Final Study Guide - The Literature of Children and Adolescents

Theory of Mind

ability to attribute mental states to themselves and others

• Capable of reading a story with multiple points of view, including stories with an “unreliable narrator” 

• Readers can be assumed to have more highly developed powers of empathy, and therefore to be capable of reading and caring about characters whose lives are very different from their own

• Young people supposedly won’t read about characters younger than themselves, but in these longer books the mix of ages can be greater

Abstract thinking

• Readers can be assumed to have the ability to think abstractly to some extent, and therefore to follow a narrative that proposes an alternate world or universe, with rules and laws of nature other than those known to us

• Readers can be assumed to have a more sophisticated sense of time - of history and the future

• Readers can be assumed to know more about the world, including some of the more intense and disturbing aspects of reality

• Readers may not want illustrations but prefer to create their own mental pictures of characters and events

Social Learning Theory

Moral behavior is learned through reinforcement and modeling

• Effective adult models of morality are warm and powerful and consistently model their values

Cognitive Developmental Theory

• Children are active thinkers about social rules

• Through sibling and peer interaction, children work out their first ideas about justice and fairness

  • Think of the animals on the farm; the rules and way of life they pass on to Wilbur

Middle childhood morality

• Internalized “oughts and shoulds” of the latency period represents new cognitive advance and new capacity to understand emotions

• 8 yr old can turn on father for slightest moral infractions for sake of obeying the code

• Kids chide parents for not following the rules and not attending church

• Notion of “do as I say, not as I do” easily contested and latency-age kids recognize parental hypocrisy

• Tendency for good and bad to take on absolute valence, allowing little room for grays

Kohlberg - Stages of Moral Understanding

• Through clinical interviews Kohlberg presented a sample of 10-16 year old boys with hypothetical moral dilemmas and asked them what the main character should do and why

• The way an individual reasons about dilemmas determines moral maturity, not the content of their response 

• Three levels, each consisting of 2 stages

Pre-conventional level

1. obedience and punishment orientation

2. instrumental purpose orientation

Stage 1 - Obedience and Punishment Orientation

• Believes in a fixed set of rules

• Authority figures

  • Morality is something that “big people say they must do”

• Judge morality of action by its direct consequence

• Punishment is to be avoided

  • “The last time, I got spanked; therefore, I won’t do it again”

• Pro-stealing: “If you let your wife die, you’ll be blamed for not spending the money to help her. There’ll be an investigation of you and the druggist for your wife’s death.” 

Stage 2 - Instrumental Purpose Orientation

• Concrete understanding of different perspectives

• Self-interests determine what is right

  • “What’s in it for me?” 

• Any concern for others is based on “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.” 

• Anti-stealing: “[Heinz] is running more risk than it’s worth [to save a wife who’s near death]”

Conventional Level

3. Good girl - nice boy

4. Maintaining social order

Stage 3 - Good girl - nice boy

• Typical of adolescents and adults

• Evaluate actions in terms of relationship to others

• Live up to expectations of family and community

• Pro-stealing: “No one will think you’re bad if you steal the drug, but your family will think you’re inhumane if you don’t. If you let your wife die, you’ll never be able to look anyone in the face again.” 

Stage 4 - Maintaining social order

• Societal laws

• Important to obey rules to maintain a functioning society

• Rules must be enforced in the same manner for everyone

• Everyone has a personal duty to uphold the rules

• Laws must be obeyed under all circumstances; otherwise, chaos would ensue

• Anti-stealing: “Even if his wife’s dying, it’s still his duty to obey the law. If everyone starts breaking the law when in a jam, civilization would crumble”

Post-Conventional Level

5. Social Contract

6. Universal Ethical Principles

Stage 5 - Social Contract

• Free and willing participation for the “Common Good”

• Basis for a democratic gov’t

• The greatest good for the greatest number of people

• Pro-stealing: “the law against stealing wasn’t meant to violate a person’s right to life. If Heinz is prosecuted for stealing, the law needs to be reinterpreted to take into account situations in which it goes against people’s natural right to life.” 

