Developmental Tasks of Adolescents

To be able to eventually transit into adult roles with minimum problems, the adolescents must go through some developmental tasks. The infant, for instance, must learn to walk, to talk and eliminate waste products from the body. At middle childhood, the child must learn the skills of playing games, reading and writing.

Harvinghurst set out the vital tasks that the adolescents must deal with before successfully transiting from adolescence to adulthood. These eight development tasks are presented below:

Achieving new and more mature relations with age mates of both sexes

They must be allowed to mix freely in the classroom to be able to develop understanding between both sexes. Young adolescents, male and female, in secondary and higher institutions lean to one another in their attempt to satisfy this need. If unchecked, this tendency will escalate to unimaginable proportions leading to sexual abuse and promiscuities, which as it is presently, poses great threats to the life of the entire society. No wonder, Institutions of higher learning are struggling to introduce dress codes in their various institutions in their effort to control the preliminaries attracting sexes to one another. Beyond this, governments, both federal and states, have segregated some institutions where male and female exclusively study in other to avoid physical contact between the sexes. In co-education institutions, male and female students mingle only during lecture during the day time and retire to their separate dormitories after studies in the evening. In addition, eagle eye is kept on both sexes to control pre-marital relationship among young adolescents.

The school will need to do more than this. Students need to be sensitized to voluntarily develop an intrinsic desire to behave in a manner expected of a full grown adult. They should be assisted through counseling to face the most challenging threats in their lives rather than the desire to actualize this instinctual desire.

Achieving masculine and feminine roles

They must know how to dress and behave like male and female and adults and be able to perform masculine and feminine roles respectively. The school should thus encourage participation in related educational fields that emphasize these roles differentiations, e.g. Agriculture, Home Management, Health Science, Sports, etc.

Accepting one's physique and using the body effectively

They must come to accept their physical features otherwise they cannot have a smooth transition to adulthood. Adolescents should be made to understand that their physical stature does not matter but how one uses it effectively to excel. Teachers should help them develop positive self image among themselves. They should try as much as possible to bring out in them their inherent potentialities by providing a lot of learning experiences to them. They should develop their creative capacities and mental faculties and encourage them to optimize their usage. They should discuss with them their worries and remove all the barriers that would impede on their success in life.

Achieving emotional independence from parents and other adults

They need to achieve emotional independence from parents and other adults in order to have a sense of self worth and maturity. Teachers should give self-directed assignments and tasks to the adolescents. Give them the opportunity to take part in running the school or community affairs. The adolescent should be challenge to lead certain affairs of the school, society and the family. Formations of clubs and associations with the young adolescents as leaders would significantly help. They need to be supervised however by the adult members of the society.

Prepare for marriage and family life

The most important institution for preparing the young adolescents for family life is the family. Family heads must ensure stability within the family with absolute peace and tranquility. They must set the standards they would expect the young adolescent to copy if eventually they establish theirs. They must see to it that every member within the family enjoys comfortable living, where ideas are shared for the collective welfare of all members. Every members of the family must perform their duties credibly and bad behaviors met with stiff sanctions. There must be love and compassion within the family members. Having a stable home is essential in preparing adolescents, who are transiting to adulthood, for setting up a family. Teachers should build on this edifice set by the family members by providing training and arranging life counseling for both sexes. Guidance on Home Management and Childcare to girls, if not to both, can be very rewarding.

Preparing for economic life

The adolescents need to find and adopt an economic activity on which he/she will depend for sustenance and maintaining the family. Should he/she fail to secure one, there is the fear that they can go to every extent to satisfy this need lawfully or otherwise. The family and the school must act swiftly to encourage satisfaction of this need lawfully through effective counseling programme. Teachers should give guidance and counseling on selection of jobs and career. Collect sufficient information on different vocations and skills development programmes.

Acquiring set of values and an ethical system as to guide behavior for developing and ideology

Here the adolescent needs to have a set of beliefs and values, which will guide his/her behavior in life. This is sometimes referred to as a acquiring and "ego-identity". This understanding will afford him to realize the reason why he/she is in this world and his/her mission in life. Without this, one will be aimless in life. Teachers should act as role models and encourage development of set values, which guide behaviors. Religious leaders and community members are not left out in this crucial task. All must insist from the youth the right type of values expected of the young adults.

Desiring and achieving socially responsible behavior

To transit into adulthood, the adolescent needs to make the effort to behave in responsible ways and take on responsibility as required by the society. In turn, the society accepts him/her as someone to rely on and who is responsible. The big challenge is not on the school alone. The society at large is not left out of this. Every segment of the society must contribute to the successful transition of adolescents to adulthood by providing training and guidance to its young members. The school, being the most important agent can only build on the successes of the right type of social behaviors instilled into the minds of the young adolescents by the members of the society. Contradictions must be avoided where realities do not match gospels of responsible behaviors.
Most of these developmental tasks are handled within a space of about ten years or less. No wonder that some to the adolescents experience intense conflicts. Every member of the society has a stake in seeing to it that adolescent's developmental tasks are sufficiently guided to enable them achieve self worth during this trying period. For example, in as much as the adolescents would like to achieve more mature relations with mates of both sexes, the society in general should not be quite and blind to tendencies that would destroy the ethics of mutual relationships between sexes. This should be controlled within the norms accepted by the members of the society. The religious institutions that are supposed to be the custodians and guardians of good moral standards must make positive effort to guide the young adolescents on the correct pattern of behaviors required of the young adults. The school on the other hand, working cooperatively with the organs of the society, must strive to inculcate the right type of training through proper articulation of the right learning experiences into the school programmes through which the problems of adolescents would be addressed. The minds of the adolescents should be more occupied with curricular and extra curricular activities than less important egocentric desires of the young teenagers. If lacking in these tasks can cause problems for the adolescents, schools should include them into curriculum. The school should not only concentrate on intellectual development providing support in helping the adolescents to make a successful transition to adulthood.