HIGHLIGHTS SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN ADOLESCENCE

DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS
The SELF, INDENTITY, RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
❖ Self-esteem
Adolescent self-esteem dropped during adolescence; girls declined more compared to boys
• Negative body images during pubertal change
• Young girls take in social relationships and society’s failure to reward interest

➢ High self-esteem = accurate, justified perceptions of one’s worth as person and one’s successes and accomplishments (but can also indicate arrogant,
grandiose, unwarranted sense of superiority over others)
➢ Low self-esteem= accurate perception of one’s shortcomings or distorted, even pathological insecurity and inferiority
N A R C I S I M: self-centered and self-concerned approach towards others

❖ Identity: self-portrait composed of many pieces including:

✓ Vocational/career identity
✓ Political identity
✓ Religious identity
✓ Relationship identity
✓ Achievement, intellectual identity
✓ Sexual identity
✓ Cultural/ethnic identity
✓ Interests, personality
✓ physical identity(body image)

Erik Erikson: Identity vs. Identity Confusion

• Faced with deciding who and what they are, and where they are going in life
• Society leaves them relatively free of responsibilities and try out different identities
• Experiment w/ different roles and personalities (experimentation: deliberate effort to find out where they fit in world)
• Identity confusion takes one of 2 courses: withdraw, isolating themselves from peers and family or
immerse on world of peers and lose identity in the crowd
Psychosocial moratorium: term for gap between childhood security and adult autonomy

James Marcia: 4 STATUSES OF IDENTITY or Ways of resolving identity crisis

Classify based on existence or extent of crisis or commitment
▪ Crisis: period of identity development during w/c individual is exploring alternatives
▪ Commitment: personal investment in identity

• IDENTITY DIFFUSION: no crisis, no commitment

Undecided, little interest, no experience of crisis/ made commitments
• IDENTITY FORECLOSURE: no crisis but commitment is present
Committed but no crisis, usu. authoritarian parents hand down commitments before a chance to explore approaches, ideologies, vocations on their own
• IDENTITY MORATORIUM: crisis present, no commitment
midst of a crisis but commitments either absent or vaguely defined
• IDENTITY ACHIEVEMENT: both crisis and commitment are present
Undergone crisis and made commitment

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 MAMA Cycles – identity status changes from moratorium to achievement moratorium to achievement; first identity is not and should not be expected to be final product

Cultural and Ethnic Identity

• Ethnic identity: enduring aspect of self that includes sense of membership in an ethnic group, along w/ attitudes and feelings related to that membership
• Bicultural identity – developed by adolescents from ethnic groups
• Collectivist emphasis – east Asian countries, develop identity thru identification with and imitation of others in their cultural group

Religious/Spiritual Development
o Identity development: ask questions like, “Is there really a God or higher spiritual being?”, “What are really my religious beliefs?”
o Cognitive development: various ideas about religion and spiritual concepts, increased idealistic thinking, logical reasoning gives ability to develop hypotheses
and systematically sort answers to different spiritual questions

Parental Monitoring and Information Management

o Supervising choice of social settings, activities, friends, academic efforts
o Higher parental monitoring and rule enforcement = initiation of sexual intercourse and use of condoms; low: delinquency, substance abuse
o Authoritative Parenting: encourage children and adolescents to be independent but place limits and controls actions,
Extensive verbal give and take, warm and nurturant
AUTONOMY
• Responsible for successes and failures
• Onset, no knowledge to make appropriate or mature decisions in all areas of life; parents guide to make reasonable decisions
• Gender differences – boys are given more independence than girls

Role of Attachment
▪ Insecurely attached adolescents: more likely to have emotional difficulties and to engage in problem behaviors such as juvenile delinquency and
drug abuse
▪ Insecure attachment to mothers: linked to becoming depressed and remaining depressed
▪ Secure attachment: positive outcomes -relationship competence, financial/career competence, fewer problematic behaviors, positive peer relations,
capacity to regulate emotions

Balancing freedom and control

▪ Adolescents still need to stay connected with family
▪ Parental psychological control(guilt, anxiety, love withdrawal, other psychologically controlling behaviors) – linked to decreases in adolescent
autonomy and relatedness with friends, romantic partners

PARENT-ADOLESCENT CONFLICT
▪ Conflict escalates during early adolescence, stable at HS years, lessens at 17-20 years
▪ Relationship becomes positive when adolescent leaves for college than attending college while living at home
▪ Every day conflicts- positive developmental function
▪ Minor disputes and negotiations facilitate adolescents’ transition from dependent on parents to becoming autonomous
▪ Can also tone down parental hostility
▪ Parents: serve as importance attachment figures and support systems
▪ Prolonged, intense conflict – associated with adolescent movement out of home, juvenile delinquency, school dropout, pregnancy and early
marriage, drug abuse
▪ Higher level of conflict – adolescent anxiety, depression, aggression, lower self-esteem, lower level of empathy
▪ Acculturation-based conflicts – adolescents acculturate more quickly to norms and values because of exposure in school to language and culture
of host country, alienation bet parents and adolescents related to more depressive symptoms, delinquent behavior, lower academic achievement

