Transcript Slide 1

Social Contexts and
Adolescent Development
Jacquelynne S. Eccles
University of California, Irvine
INID Meeting
February 8, 2014
Goals


Describe some of the “average” changes we see
in motivation and socio-emotional development
during adolescence
Relate these changes to changes adolescents in
the USA experience as they make the transition
from elementary to secondary school in order to
illustrate how one can use a developmental
approach to study person context interactions
Goals

Discuss more broadly how we need to think
about assessing social contexts in order to study
their impact on human development.
Changes in Motivation Associated with
Adolescent Development

Decline in General Interest in School and Other
Adult Dominated and Created Activities
Leading to increased school disengagement in the
most extreme cases
 Increases in school burn out


Increase in Interest in Peer Acceptance and Peer
Dominated and Created Activities

Leading to increases in involvement in risky
behaviors in the most extreme cases
Changes in Motivation Associated with
Adolescent Development

Increasing Salience of Identity-Related
Developmental Needs, Which Can Lead to:
Increases in the salience of social group
memberships and social identities
 Increases in concern with one’s personal identity
 Increasing need to balance the need to fit in
with the need to stand out.

Changes in Motivation Associated with
Adolescent Development

Increasing Desire for Autonomy in One’s Own
Behavioral Regulation

Increasing Concern with the Relevance of What
One is Doing for One’s Current and Future
Goals.

Increasing Salience of Sexual Desires
More Specific Changes in AchievementRelated Motivation Associated with
Adolescent Development

Decline in Confidence in Some Academic
Disciplines
Math and Physical Science for Many Students
 Literacy-Related Subject Areas for Some Students


Decline in Subjective Task Value attached to
Some Academic Disciplines
Math and Physical Science for Many Students
 Literacy-Related Subject Areas for Some Students

Specific Changes in Achievement-Related
Motivation Associated with Adolescent
Development

Increase in Test Anxiety and in the Relation of
Test Anxiety to School Performance and
Intrinsic Motivation

Increase in School Burn Out
More Specific Changes in Achievement-Related
Motivation Associated with Adolescent
Development

Increase in Extrinsic Motivational Orientation


Work for Grades and Tests
Decrease in Intrinsic Motivational Orientation

Work for Enjoyment of Subject and Desire to Learn
More Specfici Achievement-Related Changes
in Motivation Associated with Adolescent
Development

Increase in Ego-Focused and Performance-Oriented
Motivation (Nicholls, Ames, Midgley, Maehr, Elliott)

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Decline in Mastery Motivation

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Focus on Doing Better than Others
Focus on Avoiding Doing Worse than Other
Focus on Learning to be Learning
Increase in Endorsement of View that Ability is Stable
Entity rather than Incremental Skill (Dweck)
Change in Mental Health Indictors
During Early and Middle Adolescence
General Affective Experience
Inner Conflict/Negative Affect
Slight increase from age 11 to 15;
Stress
Increase from age 11 to 15; girls>boys
Loneliness
Mixed results; goes up slightly in USA
Self-Consciousness
Slight increase from age 11 to 15
Perceived Anonymity/Victimization
Increases across secondary school
Feelings of Belonging in School
Decreases across secondary school
General Self-Perceptions
Self-Esteem
Drops initially and then
increases in High School Years
Change in Mental Health Indicators
During Early and Middle Adolescence
Depression and Suicide
Depressive Symptomatology
Increases during early adolescence;
Girls>Boys
Suicide Attempts and Completions
Increases during adolescence
Problem Behaviors
Delinquency-Truancy-Suspension
Increases in early
adolescence; Boys>Girls
Substance Use/Abuse
(e.g. cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, etc.)
Increases across adolescence
Why?

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Most common explanations of such group level
“developmental” phenomena by psychologists
often focus on the biological changes associated
with maturation
In this case with the maturational changes
associated with puberty
Hormone Changes
 Brain Developmental Changes
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Why?

