Chapter 12
Socio-emotional Development
in Adolescence
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Socio-emotional Development
In Adolescence
Self-Esteem
and Identity
Adolescent
Problems
Culture and
Adolescent Development
Families
Peers
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Self-Esteem
and Identity
Self-Esteem
Identity
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Self-Esteem
• Positive adolescent self-esteem is related to
positive family relationships.
• Some critics argue that developmental changes
and gender differences in self-esteem during
adolescents have been exaggerated.
• http://vad.mhhe.com/provided_module.cfm?Mod
uleID=223 (Search for Identity in
Adolescence: “Adolescent Self-Concept at
Age 16”)
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Identity
• Erikson termed the period of adolescence a
psychological moratorium, a gap between the security of
childhood and autonomy of adulthood.
• His fifth stage of development is characterized by the
dilemma of identity versus identity confusion.
• Adolescents experiment with the numerous roles and
identities they draw from the surrounding culture.
• Either they successfully cope with conflicting identities or
they don’t resolve their identity crisis.
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Components of Self-Portrait
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Vocational/Career Identity
Political Identity
Religious Identity
Relationship Identity
Achievement/Intellectual
Identity
Sexual Identity
Cultural/Ethnic Identity
Interests
Personality
Physical Identity
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Some Contemporary Thoughts
about Identity
• Identity
development is a
lengthy process.
• Identity
development is
extraordinarily
complex.
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Identity Statuses and Development
• James Marcia concluded that four identity
statuses, or modes of resolution, appear in
Erikson’s theory.
• The extent of an adolescent’s commitment
and crisis is used to classify him or her
according to one of the four statuses.
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Crisis and Commitment
• Crisis – a period of identity development
during which the adolescent is choosing
among meaningful alternatives
• Commitment – the part of identity
development in which adolescents show a
personal investment in what they are
going to do
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Marcia’s Identity Statuses
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Identity Diffusion
Identity Foreclosure
Identity Moratorium
Identity Achievement
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The Development of Identity
• Young adolescents are primarily in identity diffusion,
foreclosure, or moratorium status.
• Three fundamental aspects of young adolescents’
development with regard to identity formation are:
– confidence in parental support
– a sense of industry
– a self-reflective perspective on the future
• Some researchers believe the most important identity
changes take place during college.
• MAMA cycles are common to individuals who develop
positive identities.
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Family Influences on Identity
• Democratic parents, who encourage adolescents to
participate in family decision making, foster identity
achievement.
• Autocratic parents, who control the adolescents’
behaviour, encourage identity foreclosure.
• Permissive parents, who provide little guidance to
adolescents and allow them to make their own decisions,
promote identity diffusion.
• The presence of a family atmosphere that promotes both
individuality and connectedness is important in
adolescents’ identity development.
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Individuality and Connectedness
• Individuality consists of two dimensions: selfassertion, the ability to have and communicate a
point of view, and separateness, the use of
communication patterns to express how one is
different from others.
• Connectedness also consists of two
dimensions: mutuality, sensitivity to and respect
for others’ views, and permeability, openness to
others’ views.
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Ethnic Identity
• Ethnic identity is an
enduring, basic aspect of
the self that includes a
sense of membership in
an ethnic group and the
attitudes and feelings
related to that
membership.
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Cultural and Ethnic Aspects of
Identity
• Most ethnic minority individuals consciously confront
their ethnicity for the first time in adolescence.
• For adolescents from ethnic minority groups, the process
of identity formation has an added dimension due to
exposure to alternative sources of identification.
• Ethnic identity increases with age.
• Higher levels of ethnic identity are linked with more
positive attitudes towards both one’s own group and
members of other ethnic groups.
• Racism, discrimination, and bigotry were cited as factors
influencing their relationships with authority figures and
their ability to find employment.
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Gender and Identity Development
• Erikson asserted that males’ aspirations were
mainly oriented towards career and ideological
commitments.
• He asserted that females’ aspirations were
centred around marriage and child bearing.
• Researchers in the 1960s and 1970s found
support for these gender differences.
• In the past 20 years, females have developed
stronger vocational interests and thus the
differences are turning into similarities.
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Hardy Personalities
• Development of a hardy personality can be met
through the acquisition of 8 specific skills:
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Recognize and tolerate anxiety, and act anyway.
Separate fantasy from reality, and tackle reality.
Set goals and establish priorities.
