Written by Megan Rouse, Communications Associate, UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent
This blog post was written based on a 2025 interview with Dr. Ron Dahl, the director of the Institute of Human Development and professor in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, and the founding director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent. Dr. Dahl is also the host of the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent’s podcast, Adaptivity: The Science of Adolescence.
What is Early Adolescence?
When people are asked about their own early adolescence, roughly the ages of 10 through 13 or the middle school years, many different memories and emotions arise. People cite experiences such as getting braces, having their first crush, going through puberty, and the excitement (or terror) of leaving elementary school. What all these things have in common is transition—in social and emotional capacity, physical growth, and our life stage as we move from childhood to adolescence. This month, we talked to a leading expert in early adolescent development, Dr. Ron Dahl, about what exactly early adolescence is and why it is so crucial to support young people as they go through this period of development.
Early adolescence can be described as a “subperiod” of development, distinct from late childhood and middle adolescence, that is characterized by rapid physical, cognitive, and social changes. It generally begins with puberty, but social and societal changes, including shifting roles for young people in the community, occur simultaneously, making this period exceptionally dynamic.
“The beginning of these biological changes at puberty represents a cascade of every level of experience for young people,” says Ron.
These intense physical and cognitive changes create vulnerabilities, such as to malnutrition or peer rejection, but they also offer opportunities to promote positive development for young people.
“For me personally, there is a compelling reason to focus on early adolescence,” says Dahl.
Brain Changes During Early Adolescence
What is going on in the brain of an early adolescent? Middle school teachers, parents of tweens, and neuroscientists alike have long asked this question.
During this stage in our development, our cognitive abilities increase and we start to build better capacities for abstract reasoning and for more deeply understanding complex concepts like values, authority, and identity. Additionally, there is maturation of what we call the “social brain,” which is responsible for social cognition. Social cognition refers to the processes involved in how we interact, respond, and learn from others. This can increase our understanding of others’ perspectives and help us learn how to engage in new types of relationships. Puberty also activates the release of hormones that cause changes in brain structures that involve how we process and respond to rewards and how we interpret and engage in social and emotional situations.
These changes can increase our sensitivity to peer and social acceptance or rejection, increase our capacities to understand others, increase our motivation to contribute to others, and make emotions feel more acute, particularly in response to social situations.
The Unique Needs of Early Adolescents
These brain changes are one reason for changes in our developmental needs during early adolescence. Whereas children may have needed more time with parents or earlier bedtimes, early adolescents have different needs like gaining respect and social status, spending more quality time with peers, feeling like they matter to their communities, and increasing their caloric intake.
During early adolescence, we increasingly seek respect or admiration from others and are particularly sensitive to social rejection. This sensitivity can make authentic and respectful interactions particularly powerful and influential, but it can also amplify the negative feelings caused by disrespect and social isolation. To support this developmental need, caring adults can interact with young people in authentic and respectful ways and limit, as much as possible, exposure to disrespect, discrimination, and isolation.
Peer relationships also become more important to young people at this age. Caring adults can support and scaffold these relationships by encouraging activities with peers and discussing the positive or negative effects of friendships.
In addition to wanting to feel valued and respected, during early adolescence, we want to feel that our actions “matter” to others. With the onset of puberty, young people have an increased desire to find a place within their families and their communities. This increased motivation to “matter” to others offers a window of opportunity to support prosocial learning. Providing opportunities for young people to contribute to others in meaningful ways and authentically recognizing that contribution can promote positive development, increase self-esteem, and be a protective factor from negative emotions and experiences.
“Young people are trying to find a way to matter, to contribute, to gain admiration through their efforts and actions, and having positive feedback is very formative,” says Ron.
It is also important to note that meeting early adolescents’ nutritional needs is just as crucial as meeting their developmental needs. Because of the intense growth and nutritional needs of this period, early adolescents can be vulnerable to malnutrition, which can lead to various health issues later in life. However, this period of intense growth offers an opportunity to set up young adolescents for a healthy future by supplementing growth with proper nutrition. In short, having access to enough quality food during this period can set up young people for a healthy adulthood.
“The return on investment of supplementing would be higher in the pubertal growth spurt because the needs are so much higher,” says Ron. “Only infants grow faster than kids in their pubertal growth spurt.”
Interventions that help us meet physical and developmental needs during early adolescence can affect later physical, social, and cognitive health, offering a window of opportunity to promote positive development that can lead to positive outcomes later in life.
The Importance of Investing in Early Adolescence
Early adolescence is a critical window of opportunity to set up young people for a healthy and thriving adulthood. It is characterized by the greatest amount of physical growth in development apart from infancy, sweeping social changes, and profound cognitive developments that make early adolescents, with the right supports, poised to become active, healthy, and engaged community members.
Ensuring that early adolescents meet their physical, cognitive, and developmental needs should be the priority of policymakers, educators, and caring adults.
“My hypothesis would be that the more we can do in early adolescence the better the return, because it is the most dynamic period of change,” says Ron. “If we can find effective ways to support these positive learning processes early, it could have a longer, more enduring impact.”
Additional resources focused on early adolescence:
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