Transcript PowerPoint Presentation for chapter 13

Life-Span Development
Twelfth Edition
Chapter 12:
Socioemotional Development in Adolescence
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Self-Esteem

Self-Esteem is the overall way we evaluate
ourselves
◦ Girls’ self-esteem tends to decline during
adolescence, while boys’ self-esteem increases
 Girls’ negative body image during pubertal change
 Greater interest young adolescent girls take in social
relationships
 Gender differences may be exaggerated
◦ Low self-esteem in adolescence is associated
with:
 Poorer mental and physical health
 Worse economic prospects
 Higher levels of criminal behavior
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Identity
Vocational/Career
 Political
 Religious
 Relationship
 Achievement,
Intellectual

Sexual
 Cultural/Ethnic
 Interests
 Personality
 Physical

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Identity

Erikson’s Identity versus Identity Confusion:
◦ Psychosocial Moratorium: the gap between
childhood security and adult autonomy
 Adolescents are generally free to try out different
identities and choose what is right for them
◦ Adolescents who resolve the conflict emerge with
a refreshing, acceptable sense of self
◦ Adolescents who do not successfully resolve the
conflict suffer identity confusion
 Withdrawal and isolation
 Immersion in peers
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Identity

Four statuses of identity based on crisis or
commitment
◦ Crisis: a period of identity development during which the
individual is exploring alternatives
◦ Commitment: a personal investment in identity
Diffusion: individuals who have not yet experienced
a crisis or made any commitments
 Foreclosure: individuals who have made a
commitment but not experienced a crisis
 Moratorium: individuals who are in the midst of a
crisis but whose commitments are absent or weak
 Achievement: individuals who have undergone a
crisis and made a commitment

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Identity
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Identity

Key changes in identity are more likely to
take place in emerging adulthood than in
adolescence
◦ Especially true for vocational choice

One of emerging adulthood’s themes is not
having many social commitments
◦ Developing a positive identity requires
considerable self-discipline and planning

Identity does not remain stable throughout
life
◦ “MAMA”: repeated cycles of moratorium to
achievement
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Identity

Family atmosphere is important in the
adolescent’s identity development
◦ Individuality (self-assertion and separateness)
◦ Connectedness (mutuality and permeability)

Ethnic Identity: an enduring aspect of the
self that includes a sense of membership in
an ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings
related to that membership
◦ Development of a bicultural identity
◦ Identity development tends to be more complex
for members of ethnic minority groups
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Identity


Downtrend in religious interest among
adolescents has occurred in the 21st century
Adolescence and adulthood can serve as a
gateway to a spiritual identity that
“transcends, but not necessarily excludes”
the childhood religion
◦ Adolescents higher in religiosity are:
 Less likely to smoke, drink, use marijuana
 Less likely to be truant from school and engage in
delinquent activities
 Less likely to be depressed
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Families
Parents often have to weigh competing
needs for autonomy and control,
independence and connection
 Adolescents’ ability to attain autonomy
and gain control over their behavior is
acquired through appropriate adult
reactions to their desire for control
 Boys are often given more independence
than girls

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Families

Role of Attachment:
◦ Securely attached adolescents are less likely to
engage in problem behaviors such as juvenile
delinquency and drug abuse
◦ Securely attached adolescents have better peer
relations
 Correlations are moderate

Balancing Freedom and Control:
◦ Adolescents still need to stay connected to
families
◦ Parents who play an active role in monitoring and
guiding adolescents’ development are more likely
to have adolescents with positive peer relations
and lower drug use
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Families

Parent–Adolescent Conflict:
◦ Parent–adolescent conflict increases in early
adolescence
 Conflict typically involves everyday events of family life
◦ Disagreements may serve a positive
developmental function
 Conflicts facilitate the adolescent’s transition from being
dependent to becoming autonomous
◦ About one in five families engage in prolonged,
intense, repeated, unhealthy conflict
 Associated with various adolescent problems
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Families
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Peers

Peer Relationships:
◦ Most teens prefer a smaller number of peer
contacts and more intimacy
◦ Friends become increasingly important in
meeting social needs during adolescence
◦ Teens with superficial or no friendships tend
to be lonely and have lower self-esteem
◦ Characteristics of friends have an important
influence
 Friends’ grade-point average is a consistent
predictor of positive school achievement
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Peers
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Peers

Peer Pressure:
◦ Young adolescents conform more to peer
standards than children do
 Peaks about 8th and 9th grade
 14 to 18 years of age is an especially important time
for developing the ability to stand up for one’s
beliefs
◦ U.S. adolescents are more likely than Japanese
adolescents to put peer pressure on their peers
to resist parental influence
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Peers

Cliques and Crowds:
◦ Cliques: small groups (2 to 12 individuals),
typically of the same sex and about the same
age
 Based on friendship or similar activities
◦ Crowds: larger than cliques and less personal
 Based on reputation
 May not spend much time together
 Usually appear in early adolescence and become
less prominent in late adolescence
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dating and Romantic Relationships


Adolescents spend considerable time either
dating or thinking about dating
Dating can be a source of:
◦
◦
◦
◦


Recreation
Status and achievement
Learning about close relationships
Mate selection
Adolescents often begin by hanging out
together in mixed-sex groups
Cyberdating has become popular among
middle-school students
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dating and Romantic Relationships

Gay Male and Lesbian Youth:
◦ Many date other-sex peers, which can help
clarify their sexual orientation or disguise it
from others