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 PEERS
▪ Early adolescence- prefer smaller number of friendships that are more intense and intimate
▪ Need for intimacy intensifies; motivate teens to seek out close friends, if it fails experience loneliness and reduced sense of self-worth
▪ Disclose intimate and personal info, depend on friends to satisfy needs for companionship, reassurance of worth, intimacy
▪ Ups and downs of experiences with friends shape adolescents’ well-being – quality of friendship matters
▪ Developmental disadvantage – coercive, conflict-ridden, poor-quality friendships; friends engaging in delinquent behavior -associated with early onset
and persistent delinquency
▪ Developmental advantage – socially skilled, supportive, oriented towards academic achievement; positive outcomes like lower rates of risky sexual
behavior, bullying victimization, higher levels of academic achievement
Peer Pressure
▪ 8th and 9th grades conformity to peers esp to antisocial standards(violent/harmful)
▪ Adolescents who feel uncertain about social identity (low self-esteem, high social anxiety) most likely to conform to peers
▪ Uncertainty increases – changing circumstances in school and family
➢ Cliques – small groups, usu same sex and age, based on friendships
➢ Crowds – larger than cliques, less personal, based on reputation(e.g. “druggies”, “jocks”)

Dating and Romantic Relationships

1. Entry: Romantic attractions and affiliations at 11 to 13 years
o Develop crush, often shares with same sex friend
o Dating usu occurs in group setting
2. Exploring romantic relationships at 14 to 16 years
o Casual dating – mutual attracted individuals, often short-lived, few weeks
o Dating in groups – third party facilitators of potential dating relationship
3. Consolidating dyadic romantic bonds at 17 to 19 years
o More serious relationships
o Strong emotional bonds, more stable and enduring
Early bloomers (11 to 13 years) – with prior experience in romantic relationships, externalized problem behaviors
Late bloomers (17 to 19 years) – no experience with romantic

➢ Dating in Gay and lesbian group – breakup and disclosure of sexual orientation to parents become stressful problems
➢ Values, religious beliefs, traditions- dictate age at which dating begins, freedom in dating, roles of male and females in dating
➢ Dating may be a source of conflict esp. when:
o Girls are restricted to date
o Dating begins at late age
o Little freedom in dating
o Dates are chaperoned
o Clash of traditional values
➢ Dating and Adjustment
• More romantic experiences = high levels of social acceptance, friendship competence, romantic competence, however also linked with
higher level of substance abuse, delinquency, sexual behavior
• Older partner – increase in depressive symptoms, substance abuse
• Dating and romantic relationships at early age – linked to depression, pregnancy, problems at home and school

RITE OF PASSAGE: ceremony or ritual that marks individual’s transition from one status to another
Immigrants – experiences stressors such as language barriers, dislocations and separations from support networks, preserve identity and
to acculturate, changes in socioeconomic status
Living in an undocumented family – conditions linked to low wage work, lack of benefits, stress, lack of cognitive stimulation at home

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 THE MEDIA
• Digital technologies (surfing the net, texting) while engaging in learning task distract learners and result in impaired performance on tasks
• (DRIVING SUBTASKS) Perceptual-motor activities and ongoing cognitive tasks combined with interactive in-vehicle devices- driving becomes more
complex and potential distraction increases
• Needs technology to be prepared for jobs: email, SNS, etc.
• Text messaging: main way to connect with friends
ADOLESCENT PROBLEMS
Juvenile Delinquency – adolescent breaks law or engages in behavior that’s illegal
• Early onset antisocial (violent) behavior- associated with negative developmental outcomes
• More likely to persist into emerging adulthood, associated with more mental health and relationship problems
• Parental monitoring – important in determining whether adolescent becomes a delinquent or not
• Family discord and inconsistent and inappropriate discipline – associated with delinquency
• Low rates of delinquency associated with authoritative parenting style(independent but place limits)
• Siblings- strong influence on delinquency, also peers
• Lack of academic success – cognitive factors such as low self-control, intelligence, lack of sustained attention

Depression and Suicide

• Females’ self-images esp. body images, face more discrimination, early puberty
• Females’ greater experience of interpersonal dependent stress- linked to higher level of rumination, higher depressive symptoms
• Genes are linked to adolescent depression – dopamine-related genes, serotonin-related gene(girls)
• Family factors- depressed parent, emotionally unavailable parent, marital conflict, financial problems
• Mother-daughter co-rumination (extensively discussing, speculating about problems) linked to increase in anxiety and depression in girls
• Anhedonia: core aspect of depression that involves an inability to experience pleasure from various activities that others usu find enjoyable
• Poor peer relationships – rejection, less contact, no close relationship increase depressive tendencies in adolescents
• Girls’ co-rumination predicted an increase in further co-rumination and depressive and anxiety symptoms
• Weight related concerns – tendency to perceive oneself as overweight
TREATMENT: drug therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, interpersonal therapy
SUICIDE: 3RD leading cause of death in 10 to 19 years old in US
• Females are more likely to attempt but males are more likely to succeed
• Suicidal ideation – family functioning significantly worse; family discord and negative relationships with parents
• Stressful circumstances – poor grades, breakup can trigger
• Depression is the most frequently cited factor assoc with suicide tho not all depressed are suicidal
PROBLEMS THAT AFFECT MOST ADOLESCENTS
• Drug abuse
• Juvenile delinquency
• Sexual problems
• School-related problems
!!!Problem behaviors in adolescence are interrelated.
PREVENTION
1. Intensive individualized attention
Responsible adult who gives attention and deals with needs
2. Community-wide multiagency collaborative approaches
Programs and services like health promotion campaign
3. Early identification and intervention - Reaching younger children and families before develop problems

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