Motor Development and Physical Activity with Adolescents - Jacob Hughes

During the adolescence period or the teenage years, many teens face everyday situations where their self-image is looked at in either a positive or negative way. While teens may not let parents know how they feel about themselves physically, it is important for parents to notice any changes and let them be known. Boys and girls both can face issues with their physical self by taking drastic measures to increase or decrease their weight or mass. More commonly seen with boys; legal vitamin supplements such as protein, creatine, caffeine, and many other drugs are being abused with or without parents' observation and it is affecting teens in a physically harmful way. The supplements if taken correctly and advised by a doctor can help with health issues. Supplements can also be very detrimental to teens including muscle tissue diseases, brain seizures, and heart irregularities, acne, high blood pressure, damage to liver, and many other harmful side affects. Although girls are not commonly seen or heard of taking these supplements; the truth is that girls are taking some forms of supplements to aid with their desired physical appearance and it is affecting girls in a negative way as well. Parents should be involved in teens' lives enough so that teens can feel comfortable with sharing about their physical appearances. With doing so, parents can be one step closer to finding out about posiible risks the teen may be taking.