a relationship between childhood physical abuse and early maturation, though less robustly and less consistently than for sexual abuse ( Bergevin et al., 2003; Wise et al., 2009), and these studies do not always control for the possibility of concurrent sexual abuse (e.g., Romans et al., 2003).

The association between sexual abuse and earlier pubertal development was recently replicated using a large population-based sample of adolescents, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ( N = 6,273 girls). In that study, child sexual abuse predicted earlier menarche and development of secondary sexual characteristics, whereas other types of maltreatment did not ( Mendle et al., 2016). The distinctive role for early pubertal timing suggests that the heightened sexual circumstances of puberty may be especially challenging for girls whose lives have already been disrupted by adverse early experiences, yet also suggests a potential opportunity for intervention and resilience, particularly in later adolescence, once pubertal development is complete. However, the vast majority of research in this area has focused solely on girls, and we know very little about whether maltreatment is also associated with earlier pubertal timing in boys.

Other Family and Health Factors

Health factors that may affect the metabolic system are also predictive of pubertal timing. For example, in girls, low birth weight ( Belsky et al., 2007) and obesity/higher body mass index (BMI) ( Wagner et al., 2015) have both been associated with earlier pubertal maturation. For boys, overweight (BMI ≥ 85th and < 95th percentile) has been associated with earlier pubertal maturation, whereas obesity (BMI ≥ 95th percentile) was associated with later pubertal maturation ( Lee et al., 2016), suggesting a complex association between aspects of the metabolic system and puberty in boys.

Environmental Exposures

Recently, researchers have examined whether a child's exposure to chemicals is related to pubertal maturation by serving as an endocrine disruptor (see e.g., Lomniczi et al., 2013; Simonneaux et al., 2013; Steingraber, 2007). In the first longitudinal study of age of pubertal timing and exposure to persistent organic pollutants-chemicals used in flame retardants-researchers found that the age at pubertal transition was consistently older in participants who were found to have higher chemical concentrations in collected blood samples ( Windham et al., 2015). The effects of neuroendocrine disruptors on girls' pubertal timing may begin during the prenatal period, as there is evidence that female reproductive development is affected by phthalate or bisphenol A exposure during specific critical periods of development in the mother's uterus ( Watkins et al., 2017).

Accelerated Maturation and Adaptive Plasticity

It is clear that early experiences can factor into accelerated pubertal timing and tempo, and theorists suggest that this may be adaptive. According to Mendle and colleagues (2011, p. 8), "age at certain stressful life transitions represents a dose-response relationship with maturation, with earlier ages at these events associated with earlier development (e.g., Ellis and Garber, 2000)." Belsky et al. (1991) posited that children who are raised in harsh, stressful environments may have accelerated pubertal development to compensate for a mistrust of commitment and of investment in social relationships. According to Belsky and colleagues, early pubertal timing may serve the evolutionary biological purpose of elongating the window for reproductivity and fertility, to permit more conceptions in a lifetime. Thus, the well-documented association between adverse early life experiences and early pubertal development may itself be an adaptive response, one that reflects the plasticity in neurobiological systems during adolescence to adapt to the specific socio-cultural context.

The Social Context of Pubertal Maturation

The Context of Biological Sex and Gender Norms

The biological changes of puberty take place in social and cultural contexts, and these dynamic person-context interactions have implications for adolescent development. For instance, the physical changes associated with pubertal maturation affect an adolescent's self-image as much as the way he or she is treated and responded to by others ( Graber et al., 2010), and culturally grounded gender norms may make these associations more salient for girls than boys. Indeed, in the United States, although menstruation is acknowledged as a normal biological event, it is nevertheless often accompanied by feelings of shame and the need to conceal it from others, particularly males ( Stubbs, 2008). As a result, the arrival of a girl's first menstrual cycle is often accompanied by embarrassment and ambivalence ( Brooks-Gunn et al., 1994; Moore, 1995; Tang et al., 2003), as well as by negative feelings ( Rembeck et al., 2006), including anxiety, surprise, dismay, panic, and confusion ( Brooks-Gunn and Ruble, 1982; Ruble and Brooks-Gunn, 1982).

The arrival of puberty has other social consequences, such as changing dynamics and maturing relationships with parents, siblings, and peers, as well as the emergence of peer relationships with adults. Pubertal maturation is associated with a higher incidence of sexual harassment, both by peers of the same gender and across genders ( McMasters et al., 2002; Petersen and Hyde, 2009; Stattin and Magnusson, 1990). Social consequences may be exacerbated among youth experiencing early pubertal timing.

The increase in pubertal hormones (e.g., estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone) and the changes they drive, such as the emergence of secondary sex characteristics, is also associated with the development of substance use ( Auchus and Rainey, 2004; Grumbach, 2002; Grumbach and Styne, 2003; Havelock et al., 2004; Matchock et al., 2007; Oberfield et al., 1990; Terasawa and Fernandez, 2001; Young and Altemus, 2004). At the same time, the causal direction of these findings is somewhat mixed ( Castellanos-Ryan et al., 2013; Dawes et al., 1999; Marceau et al., 2015), with variation by sex. In girls, relatively early pubertal timing and faster pubertal tempo often mark an increased risk for adolescent substance use ( Cance et al., 2013; Castellanos-Ryan et al., 2013; Costello et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2014). By contrast, in boys later pubertal timing and/or slower pubertal tempo mark an increased risk for substance use ( Davis et al., 2015; Marceau et al., 2015; Mendle and Ferrero, 2012). This striking gender difference in associations between pubertal maturation and substance use highlights how the same biological event (pubertal maturation) can lead to very different outcomes as a function of one's biological sex.

Puberty and Stress Sensitivity

Puberty-related hormones influence the way adolescents adjust to their environment, for example by experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety. One mechanism through which this might occur is in pubertal hormones' ability to alter sensitivity to stress, making adolescent girls particularly sensitive to exogenous stressors. Recent studies using salivary cortisol as an index of stress regulation have documented heightened stress reactivity and delayed post-stress recovery in pubescent adolescents ( Gunnar, et al., 2009; Stroud et al., 2004; Walker et al., 2004). Cortisol is a steroid hormone released by the HPA axis, and disruption to this axis has been implicated in the development of symptoms of depression and anxiety (e.g., Gold and Chrousos, 2002; Guerry and Hastings, 2011; Sapolsky, 2000).

Summary

In summary, puberty is shaped by both biological and social processes. Biologically, puberty occurs over an extended period during which neuroendocrine alterations result in the maturation of primary and secondary sex characteristics and the acquisition of reproductive maturity. The timing and tempo of pubertal development varies greatly, and the age at which an adolescent matures depends upon a combination of genetic and environmental influences, including early life experiences. Socially, pubertal maturation and its accompanying physical changes affect how adolescents perceive themselves and how they are treated by others, and early pubertal timing especially has been shown to have social consequences. While we know a great deal about the biological processes of puberty, much of the research, particularly on the role of adverse early experiences, is based on studies of girls rather than boys and excludes transgender and gender-nonconforming youth. Thus, it is important to monitor whether or not conclusions drawn from the extant research are relevant for both girls and boys, and to consider how further study of puberty in boys, transgender youth, and gender-nonconforming youth may deepen our understanding of these dynamic processes.

Despite this limitation, research on associations between stress exposure and pubertal timing and tempo makes clear the importance of early experiences and highlights the role of social determinants of health. Stressful living conditions are related to earlier pubertal timing and accelerated pubertal tempo. While early puberty may be an evolutionarily adaptive response to context that reflects neurobiological plasticity, there are important consequences that suggest it may not be adaptive in terms of supporting a long-term path to health and well-being for youth living in the 21st century. Structural changes that disrupt the systemic factors that increase risk for early puberty (e.g., resource deprivation) as well as supportive relationships can mitigate the risks associated with early puberty, can foster positive outcomes, and may promote adolescents' capability for resilience.

NEUROBIOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Adolescence is a particularly dynamic period of brain development, second only to infancy in the extent and significance of the neural changes that occur. The nature of these changes-in brain structures, functions, and connectivity-allows for a remarkable amount of developmental plasticity unique to this period of life, making adolescents amenable to change. These normative developments are required to prepare the brain so it can respond to the demands and challenges of adolescence and adulthood, but they may also increase vulnerability for risk behavior and psychopathology ( Paus et al., 2008; Rudolph et al., 2017). To understand how to take advantage of this versatile adolescent period, it is first important to recognize how and where the dynamic changes in the brain are taking place; Figure 2-2 shows structures and regions of the brain that have been the focus of adolescent developmental neuroscience.

In the following sections, we summarize current research on structural and functional brain changes taking place over the course of adolescence. Our summary begins with a focus on morphological changes in gray and white matter, followed by a discussion of structural changes in regions of the brain that have particular relevance for adolescent cognitive and social functioning. We then discuss current theoretical perspectives that attempt to account for the associations between neurobiological, psychological, and behavioral development in adolescence.

Notably, the field of adolescent neuroscience has grown quickly over the past several decades. Advances in technology continue to provide new insights into neurobiological development; however, there is still a lack of agreed-upon best practices, and different approaches (e.g., in equipment, in statistical modeling) can result in different findings ( Vijayakumar et al., 2018). Our summary relies on the most recent evidence available and, per the committee's charge, we focus on neurobiological changes that make adolescence a period of unique opportunity for positive development. This is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the literature; moreover, studies tend to use "typically" developing adolescents, which limits our ability to comment on whether or how these processes may change for young people with developmental delays or across a broader spectrum of neurodiversity.

High Plasticity Marks the Window of Opportunity

Studies of adolescent brain development have traditionally focused on two important processes: changes in gray matter and changes in myelin. Gray matter is comprised of neural cell bodies (i.e., the location of each nerve cell's nucleus), dendrites, and all the synapses, which are the connections between neurons. Thus, increases or decreases in gray matter reflect changes in these elements, representing, for instance, the formation or disappearance of synapsis (also known as "synaptogenesis" and "synaptic pruning"). New learning and memories are stored in dynamic synaptic networks that depend equally on synapse elimination and synapse formation. That is, unused connections and cells must be pruned away as the brain matures, specializes, and tailors itself to its environment ( Ismail et al., 2017).

In fact, some neural circuity, consisting of networks of synaptic connections, is extremely malleable during adolescence, as connections form and reform in response to a variety of novel experiences and stressors ( Ismail et al., 2017; Selemon, 2013). Gray-matter reduction in the cortex is associated with white-matter organization, indicating that cortical thinning seen in adulthood may be a result of both increased connectivity of necessary circuitry and pruning of unnecessary synapses ( Vandekar et al., 2015). Thus, adolescent brains can modulate the strength and quality of neuronal connections rapidly to allow for flexibility in reasoning and for leaps in cognition ( Giedd, 2015).

Structural Changes in the Adolescent Brain

Two key neurodevelopmental processes are most reliably observed during adolescence. First, there is evidence of significant change and maturation in regions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) involved in executive functioning and cognitive and impulse control capabilities ( Crone and Steinbeis, 2017; Steinberg, 2005). In other words, areas of the brain that support planning and decision-making develop significantly during the second decade of life. Second, there is evidence of improved connectivity within and between the cortical (i.e., outer) and subcortical (i.e., inner) regions of the brain. Moreover, in both the cortical and subcortical regions, there are age-related and hormone-related changes in neural activity and structure, such as increased volume and connectivity ( Gogtay et al., 2004; Østby et al., 2009; Peper and Dahl, 2013; Wierenga et al., 2014).

Over the course of adolescence, regions of the PFC undergo protracted development and significant remodeling. Cortical circuits, especially those that inhibit behavior, continue to develop, enhancing adolescents' capacity for self-regulation ( Caballero and Tseng, 2016). Compared to adults, adolescents have a significantly less mature cortical system and tend to utilize these regions less efficiently, and this impacts their top-down cognitive abilities including planning, working memory, impulsivity control, and decision-making ( Casey and Caudle, 2013). Ongoing development of structures and connections within the cortical regions corresponds to more efficient balancing of inputs and outputs as adolescents interact with the world.

Changes within subcortical brain regions are also reflected in adolescent capabilities. For instance, increased volume in certain subregions of the hippocampus may predict greater capacity for memory recall and retention in adolescents ( Tamnes et al., 2014). Adolescents also display heightened activity in the hippocampus, compared with adults, and differential reward processing in the striatum, which is part of the basal ganglia and plays an important role in motivation and perception of reward. This neural activity may explain their increased sensitivity to rewards and contribute to their greater capacity for learning and habit formation, particularly when incentivized by positive outcomes ( Davidow et al., 2016; Sturman and Moghaddam, 2012).

Another subcortical structure, the amygdala, undergoes significant development during puberty and gains new connections to other parts of the brain, such as the striatum and hippocampus ( Scherf et al., 2013). The amygdala modulates and integrates emotional responses based on their relevance and impact in context. In conjunction with the amygdala's substantial development, adolescents show higher amygdala activity in response to threat cues than do children or adults ( Fuhrmann et al., 2015; Hare et al., 2008; Pattwell et al., 2012). Consequently, they are prone to impulsive action in response to potential threats ( Dreyfuss et al., 2014). Changes in the hippocampus and amygdala may be responsible for suppressing fear responses in certain contexts ( Pattwell et al., 2011). Such fearlessness can be adaptive for adolescents as they explore new environments and make important transitions-such as entering college or starting a new job away from home. Children and adults do not tend to show the same kind of fear suppression as adolescents, suggesting that this is unique to this stage of development ( Pattwell et al., 2011).

A Neurodevelopmental Perspective on Risk-Taking

In recent years, researchers have worked to reconcile contemporary neuroscience findings with decades of behavioral research on adolescents. There has been a particular emphasis on understanding "risky" behavior through the lens of developmental neuroscience. Risk-taking can be driven by a tendency for sensation-seeking, in which individuals exhibit an increased attraction toward novel and intense sensations and experiences despite their possible risks ( Steinberg, 2008; Zuckerman and Kuhlman, 2000). This characteristic is heightened during adolescence and is strongly associated with reward sensitivity and drive ( Cservenka et al., 2013) as well as the rise in dopamine pathways from the subcortical striatum to the PFC ( Wahlstrom et al., 2010). Ironically, as executive function improves, risk-taking based on sensation-seeking also rises, likely due to these strengthened dopamine pathways from the striatum to the PFC regions ( Murty et al., 2016; Wahlstrom et al., 2010). Despite these stronger sensation-seeking tendencies, however, by mid-adolescence most youth are able to perform cognitive-control tasks at the same level as adults, signaling their capacity for executive self-control ( Crone and Dahl, 2012).

Theoretical models have emerged to explain how neurobiological changes map onto normative "risk" behaviors in adolescence. While some argue that these models and accompanying metaphors may be overly simplistic (e.g., Pfeifer and Allen, 2012), the models are nevertheless utilized frequently to guide and interpret research (e.g., Steinberg et al., 2018). We briefly discuss two of them here: the "dual systems" model and the "imbalance" model.

Rethinking the "Mismatch" Between the Emotional and Rational Brain Systems

Regardless of whether one of these two models more accurately represents connections between adolescent neurobiological development and behavior, both perspectives converge on the same point: fundamental areas of the brain undergo asynchronous development throughout adolescence. Moreover, adolescent behavior, especially concerning increased risk-taking and still-developing self-control, has been notably attributed to asynchronous development within and between subcortical and cortical regions of the brain. The former drives emotion, and the latter acts as the control center for long-term planning, consideration of outcomes, and level-headed regulation of behavior ( Galván et al., 2006; Galván, 2010; Mueller et al., 2017; Steinbeis and Crone, 2016). Thus, if connections within the limbic system develop faster than those within and between the PFC region, the imbalance may favor a tendency toward heightened sensitivity to peer influence, impulsivity, risk-taking behaviors, and emotional volatility ( Casey and Caudle, 2013; Giedd, 2015; Mills et al., 2014).