Project into the future, and understand how today’s
choices affect the future.
Discriminate, and make choices consistent with goals
and values.
Set boundaries and limits.
Ask assertively for wants and desires.
Trust self and own perceptions.
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Families
Autonomy
and
Attachment
ParentAdolescent
Conflict
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Autonomy
• The ability to attain autonomy and gain control
over one’s behaviour in adolescence is acquired
through appropriate adult reactions to the
adolescent’s desire for control.
• As the adolescent pushes for autonomy, the
wise adult relinquishes control in those areas in
which the adolescent can make reasonable
decisions but continues to guide them.
• Gradually, adolescents acquire the ability to
make mature decisions on their own.
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Attachment
• Researchers have found that securely attached
adolescents were less likely than those who
were insecurely attached to engage in problem
behaviours, such as juvenile delinquency and
drug abuse.
• Other research has shown securely attached
adolescents had better peer relations than their
insecurely attached counterparts.
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Parent-Adolescent Conflict
• Parents often expect their adolescents to
become mature adults overnight, instead of
understanding that the journey takes 10–15
years.
• Conflicts primarily involve the everyday events of
family life, rather than major dilemmas like
drugs.
• This kind of conflict is associated with a number
of adolescent problems.
• Conflict varies by culture.
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Old and New Models of ParentAdolescent Relationships
• Old Model:
– Autonomy, detachment from parents
– Parent and peer worlds are isolated
• New Model:
– Attachment and autonomy
– Parents are important support systems and
attachment figures
– Adolescent-parent and adolescent-peer
worlds have some important connections.
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Peers
Peer
Groups
Friendships
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Dating and
Romantic
Relationships
Peer Groups
• Cliques
• Adolescent Groups
versus Children’s
Groups
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Cliques
• Allegiance to cliques can exert powerful control
over the lives of adolescents.
• Group identity often overrides personal identity.
• Clique leaders may place members in positions
of considerable moral conflict by asking teens to
choose between their “code” and that of their
parents.
• One study has found correlational data linking
clique membership to self-esteem.
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Adolescent Groups versus
Childhood Groups
• Children groups are usually made up of friends
or neighbourhood acquaintances.
• Adolescent groups tend to include a broader
array of members.
• Adolescent groups are more likely to have a
mixture of individuals from different ethnic
groups than are peer groups in childhood.
• Children groups are not as formalized as many
adolescent groups.
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Friendships
• Harry Stack
Sullivan’s
Perspective
• Findings on
Friendship
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Harry Stack Sullivan’s Perspective
• Sullivan believed that all people have a number of basic
social needs that must be fulfilled for our emotional wellbeing.
• Developmentally, friends become increasingly depended
on to satisfy these needs during adolescence.
• The need for intimacy intensifies during early
adolescence, motivating teenagers to seek out close
friends.
• If teens fail to forge such close friendships, they
experience painful feelings of loneliness and reduced
sense of self-worth.
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Findings on Friendship
• Research supports many of Sullivan’s ideas.
• Adolescents report disclosing intimate and personal
information to their friends more often than younger
children.
• Adolescents say they depend more on friends than on
parents to satisfy their needs for intimacy,
companionship, and reassurance of worth.
• The quality of friendship is more strongly linked to
feelings of well-being during adolescence than during
childhood.
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Dating and Romantic Relationships
• Types of Dating and
Developmental
Changes
• Dating Scripts
• Emotion and
Romantic
Relationships
• Socio-cultural
Contexts and Dating
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Types of Dating and
Developmental Changes
• Early romantic relationships serve as a context
for adolescents to explore:
– how attractive they are
– how they should romantically interact
with someone
– how it all looks to the peer group
• After they have acquired the basic competencies
in interacting with romantic partners, teens then
begin to focus their relationships on fulfillment of
attachment and sexual needs.
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The Progression of Dating
• In early exploration of romantic relationships,
adolescents find comfort in numbers and begin hanging
out together in heterosexual groups.
• A special concern is early dating and “going with”
someone, as it is associated with adolescent pregnancy
and problems at home and school.
• Cyberdating is a new phenomenon in which
adolescents “date” over the Internet.
• By the time teens are in high school and can drive,
dating becomes a more real-life venture.
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Dating Scripts
• Dating scripts are the cognitive models that guide
individuals’ dating interactions.
• One study showed that first dates are highly scripted
along gender lines.