Alternatively we could look to shared social
transitions that create what look like “stagerelated” maturational changes
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If many individuals share similar types of shifts
in their social contexts, then we may see average
levels changes in individual level functioning
that reflect these social contextual shifts rather
than, or in conjunction with, shared
maturational changes.
Nature of the Change

But before continuing with the importance of
this distinction regarding the likely origins of
average level age-related changes, it is important
that we look more closely at the nature of the
change itself, particularly in light of the recent
work using latent growth curve analytic
techniques.
Nature of the Change

All of the patterns I discussed a moment ago
reflect significant changes across age in the
group means for these constructs.

These patterns show up in many studies and
thus are quite reliable.
Nature of the Change

In contrast to patterns of mean level differences
just discuseed, several recent studies using latent
growth analytic techniques suggest that stability
rather than change is most typical for these
kinds of constructs.
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For example,
Changes in school motivation
in Finland and the UK
FinEdu
1.50
1.00
High n = 768
0.00
Increase n =
23
Decrease n =
75
-0.50
-1.00
-1.50
LSYPE
0.50
-2.00
0.00
-2.50
High n = 14,191
-0.50
-3.00
Age 15
Age 16
Age 17
Increase n = 180
z score
z score
0.50
-1.00
-1.50
Decrease n =
537
Moderate n =
622
-2.00
-2.50
-3.00
Symonds, Schoon, Salmela-Aro,
2011
Age 14
Age 15
Age 16
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You will still get the mean level changes because
more individuals decrease than increase. But
most stay the same, which suggests
The need for a more person by environment
explanation than
universal maturational explanations.
Or at least a greater focus on the types of
agency by social structure interactions prevalent in
Life Course Developmental Theories

These latent growth curve models also suggest
that most adolescents are showing very positive
patterns that start and remain high.

This is also key as we think about the nature of
negatives changes often assumed to characterize
this age period.
Returning to Why These
Developmental Patterns Might
Emerge?

Let us consider the transition into secondary
school
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Few studies available to distinguish between the
biological versus social type explanatory systems
for either negative or positive psychological or
behavioral changes
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Roberta Simmons and Dale Blyth’s work
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Compared adolescents moving through two types of
school systems in same city
K-8, 9-12 (ages 6-14; 15-18) versus
 1-6, 7-9, 10-12 (ages 6-12, 13-15, 16-18)
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First compared self esteem changes:
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Found transitional effects for girls only
Self Esteem Data From Simmons &
Blyth – Girls Only
Self
Esteem
K-6;7-9;10-12
School Year
Simmons’ Explanation for Gender
Differences

At this age, girls are at the height of pubertal
development

Stress theories suggest that dealing with multiple
changes is more difficult than dealing with single
life changes

Therefore, the Junior High School Transition
should be more stressful for girls than for boys
BUT
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On the one hand, her self esteem findings are
consistent with this interpretation and
She has other data showing that the declines in
self esteem at this age are directly linked to the
number of other life transitions such as
geographical moves, marital disruptions, and
family deaths
BUT the gender differences in the patterns of
change are not consistent …
Simmons & Blyth: Moving into Adolescence
Negative Effects of K-6, 7-9 Structure versus
K-8 Structure
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Girls’ Self-Esteem Declines
Boys’ Sense of Being Victimized Increases
GPA Declines for Both Girls and Boys
Extracurricular Activities Declines for Both
Leadership Roles Declines for Both
Feelings of Anonymity Increase for Both
Nonetheless

Simmons’ work did point the importance of
thinking about school transitions in terms of
issues of coping.

Need to consider aspects of the situation and the
individual if we are to understand how well people
cope with transitions
Multiple transition harder than single transition
 Psychological and maturational readiness for transition is
important
 Psychological strengths and vulnerabilities are important

Eccles and Midgley “Stage”
Environment Approach


We argued that it is not the transition itself that
matters but the nature of that transition.
Person Environment Fit theories suggest that
People are optimally motivated when there is a good
fit between the needs of the individual and the
opportunities provided by the environments in
which they must work, live, and study
 Bad fits lead to less than optimal motivation and
mental health problems

“Stage” Environment Fit
Perhaps the motivational and behavioral changes
seen during this age period reflect the fact that
we force young people to move from a “good
fitting” elementary school environment to a
relatively more poorly fitting secondary school
environment.
What are these needs?