Indeed, adolescents are more impulsive in response to positive incentives than children or adults, although they can suppress these impulses when large rewards are at stake. Adolescents are also more sensitive than children or adults to the presence of peers and to other environmental cues, and show a heightened limbic response to threats ( Casey, 2015). As the cortical regions continue to develop and activity within and across brain regions becomes more synchronized, adolescents gain the capacity to make rational, goal-directed decisions across contexts and conditions.

The idea of asynchrony or "mismatch" between the pace of subcortical development and cortical development implies that these developmental capacities are nonoptimal. Yet, even though they are associated with impulsivity and risk-taking, we should not jump to the conclusion that the gap in maturation between the emotion and control centers of the brain is without developmental benefit. As Casey (2015, p. 310) notes, "At first glance, suggesting that a propensity toward motivational or emotional cues during adolescence is adaptive may seem untenable. However, a heightened activation into action by environmental cues and decreased apparent fear of novel environments during this time may facilitate evolutionarily appropriate exploratory behavior." While an adolescent's "heart over mind" mentality may compromise judgment and facilitate unhealthy behaviors, it can also spawn creativity and exploration. Novelty seeking can be a boon to adolescents, spurring them to pursue exciting, new directions in life ( Spear, 2013).

If properly monitored and cushioned by parents and the community, adolescents can learn from missteps and take advantage of what can be viewed as developmental opportunities. Indeed, because adolescents are more sensitive to rewards and their decision-making ability may skew more toward seeking the positive benefits of a choice and less toward avoiding potential risks, this tendency can enhance learning and drive curiosity ( Davidow et al., 2016). To avoid stereotyping all adolescents as "underdeveloped" or "imbalanced," it is important to recognize the nuances in the different types of risk-taking behavior and to counterbalance a focus on negative outcomes by observing the connections between risk-taking and exploration, curiosity, and other attributes of healthy development ( Romer et al., 2017).

Despite differences between neurobiological models, there is agreement that distinctions between adolescent and adult behaviors necessitate policies and opportunities intended to address adolescent-specific issues. With their heightened neurocognitive capacity for change, adolescents are in a place of both great opportunity and vulnerability. Key interventions during this period may be able to ameliorate the impact of negative experiences earlier in life, providing many adolescents with a pivotal second chance to achieve their full potential and lead meaningful, healthy, and successful lives ( Guyer et al., 2016; see also Chapter 3).

Cognitive Correlates of Adolescent Brain Development

Changes in components of cognitive control, such as response selection/inhibition and goal selection/maintenance, along with closely associated constructs such as working memory, increase an individual's capacity for self-regulation of affect and behavior ( Ochsner and Gross, 2005). Importantly, each of these aspects of cognitive control appears to have distinct developmental trajectories, and each may be most prominently associated with distinct underlying regions of the cortex ( Crone and Steinbeis, 2017). For example, although the greatest developmental improvements in response inhibition and interference control may be observed prior to adolescence, improvements in flexibility, error monitoring, and working memory are more likely to occur throughout the second decade of life ( Crone and Steinbeis, 2017). This suggests different developmental trajectories, whereby more basic, stimulus-driven cognitive control processes develop earlier than do more complex cognitive control processes, which rely on internal and abstract representation ( Crone and Steinbeis, 2017; Dumontheil et al., 2008).

Recent research on cognitive development during adolescence has focused on both cognitive and emotional (or "affective") processing, particularly to understand how these processes interact with and influence each other in the context of adolescent decision making. First, the capacity for abstract representation and for affective engagement with such representations ( Davey et al., 2008) increases the capacity for self-regulation of emotions in order to achieve a goal ( Ochsner and Gross, 2005). Indeed, the capacity to regulate a potent, stimulus-driven, short-term response may rely on the ability to mentally represent and affectively engage with a longer-term goal. Furthermore, such stimulus-driven, affective influences on cognitive processing, including on decision making, risk-taking, and judgment, change significantly over the course of adolescence ( Hartley and Somerville, 2015; Steinberg, 2005).

These changes in cognitive functioning may have adaptive qualities as part of normative adolescent development, even though they also make some individuals more vulnerable to psychopathology, such as depression and anxiety disorders. Notably, the flexibility of the frontal cortical network may be greater in adolescence than in adulthood ( Jolles and Crone, 2012). Such flexibility may result in an improved ability to learn to navigate the increasingly complex social challenges that are part of adolescents' social worlds, and as adolescents encounter increasing opportunities for autonomy it may prove to be adaptive. In addition, the ability to shift focus in a highly motivated way could allow more learning, problem solving, and use of creativity ( Kleibeuker et al., 2016). Of particular relevance, such emerging abilities may also determine the degree to which an individual can take advantage of new learning opportunities, including mental health-promoting interventions. With the right supports, this capacity for flexibility and adaptability can foster deep learning, complex problem-solving skills, and creativity ( Crone and Dahl, 2012; Hauser et al., 2015; Kleibeuker et al., 2012).

Summary

The extensive neurobiological changes in adolescence enable us to reimagine this period as one of remarkable opportunity for growth. Connections within and between brain regions become stronger and more efficient, and unused connections are pruned away. Such developmental plasticity means adolescents' brains are adaptive; they become more specialized in response to environmental demands. The timing and location of the dynamic changes are also important to understand. The onset of puberty, often between ages 10 and 12, brings about changes in the limbic system region resulting in increased sensitivity to both rewards and threats, to novelty, and to peers. In contrast, it takes longer for the cortical regions, implicated in cognitive control and self-regulation, to develop ( Steinberg et al., 2018).

While developmental plasticity in adolescence bears many advantages, as with all aspects of development the environment matters a great deal. The malleable brains of adolescents are not only adaptable to innovation and learning but also vulnerable to toxic experiences, such as resource deprivation, harsh, coercive or antisocial relationships, and exposure to drugs or violence. All of these can "get under the skin" as adolescents develop, or more precisely interact with the brain and body to influence development (see Chapter 3).

PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE

As described above, young people develop increased cognitive abilities throughout adolescence. These cognitive abilities provide the capacity for other aspects of psychosocial development that occur during the period. This section describes the psychosocial developmental tasks-including developing identity and a capacity for self-direction-that adolescents complete during their transition to adulthood. Understanding one's self, understanding one's place in the world, and understanding one's capacity to affect the world (i.e., agency) are all processes that begin to take shape during adolescence in tandem with the physiological, neurobiological, and cognitive changes discussed above.

The trajectory of social and emotional development in adolescence may perhaps be best characterized as a time of increasing complexity and integration. As is true of their neurobiological development during the period, adolescents' capacity for understanding and engaging with self, others, and societal institutions requires both integration and deepening. It requires adolescents to integrate multiple perspectives and experiences across contexts, and also to deepen their ability to make sense of complex and abstract phenomena.

This section begins with a summary of developmental trends in adolescent self- and identity development at a broad level, followed by a brief discussion of how these trends reflect recent findings from developmental neuroscience. From there, we discuss group-specific social identities. While there are many critical dimensions of social identity (e.g., gender, social class, religion, immigration status, disability, and others), we use race and sexuality as exemplars given the recent, monumental shifts in racial/ethnic demographics and in the social and political climate around sexual minority status in the United States. The focus on race and sexuality is not intended to minimize other dimensions of identity; indeed, identity development is a salient process for all adolescents regardless of social group memberships. Moreover, as we discuss below, developmental scientists are increasingly calling for research that examines the intersectional nature of identities, both at the individual level as well as in ways that reflect membership in multiple groups that have historically experienced marginalization ( Santos and Toomey, 2018).

