1. Infants, Children, and Adolescents
Eighth Edition
Chapter 16
Emotional and Social
Development in Adolescence

2. Learning Objectives (1 of 3)
16.1 According to Erikson, what is the major personality attainment of adolescence?
16.2 Describe changes in self-concept and self-esteem during adolescence.
16.3 Describe the four identity statuses, along with factors that promote identity development.
16.4 Describe Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, and evaluate its accuracy.
16.5 Describe influences on moral reasoning and its relationship to moral behavior.

3. Learning Objectives (2 of 3)
16.6 Describe challenges to Kohlberg’s theory.
16.7 How does gender typing change in adolescence?
16.8 Discuss changes in parent–child and sibling relationships during adolescence.
16.9 Describe adolescent friendships, peer groups, and dating relationships and their consequences for development.
16.10 Discuss conformity to peer pressure in adolescence.
16.11 Describe factors related to adolescent depression and suicide.

4. Learning Objectives (3 of 3)
16.12 Discuss factors related to delinquency.
16.13 Review factors that foster resilience in adolescence.

5. Erikson’s Theory: Identity vs. Role Confusion
Major personality attainment of adolescence.
Crucial step toward becoming a productive, content adult.
Involves who you are, what you value, and your direction in life.
Drives choice of vocation, interpersonal relationships, ethnic group membership, expression of one’s sexual orientation, ideals.

6. Erikson’s Theory: Identity vs. Role Confusion (continued)
Weak sense of trust, lack of faith in ideals
Little autonomy or initiative
Little active exploration during adolescence
Failure to choose vocation that matches interests and skills
May appear shallow, directionless

7. Self-Concept in Adolescence
Unify separate traits into larger, abstract ones
Contradictory traits expressed in different social situations
Later, traits combined into organized system
More emphasis on social virtues and on being viewed positively by others

8. Self-Esteem in Adolescence
Self-esteem continues to differentiate.
New components are close friendship, romantic appeal, job competence.
Self-esteem rises from mid- to late adolescence.
Individual differences are increasingly stable.
Factors affecting self-esteem include
pubertal timing.
parents’ child-rearing style.
larger social environment.

9. Identity Statuses Level of Exploration Level of Commitment High Low
Identity achievement
Identity moratorium
Identity foreclosure
Identity diffusion

10. Identity Status and Psychological Well-Being (continued)
Adolescents who are identity-achieved or exploring
have higher self-esteem.
are open to alternative ideas and values.
feel in control of their lives.
view school and work as avenues for realizing aspirations.
are more advanced in moral reasoning and more concerned with social justice.

11. Identity Status and Psychological Well-Being
Young people who are stuck in foreclosure
are passive in the face of identity concerns.
have adjustment difficulties.
display a dogmatic, inflexible cognitive style.
resist information that threatens their position.
Young people who are long-term diffused
use a diffuse-avoidant cognitive style.
entrust themselves to luck or fate.
are at risk for depression and suicide.

12. Factors That Affect Identity Development
Personality: Confident, flexible, self-reflective approach is helpful in identifying and pursuing life goals.
Family: Identity development is enhanced when family serves as “secure base.”
Peers: Warm, trusting peer ties provide emotional support, assistance, models.
School, community, culture: Promote identity development by offering opportunities for exploration.

13. Identity Development Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents
Ethnic identity: sense of ethnic group membership and attitudes, beliefs, and feelings associated with that membership
Acculturative stress: psychological distress resulting from conflict between minority and host culture
Bicultural identity: formed by exploring and adopting values from both one’s subculture and the dominant culture

14. Supporting Healthy Identity Development
Engage in warm, open communication.
Initiate discussions that promote high-level thinking at home and at school.
Provide opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities and vocational training programs.
Provide opportunities to talk with adults and peers who have worked through similar identity questions.
Provide opportunities to explore ethnic heritage and learn about other cultures in atmosphere of respect.

15. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Understanding
Preconventional Level
Stage 1: Punishment and obedience orientation
Stage 2: Instrumental purpose orientation
Conventional Level
Stage 3: “Good boy–good girl” orientation (morality of interpersonal cooperation)
Stage 4: Social-order-maintaining orientation
Postconventional or Principled Level
Stage 5: Social contract orientation
Stage 6: Universal ethical principle orientation

16. Sex Differences in Moral Reasoning?
Kohlberg: Rights and justice orientation
Gilligan: Caring and responsiveness orientation
Both sexes use both orientations:
Themes of both justice and caring appear in both male and female responses.
Interpersonal concerns are not downgraded in Kohlberg’s system.
Female emphasis on care may reflect women’s greater involvement in care and concern for others.
Context profoundly affects use of a care orientation.

17. Coordinating Moral, Social-Conventional, and Personal Concerns
Concern with matters of personal choice strengthens during adolescence.
Adolescents think more intently about conflicts between personal choice and community obligations.
As grasp of fairness deepens, adolescents realize that social conventions may have moral implications.

