The following characteristics of youth in grades 7–12 will help you figure out why your youth act the way they do. You are not alone!

7th-Graders:
• First signs of puberty appear as physical changes in height, weight, and sex organs
• Quickly growing bodies lack coordination that often creates fear and embarrassment
• Rapid hormonal changes result in fluctuating moods
• Short attention span
• Peer groups and best friends revolve around the same sex
• Argue with authority because of desire for independence

8th-Graders:
• Still dealing with changing bodies
• More withdrawn and sullen than 7th-graders
• Emotions swing wildly
• Crises of these years are real to them
• Mostly stay with same sex but some do “go together”
• Questions religion while feeling guilty for doubting God

9th-Graders:
• Form relationships outside the peer group
• Move from physical to psychological growth
• They try to decide “Whom am I” and also “Who do others think I am?”
• Strive to put together personal moral codes
• Express varied ideas and feelings

10th-Graders:
• Express their independence, causing conflicts with parents
• Experimental behavior that is encouraged by peers
• Ability to drive increases dating opportunities, the freedom to work and desire to accumulate things
• Thinks abstractly
• Likes challenges

11th-Graders:
• Behavior is controlled by sexual development, physically and socially
• Dating prepares them to chose a lifetime mate
• Testing new ideas and attitudes
• Older youth tend to make very few professions of faith

12th-Graders:
• Look like adults
• Lack the maturity to handle every situation
• Settling on a philosophy of life
• Setting goals for the future
• Characterized by an eagerness to get away from the family
• Burning desire to be in charge of their lives
• “Senioritis” afflicts both college-bound and work-bound youth