Social and Emotional Development in
Adolescence
Diana Lang; Nick Cone; Alisa Beyer; Julie Lazzara; Martha Lally; Suzanne
Valentine-French; and OpenStax College
Caregivers and Teens: Autonomy and Attachment
One of the key changes during adolescence involves a renegotiation of parent-child
relationships. As adolescents strive for more independence and autonomy during this
time, different aspects of parenting become more common. For example, parents’
distal supervision and monitoring become more important as adolescents spend more
time away from parents and in the presence of peers. Parental monitoring
encompasses a wide range of behaviors such as parents’ attempts to set rules and
know their adolescents’ friends, activities, and whereabouts, in addition to
adolescents’ willingness to disclose information to their parents.[1] Interestingly, the
association between the CHRM2genotype and adolescent externalizing behavior
(aggression and delinquency) has been found in adolescents whose caregivers engage
in low monitoring behaviors.[2]
While most adolescents tend to get along with their parents or primary caregivers,
many tend to spend less time with them.[3] This decrease in the time spent with
families may be a reflection of a teenager’s greater desire for independence
or autonomy. It can be difficult for many parents to deal with this desire for
autonomy. However, it is likely adaptive for teenagers to increasingly distance
themselves and establish relationships outside of their families in preparation for
adulthood. This means that both parents and teenagers need to strike a balance
between autonomy, while still maintaining close and supportive familial relationships.
Children in middle and late childhood are increasingly granted greater freedom
regarding moment-to-moment decision making. This continues in adolescence, as
teens are demanding greater control in decisions that affect their daily lives. This can
increase conflict between parents and their teenagers. For many adolescents, this
conflict centers on chores, homework, curfew, dating, and personal appearance. These
are all things many teens believe they should manage that parents previously had
considerable control over. Not surprisingly, culture and ethnicity can play a role in
how restrictive parents/caregivers are with the daily lives of their children. [4]
Research shows that teens whose caregivers use effective monitoring practices are
less likely to make poor decisions, such as engaging in sexual intercourse at an early
age, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, being physically aggressive, or skipping
school.[5][6][7][8][9] Clear communication about expectations is especially important.
Research shows that teens who believe their parents/caregivers disapprove of risky
behaviors are less likely to choose those behaviors[10]
Having supportive, less conflict-ridden relationships with primary caregivers also
benefits teenagers. Research on attachment in adolescence find that teens who are still
securely attached to their parents/caregivers have less emotional problems,[11] are less
likely to engage in drug abuse and other criminal behaviors,[12] and have more positive
peer relationships.[13]
Peers
Peer relationships are a big part of adolescent development. The influence of peers
can be both positive and negative as adolescents’ experiment together with identity
formation and new experiences. As children become adolescents, they usually begin
spending more time with their peers and less time with their families, and these peer
interactions are typically increasingly unsupervised by adults. Children’s notions of
friendship often focus on shared activities, whereas adolescents’ notions of friendship
increasingly focus on intimate exchanges of thoughts and feelings.
Adolescents within a peer group tend to be similar to one another in behavior and
attitudes, which has been explained as being a function of homophily (adolescents
who are similar to one another choose to spend time together in a “birds of a feather
flock together” way) and influence (adolescents who spend time together shape each
others’ behavior and attitudes). One of the most widely studied aspects of adolescent
peer influence is known as deviant peer contagion,[14] which is the process by which
peers reinforce problem behavior by laughing or showing other signs of approval that
then increase the likelihood of future problem behavior.
Peers can serve both positive and negative functions during adolescence. Negative
peer pressure can lead adolescents to make riskier decisions or engage in more
problematic behavior than they would alone or in the presence of their family. For
example, adolescents are much more likely to drink alcohol, use drugs, and commit
crimes when they are with their friends than when they are alone or with their family.
However, peers also serve as an important source of social support and
companionship during adolescence, and adolescents with positive peer relationships
are happier and better adjusted than those who are socially isolated or have conflictual
peer relationships.