Stage 6 - Universal Ethical Principles

• Moral behavior is defined by self-chosen principles of conscience

• Laws are valid only in so far as they are grounded in justice

• Principles respect each person’s worth and dignity

• Considers what one would do if they were in the other’s shoes

• Pro-stealing: “It doesn’t make sense to put respect for property above respect for life itself. [People] could live together without private property at all. [People] have a mutual duty to save one another from dying.” 

Carol Gilligan’s take on Kohlberg

Kohlberg’s theory does not adequately represent morality of girls and women

• Feminine morality emphasizes an “ethic of care”

• Different not less valid

• Studies have tested Gilligan’s claims

  • Females display reasoning at the same stage as males

  • Female approach = interpersonal concerns of caring and responsiveness are a real life reaction to a moral dilemma

Moral Identity

The degree to which morality is central to self-concept

• Moral behavior is influenced by many factors besides cognition

  • Emotions (empathy, sympathy, guilt)

  • Temperament

  • Cultural experiences and intuitive beliefs

  • Moral identity

Pragmatic approach to morality (challenges to Kohlberg)

• Each person makes moral judgments at varying levels of maturity, depending on the individual’s current context and motivations

• Everyday moral judgments are practical tools that people use to achieve their goals

Middle childhood defined (6-11)

• New responsibilities are introduced

  • School, work around (and sometimes outside of) the home, greater role in helping the family, etc

• By 6, brain has reached 90% of its adult weight

• Children will add 2-3 inches in height and 5 lbs in weight each year

Adolescence defined

Biological

• Starts - puberty

• Ends - with the maturation of physical processes and decline in growth

Social

• Starts - increased focus on peer relationships, as opposed to family relationships

• Ends - full attainment of adult status and privileges (entrance into adulthood)

• “Adolescence begins in biology and ends in culture”

Development characterized by continuity and discontinuity

Phases of adolescence

• Early adolescence (10-14)

  • Puberty and major bodily changes

• Mid adolescence (14-16)

  • Cognitive changes and evolving personality

  • Start of dating

  • Sense of future possibilities

• Late adolescence (16-21)

  • Transition to adulthood requires a range of adaptations

Adrenarche

sex hormones begin to rise long before physical changes are visible, typically between 6-8, when the adrenal glands on top of each kidney start to release increasing levels of adrenal androgens

• By 10, levels of adrenal androgens have increased ten-fold and some children experience their first feelings of sexual attraction

Effect of Hormones

• Elevated levels of testosterone: a social hormone that makes teens more concerned with how they’re perceived by others

• elevated levels of oxytocin: increases empathy and trust to remember of our peer group, and aggression towards those who are “out” of the peer group

• Elevated levels of cortisol: alert to environmental threats 

Body growth

• Growth spurt: the first outward sign of puberty is the rapid gain in height and weight 

• The cephalocaudal trend of infancy and childhood reverses during puberty

  • Legs grow faster than shoulders, trunk

  • Leads to gangly limbs of the teen

Bodily changes

• Earlier maturation of girls compared to boys

  • Growth spurt generally two years earlier

• Marked individual differences in timing

  • Girls: 9-15

  • Boys: 10-13.5

Early vs late maturation - boys

• Early maturing boys

  • More popular, relaxed, good-natured, and generally poised

  • May be secondary to physical maturation and improved social status

• Late maturing boys

  • Treated like younger children

  • Less athletic

  • More difficult adolescence

Early vs late maturation - girls

• Seen as desirable step toward maturity

• Poorer body image

• Increased risk of eating problems

• Increased behavioral difficulties

• Not continuing education after high school

• Joined older peer groups

• More likely in co-ed schools

Authoritarian 

Control is obtained through power without explanation

Authoritative

control is obtained through reasoning with a balance of warm contact and firm responses to violations

Permissive

Control is not required and deviations from expectations and rules are not responded to with negative consequences

Correlates of authoritarian parenting

• Children tend to be:

  • Passive

  • Dependent

  • Conforming

  • Less self-assured

  • Less creative

  • Less socially adept

• Lower psychological maturity

• Lower self-esteem

• Lower resourcefulness

• Lower achievement

• Social problems

• Externalizing behavior

• Higher risk for substance abuse, crime, and delinquency

Correlations of Authoritative Parenting

• Family cohesiveness

• Higher levels of academic achievement

• Higher self-esteem

• Greater cooperativeness

• Psychological maturity

• Resourcefulness

• Reasoning ability

• Empathy

• Altruism

• Lower rates of behavior problems

Correlates of Permissive Parenting

• Children tend to be:

  • Lower in impulse control

  • More immature

  • Less self-reliant

  • Less socially responsible

  • Less independent

• Lower academic achievement

• Verbal and physical aggression (poor self-regulation)

• Heavy drinking in adolescents

• Early sexual behaviors

Parent-child relationships in middle childhood

• Amount of time spent with parents declines with growing independence

• Child rearing becomes easier for parents who established an authoritative style in the early years

• Coregulation

• Authoritative parenting in middle childhood predicts academic and social competence and reduced engagement in antisocial behavior in adolescence

Coregulation

parents maintain general oversight while letting children take charge of moment-by-moment decision making

Sibling relationships in middle childhood

• Sibling rivalry increases

• Parental comparisons between siblings can cause resentment

• Many siblings continue to rely on each other for companionship, assistance, and emotional support

• Parental encouragement of warm, considerate sibling ties is important

Adolescence: increase in autonomy

• Emotional component

  • Relying on oneself than on parents

• Behavioral component

  • Making independent decisions

• Shift from family to peer interactions 

• Parent-child relationships are still important for helping teens develop autonomy and responsibility

Changes supporting increased autonomy

• Puberty → psychological distancing from parents

• Physical maturation → parents give teens more freedom and responsibility

• cognitive development → solve problems and make decisions more effectively

• Improved social reasoning → de-idealize parents, no longer bend to authority as easily

Parent-child relationship in adolescence

• Quality of parent-child relationship is single most consistent predictor of mental health

• Effective parenting strikes a balance between connection and separation

  • Authoritative parenting style

  • Fosters autonomy

  • Autonomy → self-reliance, achievement, positive work orientation, self-esteem, ease of separation

Parenting and positive outcomes for teens

• Consistent parental monitoring of daily activities, through a cooperative relationship in which the adolescent willingly discloses information is linked to positive outcomes

  • Prevention of delinquency, reduction in sexual activity, improved school performance, and positive psychological wellbeing 

• Parents who are coercive or psychologically controlling interfere with development of autonomy

  • Outcomes include low self-esteem, depression, drug and alcohol use, and antisocial behavior 

Reorganized relationship

• Amount of time spent teens spend together with family declines by ~50% compared to middle childhood

• Quality of parent-teen time is more important than quantity

  • Shared leisure activities

  • Family meal time

• Drop in family time during teen years varies by culture

Sibling relationship in adolescence 

• As younger siblings become more self-sufficient, sibling influence declines

• Teens invest less time in their siblings and more involved in friendships and romantic relationships

• Siblings who establish a positive bond in childhood continue to display strong affection and caring

  • Linked to increased academic engagement, empathy and prosocial behavior

• Warm, supportive parents and history of caring friendships → more positive sibling ties (and vice versa)

Fudge

• He’s cute and kisses his mother to win her over

• He does exactly what he wants. He’s not subject to the rules and conventions of social behavior

• He’s a jester: “PEE-tah!”

• Fudge doesn’t always know the difference between fantasy and reality

  • In the park he thinks he really can fly like a bird

  • At the movie theater, he reacts to the on-screen bear as if a real bear were actually in the room

Peter

• Peter narrates the story

• His voice is something of Alexander’s, the language of complaint. Unfairness is the big issue for him

• We find some of Peter’s comments funny even though he isn’t trying to be funny

• Peter feels unlucky, under appreciated, neglected to the point of being invisible to his parents (“Maybe I’m not their real son.”)