18. Influences on Moral Reasoning
Personality: Flexible, open-minded approach is linked to gains in moral reasoning.
Child-rearing practices: Authoritative, warm parenting is associated with moral maturity in adolescence.
Schooling: Moral reasoning typically advances as long as a person remains in school.
Peer interaction: Interacting with peers who present differing viewpoints promotes moral understanding.
Culture: Individuals in industrialized nations move through Kohlberg’s stages more quickly and advance to higher levels than those in village societies.

19. Moral Reasoning and Behavior
Moral identity: degree to which morality is central to self-concept
Parenting practices that strengthen moral identity:
inductive discipline
clearly conveyed moral expectations
Other positive influences on moral identity:
just educational environments
opportunities for civic engagement

20. Development of Civic Engagement
Family influences:
Parents who stress compassion for less fortunate and engage in community service
Open communication, discussion of social problems
School and community influences:
Democratic climate at school
Participation in extracurricular activities aimed at inducing social change
High school service-learning programs, which integrate service activities into academic curriculum

21. Religious Involvement and Moral Development
Religion is especially important in U.S. family life.
Formal religious involvement declines as adolescents search for personally meaningful identity.
Teenagers who remain part of a religious community
are more involved in community service.
engage in less misconduct.
have lower rates of drug and alcohol use.
are less likely to engage in early sexual activity.
are less likely to engage in antisocial behavior.

22. Challenges to Kohlberg’s Theory
Some researchers claim Kohlberg’s stages inadequately account for everyday morality.
Pragmatic approach:
People make moral judgments at varying levels of maturity, depending on context and motivations.
Everyday moral judgments are tools used to achieve personal goals.
Kohlberg’s theory remains influential.

23. Gender Typing in Adolescence
Gender intensification:
Increased gender stereotyping of attitudes and behavior
Movement toward more traditional gender identity
When evident, stronger for adolescent girls
Biological, social, and cognitive factors involved
Typically declines by late adolescence
Benefits of androgynous gender identity

24. Parent–Child Relationships in Adolescence
Autonomy:
Sense of oneself as separate, self-governing individual
Emotional: relying more on oneself, less on parents
Behavioral: making decisions by weighing one’s own judgment and others’ suggestions
Teenagers deidealize parents.
Effective parenting strikes balance between connection and separation.

25. Parenting Practices That Foster Adolescent Competence
Project warmth and acceptance.
Monitor activities.
Engage in democratic decision making and verbal give-and-take.
Establish firm control and consistent discipline.
Provide information and model effective skills.

26. Adolescents and Their Families
Cultural factors:
Teenagers in cultures valuing interdependence conceive of autonomy as self-endorsed (not independent) decision making.
Clash between immigrant parents’ culture and Western culture can lead to acculturative stress over independent decision making, associated with decline in self-esteem.
Reorganized parent–child relationship:
Parent–child relationship quality predicts mental health in adolescence.
Mild conflict facilitates adolescent identity and autonomy.
Drop in family time is not universal, depends on culture.

27. Adolescents and Their Families (continued)
Family circumstances:
Less than 10% of families with adolescents have seriously troubled relationships.
Teenagers who develop well despite family stress benefit from factors that foster resilience in earlier years.
Siblings:
Older siblings have less influence on younger siblings.
Attachment between siblings usually remains strong.
Sibling ties vary with gender and culture.
Warm adolescent sibling relationships contribute to more gratifying friendships.

28. Friendships in Adolescence
Number of “best friends” declines.
Most important characteristics of friendship are
intimacy (psychological closeness).
mutual understanding.
loyalty.
Teenage friends tend to be alike in
identity status.
educational aspirations.
political beliefs.
willingness to try drugs and engage in lawbreaking acts.

29. Age-Related Self-Disclosure in Relationships
Figure 16.1: Age changes in reported self-disclosure to parents and peers, based on findings of several studies
Figure 16.1
(From D. Buhrmester, 1996, “Need Fulfillment, Interpersonal Competence, and the Developmental Contexts of Early Adolescent Friendship,” in W. M. Bukowski, A. F. Newcomb, & W. W. Hartup, (Eds.), The Company They Keep: Friendship in Childhood and Adolescence, New York: Cambridge University Press, p Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press.)

30. Gender Differences in Friendship Quality
Emotional closeness is more common between girls than boys.
Girls’ friendships focus on communal concerns, boys’ on achievement and status.
Quality of boys’ friendships is more variable.
Friendship closeness can lead to corumination, triggering anxiety and depression.
Number of other-sex friends increases with age, but same-sex friends remain more common.

31. Friendships, Cell Phones, and the Internet
Calling/texting, social networking, and instant messaging support close friendships.
Adolescents use the Internet
to meet new people.
to explore central adolescent concerns in less threatening contexts.
Very high social media use is linked to unsatisfying real-world social experiences.
Parents are wise to point out risks of Internet communication, including harassment and exploitation.