Crowds are an emerging level of peer relationships in adolescence. In contrast
to friendships (which are reciprocal dyadic relationships) and cliques (which refer to
groups of individuals who interact frequently), crowds are characterized more by
shared reputations or images than actual interactions.[15] These crowds reflect different
prototypic identities (such as jocks or brains) and are often linked with adolescents’
social status and peers’ perceptions of their values or behaviors.
Romantic Relationships
Adolescence is the developmental period during which romantic relationships
typically first emerge. Although romantic relationships during adolescence are often
short-lived rather than long-term committed partnerships, their importance should not
be minimized. Many adolescents spend a great deal of time focused on romantic
relationships, and their positive and negative emotions are more tied to romantic
relationships (or lack thereof) than to friendships, family relationships, or
school.[16] Romantic relationships contribute to adolescents’ identity formation,
changes in family and peer relationships, and adolescents’ emotional and behavioral
adjustment.
Furthermore, romantic relationships are centrally connected to adolescents’ emerging
sexuality. Parents, policymakers, and researchers have devoted a great deal of
attention to adolescents’ sexuality, in large part because of concerns related to sexual
intercourse, contraception, and preventing teen pregnancies. However, sexuality
involves more than this narrow focus. For example, adolescence is often when
individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, etc., come to perceive
themselves as such.[17] Thus, romantic relationships are a domain in which
adolescents’ experiment with new behaviors and identities.
Social and Emotional Changes in Adolescence
Self-concept and Self-esteem
In adolescence, teens continue to develop their self-concept. Their ability to think of
the possibilities and to reason more abstractly may explain the further differentiation
of the self during adolescence. However, the teen’s understanding of self is often full
of contradictions. Young teens may see themselves as outgoing but also withdrawn,
happy yet often moody, and both smart and completely clueless (Harter, 2012). These
contradictions, along with the teen’s growing recognition that their personality and
behavior seems to change depending on who they are with or where they are, can lead
the young teen to feel like a fraud. With their parents they may seem angrier and
sullen, with their friends they are more outgoing and goofier, and at work they are
quiet and cautious. “Which one is really me?” may be the refrain of the young
teenager. Harter[18] found that adolescents emphasize traits such as being friendly and
considerate more than do children, highlighting their increasing concern about how
others may see them Harter also found that older teens add values and moral standards
to their self-descriptions. As self-concept differentiates, so too does self-esteem. In
addition to the academic, social, appearance, and physical/athletic dimensions of selfesteem in middle and late childhood, teens also add perceptions of their competency
in romantic relationships, on the job, and in close friendships.[19] Self-esteem often
drops when children transition from one school setting to another, such as shifting
from elementary to middle school, or junior high to high school.[20] These drops are
usually temporary unless there are additional stressors such as parental conflict, or
other family disruptions.[21] Self-esteem tends to increase from mid to late adolescence
for most teenagers, especially if they feel competent in their peer relationships, their
appearance, athletic, and other abilities.[22]
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory: Identity vs. Role Confusion
Erikson believed that the primary psychosocial task of adolescence was establishing
an identity. Many teens may struggle with the question, “Who am I?” This includes
questions regarding their appearance, vocational choices and career aspirations,
education, relationships, sexuality, political and social views, personality, and
interests. Erikson saw this as a period of confusion and experimentation regarding
identity and one’s life path. During adolescence, we tend to experience psychological
moratorium, where teens put on hold commitment to an identity while exploring
options. The culmination of this exploration is a more coherent view of oneself. Those
who are unsuccessful at resolving this stage may either withdraw further into social
isolation or become lost in the crowd. However, more recent research suggests that
few leave this age period with identity achievement, and that most identity formation
occurs during young adulthood.[23] Identity formation also occurs as adolescents
explore and commit to different roles and ideological positions. Nationality, gender,
ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religious background, sexual orientation, and genetic
factors shape how adolescents behave and how others respond to them and are sources
of diversity in adolescence. Despite these generalizations, factors such as country of
residence, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation shape development in ways that
lead to a diversity of experiences across adolescence.