• On the more positive side, Peter:

  • Sometimes enjoys the “grownup” responsibility he’s given by his mother (to offer his opinion, set an example for Fudge at the shoe store, the dentist, and elsewhere)

  • We first see Peter acting maturely in the way he introduces himself to his father’s clients and how he responds to the gift of a book he’s outgrown

  • He takes pride in the care he gives Dribble, his pet turtle

  • Peter has friends (esp Jimmy Fargo), and increasingly prefers their company to that of his family

• Resilient - when Fudge ruins his poster, he moves past anger quickly and comes up with a new plan

• Values his own thoughts and feelings - “But secretly, whenever I look at him, I think it. My brother, Fang Hatcher! Nobody can stop me from thinking. My mind is my own.”

• Reconsiders his opinions, including those about Fudge

  • “I never considered refusing to open my mouth at the dentist’s office”

  • “Leave it to my brother to eat flowers! I wondered how they tested.” 

Peter’s personal growth

• At the ad agency, Peter notices that his little brother is growing up → “I never heard my brother say ‘Please’ before.”

• When Fudge is in the hospital, Peter becomes emphatic → “Maybe he wasn’t such a bad little guy after all.” 

Judy Blume as a satirist

• Points out the limits of the culture of celebrity and consumerism/advertising. This is the world of Mad Men

• Makes fun of the cluelessness of parents (Fudge’s father: “Eat it or wear it!”)

• The mother sometimes seems more concerned with maintaining order than with doing what’s best for her children

• Shows the tendency of parents to play one child against another

• Adults do not have a monopoly on knowledge. Peter is sure he knows better than the mayor how mass transit could be improved

Wisdom of Judy Blume

• Tells how to avoid getting mugged

• Advises against smoking and talking to strangers

• Connects failure of leaves to turn color in the fall to air pollution

Categories of youth behavioral and emotional disorders

• Disruptive behavior disorders

• Neurodevelopmental disorders

• Anxiety disorders

• affective/mood disorders

• Eating disorders

• Elimination disorders

• Eating disorders 

• Elimination disorders

• Adjustment disorders

• Psychotic disorders

Disruptive behavior disorders

• Oppositional defiant disorder - 3%

• Conduct disorder - 1-10%, higher rate in adolescence and boys

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

• Frequent refusal to cooperate with requests

• Arguments with parents, teachers, and peers

• Blames others for actions that he/she has taken

• Lies

• Engages in sneaky actions

Conduct disorders

• Most often seen in adolescent years

• Breaks major rules

• In childhood, highly aggressive

• At all ages:

  • Steals

  • Uses weapons or threatens

  • Vandalism

  • Engages in truancy 

  • High use of substances

  • Criminal activity

  • Sexually promiscuous 

Neurodevelopmental disorders

• ADHD - between 4-7% of children and adolescents

• Specific Learning Disorders - varied estimates (15-20%)

• Language disorders - about 3% of children

• Autism Spectrum Disorders - about 1% worldwide; 1 in 44 children in the U.S.

• Intellectual Disabilities - about 2%

ADHD

3 forms

1. combined type

2. primarily inattentive type

3. primarily hyperactive/impulsive type

Developmentally inappropriate levels of:

• hyperactivity

• impulsivity

• inattentiveness

Functional impact on family, social life, and school life

Learning disorders

Functional impairments in specific academic subjects in the presence of generally average intellectual development

• Specific reading disorder

• Specific mathematics disorder

• Specific disorder of written expression

Language disorders

Functional impairments in the comprehension of language and/or the ability to express ideas in spoken form

• Impact on early learning and social interaction

• Impact on school learning and school performance

• Can be very persistent and have a major impact on social functioning

Autism spectrum disorders

Functional impairments in social communication and interests

• Difficulty understanding nonverbal and verbal communication

• Difficulty understanding social interactions

• May have reduced interest in interacting with others

• Repetitive behavior patterns based upon a restricted range of interests compared to others

