Life-Span Development Twelfth Edition Chapter 12: Socioemotional Development in Adolescence ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Identity Vocational/Career Political Religious Relationship Achievement, Intellectual Sexual Cultural/Ethnic Interests Personality Physical ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Identity Erikson’s Identity versus Identity Confusion: ◦ Psychosocial Moratorium: the gap between childhood security and adult autonomy  Adolescents are generally free to try out different identities and choose what is right for them ◦ Adolescents who resolve the conflict emerge with a refreshing, acceptable sense of self ◦ Adolescents who do not successfully resolve the conflict suffer identity confusion  Withdrawal and isolation  Immersion in peers ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Identity Four statuses of identity based on crisis or commitment ◦ Crisis: a period of identity development during which the individual is exploring alternatives ◦ Commitment: a personal investment in identity Diffusion: individuals who have not yet experienced a crisis or made any commitments Foreclosure: individuals who have made a commitment but not experienced a crisis Moratorium: individuals who are in the midst of a crisis but whose commitments are absent or weak Achievement: individuals who have undergone a crisis and made a commitment ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Identity Downtrend in religious interest among adolescents has occurred in the 21 st century Adolescence and adulthood can serve as a gateway to a spiritual identity that “transcends, but not necessarily excludes” the childhood religion ◦ Adolescents higher in religiosity are:  Less likely to smoke, drink, use marijuana  Less likely to be truant from school and engage in delinquent activities  Less likely to be depressed ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Families Parents often have to weigh competing needs for autonomy and control, independence and connection Adolescents’ ability to attain autonomy and gain control over their behavior is acquired through appropriate adult reactions to their desire for control Boys are often given more independence than girls ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Families Role of Attachment: ◦ Securely attached adolescents are less likely to engage in problem behaviors such as juvenile delinquency and drug abuse ◦ Securely attached adolescents have better peer relations  Correlations are moderate Balancing Freedom and Control: ◦ Adolescents still need to stay connected to families ◦ Parents who play an active role in monitoring and guiding adolescents’ development are more likely to have adolescents with positive peer relations and lower drug use ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Families Parent–Adolescent Conflict: ◦ Parent–adolescent conflict increases in early adolescence  Conflict typically involves everyday events of family life ◦ Disagreements may serve a positive developmental function  Conflicts facilitate the adolescent’s transition from being dependent to becoming autonomous ◦ About one in five families engage in prolonged, intense, repeated, unhealthy conflict  Associated with various adolescent problems ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Peers Peer Relationships: ◦ Most teens prefer a smaller number of peer contacts and more intimacy ◦ Friends become increasingly important in meeting social needs during adolescence ◦ Teens with superficial or no friendships tend to be lonely and have lower self-esteem ◦ Characteristics of friends have an important influence  Friends’ grade-point average is a consistent predictor of positive school achievement ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Peers Peer Pressure: ◦ Young adolescents conform more to peer standards than children do  Peaks about 8 th and 9 th grade  14 to 18 years of age is an especially important time for developing the ability to stand up for one’s beliefs ◦ U.S. adolescents are more likely than Japanese adolescents to put peer pressure on their peers to resist parental influence ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dating and Romantic Relationships Adolescents spend considerable time either dating or thinking about dating Dating can be a source of: ◦ Recreation ◦ Status and achievement ◦ Learning about close relationships ◦ Mate selection Adolescents often begin by hanging out together in mixed-sex groups Cyberdating has become popular among middle-school students ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture Health: ◦ Fewer adolescents around the world die from infectious diseases and malnutrition than in the past ◦ Some health-compromising behaviors are increasing in frequency (illicit drug use and unprotected sex) Gender: ◦ Experiences of male and female adolescents are quite different around the world  In many countries, adolescent females have much less freedom than males ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture Family: ◦ In some countries, adolescents grow up in closely knit families with extensive extended kin networks ◦ In western countries, parenting is less authoritarian and larger numbers of adolescents are growing up in divorced families and stepfamilies ◦ Family trends include:  Greater family mobility  Migration to urban areas  Family members working in distant cities or countries  Smaller families; fewer extended-family households  Increases in mothers’ employment ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Culture Peers: ◦ Some cultures give peers a stronger role in adolescence than others  In western nations, peers are prominent in adolescents’ lives  In other regions, peer relations are restricted (especially for girls) Rites of Passage: ◦ Rite of Passage: ceremony or ritual that marks an individual’s transition from one status to another ◦ Vary among cultures  Rich tradition has prevailed in African cultures  In the U.S., rites of passage are found in various religious and social groups ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile Delinquent: an adolescent who breaks the law or engages in behavior that is considered illegal ◦ Broad concept that includes many actions, from littering to murder ◦ At least 2% of all youth are involved in juvenile court cases ◦ More likely to be committed by males, but involvement by females is increasing ◦ Property offenses are committed more than any other crime ◦ Rates are disproportionately higher for minority and lower-SES youth ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Juvenile Delinquency Should an adolescent who commits a crime be charged as an adult? ◦ One study demonstrated that trying adolescent offenders as adults increased their crime rate Early onset (before age 11) antisocial behavior is associated with more negative outcomes than late onset antisocial behavior ◦ More likely to persist into adulthood ◦ More mental health and relationship problems ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Juvenile Delinquency Causes of Delinquency: ◦ Heredity ◦ Identity problems ◦ Community influences ◦ Family experiences  Parental monitoring is important  History of physical abuse  Hostile sibling relationships ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Juvenile Delinquency Causes of Delinquency (continued): ◦ Lower-class culture  Antisocial peer groups and gangs  Status given for antisocial behavior  Observation of models engaging in criminal activities  Inadequate community resources ◦ Cognitive factors  Low self-control  Low intelligence  Lack of sustained attention ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Depression and Suicide Depression is more likely to occur in adolescence than childhood ◦ Linear increase from 15 to 22 years of age ◦ Earlier onset is linked with more negative outcomes Depression is consistently higher in girls and women ◦ Females tend to ruminate ◦ More negative body image ◦ Females face more discrimination than males ◦ Puberty occurs earlier for girls Family factors play a role ◦ Having a depressed parent ◦ Emotionally unavailable parents ◦ High marital conflict ◦ Parents with financial problems ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Depression and Suicide Poor peer relationships are associated with adolescent depression ◦ Co-rumination in girls Depressed adolescents recovered faster when they took an antidepressant and received cognitive behavior therapy than when they received either treatment alone ◦ Safety concern with certain antidepressants in adolescence ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Depression and Suicide Suicide is the 3 rd leading cause of death in 10- to 19-year-olds Far more adolescents contemplate or attempt it unsuccessfully than actually commit it Females are more likely to attempt suicide, but males are more likely to succeed Lesbian and gay male adolescents are only slightly more likely than heterosexual adolescents to commit suicide ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Depression and Suicide Other Risk Factors: ◦ History of family instability and unhappiness ◦ Lack of supportive friendships ◦ Genetic factors ◦ Depressive symptoms ◦ Low self-esteem ◦ High self-blame ◦ Being overweight ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Depression and Suicide Successful Intervention Programs Include: ◦ Intensive individualized attention ◦ Community-wide multi-agency collaborative approaches ◦ Early identification and intervention ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.