10th Grade Development Guide

10th Grade Development Guide

What’s Going on with My 10th Grader?

The 10th grader can drive a car, work a job, and is getting dangerously close to adulthood. Here is a look at what is going on inside the mind and heart of your 10th grader.

Physical Development

•         There is a heightened sensitivity to appearance and its social value.

•         Boys and girls have a propensity to diet.

•         Girls have developed physically into their adult bodies.

•         Boys have mostly developed into their adult bodies. There might be a little growth left.

•         Sexual desire is awakened, and the temptation to be sexually active is common.

Emotional Development

The 10th grader may:

•         Have a desire for more control over aspects of their life

•         Test authority and question rules

•         Love to try new things in an effort to discover identity

•         Exhibit impulsive behavior with friends and peers

•         Not respond to adult lectures, feeling they know better what is going on than the adult does

•         Be more capable of taking care of others

Relational Development

•         Integrating both physical and emotional intimacy into relationships begins.

•         Friends that share beliefs, values, and interests are sought.

•         Less time may be spent with family, while more time may be spent with peers.

•         Peers influence them to try risky behaviors, such as experimenting with alcohol, tobacco, etc.

•         Competition with outside groups is preferred over competition with friends.

•         Relationships with parents become focused on negotiations to get what they want.

•         There is a strong desire for conformity with peers.

•         Girls have a tendency to be interested in older boys.

•         Popular peers, adults, and celebrities are strong influences.

Spiritual Development

•         They can handle the responsibility of most service positions in various parish ministries.

•         They have a greater interest in serving others and in making a difference in the world.

•         There is more planning and preparation for the future.

•         They have a greater ability to identify right and wrong.

•         Role models are developed that inspire them either toward or away from faith.

•         Their capacity for self-discipline increases.

•         Summer camps and mission experiences influence them spiritually because of the peer connections that those events create.

•         They begin to imagine what life would be like as an adult away from their parents, and they begin deciding whether or not their faith will be a part of that.

•         There is a temptation to “have their fun now” and be responsible later.

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