• Unusual interests when compared to others

• Social impairments have major impact on relationships

• Often associated with reduced intellectual development

Anxiety disorders

• Separation anxiety disorder - 2-4%

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) - 3-6%

• Specific Phobias - 3-4%

• Social Phobia - 1-5%

• Panic Disorder - 1-2%

• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) - 2-3%

• Selective Mutism - 0.47-0.76%

Affective and mood disorders

• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) - <1%, 14-20%

• Dysthymic Disorder - <1%-2%, 10-15%

• Depressive Disorder not otherwise specified - 1%, 10%

• Bipolar Disorder - rare in children; 10% in adolescents

The nature of mood disorders

• Decreased energy

• Decreased interest in activities and social interactions

• Irritability

• Low self-esteem

• Easily discouraged

• Thinking pessimistically about the self, the environment, and the future

• Prone to suicidal thoughts and actions

Responding to a mental health condition

• Recognize that a problem exists

• Obtain an evaluation

• Understand the nature of the problem

• Obtain appropriate treatment

• Gather the time, financial, and support resources for treatment

• Alter responses that are contributing to the condition

Treatment methods

• Individual treatments

  • Behavioral therapy

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Psychodynamic therapies

• Family therapy

• Multicomponent therapies

• Important role of parents in treatment

The coping cat protocol

• instruction/orientation

• Relaxation training

• Cognitive training and restructuring 

• Exposure with support and rewards

• F.E.A.R.

Formal operations

• Increased flexibility in thinking

• Increased capacities in abstract reasoning and attention

• Increased interpersonal awareness and interest in social activities

• Seeker of inconsistencies

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning

when faced with a problem, adolescents start a hypothesis from which they deduce logical, testable inferences

• Begins with possibility and ends in reality 

Propositional thought

ability to evaluate logic of propositions (verbal statements without needing concrete properties in front of them)

• Ex: all men are tall. Sally is tall. Is Sally a man? 

Plasticity

ability to change in response to the environment by modifying connections between brain regions

Peer pressure

• Being around peers increases teens’ interests in rewards

• Increased sensitivity to social exclusion

• Effects of social media on emotions

• Moderating effect of social success on risk-taking behaviors

Executive skills questionnaire

Consider your strengths

• Do you need to use these skills often in school? If so, how do they help you?

• Do they affect how you get things done in settings outside of school?

Consider your weaknesses

• Do these make being a student challenging?

• Do you have coping strategies to compensate for these weaknesses?

Distorted images

• Imaginary audience: adolescents believe that they’re the focus of everyone else’s attention and concern

• Personal Fable: certain of their imaginary audience, teens develop an inflated opinion of their own importance - they feel special and unique 

• Both images are rooted in perspective-taking, not egocentrism

Personal fables and limited experience

• Experience is a great educator - adults have learned from mistakes, but teens have had less experiences and less opportunities to learn

• Teens are more “here and now” - living in the present experience reduces their capacity to envision something going wrong

Smarter, but angrier teens?

• Emotional and intellectual development don’t always go hand in hand

  • Arguing skills might be more advanced

  • Once escalated, there may be insufficient skills to regulate these feelings

• Teens often perceive the world as “black and white”

  • Catastrophic thinking

  • Strong reactions to provocations or disappointment

  • Tendency to lash out at those who “can take it”

Decision making

Changes in the brain’s emotional/social network outpace the prefrontal cortex’s cognitive control network

• Consequences for planning and decision making

Decision making involves:

• Recognizing a range of options

• Identifying pros and cons of each

• Assessing likelihood of different outcomes 

• Evaluating one’s choice (did it meet goals?)