Identity

Closely related to the question, "Who am I?" is the question, " How do I see myself?" ( Harter, 2012). McAdams (2013) describes the developmental trajectory of "self" using a set of sequential metaphors: the "social actor" in childhood (because children engage in action) grows to become a "motivated agent" in adolescence (because teens are more purposeful and agent-driven, guided by values, motives, and hopes), and finally an "autobiographical author" in emerging adulthood, a time when young people work on building a coherent self-narrative. Studies of youth across the span of adolescence show that, for many young people, the sense of self and identity become more integrated, coherent, and stable over time ( Harter, 2012; Klimstra et al., 2010; Meeus et al., 2010). Importantly, theory suggests and empirical evidence supports the idea that having a more "achieved" identity and integrated sense of self relates to positive well-being in adulthood and even throughout the life course (e.g., Kroger and Marcia, 2011; Meca et al., 2015; Schwartz et al., 2011).

In middle adolescence, teens may still hold onto multiple and disjointed abstractions of themselves; however, their growing cognitive abilities allow for more frequent comparisons among the inconsistencies, and heightened awareness of these contradictions can create some stress ( Brummelman and Thomaes, 2017; Harter, 2012). In this period, youth may also be more aware that their conflicting self-characterizations tend to occur most often across different relationship contexts. As in early adolescence, discrepancies between real and ideal selves can create stress for some youth, but as teens develop deeper meta-cognitive and self-reflection skills, they are better able to manage the discrepancies. To continue with the same hypothetical teen introduced above at age 13, at age 16 she might view being shy and quiet in the classroom and loud and bubbly with friends as parts of a more holistic, less fragmented sense of self.

Older adolescents have greater abilities to make sense of their multiple abstractions about self. They can reconcile what seem like contradictory behaviors by understanding them in context ( Harter, 2012). For instance, older teens are more likely to view their different patterns of behavior across settings as reflecting a positive trait like "flexibility," or they may characterize themselves as "moody" if they vacillate between positive and negative emotions in different situations. While peers are still important in late adolescence, youth may rely on them less when making self-evaluations; they also have greater capacity for perspective-taking and attunement to others, especially in the context of supportive relationships.

Identity and Self: A Neurobiological Perspective

Recent theoretical models of value-based decision making suggest specific ways in which identity development and neural development are linked in adolescence ( Berkman et al., 2017; Pfeifer and Berkman, 2018). An important premise is that while adolescents may be more sensitive to social stimuli such as peer norms and to rewarding outcomes such as tangible gains, their sense of self is still a critical factor influencing their behavior. In other words, while social norms and tangible gains and costs represent some of the "value inputs," their construal of self and identity are also factors in their decision making. Moreover, neural evidence, like the activation observed in the vmPFC during self- and relational identity tasks, suggests that identity and self-related processes may play a greater role in value-based decision making during adolescence than they do in childhood ( Pfeifer and Berkman, 2018).

Social Identities in Adolescence

As many youth work toward building a cohesive, integrated answer to the question, "Who am I?," the answer itself is shaped by membership across multiple social identity groups: race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, gender, religion, political affiliation, ability status, and more. Indeed, in the context of increasingly complex cognitive abilities and social demands, youth may be more likely to contest, negotiate, elaborate upon, and internalize the meaning of membership in racial/ethnic, gender, sexual, and other social identity groups (e.g., Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014). From a developmental perspective, these tasks are paramount in a pluralistic, multiethnic and multicultural society like the United States, which, as discussed in Chapter 1, is more diverse now than in previous generations.

Ethnic-Racial Identity. Currently, our nation's population of adolescents is continuing to increase in diversity, with no single racial or ethnic group in the majority. A burgeoning area of study over the past two decades concerns ethnic-racial identity (ERI), and research in this field has found that for most youth, particularly adolescents of color, ERI exploration, centrality, and group pride are positively related to psychosocial, academic, and even health outcomes ( Rivas-Drake et al., 2014). ERI is multidimensional-it includes youths' beliefs about their group and how their race or ethnicity relate to their self-definition-both of which may change over time ( Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014). For immigrant youth, developing their own ERI may involve an internal negotiation between their culture of origin and that of their new host country, and most immigrant youth show a great deal of flexibility in redefining their new identity ( Fuligni and Tsai, 2015). Regardless of country of origin, making sense of one's ERI is a normative developmental process that often begins in adolescence ( Williams et al., 2012). Indeed, given that research has consistently found ERI to be associated with adaptive outcomes, dimensions of ERI can be understood as components of positive youth development ( Williams et al., 2014).

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. One of the distinctive aspects of adolescence is the emergence and awareness of sexuality, and a related aspect is the emerging salience of gender roles and expression. Adolescence is also a time when identities or sense of self related to gender and sexuality are developed and solidified ( Tolman, 2011), and this occurs in a period during which sexuality and gender norms are learned and regulated by peers ( Galambos et al., 1990). In this developmental context, LGBTQ youth begin to understand their sexual and gender identities.

The growing societal acceptance and legal recognition of LGBTQ youth is implicated in the recent observed drop in the age at which most of these young people "come out," that is, disclose their same-sex sexual identities. Less than a generation ago, LGBTQ people in the United States typically came out as young adults in their 20s; today the average age at coming out appears to be around 14, according to several independent studies ( Russell and Fish, 2017).

Identity Complexity. Beyond race, gender, or sexuality alone, having a strong connection to some dimension of social identity-which could also be cultural, religious, or national-appears to be important for psychological well-being in adolescence ( Kiang et al., 2008). Recent research also suggests that young adolescents benefit from having a more complex, multifaceted identity that goes beyond stereotypical expectations of social-group norms, especially when it comes to inclusive beliefs ( Knifsend and Juvonen, 2013). For instance, a youth who identifies as a Black, 13-year-old, transgender female who plays volleyball and loves gaming is apt to have more positive attitudes toward other racial/ethnic groups than she would if she viewed racial/ethnic identity and other social identities as necessarily convergent (such as the notion that "playing volleyball and being a gamer are activities restricted to youth from specific racial/ethnic groups"; Knifsend and Juvonen, 2014).

However, context is still important, and the association between identity complexity and inclusive beliefs in early adolescence tends to be stronger for youth who have a diverse group of friends ( Knifsend and Juvonen, 2014). Among college-age students there is also variation by race and ethnicity. For instance, the positive association between having a complex social identity and holding more inclusive attitudes toward others has been found most consistently among students who are members of the racial/ethnic majority; for members of racial/ethnic minority groups, convergence between racial/ethnic identity and other in-group identities is not related to attitudes toward other racial/ethnic groups ( Brewer et al., 2013). Beyond outgroup attitudes, there is evidence that social identity complexity has implications for youths' own perceptions of belonging; for instance, Muslim immigrant adolescents (ages 15 to 18) with greater identity complexity reported a stronger sense of identification with their host country ( Verkuyten and Martinovic, 2012).

Social Identity and Neurobiology

Cultural neuroscience provides some insight into how social identity development may manifest at the neurobiological level, although there is still much work to be done to understand the deep associations between biology and culture ( Mrazek et al., 2015). In adolescence, evidence suggests, areas of the brain attuned to social information may be undergoing shifts that heighten youths' social sensitivity ( Blakemore and Mills, 2014), and of course, adolescents' "social brains" develop in a cultural context. For instance, we know the amygdala responds to stimuli with heightened emotional significance; in the United States, where negative stereotypes about Blacks contribute to implicit biases and fears about them, amygdala sensitivity to Black faces has been documented in adult samples ( Cunningham et al., 2004; Lieberman et al., 2005; Phelps et al., 2000).

In a study of children and adolescents (ages 4 to 16) in the United States, Telzer and colleagues (2013) found that amygdala activation in response to racial stimuli, such as images of Black faces, was greater in adolescence than during childhood. They suggest that identity processes reflecting heightened sensitivity to race, along with biological changes (e.g., those stemming from puberty) related to a "social reorientation" of the amygdala, may be among the mechanisms that explain these race-sensitive patterns of activation in adolescence ( Telzer et al., 2013). Importantly, neural activation appears to vary based on the context of social experiences. Specifically, the amygdala activation observed in response to Black faces was attenuated for youth who had more friends and schoolmates of a race differing from their own (i.e., cross-race friends).

