Chapter 10: adolescent social and emotional development

Rites of passage

What important milestones or rites of passage occurred during your adolescence? ​

Common culture-based markers of adulthood

Marker (Rite)​	Age​
Participating in bar/bat mitzvah (Jewish religion)​	12–13​
Participating in quinceañera/o (many Latine cultures)​	15​
Driving​	15–17​
Attending “R” rated movie without caregiver​	17​
Graduating from high school​	17–19​
Voting​	18​
Consenting to sexual activity​	16–18 ​
Drinking, purchasing alcohol​	21​
Renting a car​	25​
Procuring own health insurance​	26 (Affordable Care Act)

Development of self: Identity​

• Identity: An organized sense of self, which includes personal beliefs, goals, values, and commitments.​

Erikson’s Theory:​

• Identity versus identity confusion​

• Adolescents seek to develop a satisfying identity and a sense of their role in society. Failure may lead to a lack of stable identity and confusion about their adult roles.​

Identity crisis:

Erikson’s term for the intense exploration of potential identities that characterizes adolescence​

Marcia’s identity statuses

describe different approaches to developing a personal identity, based on the presence or absence of exploration (crisis) and commitment. The four statuses are Identity Diffusion (low exploration, low commitment), Identity Foreclosure (high commitment, low exploration), Identity Moratorium (low commitment, high exploration), and Identity Achievement (high exploration, high commitment)

Ethnic identity

• Self-identity is more complex for minority groups​

  -Adolescents within a dominant culture assimilate only one set of cultural values​

  -Adolescents from ethnic minority groups confront two sets of cultural values​

• Overidentification with dominant culture may lead to rejection from the minority group​

  -Rejecting the dominant culture’s values may limit opportunities within the larger society​

The facets of ethnic and racial identity (Phinney): ​

1. Ethnic/racial identity exploration​

2. Ethnic/racial identity resolution​

3. Affirmation​

William Cross’s Black identity theory:

1. Pre-encounter phase: during childhood, when broad cultural messages being absorbed; typically focused on the dominant culture being good/the default​

2. Encounter phase: during adolescence, attention drawn to their status as a minority group via a negative experience (e.g., explicit racism)​

3. Immersion phase: fortifying stage where cultural symbols are embraced​

4. Internalization phase: cultural components become more deeply entrenched in one’s own identity ​

Gender identity

• The self-perceptions about being girl/woman, boy/man, or nonbinary​:

  -Cisgender​

  -Transgender​

  -Nonbinary​

• Not the same as​:

  -Sexual orientation​

  -Gender expression​

Sexual-minority individuals: milestones

Milestone​	Average age for ​ LGBTQ+ people​	Group differences​
First sexual attraction​	12.7 years​	Males reach earlier​ Hispanics and Blacks reach earlier​
First sexual contact​	18.1 years​	Males reach earlier​ Hispanics and Blacks reach earlier​ Blacks reach earliest​
Self-identified as LGBTQ+​	17.8 years​	Males reach earlier​ Hispanics and Blacks reach earlier​
Started coming out​	19.6 years​	Hispanics and Blacks reach earlier​
First romantic relationship​	20.9 years​	Hispanics and Blacks reach earlier

Emotional development

• High intensity of emotions during adolescence​

• Methods of study: Experience sampling & daily diaries​

  -Reveal frequent fluctuations in emotions in a day​

  -Choice is key: Adolescents happy when doing things they choose​

• Longitudinal studies show changes over time:​

  -Typically, teens experience happiness most ​

  -However, happiness declines, while anger, sadness, and anxiety show increases​

Contexts of emotional development

Family context:​

• Low supportiveness, harsh punishment, toxic interactions increase risk of emotion problems​

• Family poverty likewise a risk factor ​

Peer context:​

• Supportive peers help teens in their emotional well being​

• However, peers are also a source of influence in risk-taking​

Neighborhood context:​

• Opportunities to engage in extracurricular activities benefit teens​

• However, there is also a “cost of privilege” to living in affluent neighbourhoods​

Peer Groups- Cliques

Clique: A friendship group that children voluntarily form or join themselves

• Small groups: 5–7​

• Good friends​

• Similar in family background, attitudes, and values​

• Up to age 11: much of children's social interactions occur within the clique​

• Age 11-18: many adolescents have ties to many cliques; also an increase in the stability of cliques

Peer Groups- Crowds

Crowd: A wide group who share general interests; may include several cliques ​

• Membership based on reputation, stereotype​

  -Nerds, jocks, stoners, etc.​

• Older adolescents seem to be less tied to cliques, but often belong to crowds ​

• Being associated with a crowd may enhance or hurt adolescents' reputations and influence how peers treat them​

• High value placed on popularity within a larger group & value upholding the group’s norms

Peer relationships

• Changes to the nature of friendships from childhood to adolescence​

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  -Compatibility: Growing similarities between friends​

  -Stability: Enduring over time​

  -Reciprocity: Two-way street​

  -Respect for individuality: Ability to appreciate those different from you

Gender differences in adolescent friendships: GIRLS

• Emotional closeness​

• Communal concerns​

• Get together to “just talk”​

• Self-disclosure, support​

• Relational aggression higher

Gender differences in adolescent friendships: BOYS

• Shared activities​

• Achievement, status​

• Competition, conflict​

• Autonomy-driven​

• Physical aggression higher

Adolescents’ media diet

• Screen time most common index of use​

• In 2021: Average daily screentime 8 hours, 39 mins​

• 77% watch online videos daily​

• 90 mins per day on social media ​

• SES and screen use negatively correlated (low SES = high screen use)​

• Exacerbated by COVID

Social media

• What benefits & challenges do you experience from SM use?​

• Which platforms do you use most often?​

  -Which feel more positive?​

  -Which feel more negative?​

Parenting styles

Baumrind: Styles vary on 2 dimensions​

• Authoritative: high warmth + high expectations​

• Authoritarian: low warmth + high expectations​

• Permissive: high warmth + low expectations​

• Uninvolved: low warmth + low expectations​

Parental conflict

• Adolescents close to their parents show ​

  -more self-reliance​

  -higher self-esteem​

  -better school performance​

  -fewer adjustment problems ​

• Adolescence brings increased bickering & fewer shared activities​

  -Parents’ attempts to exert control & adolescents’ drive for autonomy causes conflict​

  -As adolescents get older, there is more compromise​

  -Across adolescence, # of conflicts decreases but intensity increases​

  -The way conflict is resolved matters more than conflict itself​

Parental monitoring

• Parents’ attempts to gather information about their children’s everyday activities​

• Solicitation is a form of monitoring​

• Monitoring associated with positive adolescent outcomes (e.g., low substance use; regulated internet use)​

Parental disclosure

• The teen’s willingness to divulge information to parents ​

• Thus, monitoring and knowing what a teen does is a two-way street​

• Adolescents display selective disclosure​

Mothers vs. fathers

• Adolescents spend more time with their mothers​

  -have more conflicts with them, but feel mothers support them more & know them better​

• Good relations with fathers contribute to adolescents’ psychological well-being​

  -Adverse relationships with fathers associated with depression in adolescents​

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Siblings

• Unique relationship​

  -Shared history​

  -Often longest lifetime relationships ​

  -Obligatory not optional​

• Quality of sibling relationships relates to that of romantic and other relationships​

• Power differential b/w older & younger reduce​

  -Differential treatment becomes better understood, but excessive differential treatment can have lasting consequences​