The Five Issues Adolescences Face 1 The five most important issues that adolescents face are: aggression, maltreatment, maturity judgment, pubertal development, and psychological adjustment. As I observed Mrs. Hourigan’s class at the Courtyard, I was surprised by how heavily students are influenced by peer pressure. Peer pressure seems to have incredible impact on the way students think and behave, and so it heavily influences the way students deal with the issues facing them. As I conducted my research on articles, I wanted to find more in depth research on other internal issues that these students might encounter throughout their growing process and that contribute to peer pressure. Ramirez (2003) attempted to find a direct correlation between hormones and aggression in childhood and adolescences due to the lack of studies it did not find a direct link. However, the study presents the possibility that adolescents’ aggression is a biological factor rather than a matter of generalizing that all adolescents are aggressive. Such generalizing is made with students who attend the Courtyard which is a Community Day Service (CDS). It is presumed that all of the students at a CDS are aggressive and violent. Based on my interactions and observations, a majority of the seventh and eighth graders act “thuggish” to portray a tough image with their peers, however many of them are at CDS for having a low Grade Point Average (GPA); are considered at-risk. For example, in Mrs. Hourigan’s class none of the students are on probation which shows that not all students at a CDS are aggressive. But based on the environment that the other students from other classes build many of Mrs. Hourigan’s adolescent students will eventually give in to peer pressure and begin to engage in aggressive and violent acts. Comparing the findings from Ramirez (2003) and the observations in