Emotional & Social Development in Adolescence

The Family

Autonomy

• Autonomy is defined as a sense of oneself as a separate, self-governing individual.
• It has two aspects:
  • Emotional: Relying more on oneself and less on parents.
  • Behavioral: Making decisions by carefully weighing one’s own judgment and the suggestions of others to arrive at a personally satisfying, well-reasoned course of action.

Parent-Adolescent Relationships

• Cognitive development facilitates the pathway toward autonomy.
• Effective parenting involves a balance between connection and separation.
• Authoritative child-rearing style is beneficial, characterized by:
  • High parental responsiveness
  • Reduced parental control
• The family is a dynamic system that adapts to changes among its members.
• Culture influences the development of autonomy.
• Young people view autonomy as a self-endorsed decision-making process consistent with personal values.
• Acculturative stress is associated with negative outcomes, including:
  • Declining self-esteem
  • Rising anxiety
  • Depression
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Delinquency
• A Reorganized Relationship: parent-child relationships are the single most consistent predictor of mental health.

Family Circumstances

• Less than 10% of families with adolescents have seriously troubled relationships, marked by chronic escalating conflict and repeated arguments over serious issues.
• Many of these issues originate during childhood.

Siblings

• As teenagers become more involved in friendships, groups/cliques, and romantic relationships, they invest less time and energy in their siblings, from whom they are trying to establish autonomy.
• Adolescent sibling ties vary with gender and culture.
• Females report greater intimacy with their siblings than brothers do, consistent with the high value females place on emotional closeness.
• The Hispanic value of familism, which prioritizes close family bonds, fosters harmonious sibling relationships.

Peer Relationships

Friendship - Characteristics

• The number of best friends declines from four to six in early adolescence to one or two friends in adulthood.
• Key characteristics of adolescent friendships:
  • Intimacy
  • Mutual Understanding
  • Self-Disclosure
• Adolescent friends tend to be alike in:
  • Identity status
  • Educational aspirations
  • Political beliefs
  • Depressive symptoms
  • Willingness to abuse substances
  • Engagement in law-breaking acts
• Cross-race adolescent friends, who attend racially and ethnically diverse schools and interact in each other’s homes, resemble same-race friends in security, trust, support, and relationship longevity.

Gender Differences in Friendship Quality

• Emotional closeness is more common among girls than boys.
• Boys’ conversations usually focus on accomplishments and mastery issues (e.g., sports and school) and involve more competition and conflict.
• Friendship closeness has costs as well as benefits.
• Adolescent female friendship pairs focus on deeper thoughts and feelings, they tend to co-ruminate, or repeatedly mull over the upsetting details of one friend’s problems and associated negative emotions.
• Relational aggression can be the result of conflict between close friends and is typically associated with close female friendships.

Friendships & Adjustments

• Close friendships provide opportunities to: explore the self and develop a deep understanding of another.
• Close friendships provide a basis for future intimate relationships.
• Close friendships help young people cope with the stresses of adolescence.
• Close friendships can improve adolescents’ attitudes toward and involvement in school.

Cliques & Crowds

• In early adolescence, peer groups become increasingly common and tightly knit.
• Cliques are voluntary groups of three to ten members who "hang out" together, are often friends, and typically resemble one another in family background, attitudes, values, and interests.
• Several cliques with similar values and shared interests can form into larger, loosely organized groups called crowds.
• Cliques or crowds solidify adolescents’ identity within the large, complex social structures of high school.
• Cliques or crowds can modify adolescent beliefs and behaviors, both positively and negatively.