Influence of Birth Order and Gender on Adolescents' Development of Personality Disorders

influence of birth order and gender on adolescents' development of personality disorders

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

1.2 Statement of the Problem

1.3 Significance of Study

1.4 Purpose of Study

1.5 Scope of Study

1.6 Research Question

1.1 Background of the Study

Adolescent is a very interesting area of study. Despite the fact that a lot of materials have been written in this area, but that's notwithstanding because some issues within the area still provoke serious thought and debate thereby making the area still open to research in a bid to understand what motivates the influence of birth order on adolescents' development of personality disorders, many people are concerned about the study of adolescent; Educators studies what concern adolescent in order to make their schools more effective, psychologist wants to develop more precise scientific body of knowledge on adolescent through research and clinical practice. Curious minds like me also wants to find out more about them, who they are, their experience, problems and what influence them at this adolescence stage of development.

Adolescence is transition and unique period from dependent childhood to independent adulthood which is marked by changes new to the individual, the development that comes within this period is not unusual but it create problems for the adolescents themselves and the same time a source of concern and worry for the adult. The period of adolescence is not limited to age due to wide physiological and cultural variations associated with physical, psychological and social implications.

Chronologically adolescence period falls between childhood and adulthood and sometime regarded as teenage period. The term adolescent is derived from a Latin word "Adolescere" which means growing to maturity. It is a transition period in which children becomes adult, in the Western World; adolescent stage begins at approximately 10 to 13years of age and end between the ages of 18 to 22years. According to Umachukwe and Ebenebe (1997). Nigerians sees this period between the ages of 11 and 18years. The age range of adolescent varies with cultural and historical circumstance and some cultures have puberty rite to mark this transition period.

The beginning of adolescence is ushered by the onset of pubescence, a period of sexual maturation and physiological growth. A rapid increase in height and weight (i.e. growth spout). Adolescence can be specifically turbulent as well as a dynamic period of life. The structure and organization of the limbic system and frontal lobe changes rapidly from childhood to adolescent in ways that can promote risk taking, novelty seeking and emotional response to stress. These changes are reversed in late adolescence as the brain takes its adult organization.

A personality development disorder is an inflexible and pervasive pattern of inner experience and behavior in children and adolescents that markedly deviates from the expectations of the individual's culture. Personality development disorder is not recognized as a mental disorder in any of the medical manuals, such as the ICD-10[1] or the DSM-IV [2] neither is it part of the proposed revision of this manual, the DSM-5[3]. DSM-IV allows the diagnosis of personality disorders in children and adolescents only as an exception.

The term personality development disorder is used to emphasize the changes in personality development which might still take place and the open outcome during development. Personality development disorder is considered to be a childhood risk factor or early stage of a later personality disorder in adulthood. Adults usually show personality patterns over a long duration of time. Children and adolescents however still show marked changes in personality development. Some of these children and adolescents have a hard time developing their personalities in an ordinary way. DSM-IV states, for example, that children and adolescents are at higher risk to develop an antisocial personality disorder if they showed signs of conduct disorder and attention deficit disorder before the age of 10. This led Adam & Breithaupt-Peters (2010) to the idea that these children and adolescents need to be looked at more carefully. The therapy which these children and adolescents need might be more intense and maybe even different from looking at the disorders traditionally.

The concept of personality development disorders also focuses on the severity of the disorder and the poor prognosis.