• Males were found to follow a proactive dating script,
while females followed a reactive one.
• Another study showed males and females bring different
motivations to the dating experience.
• Girls were more likely to describe romance in terms of
interpersonal qualities, while boys described it in terms
of physical attraction.
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Emotion and Romantic
Relationships
• Romantic relationships often are
involved in an adolescents’ emotional
experience.
• The strong emotions of adolescent
romance can have both disruptive
effects and provide a source for
possible mastery and growth.
• Learning to manage the strong
emotions can give adolescents a sense
of competence.
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Socio-cultural Contexts and Dating
• Values and religious beliefs of people in various
cultures often dictate:
– the age at which dating begins
– how much freedom in dating is allowed
– whether dates must be chaperoned
– the roles of males and females in dating
• Dating may be a source of cultural conflict for
immigrants and their families
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Culture and
Adolescent
Development
Cross-cultural
Comparisons and
Rites of Passage
Ethnicity
and Immigration
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Cross-Cultural Comparisons
• Cross-cultural studies involve the comparison of
a culture with one or more other cultures.
• This provides information about the degree to
which development is similar or universal across
cultures, or the degree to which it is culturespecific.
• The study of adolescence has emerged in the
context of Western industrialized society, with
the practical needs and social norms of this
culture dominating thinking about all
adolescents.
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Rites of Passage
• A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual that
marks an individual’s transition from one status
to another.
• Most rites of passage focus on the transition to
adult status.
• In many cultures, rites of passage often involve
dramatic practices and are the avenue through
which adolescents gain access to sacred adult
practices, knowledge, and sexuality.
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Rites of Passage in Canada
• No universal formal ceremonies exist in Canada.
• Certain religious and social groups have
initiation ceremonies that indicate an advance in
maturity.
• High school graduation has become almost
universal but does not result in universal
changes.
• Sexual intercourse is an other rite of passage for
many Canadian adolescents.
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Ethnicity
• Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status
• Differences and
Diversity
• Value Conflicts,
Assimilation, and
Multiculturalism
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Ethnicity and Socio-economic
Status
• Much of the research on ethnic minority
adolescents has failed to tease apart the
influences of ethnicity and socio-economic
status.
• Poverty contributes to the stressful life
experiences of many ethnic minority
adolescents.
• Not all ethnic minorities are poor, however.
• Middle-income ethnic minority youth still
encounter much of the prejudice, discrimination,
and bias associated with being a minority.
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Differences and Diversity
• There are legitimate differences between various ethnic
minority groups, as well as between ethnic minority
groups and the majority White group.
• Historical, economic, and social experiences produce
differences in ethnic groups.
• Ethnic minority groups are not homogeneous; they have
different social, historical, and economic backgrounds.
• Recognizing and respecting these differences are
important aspects of getting along with others in a
multicultural world.
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Value Conflicts, Assimilation, and
Multiculturalism
• Assimilation – the absorption of ethnic minority
groups into the dominant group.
• This often means the loss of some or virtually all
of the behavior and values of the minority group.
• Multiculturalism – is the coexistence of distinct
ethnic and cultural groups in the same society.
• Canada’s policy of multiculturalism preserves
the right of choice.
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Adolescent
Problems
Young
Offenders
The Interrelation
of Problems
and Successful
Prevention/Intervention
Program
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Young Offenders
• Young offenders – are those young people
between 10 and 18 who commit criminal acts
• The Youth Criminal Justice Act defines youth as
an individual, who, in the absence of evidence to
the contrary, appears to be between 12 and 18
years.
• About 14% of the young offenders charged by
police were charged with crimes of violence.
• Youth violence is not only more intense, with
more harm being inflicted, but it often escalates
very rapidly to a serious level.
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Causes of Adolescent Problems
• Young children who
engage in criminal
activities often
suffered from child
maltreatment, such as
abuse or neglect.
• These youth often
become repeat
offenders.
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Street Youth
• Street youth are
troubled young
people who have left
home and live “on the
street,” in shelters or
abandoned buildings.
• About half of the
youth have addiction
problems and about
25% are involved in
the sex trade.
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The Interrelation of Problems and
Successful Prevention/Intervention
Programs
• Most at-risk adolescents have more than
one problem.
• Many of these problems are interrelated.
• It is important to develop programs that
reduce adolescent problems.
• New resources were allocated in 1999–
2000 budget for the Youth Justice
Renewal Initiative.
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