Adolescent Social Development

What changes occur in family/parent-child relationships in adolescence? 

1. Relationships with parents remain important in adolescence, but they change, and interactions with friends become more powerful

2. Less time with family

3. Strive for autonomy and independence

4. Parents need to balance demands for connection and independence

5. Cultural difference in time spent and dependence on family

What is the developmental importance of peer relationships in adolescence?

1. More time with peers

2. As teens spend more time with peers, the importance of their relationships grows and affects many domains of adolescents’ social and emotional development

3. Benefits of healthy adolescent friendships

   1. Provides opportunities to explore the self and develop a deep understanding of another

   2. Provides a foundation for future intimate relationships

   3. Help young people deal with the stresses of adolescence

   4. Can improve adolescents’ attitudes towards school

Define clique and crowd. What is the distinction? 

1. Cliques and crowds in adolescence

   1. Identifying with cliques and crowds can be harmful if encourages risky behavior

   2. Cliques:

      1. Small, exclusive group of same-sex (3-10) friends

         1. Emerge in early adolescence

   3. Crowds (memberships in crowds are socially assigned by peers):

      1. Form later on, large peer group made up of individuals and cliques that share similar interests and values

What are some effects of peer pressure on adolescents, good and bad?

1. Benefits of healthy adolescent friendships

   1. Provides opportunities to explore the self and develop a deep understanding of another

   2. Provides a foundation for future intimate relationships

   3. Help young people deal with the stresses of adolescence

   4. Can improve adolescents’ attitudes towards school

2. Cost of adolescent friendships

   1. Can be hurtful, even abusive

   2. Can encourage maladaptive behavior

      1. Risky health behavior

      2. Co-rumination

What are the domains in which peers exert the most pressure on one another to conform? What are domains in which parents exert strong influences? 

1. Peer grouping in adolescence and peer pressure in adolescents. There's more peer pressure on health risk behaviors, daily dress, different areas where peer pressure exerts its influence, health risky behaviors 

2. Adults still really have a big influence in the bigger picture, the parents still have influence on adolescent values, their academic focus

3. Peers have more everyday, day to day influence.

What % of adolescents report having a romantic relationship? How do romantic relationships change over time? 

1. Increase in romantic relationships in adolescence

   1. By the time teens are exiting high school, almost 80% of girls and 70% of boys have had a romantic relationship

2. How do romantic relationships change?

   1. Very early on romantic relationships, the nature of those are more fleeting, go out to a movie in a group, just based on common interests, but as you get older, the nature of those type of dating relationships change because you develop as a person, cognitively your understanding about the world is developing, your ability to process feelings. 

   2. Those types of relationships when your 17-18 (more intimate, cognitively greater capacity, deeper connection)  are very different then when you are 11-12

What is the most common psychological disorder (mental health problem) in adolescence? Describe

1. Depression in adolescence

   1. Girls are much more at risk for developing depression

   2. Rate of depression double at puberty to around 15%

      1. Affects about 1 in 5 teen girls, 1 in 10 teen boys

   3. There are gender-specific ways that we cope

      1. Women tend to internalize feelings (anxiety and depression) which is reflected in rates of depression

      2. Men are encouraged more to externalize their emotions

What does research say about media multi-tasking during adolescence? Are we too wired for our own good?

1. Media multi-tasking and learning

   1. Over 50% of children 8 to 18 years old engage in 2+ media activities at once

   2. Limited brain resources

   3. fMRI studies

      1. Fragments attention span

      2. Interrupts memory and application of learning

      3. Fosters brain areas superficial automatic learning (implicit memory) not deliberate, strategic recall