Connell, Deci & Ryan - SDT
 Competence – Mastery, Challenge
 Emotional Support – Belonging, Attachment
 Autonomy – Personal Control and Ownership

Other needs
 Mattering – Making a meaningful difference
 Responsibility – Being a contributing member of
one’s social group
 Identity – Knowing one’s place in one’s social
context
 Engagement – Challenge and Enjoyment
Developmental Needs or Tasks of
Adolescence
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Increasing opportunities to “matter”
Increasing need to feel respected by key cultural leaders
Increasing needs to have a strong peer group affiliation
Increasing need for sexual intimacy and pair bonding

Increasing need for close ties to non-familial adults
Increasing need to be identified with cultural
institutions

Increasing need for one’s own personal identity

“Stage” Environment Fit
versus Misfit

What is likely to happen if adolescents find
themselves in poorly fitting social contexts,
particularly given their increasing control over
their own behaviors?
“Stage” Environment Fit
versus Misfit

Person-Environment Fit Theory predicts two
main consequences directly related to the idea of
thriving:
Mental well-being will decline
Motivational engagement in
the social context will decline
“Stage” Environment Fit
versus Misfit



Which, in turn, should lead to declines in
performance in that setting or social context
Shifts of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive
engagement to contexts that provide a better
“Stage” Environment Fit.
These shifts should be most marked for the
youth who have the least amount of “Stage” Environment Fit or the most amount of “Stage”
- Environment Misfit.
One Empirical Example

Drawn from our ongoing longitudinal study of
adolescent and adult development in social
contexts:

Maryland Adolescent Development in Contexts
= MADICS
Contributors to the Maryland
Adolescent Development in Context
Study (MADICS)
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Jacquelynne Eccles, PI
Arnold Sameroff, PI
W. Todd Bartko
Elaine Belansky
Diane Early
Kari Fraser
Leslie Gutman
Oksana Malanchuk
Katie Jodl
Ariel Kalil
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Linda Kuhn
Alice Michael
Melanie Overby
Stephen Peck
Katherine Rosenblum
Robert Roeser
Sherri Steele
Erika Taylor
Cynthia Winston
Carol Wong
Sample
Respondent characteristics:
 66% African-American
 N=625
 Average age = 11 at
Wave 1
 Seventh grade at W 1
 53 % male
 Data being presented
today is from waves 1,
3, and 4; Grades 7, 89, 11-12
Family background:

