CCTC-PSY4033-001C

Adolescent Development

Southwest Baptist University

 

Because of the sensitive nature of some of the topics covered in this course and the level of work required, it is recommended that students be juniors or seniors when taking the course.

 

Adolescent Development meets the requirements. This course meets the SBU requirement for an adolescent development course for teacher certification and for SBU Youth Ministry minors.  It also serves as an elective for psych majors and minors.  Furthermore, it is an upper level course for those needing upper level hours to graduate. 

 

Course Highlights.  In this course students will learn everything they want to know about adolescents (and probably more than they want to learn).  We cover all aspects of healthy adolescent development – puberty and physical development, adolescent thinking processes and how they are different from adults or children, adolescent social development (how they are tied to their peers and trying to their parents), and spiritual-moral development, or how adolescents come to develop a set of values and beliefs all their own.  We will also address many of the major problems adolescents encounter – drug and alcohol use, eating disorders, suicide and depression, teen pregnancy, gang membership – and the minor problems many adolescents deal with – sleep deprivation, feelings of insecurity, conflicts with parents, etc.  The course is chock-full of real world application of theory and concepts – what do you do if you suspect a friend has an eating disorder?  What can teachers do to promote healthy cognitive development?  What can parents do to keep their kids away from drugs?

 

Course Materials and Requirements

Students taking this adolescent development course will read a standard text in adolescent development, complete a workbook/study guide, take tests over units, and produce a 5-7 page paper on a topic in adolescent development.  Great supplements are available for this course, including PowerPoint presentations highlighting key points and applications for each chapter, an extensive list of applicable websites, and extra (optional) material to enhance the topics (CDC growth charts to find out where kids are, links to an online memory exercise when learning about cognition, how to incorporate youth volunteering into your work with adolescents, etc.). 

 

Shelley Kilpatrick is a social psychologist by training (MA and PhD from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).  She worked at the UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion for three years on a CDC research grant to study healthy adolescent development over many years and on a State of California grant to study how Filipino parents and adolescents talk about sex, with the goal of preventing teen pregnancy in this community.  Today she volunteers with 5th grade girls (Girls in Action, G.A.s) at her local church and is fascinated with the way these young adolescents and almost adolescents learn and grow physically, mentally, emotionally, and, most importantly, spiritually.