Find me
The Developmental Aspects of Sexual Health Laboratory
  • Home
  • People
  • Research Projects
  • Blog
  • Publications
  • Presentations

This week in Adolescent Development: Puberty

1/29/2014

0 Comments

 
This semester I’m teaching a graduate course in adolescent development. I used to really struggle with assigning readings in this course. The first 2-3 to assign would be easy – a review chapter, an important conceptual piece, and/or an important historical empirical paper. But I often struggled to assign a more contemporary empirical piece, because determining the one paper that could represent the entire recent field was challenging.

A few years ago I arrived at a satisfying (to me at least) solution. I assign some readings, but then each student is responsible for finding, summarizing, and sharing a recent empirical paper. They summarize this paper in a standardized google doc format, and everyone reads the summaries before class. I like this format because: (1) it increases the breadth of knowledge that we all experience before and during class, with (this semester) 9 recent empirical papers represented; (2) each student can connect the week’s readings to their area of interest (e.g., puberty and peer relationships; identity and peer relationships; transition to adulthood and peer relationships); (3) it increases ownership in the course content for each student, because every week, each student has some relevant expertise that no one else has.  It also improves our ability to talk about measurement given the range of measures represented across readings. You can find my current syllabus for this course here.

By the end of the semester, I’m exposed to a lot of new and exciting research across the field of adolescent development. To give you a taste, I’ve decided that each week I will (try to) write briefly about the articles we discussed that led to the most engaged discussion. Last week’s topic was puberty:

1. Stein & Resier (1994). It’s now 20 years old, and there are clear methodological limitations, but I still love assigning this paper.  Puberty is one of the few areas where we know more about girls than boys, and the societal sense of when a boy truly reaches puberty, and what markers he may experience is always murky. Talking about first ejaculation seems so much harder for adolescents, parents (and researchers) than talking about menstruation, and this paper always engenders interesting discussion.

2.  Jacobsen, Oda, Knutsen, & Fraser (2009). Our class this semester includes students from HDFS, sociology, and nursing. This paper on associations between early menarche, heart disease, and mortality led to discussion about biology as destiny and the age old biology/context tug-of-war.

3.  Ellis, Shirtcliff, Boyce, Deardorff, & Essex (2011). Again, the disciplinary diversity of the students in the class this semester created some engaged discussion around biology and context and their interplay.

“The post This week in Adolescent Development: Puberty first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on January 29, 2014.”

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Eva S. Lefkowitz

    I write about professional development issues (in HDFS and other areas), and occasionally sexuality research or other work-related topics. 

    Looking for a post doc? 
    List of HDFS-relevant post docs
    Looking for a fellowship? 
    List of HDFS relevant fellowships, scholarships, and grants
    Looking for an internship?
    List of HDFS-relevant internships
    Looking for a job?
    List of places to search for HDFS-relevant jobs

    Categories

    All
    Adolescent Development
    Being A Grad Student
    Conferences
    Excel
    Gmail
    Grant Proposals
    Job Market
    Mentoring
    Midcareer
    Networking
    PowerPoint
    Publishing
    Research
    Reviewing
    Sexual Health
    Social Media
    SPSS
    Teaching
    Theses & Dissertations
    Transitions
    Undergraduate Advice
    Word
    Work/life Balance
    Writing

    Archives

    February 2022
    May 2021
    January 2021
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    October 2017
    November 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013

    Follow @evalefkowitz.bsky.social on Bluesky

    RSS Feed

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Blogs I Read

    Female Science Professor

    The Professor is in

    APA Style Blog

    Thinking About Kids

    Tenure She Wrote

    Prof Hacker

    Andrew Gelman

    Claire Kamp Dush
Proudly powered by Weebly