Median Family Income (1993):
$50-55,000

Highest Education: 38%
College Degree

Highest Occupation:
 44% Skilled
 30% Professional
Longitudinal Mixed Methods
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Face-to-face, in home interviews with youth and their
parents which included both close-ended and quite
open-ended questions
Self-administered questionnaires with youth and their
parents
Open-ended phone interviews with youth and their
parents
Repeated intensive interviews with a subset of the
youth
School Achievement, Attendance & Motivation
In MADICS
7th Grade
8th Grade
Grade Point Average
3.67
3.63
Days Absent from School
9.35
10.78
Academic Competence Beliefs
5.36
5.23
Academic Importance Beliefs
4.05
3.91
Academic Utility Beliefs
5.49
5.15
(ns)
School Problem Behaviors
Seventh and Eighth Grade
Sent to
Cheated Suspended Skipped
Class
Principal’s on Tests from
Office
School
Brought Expelled
Drugs/
from
Alcohol School
CONTEXTUAL - MOTIVATION MODEL LINKED TO NEEDS
INFLUENCES
PSYCHOLOGICAL
OUTCOME
MEDIATORS
SCHOOL CULTURE
COMPETENCE
STUDENT
MENTAL HEALTH
CLASSROOM
AUTONOMY
PRACTICES
DEVELOPMENTAL
FIT
STUDENT
ENGAGEMENT
BELONGING
CONTEXTUAL - MOTIVATION MODEL LINKED TO NEEDS
INFLUENCES
PSYCHOLOGICAL
OUTCOME
MEDIATORS
SCHOOL CULTURE
COMPETENCE
STUDENT
MENTAL HEALTH
CLASSROOM
AUTONOMY
PRACTICES
FIT
STUDENT
ENGAGEMENT
BELONGING
CONTEXTUAL - MOTIVATION MODEL LINKED TO NEEDS
INFLUENCES
PSYCHOLOGICAL
OUTCOME
MEDIATORS
SCHOOL CULTURE
COMPETENCE
CLASSROOM
AUTONOMY
STUDENT
ENGAGEMENT
PRACTICES
FIT
STUDENT
MENTAL
HEALTH
BELONGING
Perceived Middle School Psychological Environment:
Conceptualization and Measures.
School Psychological Environment
Support of
Competence
TEACHER
EXPECTATIONS
ACADEMIC GOAL
STRUCTURES
Support of
Autonomy
CURRICULAR
MEANINGFULNESS
STUDENT
EMPOWERMENT
Quality of
Relationships
DISCRIMINATION
EXPERIENCES
TEACHER
SUPPORTIVENESS
Significant Predictors:
8th Grade Psychological Distress
_______________________________________________
Parent Occupational Status
Parent Educational Attainment
Youth Gender (1 = Male, 2 = Female)
.07*
-.08**
.07**
Prior Psychological Distress
.30***
Perceived School Ability Goal Structure
Perceived Positive Teacher Regard
.09**
-.21***
Perceived Gender Discrimination
Perceived Racial Discrimination
.22***
.18***
_______________________________________________
Total Multiple R
Total Adjusted R-Square
.66
.42
_______________________________________________
Supports for autonomy had no effects
Significant Predictors:
8th Grade School Motivation
_______________________________________________
Parent Educational Attainment
Aggregate Grade Point Average
Aggregate Subsidized Lunch
.08*
-.08**
.07*
Prior School Motivation
.28***
Perceived School Task Goal Structure
Perceived Positive Teacher Regard
.07*
.24***
Perceived Curricular Meaningfulness
.20***
Perceived Racial Discrimination
Perceived Teacher Supportiveness
-.09**
.06*
_______________________________________________
Total Multiple R
Total Adjusted R-Square
.67
.44
_______________________________________________
Furthermore

When we added up for each student the total
number of risks and protective characteristics
they reported being exposed to in their school,
we found a linear association between this
number and the changes they experienced in
their psychological distress and academic
motivation as they moved from 7th to 9th grade.
Change in Psychological Distress and School
Motivation
by (Risks-Protections) in School
Change in Relative Status
(Standard Units)
Seventh to Eighth Grade
More Protections <--------------------> More Risks
Change in School Problem Behaviors and GPA
by (Risk - Protective) Factors in School
Change in Relative Status
(Standard Units)
Seventh to Eighth Grade
More Protections <--------------------> More Risks
Conclusion

Indicators of both academic achievement-related
outcomes and mental health increase as the
number of perceived school related protective
factors increase and decrease as the number of
perceived school-related risk factors increase.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
and Heterogeneity in Responses to
Interventions?


First and foremost, it focuses our attention on the
quality of the fit between the various social contexts
available to adolescents and their own developing
needs.
It leads directly to the hypothesis that adolescents
will thrive best in, and be most attracted to, those
contexts that they believe will best meet their
personal and developmental needs.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
and Heterogeneity in Treatment Effects?

More specifically, they will be most attracted to
those social contexts that provide them with
opportunities to:
FEEL COMPETENT
FEEL LIKE THEY BELONG
FEEL LIKE THEY HAVE MAXIMAL
BEHAVIORAL AUTONOMY
AND SELF-DIRECTION
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development?
FEEL AS IF THEY MATTER AND ARE
RESPECTED
FEEL THEY ARE BEING GIVEN
OPPORTUNITIES TO BOTH:
DEVELOP THEIR PERSONAL IDENTITIES AND
GOALS
DEVELOP THE SKILLS AND SOCIAL CAPITAL
NECESSARY TO FULFILL THESE GOALS
AND IDENTITIES
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
and Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects?
It leads to a second set of general hypotheses:
Adolescents will withdraw from those contexts
that do not provide particularly good stageenvironment fit
Adolescents will navigate towards those contexts
that provide better stage-environment fit
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
and Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects?
Furthermore, this differential movement will be
maximized when adolescents have the most
control over their own behavioral choices and
contextual “where abouts”.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development in
Context?
Thus their freedom to “vote with their feet” will be
limited by all external control forces that limit their
own ability to self-regulate their “where abouts”.
Such external controls can exist in all social contexts,
whether dominated by youth or adults.
Such controls can be used in ways that both facilitate and
undermine positive adolescent development.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?

