Growth and Development, Ages 15 to 18 Years

Promoting Healthy Growth and Development

You can help your teen between the ages of 15 and 18 years by using basic parenting strategies. These include offering open, positive communication while providing clear and fair rules and consistent guidance. Support your teen in developing healthy habits and attitudes, help him or her make wise choices, and offer guidance in how to balance responsibilities.

The following are examples of ways to promote healthy growth and development in specific areas. But remember that many growth and development issues overlap. For example, having a healthy body image is important for physical development and emotional development. Use these ideas as a starting point to help your teen make good choices that will help him or her grow into a healthy and happy adult.

Promote your teen's physical development by doing the following:

• Be aware of changing sleep patterns. Rapidly growing and busy teens need a lot of sleep. The natural sleeping pattern for many teens is to go to bed later at night and sleep in. This can make it hard to get up for school. To help your teen get enough rest, discourage phone and computer use and TV watching after a certain evening hour.
• Help your teen manage acne, if it is a concern. Most young people get at least mild acne. Keeping the skin clean helps control acne. Also, your teen should avoid skin products that clog skin pores. Look for products that say "noncomedogenic" on the label. Suggest that your teen wash his or her skin once or twice a day with a gentle soap or acne wash. Discourage scrubbing or picking at pimples, which makes them worse and can lead to scarring. If your teen has a few pimples, an acne cream you can buy without a prescription may work. Look for one that has benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid. These work best when used just the way the label says. If your teen's pimples are really bothersome or are scarring the skin, see a doctor. A prescription gel or cream for the skin may be all he or she needs. For more information, see the topic Acne Vulgaris.
• Talk about body image. What teens think about their bodies greatly influences their feelings of self-worth. Stress that healthy eating and exercise habits are most important for the short and long term. Help your teen recognize that television and other media often produce unrealistic images of the ideal body that are not healthy. For more information, see the topic Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, or Depression in Children and Teens.
• Offer strategies to avoid tobacco, drugs, and alcohol. Set firm, fair, and consistent limits for your child. Help him or her understand the immediate and long-lasting results of substance use, such as falling grades and poor health during adulthood. Practice how to respond when a harmful substance is offered, such as simply stating "No, thanks" and moving on to another subject. If you believe your teenager is using drugs or alcohol, it is important to talk about it. Discuss how he or she gets the alcohol, tobacco, or drugs and in what kind of setting it is used. Seek advice from a doctor if the behavior continues. For more information on tobacco, drugs, or alcohol problems, see the topic Teen Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

  Dealing with teen substance use

Promote your teen's healthy emotional and social development by doing the following:

• Address problems and concerns. Build trust gradually so your teen will feel safe talking with you about sensitive subjects. When you want to talk with your teen about problems or concerns, schedule a "date" in a private and quiet place. Knowing when and how to interfere in a teen's life is a major ongoing challenge of parenthood. Parents walk a fine line between respecting a teen's need for independence and privacy and making sure that teens do not make mistakes that have lifelong consequences.
• Understand the confusion about sexual orientation. Hormones, cultural and peer pressures, and fear of being different can cause many teens to question themselves in many areas, including sexual orientation. It is normal during the teen years to develop same-sex "crushes." Consider mentioning to your teen that having such an attraction does not mean that he or she is destined to be a homosexual. But it is helpful to acknowledge that in some cases, these feelings grow stronger over time rather than fade.
• Encourage community service. Both your teen and community members are helped when your teen volunteers. Your teen gets the chance to explore how he or she connects with others. While helping peers, adults, and other people, your teen can gain new skills and new ways of looking at things. He or she can also develop and express personal values and explore career options. Your teen can benefit most by thinking back on the service experience and figuring out what he or she learned from it.
• Help your child build a strong sense of self-worth to help him or her act responsibly, cooperate well with others, and have the confidence to try new things. For more information, see:

  Growth and development: Helping your child build self-esteem.

Promote your teen's mental (cognitive) development by doing the following:

• Encourage mature ways of thinking. Involve your teen in setting household rules and schedules. Talk about current issues together, whether it be school projects or world affairs. Listen to your teen's opinions and thoughts. Brainstorm different ways to solve problems, and discuss their possible outcomes. Stress that these years provide many opportunities to reinvent and improve themselves.
• Offer to help your teen set work and school priorities. Make sure your teen understands the need to schedule enough rest, carve out study time, eat nourishing foods, and get regular physical activity.
• Be goal-oriented instead of style-oriented. Your teen may not complete a task the way you would—this is okay. What is important is that the task gets done. Let your teen decide how to complete work, and always assume that he or she wants to do a good job.
• Continue to enjoy music, art, reading, and creative writing with your teen. For example, encourage your teen to listen to a variety of music, play a musical instrument, draw, or write a story. These types of activities can help teens learn to think and express themselves in new ways. Teens may discover a new or stronger interest, which may help their self-esteem. Remind your teen that he or she doesn't need to be an expert. Simply learning about and experimenting with art can help your teen think in more abstract ways and pull different concepts together.

Promote your teen's sensory and motor development by doing the following:

• Encourage daily exercise. Vigorous exercise, such as running, biking, or playing soccer or basketball, helps your teen to stay lean and to have a healthy heart.² Vigorous exercise also helps your teen feel good. If your child is not used to exercise, be careful about expecting too much too soon. Overdoing it at first can make your teen feel tired or discouraged or can even cause injury. Help your teen to build up an exercise routine slowly. For example, plan a short daily walk to start. This approach can help your teen gain confidence and make him or her more likely to keep exercising. For more information on exercise, see the topic Fitness.

Violence and teens

• Prevent teen violence by being a good role model. For example, talk calmly during a disagreement with someone else. Help your teen come up with ways to defuse potentially violent situations, such as making a joke or acknowledging another person's point of view. Praise him or her for avoiding a confrontation. You might say, "I'm proud of you for staying calm." Closely supervise the Web sites and computer games that your child uses. For more information on teen violence, see the topic Bullying or Anger, Hostility, and Violent Behavior.
• Reduce the risk of teen suicide and recognize the warning signs. If your teen shows signs of depression, such as withdrawing from others and being sad much of the time, try to get him or her to talk about it. Call your doctor if your teen ever mentions suicide or if you are concerned for his or her safety.

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Author:	Debby Golonka, MPH	Last Updated: April 22, 2008
Medical Review:	Michael J. Sexton, MD - Pediatrics Louis Pellegrino, MD - Developmental Pediatrics
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