Middle School Characteristics

By: ALex, Nikole and Vicente

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Male physical changes

• Skeletal growth occurs before muscular
• Muscular growth can force students to engage in more mature activities
such as full contact sports and lifting weights.
• Adults urge muscular developed children to push harder and risk their
body more
• Older students will see the developed students as a threat to status
which may cause conflict
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Adolescent risk-taking

• Crave crazy adventure; drama; novel experiences

• “It won’t happen to me”
• Could lead to bad influences such as drugs, early sexual activity or try
physical stunts that are dangerous
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Ethnic Identity
How Students are Challenged
• Adopting a new culture
• Keeping their roots
• Feeling welcome
• Looking different
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Self-esteem
• Students start to self-evaluate and
compare themselves to others.

• Students begin to see flaws in their

academic, social, and physical traits.

• Body image has the most powerful influence

on a young adolescents’ level of self-esteem.
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Sexual Identity
3 phases of LGBTQ+ identity:
1) Feeling different
2) Confusion
3) self-acceptance

“Middle schools are breeding grounds for

attacks on those students who appear to be
different from mainstream social attitudes or
behaviors.”