In the best of all possible worlds, adolescents
will navigate towards social contexts that will
facilitate their own positive development.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
But few adolescents live in the “best of all
possible” worlds
They each have limitations based on prior
experiences, developmental immaturity, and lack of
sufficient knowledge on which to base “wise”
decisions
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?

Furthermore, both the nature and the range of
social contexts available to them are limited by a
wide range of constraints derived from the
social/political/cultural worlds in which they
live.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
Finally, social contexts may “select” individuals
The opportunities to join new social groups and to
enter new social contexts may be created by
forces external to the individual.
Or
By happenstance!
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
and Context?
The best way to think about the role these social
contexts might play in adolescent development
is to conceptualize social contexts in terms of
the risks and opportunities that they provide to
participating individuals.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
 Social
contexts provide an array of such
opportunities and risks.
 Contexts
provide new opportunities for learning
skills, attitudes, and values
 Contexts provide opportunities to engage in new
behavioral patterns
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
 Individuals
will vary in the particular risks and
opportunities they engage in within each social
context.
 Individuals
will vary in their own skills, needs,
personal assets, and motivational predilections.
 Individuals also vary in their own connection to the
social context and the role they play within the
context.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
Most importantly
 The tendency to take up the various
opportunities and risks will depend both on
personal characteristics and the demands for
compliance in the setting.
 Finally,
it will depend on characteristics of the
social context that influence the ease of entry
and withdrawal.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
Such a joint person by environment perspective
is best illustrated by the work of Stattin Hakan
and his colleagues on the role of participation in
teen centers on adolescent development.
Much more such work is needed.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
Good social policy depends on understanding the
nature of contexts and the developmental needs
of the adolescents who inhabit the available
social contexts.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
If we want adolescents to come to particular social
contexts such as schools or youth centers, we
need to make sure these contexts provide good
stage-environment fit.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development
in Context?
If we want adolescents to remain in those contexts
rather than shifting to other contexts, we need
to make sure that what we want to teach them
both fits their needs and is worth learning.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development in
Context?
 If
we adopt this approach, we will be less likely
to blame the adolescents for their choices
 As
is done when we focus attention, for example on
changes in their brains as a primary source of
increases in risky behaviors rather than lack of
opportunities to engage in health promoting ways of
show they matter and explore identities
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development in
Context?
And more likely to provide them with “stage”
appropriate contexts in which they can
learn the skills, motivations, values, and attitudes
necessary for the successful transition into
adulthood
 Acquire the social and cultural capitol necessary for a
successful transition into adulthood
 Thrive while in the context

What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development in
Context?
By so doing, we will also be able to decrease the
likelihood they will shift their engagement into
other more risky social contexts.
What Does This Analysis Mean for
Understanding Adolescent Development in
Context?
In support of these hypotheses, evidence
emerging from the School Engagement
Literature has shown that succeeding and staying
engaged in school are very strong and consistent
predictors of mental well-being and absence of
engagement in risky behaviors during
adolescence.
Do American
Secondary Schools Meet
These Goals?
NOT VERY WELL !
Particularly for Adolescents
Who Don’t Do Very Well Academically
But this is another story!!
How Well do Various Interventions
Aimed at Adolescents Meet
These Goals?
I SUSPECT NOT VERY WELL !
Particularly for Adolescents
Who Don’t Do Very Well Academically or Fit
Very Well into the Programs
But this is your story to tell!!
Thank You!!
More details on our web site:
www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/garp
[email protected]