During high school and the college years, teens and young adults move from identity
diffusion and foreclosure toward the biggest gains in the development of identity are
after high school. Those who attend college tend to be exposed to a greater variety of
career choices, lifestyles, and beliefs. This is likely to spur on questions regarding
identity. A great deal of the identity work we do in adolescence and young adulthood
is about values and goals, as we strive to articulate a personal vision or dream for
what we hope to accomplish in the future.[24]
Gender identity
A person’s sex, as determined by one’s biology, does not always correspond with
one’s gender. Sex refers to the biological differences such as genitalia and genetic
differences. Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of people, such
as norms, roles, and relationships. Many adolescents use their analytic, hypothetical
thinking to question traditional gender roles and expression. If their genetically
assigned sex does not line up with their gender identity, they may refer to themselves
as transgender, non-binary, or gender-nonconforming.
Gender identity refers to a person’s self-perception as male, female, both,
genderqueer, or neither (Figure 1). Cisgender is an umbrella term used to
describe people whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their
birth sex, while transgender is a term used to describe people whose sense of
personal identity does not correspond with their birth sex. Gender expression, or how
one demonstrates gender (based on traditional gender role norms related to clothing,
behavior, and interactions) can be feminine, masculine, androgynous, or somewhere
along a spectrum.
Fluidity and uncertainty regarding sex and gender tend to appear during early
adolescence, when hormones increase and fluctuate creating difficulty of selfacceptance and identity achievement.[25] Gender identity, like vocational identity, is
becoming an increasingly prolonged task as attitudes and norms regarding gender
keep changing. The roles appropriate for people are evolving and some adolescents
may foreclose on a gender identity as a way of dealing with this uncertainty by
adopting more stereotypic roles.[26] The next section, emerging adulthood, will outline
additional information about identity development and intimacy.
Aggression and Antisocial Behavior
Bullying
According to the CDC,[27] bullying is any unwanted, repeated aggressive behavior(s)
by another person or group (who are not siblings or dating partners) that involves an
observed or perceived power imbalance. A person can be a perpetrator, a victim, or
both (also known as “bully/victim”). Bullying can elicit physical, psychological,
social, and educational harm on the victim.[28]
Common types of bullying include:





Physical (hitting, kicking, tripping, etc.),
Verbal (name-calling, teasing, etc.),
Relational/social (spreading rumors, failing to include, etc.),
Damage to the victim’s property, and
Electronic bullying or cyberbullying.
Anxiety and Depression
Developmental models of anxiety and depression also treat adolescence as an
important period, especially in terms of the emergence of gender differences in
prevalence rates that persist through adulthood.[29] Although the rates vary across
specific anxiety and depression diagnoses, rates for some disorders are markedly
higher in adolescence than in childhood or adulthood. Anxiety and depression are
particularly concerning because suicide is one of the leading causes of death during
adolescence.
Family adversity, such as abuse and parental psychopathology, during childhood, can
set the stage for social and behavioral problems during adolescence. Adolescents with
such problems tend to generate stress in their relationships (e.g., by resolving conflict
poorly and excessively seeking reassurance) and select more maladaptive social
contexts (e.g., “misery loves company” scenarios in which depressed youths select
other depressed youths as friends and then frequently co-ruminate as they discuss their
problems, exacerbating negative affect and stress). Adolescents who have more
relationship-oriented goals related to intimacy and social approval are more
vulnerable to disruption in these relationships. Anxiety and depression can then
exacerbate problems in social relationships, which can also contribute to the stability
of anxiety and depression over time.
Academic achievement
Academic achievement during adolescence is predicted by interpersonal (e.g., parental
engagement in adolescents’ education), intrapersonal (e.g., intrinsic motivation), and
institutional (e.g., school quality) factors. Academic achievement is important in its
own right as a marker of positive adjustment during adolescence but also because
academic achievement sets the stage for future educational and occupational
opportunities. The most serious consequence of school failure, particularly dropping
out of school, is the high risk of unemployment or underemployment in adulthood that
tends to follow. High achievement can set the stage for college or future vocational
training and opportunities.
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