32. 12- to 17-Year-Olds’ Daily Use of Various Communication Channels
Figure 16.2: Percentage of U.S. 12- to 17-year olds who use various communication channels daily to contact friends
Figure 16.2
(Based on Lenhart, 2012.)

33. Benefits of Adolescent Friendships
Close friendships
provide opportunities to explore the self and form deep understanding of another.
provide a foundation for future intimate relationships.
help young people deal with stresses of adolescence.
can improve attitudes toward and involvement in school.

34. Cliques and Crowds Clique: group of 5–8 members who are friends
Similar in family background, attitudes, values, interests
Membership more important to girls
Provides context for acquiring social skills, experimenting with values and roles
Crowd: larger group made up of several cliques
Membership based on reputation, stereotype
Grants adolescents an identity within the social structure of the school.
Clique or crowd membership can modify beliefs and behaviors.
As dating increases, cliques and crowds decline in importance.

35. Dating in Adolescence
Cultural expectations determine when dating begins.
Early adolescents date for recreation, group activities; form shallow relationships.
By late adolescence, teens seek greater psychological intimacy with dating partners.
Too-early dating is related to drug use, delinquency, and poor academic achievement.
About 10–20% of adolescents experience dating violence.
Lesbian and gay youths face special challenges in romantic relationships because of prejudice.

36. Increase in Romantic Relationships During Adolescence
Figure 16.3: Increase in romantic relationships during adolescence
Figure 16.3
(Based on Carver, Joyner, & Udry, 2003.)

37. Peer Conformity
Adolescents feel greatest pressure to conform to dress, grooming, participation in social activities.
Peer pressure is also strong to engage in proadult behavior.
Brain changes contribute to increased reward- seeking and receptiveness to peer influence, which decline with age.
Authoritative parenting acts as antidote to unfavorable peer pressure.

38. Depression in Adolescence
Depression is the most common psychological problem of adolescence.
About 15–20% of adolescents experience one or more major depressive episodes.
Teenage girls are twice as likely as boys to report persistent depressed mood.
Factors influencing depression include heredity, child- rearing practices, “feminine” gender-typed coping styles, multiple negative life events.

39. Adolescent Suicide Suicide rate jumps sharply in adolescence.
Number of boys who kill themselves exceeds number of girls by 4:1 ratio.
Those at greatest risk are
Caucasian Americans, African-American males, Native Americans.
gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths.
highly intelligent, socially withdrawn young people.
youths with antisocial tendencies who engage in bullying, fighting, stealing, risk taking, and drug abuse.

40. Ways to Respond to a Potentially Suicidal Young Person
Be psychologically and physically available.
Communicate a caring, capable attitude.
Assess the immediacy of risk.
Empathize with the young person’s feelings.
Oppose the suicidal intent.
Offer a plan for help.
Obtain a commitment.

41. Adolescent Delinquency
Adolescents account for 11% of arrests:
Most adolescents commit some (usually minor) crime.
Delinquency rises over early and mid-adolescence, then declines.
Motivation is usually reward-seeking and peer approval.
SES and ethnicity are strong predictors of arrests, reflecting tendency to arrest, charge, and punish low-SES ethnic minority youths more often than higher-SES white and Asian counterparts.
Chronic delinquency is linked to difficult temperament, low intelligence, academic failure, peer rejection, involvement with antisocial peers.

42. Two Routes to Adolescent Delinquency
Early-onset:
Behavior begins in childhood.
Biological risk factors and child-rearing practices combine.
Late-onset:
Behavior begins around puberty.
Conduct problems arise from peer context of early adolescence.

43. Path to Chronic Delinquency for Adolescents with Childhood-Onset Antisocial Behavior
Figure 16.4: Path to chronic delinquency for adolescents with childhood-onset antisocial behavior
Figure 16.4

44. Prevention and Treatment of Adolescent Delinquency
Prevention must start early and take place at multiple levels.
Zero-tolerance policies in schools have not been effective at reducing misconduct.
Treating serious offenders requires intensive, lengthy approach, including
training parents in communication, monitoring, and discipline strategies.
providing youths with experiences that improve cognitive and social skills.

45. Factors That Foster Resilience in Adolescence
Balance between family connection and separation
Effective family problem solving that models and encourages rational decision making
Parental monitoring and school involvement
Close, supportive friendships
High-quality vocational education
Culturally sensitive school and community
Affiliation with a religious organization
Opportunities in extracurricular activities, youth organizations, and community service

46. Readers may view, browse, and/or download material for temporary copying purposes only, provided these uses are for noncommercial personal purposes. Except as provided by law, this material may not be further reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, adapted, performed, displayed, published, or sold in whole or in part, without prior written permission from the publisher.