• Learning from mistakes

The Phantom Tollbooth Themes

• Education and learning as antidotes to juvenile boredom 

• Struggle of ignorance vs wisdom, nonsense vs logic

• Value of art

The world of The Phantom Tollbooth

• Movement to the suburbs

• Averages

• Quest stories (going out in search of something)

• American identity

• Humanities vs technology debate

• Dr. Seuss

• People began to feel that life was becoming too homogenized, too driven by averages and statistics, like, “the average family has 2.58 children”

Common autism myths

• Children with autism are incapable of friendship or love

• All people with autism have a special ability

• Autism is caused by bad parenting

• Autism is new

• There is an autism epidemic

• People with autism are cold and unempathetic

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

a complex developmental disorder caused by differences in the brain

• Deficits in social communication and interaction

• Restricted, repetitive, stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities

• 1 in 36 children

ASD

• 1 in 37 boys, 1 in 151 girls

• No medical test or cure

• Costs a family $60,000 a year

• Occurs in all racial and ethnic groups

• More common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes, and pediatric AIDS combined

Autism according to Kanner in 1943

• A profound autistic withdrawal

• An obsessive desire for the preservation of sameness

• A good rote memory

• An intelligent and pensive expression

• Mutism or language without real communicative intent

• Oversensitivity to stimuli

• A skillful relationship to objects

DSM-5 Social/Communication Domain

Social interaction and communication domains condensed into one domain: social/communication deficits: all three of the following must be met:

1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity

• Abnormal social approach, difficulties with back and forth conversations, reduced sharing of interests, emotions and affect

2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors

• Facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, body language

3. Deficits in developing and maintaining relationships

• Adjust behaviors to suit social context, difficulties in imaginative play, making friends, interest in others

DSM-5 restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities

1. Stereotypes or repetitive speech, motor movements or use of objects

2. Excessive adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior or excessive resistance to change

3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus

4. Hyper or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of environment

Variations in ASD presentation

• Core symptoms manifest differently across age groups

• Presentation may differ in females

• ASD symptoms may be missed more frequently in children from some cultural and socioeconomic groups

• Individuals with lower IQ/language abilities present differently

• “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” - Dr. Stephen Shore

Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder

• Must have ALL of these social verbal and nonverbal communication deficits

  • Deficits in using communication for social purposes

  • Impairment in ability to adjust communication to context

  • Difficulties following conversation rules and telling stories

  • Difficulty making inferences or with ambiguous language (too literal)

• Functional limitations in communication, social participation, school and work

• Onset in early development

• Not due to neurological or medical condition, ASD, intellectual disabilities, global developmental delay

Pragmatics

involves 3 major communication skills

1. Using language for different purposes

• Greeting (ex: hello, goodbye)

• Informing (ex: I’m going to get a cookie)

• Demanding (ex: give me a cookie)

• Promising (ex: I’m going to get you a cookie)

• Requesting (ex: I would like a cookie, please)

2. Changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation

• Talking differently to a baby than to an adult

• Giving background info to an unfamiliar listener

• Speaking differently in a classroom than on a playground

3. Following rules for conversations and storytelling

• Taking turns in convo

• Introducing topics of convo

• Rephrasing when misunderstood

• How to use verbal and nonverbal signals

• How close to stand to someone when speaking

• How to use facial expressions and eye contact

Diagnosing ASD

• Comprehensive psychiatric evaluation

• Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R)

• Language and Cognitive testing

• Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS)

PEERS Lessons

• Introduction and trading information

• Two-way conversations

• Electronic communication

• Choosing appropriate friends

• Appropriate use of humor

• Starting and joining conversations

• Exiting conversations

• Good sportsmanship

• Get-togethers

• Handling arguments

• Changing reputations

• Handling teasing and embarrassing feedback

• Handling physical bullying

• Handling cyber bullying

• Minimizing rumors and gossip

Does The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time accurately represent autism?

Christopher’s traits:

• Significant difficulty communicating and interacting with people (ex: overly literal)

• Difficulty interpreting gestures and facial expressions

• Difficulty taking others’ perspectives

• Formal speech, no social spontaneity/reciprocity

• Restricted interests

• Rocks or groans when overwhelmed 

• Hypersensitives to sound, smell and touch

Stereotypical representation

Christopher’s unique way of experiencing things

• Focus on orderliness

• Derives comfort from highly detailed information

  • “It was 1:12 a.m. when Father arrived at the police station. I did not see him until 1:28 a.m. but I knew he was there because I could hear him.”