The foregoing findings converge with psychobehavioral studies that demonstrate the importance of school and friendship diversity. Attending diverse middle schools and having more cross-race friends is associated with more positive attitudes toward outsider groups, less social vulnerability, greater social and academic competence, and better mental health ( Graham, 2018; Williams and Hamm, 2017). Adolescence is a period of transformation in social cognition ( Blakemore and Mills, 2014; Giedd, 2015), so in light of the findings from psychobehavioral and cultural neuroscience research on the benefits of diversity, important questions may be asked about whether adolescence is a critical period for providing exposure to difference. For instance, should we expect the benefits of exposure to diversity to be maximized if such exposure occurs during adolescence, or are benefits most likely with cumulative exposure that begins well before this period?

Identity Development in Context

Identity development takes place in specific socio-cultural, political, and historical contexts. As an example, consider recent cultural and political shifts regarding same-sex relationships in the United States: in the period of one generation there has been dramatic social change regarding understanding and awareness of LGBTQ lives and issues. For context, consider that less than 20 years ago, marriage between same-sex couples was just beginning to be recognized anywhere in the world (the first country to do so was the Netherlands in 2001); less than 20 years later, 25 countries have legalized same-sex marriage, and recent surveys show that most young people in the United States approve of same-sex marriages ( Pew Research Center, 2015). Moreover, the identity language and labels used among youth who are often placed under the umbrella of LGBTQ have continued to rapidly evolve. A growing number of LGBTQ youth say they have a nonbinary gender identity (i.e., neither male nor female) or sexual identity (e.g., pansexual, bisexual, queer) ( Hammack, 2018). Indeed, young people appear to be leading a movement toward challenging existing categories and constructing new identities.

Meanwhile, in the past decade there has been a dramatic change in public awareness and understanding of transgender identities. Popular attention to the gender changes of a number of celebrities coincided with growing emergence and awareness of transgender children. Thus, a subject that was literally unknown by most people in the United States has within a decade become the subject of public discussion and political debate. School systems are grappling with gender change and accommodations for transgender students, and the typical developmental challenges of adolescence are being navigated by a growing number of openly transgender, gender-nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming adolescents ( Wilson et al, 2017).

Developmental scientists have recently called for a deeper investigation of the ways in which intersecting axes of oppression shape youth development, often referred to as "intersectionality" ( Crenshaw, 1990; Santos and Toomey, 2018; Velez and Spencer, 2018). Indeed, against a backdrop of social stratification and oppression, relationships between identity, experience, and behavior may not operate the same way for all youth ( Spencer, 1995). For example, the way in which knowledge is socially constructed contributes to maintaining systems and structures that control and exclude marginalized populations such as people with disabilities ( Peña et al., 2016). Smart and Smart (2007) argue that society has historically viewed people with disabilities from a medical perspective, in which individuals were labeled as ill, dysfunctional, and in need of medical treatment. This approach perpetuates an ableist worldview that suggests people with disabilities should strive toward an able-bodied norm, reflecting society's perceptions that certain abilities are essential to fully function in the world ( Hutcheon and Wolbring, 2012). This example highlights why an intersectional perspective is important for understanding adolescent psychosocial development in context, both for considering systemic factors that shape opportunities and for broadening the range of questions, values, samples, and experiences that have been defined and studied from a dominant-group perspective ( Syed et al., 2018). Ultimately, intersectional approaches and related integrative models are needed to understand how youth development in context can lead to further marginalization for some youth ( Causadias and Umaña-Taylor, 2018) or to adaptability and resilience for others ( Gaylord-Harden et al., 2018; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2018).

Summary

Recent neuroscientific findings suggest that changes in social and affective regions of the brain correspond to developmental changes in identity development. Moreover, identity and self-related processes may play a greater role in decision making during adolescence than they do in childhood. Youth may also experience identity congruence, affirmation, or marginalization through their interpersonal interactions with policies, sociopolitical events, and historical factors. Ultimately, how adolescents' multifaceted identities are manifested-neurobiologically, behaviorally, and otherwise-and the role identity plays in their overall well-being depend a great deal on experiences in context. This requires us to reflect on the nature of the contexts in which adolescents are developing their identities.

Adolescent Capacity for Self-Direction

As adolescents ask, "Who am I?" their growing cognitive capacities also permit reflection on themselves in relation to a broader collective: "What is my role in my school? my community? my society?" As adolescents grow older, they have more opportunities to make their own choices in domains that matter for future outcomes, and their capacity to make such choices also increases; Box 2-1 describes youths' perspectives on this emerging autonomy, agency, and independence.

In the following section, we discuss developmental changes in autonomy, purpose, and agency in adolescence. One might think of these three things not only as competencies that develop within adolescents, but also as resources or opportunities they need to thrive as they transition into adult roles. Framing them as both capacities of the individual youth and as characteristics afforded by supportive settings reminds us that developmental pathways that lead to thriving in adulthood are not forged by adolescents alone, but instead require alignment between youths' strengths and the resources available in their environments.

Striving for Autonomy While Remaining Connected

Not only do young adolescents have less autonomy than older youth, they also tend to overestimate how much autonomy their peers have; in other words, younger adolescents tend to think their friends are allowed to have more control over their choices and behaviors than they actually do. Adolescents who think they have low levels of autonomy over decisions also tend to believe their friends have more autonomy, whereas adolescents who feel they have enough autonomy are less influenced by perceptions of their peers ( Daddis, 2011).

Autonomy and Culture

Examining Autonomy and Culture "Under the Skin"

While all teens may desire autonomy from their parents and seek identities and self-definitions that go beyond their role in the family, adolescents in immigrant families in the United States may have a stronger sense of family obligation relative to youth in nonimmigrant families. Recent findings from the field of cultural neuroscience demonstrate the integration between biology and sociocultural context ( Telzer et al., 2010; Fuligni and Telzer, 2013). In one study, White and Latinx older adolescents participated in laboratory-based tasks in which they were asked to allot cash rewards to themselves or to their families; during the task their patterns of brain activity were observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While youth from both groups allotted cash rewards to family at the same rate, among Latinx youth the "reward centers" of the brain were more activated when they contributed to family, whereas White youth showed more brain activity in the reward centers when allotting cash to themselves. Across both groups, those who felt a stronger sense of family identification and who felt fulfilled by contributing to family had more activation in the reward centers of the brain when allotting cash to their family. Thus, the cultural meaning that youth and families make around issues of autonomy, connection, and obligation are connected to neurobiological responses in the context of family contribution.

Some studies show linkages between broad cultural orientations, such as being more individually or more collectively oriented, and patterns of neural response ( Mrazek et al., 2015). Moreover, cultural neuroscientists posit that developmental growth and transitions in neural activity shape the transmission of cultural values, like preference for social hierarchy ( Mrazek et al., 2015). In addition to the vmPFC and the anterior cingulate cortex regions of the brain implicated in personal identity development, researchers speculate that the temporoparietal junction may be implicated in culturally embedded identities that orient youth toward independence or interdependence ( Cheon et al., 2011; Mrazek et al., 2015; Saxe et al., 2009).

Finding Meaning and Taking Action: Purpose and Agency

Purpose

Purpose has been defined as "a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self" ( Damon et al., 2003, p. 121) and also as "a central, self-organizing life aim that organizes and stimulates goals, manages behaviors, and provides a sense of meaning" ( McKnight and Kashdan, 2009, p. 242). Thus, one's sense of purpose can be oriented toward life aims that are self-focused or toward aims that transcend the self ( Sumner et al., 2018; Yeager et al., 2012). Higher scores on measures of purpose are generally associated with more positive psychological wellbeing, a more consolidated identity, a deeper sense of meaning, and fewer health-compromising behaviors; a sense of purpose is also positively correlated with religiosity and spirituality ( Burrow and Hill, 2011; Sumner et al., 2018). Moreover, there is evidence that purpose helps explain associations between identity commitment and positive youth adjustment ( Burrow and Hill, 2011).