Sociocultural Contexts:
◦ Differences in dating patterns among ethnic
groups
 Values, beliefs, and traditions often dictate how and
when adolescents date
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dating and Romantic Relationships

Dating and Adjustment:
◦ Adolescents who date are more likely to be
accepted by peers and be perceived as more
physically attractive
◦ Dating and romantic relationships at an unusually
early age have been linked with several problems





Lower grades
Less active participation in class
School-related problems
Delinquency
Substance use
◦ Adolescents who watch soap operas are more
likely to date early and have more dating partners
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Culture

Cross-Cultural Variations:
◦ Two-thirds of Asian Indian adolescents accept
marriages arranged by their parents
◦ Female adolescents in the Philippines sacrifice
their futures to work and send money home
◦ In the Middle East, many adolescents are not
allowed to interact with the other sex, even in
school
◦ Street youth in Kenya survive economically by
delinquency or prostitution
◦ Russian youth are marrying earlier to legitimize
sexual activity
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Culture

Health:
◦ Fewer adolescents around the world die from
infectious diseases and malnutrition than in the
past
◦ Some health-compromising behaviors are
increasing in frequency (illicit drug use and
unprotected sex)

Gender:
◦ Experiences of male and female adolescents are
quite different around the world
 In many countries, adolescent females have much less
freedom than males
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Culture

Family:
◦ In some countries, adolescents grow up in closely
knit families with extensive extended kin
networks
◦ In western countries, parenting is less
authoritarian and larger numbers of adolescents
are growing up in divorced families and
stepfamilies
◦ Family trends include:





Greater family mobility
Migration to urban areas
Family members working in distant cities or countries
Smaller families; fewer extended-family households
Increases in mothers’ employment
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Culture

Peers:
◦ Some cultures give peers a stronger role in
adolescence than others
 In western nations, peers are prominent in adolescents’
lives
 In other regions, peer relations are restricted (especially
for girls)

Rites of Passage:
◦ Rite of Passage: ceremony or ritual that marks an
individual’s transition from one status to another
◦ Vary among cultures
 Rich tradition has prevailed in African cultures
 In the U.S., rites of passage are found in various
religious and social groups
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ethnicity

Immigration:
◦ Immigrants often experience stressors uncommon
to longtime residents






Language barriers
Separation from support networks
Changes in SES status
Struggle to preserve identity and to acculturate
Assimilation: the absorption of ethnic
minority groups into the dominant group
Pluralism: the coexistence of distinct ethnic
and cultural groups in the same society
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ethnicity

Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Status:
◦ Ethnic minorities are overrepresented in the
lower socioeconomic levels of American
society
◦ Many ethnic minorities experience a double
disadvantage:
 Prejudice, discrimination, and bias
 Stressful effects of poverty
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Ethnicity
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile Delinquent: an adolescent who
breaks the law or engages in behavior that is
considered illegal
◦ Broad concept that includes many actions, from
littering to murder
◦ At least 2% of all youth are involved in juvenile
court cases
◦ More likely to be committed by males, but
involvement by females is increasing
◦ Property offenses are committed more than any
other crime
◦ Rates are disproportionately higher for minority
and lower-SES youth
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Juvenile Delinquency

Should an adolescent who commits a
crime be charged as an adult?
◦ One study demonstrated that trying adolescent
offenders as adults increased their crime rate

Early onset (before age 11) antisocial
behavior is associated with more negative
outcomes than late onset antisocial
behavior
◦ More likely to persist into adulthood
◦ More mental health and relationship problems
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Juvenile Delinquency

Causes of Delinquency:
◦
◦
◦
◦
Heredity
Identity problems
Community influences
Family experiences
 Parental monitoring is important
 History of physical abuse
 Hostile sibling relationships
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Juvenile Delinquency

Causes of Delinquency (continued):
◦ Lower-class culture
 Antisocial peer groups and gangs
 Status given for antisocial behavior
 Observation of models engaging in criminal
activities
 Inadequate community resources
◦ Cognitive factors
 Low self-control
 Low intelligence
 Lack of sustained attention
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Depression and Suicide

Depression is more likely to occur in adolescence than
childhood
◦ Linear increase from 15 to 22 years of age
◦ Earlier onset is linked with more negative outcomes

Depression is consistently higher in girls and women
◦
◦
◦
◦

Females tend to ruminate
More negative body image
Females face more discrimination than males
Puberty occurs earlier for girls
Family factors play a role
◦
◦
◦
◦
Having a depressed parent
Emotionally unavailable parents
High marital conflict
Parents with financial problems
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Depression and Suicide

Poor peer relationships are associated with
adolescent depression
◦ Co-rumination in girls

Depressed adolescents recovered faster
when they took an antidepressant and
received cognitive behavior therapy than
when they received either treatment alone
◦ Safety concern with certain antidepressants in
adolescence
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Depression and Suicide
Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in
10- to 19-year-olds
 Far more adolescents contemplate or attempt
it unsuccessfully than actually commit it
 Females are more likely to attempt suicide,
but males are more likely to succeed
 Lesbian and gay male adolescents are only
slightly more likely than heterosexual
adolescents to commit suicide

©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Depression and Suicide

Other Risk Factors:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
History of family instability and unhappiness
Lack of supportive friendships
Genetic factors
Depressive symptoms
Low self-esteem
High self-blame
Being overweight
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Depression and Suicide

Successful Intervention Programs Include:
◦ Intensive individualized attention
◦ Community-wide multi-agency collaborative
approaches
◦ Early identification and intervention
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.