• emotional limitation: trouble reading faces and the emotions of others

Contrast with Milo of The Phantom Tollbooth

Theory of mind and need for order

• Smarties task

• “...when I was little I didn’t understand about other people having minds. And Julie said to Mother and Father that I would always find this very difficult. But I don’t find this difficult now.”

• Need for Order

  • Regularity and predictability in his sentences

  • “I do this, then I do that…” 

Emerging adulthood

New transitional period extending from the late teens to the mid-twenties

Phase of Emerging Adulthood

• Feeling in between

• Identity exploration

• Self-focused

• Instability

• Possibilities

Emerging adulthood - then vs now

1950s

• Average age of 1st marriage

  • Females: 20, Males, 23

• Enroll in college immediately post high school: 14%

2000s

• Average age of 1st marriage

  • Females: 26, Males: 28

• Enroll in college immediately post high school: 66%

Facts of emerging adults

• ⅓ of 18-to-25 year olds move to a new residence every year

• Just over ½ of 18-to-25 year olds return to their parents’ home for brief periods after first leaving 

• They go through an average of 7 jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch

• ⅔ spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married

• Most remain financially dependent on parents

• Only 50% of U.S. young people who enroll in higher education have earned their Bachelor’s degree by 25

  • Reasons: wanting to travel, changing majors, working full/part time

A psychologist’s point of view

• “It takes longer now to be self-sufficient. It takes more education now than in the past to get a good job,” says psychologist Jeffrey Arnett

• This pushes milestones, such as marriage and career, back to the mid-to-late 20s and beyond

• Arnett stresses, the key characteristic of emerging adulthood is that it’s a period of exploration and change: students explore possible directions in life and often experiment with different roles, trying them on until finding one that feels like the right “fit”

Cognitive changes

• Continued development of prefrontal cortex and its connections with other brain regions

• Specialization of a person’s interests/experiences leads to experience-dependent brain growth and refinement in specialized regions of cerebral cortex

Postformal thought

• Cognitive development beyond Piaget’s formal operational stage

• College students make impressive strides in cognition

Epistemic cognition

Our reflections on how we arrived at facts, beliefs, and ideas

• Epistemic means “of or about knowledge”

Emotional and social changes: love

• Romantic ties typically last longer and become more emotionally intimate and committed

• Nevertheless, among US college students, emotionally indifferent, uncommitted sexual encounters are widespread

• In Western nations, cohabitation has become the preferred mode of entry into a committed relationship

• Predictors of happy, lasting relationships

  • Partner similarity

  • Good communication

  • Secure internal working model of attachment

Emotional and social changes: work

• Work experiences increasingly focus on preparation for adult work roles

• “Dream”—career for men and both marriage and career for women

• Relationships with mentors, along with quality of higher education, contribute to emerging adults’ realization of career goals

• Identity achievement in the vocational realm tends to be more challenging for women

• Ethnic minorities may face difficulties

Emotional and Social Changes: Worldview

• Is this generation more narcissistic?

• U.S. college students express both individualistic and relationship goals in their worldview

• Community service

• Strong pluralistic orientation and desire to address global problems

• Compared with older people, they vote in fewer numbers

Seven vectors of development

• Seven “vectors” of development during the college years

• Each vector is a core developmental task of emerging adulthood

• Development doesn’t necessarily proceed at the same pace in all seven areas at once

• For example, someone may be further along on developing a sense of identity and purpose than on managing emotions, or vice-versa

Seven Vectors

1. Developing intellectual, social, and physical competence

2. Learning to manage emotions

3. Moving through autonomy toward interdependence

4. Developing mature interpersonal relationships

5. Establishing identity

6. Developing purpose

7. Developing integrity