For all adolescents, developing a sense of purpose requires some support, particularly while their sense of orientation toward the future is still under development ( Steinberg et al., 2009). For adolescents who experience marginalization-by virtue of membership in one or more groups that experience systemic oppression ( García Coll et al., 1996; Causadias and Umaña-Taylor, 2018)-developing a sense of purpose may be compromised if structural discrimination makes links between present action and future outcomes unpredictable (e.g., for adolescents with an undocumented immigration status) ( Gonzales, 2016; Sumner et al., 2018). Adolescents experiencing marginalization may internalize such messages as they become more aware of their own external realities; the messages may also be reinforced through family socialization practices. For example, researchers studying low-income White adolescents suggest that parents' messages of "isolation and threat, helplessness and hopelessness, and live fast, die young," which may be adaptive in the short-term and in the immediate settings where the families live, can compromise youth's sense of purpose, hope, and agency ( Jones et al., 2018).

Agency to Take Action

Adolescents' growing competencies in flexible problem-solving, their awareness of and concern with others, and their openness to exploration and novelty ( Crone and Dahl, 2012) make adolescence a particularly opportune time to allow for agency and leadership ( Flanagan and Christens, 2011). Indeed, young people have been at the helm of social movements for centuries. For some youth, active civic engagement may be an adaptive means for coping with systemic injustice, particularly for those in historically marginalized communities ( Diemer and Rapa, 2016; Ginwright et al., 2006; Hope and Spencer, 2017). In a recent multi-methods study of middle and late adolescents in seven community organizations (four in the United States, two in Ireland, and one in South Africa), many of which served low-income or working class communities, researchers documented multiple benefits of civic engagement. Findings suggest the context of youth organizing promoted the skills of critical thinking and analysis, social and emotional learning, and involvement in community leadership and action ( Watts, 2018; Watts et al., 2011).

In relation to research on community leadership and action, recent work has examined the construct of "critical consciousness" among adolescents ( Watts et al., 2011). Contemporary definitions of critical consciousness, grounded in the work of Brazilian educator Paolo Freire (1970), include the elements of critical reflection, motivation, and action ( Diemer et al., 2015). These core concepts have informed the development of new measures of critical consciousness for middle and late adolescents (e.g., Diemer et al., 2017; McWhirter and McWhirter, 2016; Thomas et al., 2014). Youth with higher levels of critical consciousness are more likely to recognize injustice and may feel a greater sense of agency or efficacy in responding to it ( Diemer and Rapa, 2016; Shedd, 2015). Critical consciousness is also positively associated with vocational and educational attainment ( Diemer et al., 2010; Luginbuhl et al., 2016; McWhirter and McWhirter, 2016).

Capacity for Self-Direction as a Developmental Opportunity

While there is general agreement about the benefits of purpose and agency in adolescence, ongoing work is needed to better understand the circumstances under which they are best fostered and the way they relate to other processes (e.g., critical consciousness) and to behavior (e.g., volunteering, social activism). For instance, do opportunities for critical reflection contribute to an adolescent's sense of purpose? Are community service or civic action necessary for building an adolescents' belief in their own agency to create change?

Summary

Over the course of adolescence, youth gain the cognitive skills needed to reflect on complex questions about their aims in life and their role in the world. They can question the legitimacy and fairness of everyday experiences and of social institutions. Indeed, the social systems they must navigate-schools, employment, health care, justice-are quite complex and often require them to engage in independent decision making. Two important questions stemming from this reality are, "What experiences are needed to support adolescents' agency as they transition into adult roles?" and "What might our society look like if all adolescents felt a sense of commitment to something personally meaningful and goal-directed that extends beyond the self?" ( Bronk, 2014).

Supporting opportunities for autonomy and agency and fostering a sense of purpose may help adolescents explore meaningful questions about who they are, and about their place in the world and their capacity to shape it. Continuing shifts in the social, cultural, economic, and technological contexts in which today's adolescents are developing require thoughtful consideration as to how, when, and where adolescents can find and act upon ideas and issues they find meaningful. For example, religion has traditionally been a context where youth have found purpose and meaning, and religious involvement is associated with civic engagement ( Furrow et al., 2004; Pew Research Center, 2019; Sumner et al., 2018). Religion can also be protective against stressors like discrimination and against negative mental health outcomes ( Hope et al., 2017). However, adolescents and young adults today are less likely to be religiously engaged than those in earlier generations ( Pew Research Center, 2018). If faith-based institutions are playing a less central role in the lives of greater numbers of today's adolescents, this brings to the fore questions about the alternative settings and experiences to which youth are turning and whether these settings play a comparable role in fostering involvement and purpose.

Although there is great variation in how the skills of autonomy, purpose, and agency manifest and how they are defined and valued, adolescents should be afforded opportunities-in families, schools, or out-of-school settings-to develop them. Such skills not only are important to support the transition to adulthood, but also make adolescence itself a period that fosters a propensity to choose their own paths in life and to shape the roles they want to play in their communities ( Fuligni, 2018).

CONCLUSION

Adolescence, spanning the period from the onset of puberty to adulthood, is a formative period where changes in cognition, affect, and interpersonal behavior occur alongside the most extensive biological transitions since infancy, especially with respect to pubertal and brain development. Collectively, the pubertal, neurobiological, cognitive, and psychosocial changes occurring during adolescence mark this as a period of great opportunity for adolescents to flourish and thrive.

While often thought of as a time of turmoil and risk for young people, adolescence is more accurately viewed as a developmental period rich with opportunity for youth to learn and grow. If provided with the proper supports and protection, normal processes of growth and maturation can lead youth to form healthy relationships with their peers and families, develop a sense of identity and self, and experience enriching and memorable engagements with the world. Adolescence thus forms a critical bridge between childhood and adulthood and is a critical window of opportunity for positive, life-altering development. As a positive window of opportunity, adolescence marks a period of optimism, where the assets of youth and their development may be capitalized for the betterment of society.

Important questions emerge from these findings. What are the "windows of opportunity" for promoting a positive developmental trajectory and adaptive plasticity? What are the mechanisms that shape developmental trajectories, for better or worse, during adolescence and over the life course? To begin to answer these, in the next chapter we consider the emerging science of epigenetics as it reveals the ongoing plasticity of the brain and the reciprocal influences of brain on body and vice versa.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Adolescence is a period of significant development that begins with the onset of puberty1 and ends in the mid-20s. Consider how different a person is at the age of 12 from the person he or she is at age 24.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Factors That Influence the Growth and Development of a Child

# data[].attributes.body
Children and adolescents develop through a complex interplay of influences that shape who they become. Family environment, including parenting style and emotional support, lays the foundation for their social and emotional well-being. School and education introduce knowledge, social skills, and opportunities for personal achievement. Peer relationships help them navigate identity and belonging, while cultural and community values instill norms and beliefs. Physical health, nutrition, and access to safe environments also play crucial roles. Together, these factors form a dynamic ecosystem that guides their growth each one helping shape their path toward adulthood.

# data[].attributes.body
Implicit Biases These are unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that influence our understanding, actions, and decisions without our awareness. They often stem from social conditioning and can affect how we perceive others based on race, gender, age, or other characteristics—even if we consciously reject those biases.

Cultural Competence This refers to the ability to interact effectively with people from diverse cultures. It involves respecting different cultural perspectives, recognizing our own cultural influences, and adapting communication and behavior to be inclusive and responsive to others' values, beliefs, and needs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
State of the Science: Introduction to Implicit Bias Review 2018-2020 | Kirwan Institute

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cultural background gives children a sense of who they are. The unique cultural influences children respond to from birth, including customs and beliefs around food, artistic expression, language, and religion, affect the way they develop emotionally, socially, physically, and linguistically.

When a child's self-identity is at odds with the social environment due to cultural differences, it can hinder learning. Fortunately, culturally competent educators help children of all cultural backgrounds learn by showing an understanding and acceptance of diverse cultures and how they make each child uniquely valuable.

Because culture is such a powerful indicator of a child's future well-being, those who work with children, including social workers, counselors, and specialists, need to understand the cultural influences on child development and how they impact the way people grow and learn. A degree such as Maryville University's online Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Studies can prepare future professionals for success in these roles, providing them with the background and experience they need to support children and families with their services.

The Importance of Childhood Development

Early childhood is a key period of mental and emotional growth, and what children perceive and experience can shape their future: Our childhood environments and how we respond to them can predict the course for our health and well-being as adults. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports, "Although the brain continues to develop and change into adulthood, the first eight years can build a foundation for future learning, health, and life success. ... How the brain grows is strongly affected by the child's experiences with other people and the world."

To understand the environment's impact on a developing child, let's look at the three main ways children process the information around them as they grow.

Classical conditioning. Drawing associations between a stimulus and response. For example, children in religious families might associate bedtime with prayers.

Operant conditioning. Drawing associations between a reward and an action. For example, children might receive dessert after eating their vegetables.

Observational learning. Absorbing and copying what they see from others in real life or in the media. For example, a child might say, "Time to clean up" because a teacher says it in school.

Children learn, therefore, by observing and making associations about their surroundings. Exposure to positive influences can favorably impact a child's development, while exposure to toxic or stressful influences can negatively impact development.

All else being equal, a child's cultural influences at birth are neutral. All too often, however, some elements of cultural background may not be accepted or understood by the society in which a child grows up - potentially harming a child's self-image and development.

In other words, the social cues a young child takes in from others about cultural background can help or hamper development because developing children readily internalize what they see and hear. When a young child's cultural background differs from the prevailing culture - for example, the child's family might speak a different language at home, eat different foods, or observe different holidays - it can affect self-image. This is especially the case if peers or even teachers treat the child in a way that reveals bias or casts the child in the role of an outsider.

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), childhood exposure to dominant social biases - such as favoring people who are white, Christian, heterosexual, able-bodied, thin, wealthy, fluent in English, natives rather than immigrants - can trigger developing children to judge themselves unfavorably by the same limiting standards. When children do that, their development suffers.

Recognizing Cultural Influences on Child Development

Culture influences development from the moment we're born, making an impact on us as we grow. For instance, culture can affect how children build values, language, belief systems, and an understanding of themselves as individuals and as members of society.

Children can receive these cultural influences in different ways, such as through their parents, their environment, and the media. How society shows an understanding of diverse cultures can impact a child's development in many ways, such as how confident in themselves or how comfortable interacting with others they become as adults.

Parental Influences on Child Development

Parents' culture can influence their children's development. A 2019 study, for example, found that cultural values often influence the way parents raise their children, including how they discipline and set boundaries. It makes sense that parents raise their children based on cultural influences because they're preparing them to develop behaviors necessary to operate and thrive in that culture. However, when the social environment and home culture clash, developmental issues can arise.

Collectivist vs. Individualistic Cultures and Parental Discipline

Parents' cultural influences can impact how they discipline a child's behavior. This, in turn, can affect a child's development, particularly if those methods of discipline differ from the dominant cultural tradition.

Before delving into the methods of discipline and culture, what do the terms "collectivist" and "individualistic" mean exactly? Essentially, a collectivist culture values and rewards the prioritization of community needs over individual needs, as well as generous, kind, collaborative behavior. Collectivism is the norm in Asian, Central American, South American, and African cultures.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, an individualistic culture values and rewards assertiveness and independent action, stressing the importance of the individual over the group. Individualism dominates in North American and Western European cultures.

The 2019 study cited earlier found that parents from individualistic cultures discipline differently from parents from collectivist cultures. The former group of parents might discipline their children by taking something away that matters to them personally. On the other hand, parents from collectivist cultures might tell their children to think about how their behavior affects others.

The study found that children raised in individualistic cultures often described themselves based on their unique attributes, such as "I am good at math." Meanwhile, children raised in collectivist cultures were more likely to describe themselves based on their relationships with others, such as "I am my mother's daughter."

Child development can be influenced if parents or teachers discipline children according to the dominant culture - the U.S. has an individualistic culture - rather than the culture of their family of origin. For example, children whose parents have disciplined them to value cooperation over competition might become confused or upset when a teacher urges them to be competitive.
Parental Influences on Children's Social Behavior Varies by Culture
Children learn how to act by interacting with their parents. For this reason, the parents' cultural background often influences a child's behavior.

Communication style is a case in point. Children tend to communicate in a style that resembles their parents' way of communicating, and diverse cultures converse and explain things in different ways.

Children who communicate based on an individualistic cultural model will often tell long, self-focused stories with themes of autonomy and personal preference. Conversely, children who communicate based on a collectivist cultural model will often tell brief, other-oriented stories with themes of authority and interrelationships.

These cultural influences on children's language development can help or hinder them on the playground, and later in the workplace. If children's culture is respected at school, including the way the children interact verbally with others, then they'll be more likely to experience the acceptance and respect they need to grow and develop. They're more likely to become adults with a healthy self-image who feel understood and capable of confident, fruitful interactions. If not, however, they may become adults who hesitate to raise their voices and be heard for fear of being ridiculed or misunderstood.

Environmental Influences on Child Development

Environmental influences on child development can include influences from community and culture as well as from environmental health hazards. Pollution from a nearby power plant, contaminated water, or lead in the home, for example, can cause lasting impacts on children's health. As the CDC reports, environmental contaminants can cause greater harm to children than to adults because children's bodies are still developing.

In fact, children take in more air, water, and food per pound of body weight, making them more vulnerable to health issues from environmental hazards. The health issues might not show up until later in life, causing difficulty in school, work, and socialization. A child exposed to polluted air, for example, might develop asthma as a teenager.

Children of low-income communities are most likely to be at risk of exposure to environmental hazards. As the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) reports, low-income communities may have poor infrastructure, making them more vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters, such as contaminated water and damaged drainage systems. They may also be located closer to factories and highways, both of which contribute to high levels of pollution in the air, soil, and water.

Media Influences on Child Development

Media influences on childhood development include movies, TV shows, video games, and other online content. Research that the American Psychological Association (APA) has shared shows that children's exposure to violent media can result in aggressive behavior; exposure to advertising for non-nutritious foods can increase rates of childhood obesity; and too much screen time can be linked to lower brain development in preschoolers.

A study from the Cognitive Impacts of Digital Media Workgroup found that children begin to learn from TV programs at around 2.5 years old. Educational programs, such as "Sesame Street," can positively influence their knowledge and social skills, preparing them for school. However, after they turn 6 years old, children begin to watch more entertainment programming, which can, in turn, influence their behavior negatively. In addition, while video games can help children develop visual processing skills, they can also yield aggressive behavior. The effects on cognitive skills and behaviors are often specific to the games played.

As a result of these findings, the study suggests that clinicians and early childhood service providers should work with parents to limit TV exposure before children turn 2 years old. As children begin to learn how to read, clinicians and service providers should advise parents to regulate children's media consumption - with a focus on providing educational media content - and encourage reading habits.

The connection with cultural background is clear: Diverse cultures have different attitudes toward TV and other entertainment media, as well as different abilities to afford access to such media. A child from a collectivist culture, for example, may be encouraged to help infant or elderly family members in lieu of watching educational TV after school. Indirectly, culture influences these children's ability to benefit from such experiences.

In addition, to take the example further, children whose culture discourages educational TV and other media may be ridiculed by school peers for missing out on popular pastimes other children engage in.

Another way that media in popular culture can influence child development is by depicting and perpetuating cultural stereotypes. For example, a movie might show women or minorities in a negative light, or not at all. A sitcom might feature only white characters, never those of diverse races or ethnicities.

Clearly, the absence of role models in entertainment media, or the presence of negative stereotypes, can affect children's self-esteem. This can cause media to become a negative cultural influence on a child's development.

A Crucial Understanding of Childhood Development

Educators, parents, caregivers, and social workers need to understand how children's cultural influences affect their development. With this knowledge, adults can better guide students of different cultures and backgrounds through their growth processes and ensure that they're being exposed to healthy influences. They can also provide them with the tools they need to cope with negative influences, such as cultural biases and prejudices against diverse cultures, in schools and in society at large.

According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), for example, early childhood programs can foster children's development - physically, mentally, and socially. Consider the Head Start program, which provides children from low-income families with services to promote their educational and emotional growth. Children who participated in programs such as Head Start grew up healthier and engaged in less harmful activities, such as drinking and smoking, than those who didn't.

Educators and social workers need to be aware of their own implicit biases about cultural differences. As the NAEYC reported, teachers can exhibit biases in their treatment of children according to the child's race, ability, socioeconomic status, and behaviors. The biases can inhibit teachers from effectively helping these students and, therefore, prevent students from developing at the pace that's best for them. By understanding the cultural influences on child development, including their own cultural biases, professionals in these roles can better make an impact on children's lives and deliver the care they need.

Careers That Incorporate Cultural Influences on Child Development

An understanding of cultural influences on child development is important for professionals in a range of roles.

Child Life Specialist

A child life specialist is clinically trained to help families work through the developmental impact of serious injury or illness. For example, a child life specialist might work with families to help children cope with illness or stress in a hospital setting. This work includes identifying stressors, encouraging self-expression, and ensuring that children can make their voices heard in often overwhelming situations.

Understanding how the healthcare system approaches cultural diversity helps child life specialists assist families from various cultural backgrounds. Further, a child life specialist understands that the trauma of illness or injury looms large in child development and thus seeks to mitigate the impact, while taking into account each child's cultural background.

Mental Health Counselor

Mental health counselors treat people for issues such as behavioral disorders, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and stress. They might work in a range of settings, including individual and family services, community care centers, and government facilities. Mental health counselors can train to work specifically with children and families, helping them work through mental health issues, access necessary resources, and navigate treatment plans.

By understanding cultural influences on child development, mental health counselors can more effectively help children and families get to the root of their issues and work through them.

Community Health Worker

Community health workers help individuals and groups access healthcare information, resources, and services. For example, if a community is exposed to an environmental hazard, community health workers might connect people with screenings for lung cancer or asthma. Another example is if an impoverished community has difficulty accessing food, community health workers might connect the community to local services, such as food banks. These professionals also advocate on behalf of vulnerable communities, providing local government representatives, healthcare providers, and health educators with data about people's health status and needs.

Community health workers learn about the factors that influence child development to help families access the healthcare resources they need. They also understand the influence of culture on how families and communities seek aid and respond to stress in crises.

Child Care Center Director

Child care center directors build and manage programs for before- and after-school care, including educational programs, and social activities. Directors also hire and train staff to run these programs and work with children. With an understanding of cultural influences on child development, child care center directors can be prepared to support children outside their home, resolve issues when they arise, and provide working families with the extra help they need in supervising their children.

Social Worker

Social workers assist individuals and families on a case-by-case basis, helping them navigate stressful situations, such as unemployment, illness, and substance abuse. On top of providing these services, clinical social workers are licensed to diagnose clients with mental health issues and intervene in emergencies, such as child abuse. Social workers understand how cultural influences can impact behavior and development.

Social workers can also train in specialty areas, including the following:

Child and family social work
Example: Guiding children through the adoption process or the foster system, or locating community child care services

School social work
Example: Helping students with behavioral issues find a therapist

Mental health social work
Example: Connecting children who have anxiety or depression with a psychiatrist or support group

Healthcare social work
Example: Supporting children through a diagnosis and hospital visits

All social workers are trained to be aware of the factors that influence people's behavior, including their childhood development and how their culture may be influencing it. If a child is acting out at school, for example, a social worker considers how cultural influences at home might affect the child's acceptance by peers at school or how the child responds to challenging school demands, such as competition or collaboration.

Make an Impact in Childhood Development

Maryville's online Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Studies program offers students the knowledge and skills they need to work with families and children in different stages of their lives. Through the program's comprehensive curriculum, students explore the human experience and how individuals develop in their societies and interpersonal relationships. They also gain real-world experience through fieldwork, research projects, and service-learning opportunities in a range of settings where they can begin making an impact in their roles.

If you're interested in learning more about cultural influences on child development - including parental, environmental, and media influences on child development - exploring Maryville's online Bachelor of Arts in Human Development and Family Studies can help you pursue your professional goals.
Recommended Reading Early Childhood Education vs. Childhood Development Nature vs. Nurture Child Development: Exploring Key Differences How to Become a Child Life Specialist Sources American Psychological Association, Kids & the Media Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Child Development Basics Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Children's Environmental Health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Early Brain Development and Health National Association for the Education of Young Children, The Social-Cultural Context of Child Development and Learning National Environmental Health Association, Children's Environmental Health Equity Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Early Childhood Development and Education Pediatrics The Conversation, "How Culture Influences Children's Development" The Urban Child Institute, What Do We Know About Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood? The Washington Post Verywell Mind, "Experience and Development" Verywell Mind, "Individualistic Cultures and Behavior" Verywell Mind, "Understanding Collectivist Cultures" U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Health Educators and Community Health Workers U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Preschool and Childcare Center Directors U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Workers U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Child Life Specialist" Wiley Online Library, "Environmental Influences on Health and Development: Nutrition, Substance Exposure, and Adverse Childhood Experiences" , "How Different Cultures Shape Children's Personalities in Different Ways" , Digital Screen Media and Cognitive Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cultural Influences on Child Development | Maryville Online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explore cultural influences on child development, and learn how educators, parents, and social workers can use this information to improve services and care.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Positive youth development is a holistic approach that focuses on creating a developmentally appropriate learning setting for young people. Learn more…

# data[].attributes.body
Components of Cultural Competence Framework

The cultural competence framework includes several key components that help individuals and organizations work effectively across cultures. These components are essential for understanding, communicating with, and effectively interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. Here are the main components of the cultural competence framework:

Self-Awareness: Understanding one's own cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors, and how they may affect interactions with others.

1

Culture-Specific Knowledge: Acquiring knowledge about the cultural backgrounds of others, including language, customs, and practices.

1

Skills for Effective Interaction: Developing the skills necessary for engaging in meaningful and respectful interactions across cultures.

1

Value of Diversity: Recognizing and valuing the diversity of cultures and perspectives within a community.

1

Management of Dynamics of Difference: Learning to respond appropriately and effectively to the issues that arise in a diverse environment.

1

Adaptation to Diversity: Changing and adopting new policies and practices that support diversity and inclusion.

1

Institutionalization of Cultural Knowledge: Integrating cultural knowledge into the systems of the organization to support diversity and inclusion.

1

These components are interconnected and work together to create a culturally competent environment that fosters understanding, respect, and effective communication across cultures.

6

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Do You Develop Cultural Competence? - Philosophy Beyond

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Cultural Competency in Early Care and Education Classrooms

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We want children to grow up to be happy, well-rounded, caring people and a large part of this is influenced by their early experiences and interactions with those around them. It is extremely important that children grow up learning to respect, accept, and celebrate people from different backgrounds and that have different experiences than themselves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 ways you can teach children to be culturally competent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We live in a world full of diversity and being aware of the various ways that diversity comes into our lives has to be a daily practice. Cultural competence can be defined as having knowledge of an…

# data[].attributes.body
Implicit biases can subtly shape how teachers perceive children and their families, often without realizing it. These biases can influence expectations, interpretations of behavior, and disciplinary actions. For instance, a teacher may unconsciously expect less from certain students based on stereotypes, affecting the support and opportunities they provide. This can lead to disparities in academic outcomes and a lack of trust between the school and families. Recognizing and addressing these biases is key to fostering an equitable and inclusive learning environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new study finds evidence that teachers’ implicit bias may lead to unequal student outcomes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
About ScienceDirect
Shopping cart
Contact and support
Terms and conditions
Privacy policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How implicit bias harms marginalized students | DaJonaire Washington | TEDxBowieStateUniversity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Examining the Impact of Teacher Bias on Student Achievement : Institute of Diversity Sciences : UMass Amherst

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How do teacher biases influence perceptions of student effort and behavior, potentially skewing academic placement decisions? This critical investigation seeks to uncover potential racial, gender, or socioeconomic biases in teacher assessments of absenteeism and tardiness, pivotal factors that could misalign students with their true academic capabilities, thus affecting their entire educational journey.