After reading this chapter, students should understand that:
- Adolescents are able to see things from their perspective as well as the perspective of others; their view of self is more organized and coherent than in the past and they are able to see various aspects of themselves simultaneously, traits that they now view as abstractions and not concrete entities; older adolescents are able to accept that different situations elicit different behaviors and feelings; adolescents are better able to understand themselves and thereby evaluate different aspects of themselves in different ways
- An adolescentÕs self-esteem is determined by a combination of their gender, race and SES
- GirlsÕ self-esteem tends to be lower than boys since they tend to be more highly concerned about physical appearance, social success, and academic achievement; girls also have to confront societal expectations that send difficult messages related to their academic and social success
- While minority status has been related to lower self-esteem, more recent research finds that African Americans who have a high racial identity differ little from whites on levels of self-esteem; adolescents tend to focus on the characteristics about themselves at which they are successful and from which they gain most satisfaction so race is either a primary focus if it is associated with satisfaction or not a focus if not associated with satisfaction; the joint contribution of gender and race and self-esteem is called ethgender
- Adolescents of a higher SES tend to be of higher status as well, which comes as a result of having more resources available to them
- During the identity-versus-identity-confusion stage proposed by Erikson, adolescents begin to seek an understanding of their uniqueness which includes taking on different roles and narrowing down and making commitments to personal, occupational, sexual, and political issues; if the road to discovery is difficult, adolescents may take on unacceptable roles and/or may have difficulty forming healthy long-term relationships later in life; if the road to discovery is successful, the likelihood of a future of positive psychosocial development looks more optimistic; during this stage, adolescents rely on their friends as sources of information; this dependence allows them to clarify their own identities and form tight bonds with others; according to Erikson, males tend to develop a stable identity before committing to an intimate relationship and females tend to seek intimate relationships and to then define their identities through their relationships
- Marcia suggests that identity can be described in terms of four statuses which depend on the presence of crisis and commitment the statuses are:
- Identity achievement: exploration and commitment to a role are present
- Identity foreclosure: commitment is present but exploration of roles is absent
- Moratorium: exploration of roles is present but commitment is absent
- Identity diffusion: exploration and commitment to a role are absent
- Identity formation is difficult for racial and ethnic minority groups due, in part, to contradictory societal values
- Several models explain identity development for racial and ethnic minorities such as:
- Cultural assimilation model: individual cultural identities should be assimilated into a unified culture in the United States
- Pluralistic society model: all cultures should preserve their individual cultural features; racial and ethnic factors are a ventral part of adolescentÕs identity and should not be forced to be assimilated
- Bicultural identity model: Identity is facilitated by the formation of a bicultural identity in which adolescents form their own cultural identities while becoming a part of the dominant culture
- Stress seems to be the primary reason why depression is more prevalent in the female adolescent population than in the male
- Although girls attempt suicide more frequently than boys, the rate of suicide is higher in boys as a result of the methods they use; depression heightens the risk for suicide; social inhibition, perfectionism, stress and anxiety are also related to a greater risk for suicide; family conflicts, abuse and neglect, and substance abuse are also related to greater risk for suicide
- Some warning signs related to the possibility for suicide are: direct or indirect talk about suicide, school difficulties, making arrangements as if planning for a long trip, writing a will, loss of appetite, general depression, dramatic changes in behavior, and preoccupation with death
- Many parents have difficulty dealing with the growing sense of autonomy in their adolescent children; whereas at the start of adolescence, parents hold most of the power and influence in the relationship, by the end of adolescence, the power is more balanced; parents and adolescents tend to have differing ideas for appropriate conduct for the adolescent; as a result of an advancement in abstract reasoning skills, adolescents begin to question the rules of their parents; clashes between parents and adolescents can lead to positive developments in the relationship as parents come to yield a bit to the wishes and interests of their adolescent child
- The generation gap between adolescents and their parents is typically very narrowÑparents and adolescents tend to agree on issues related to society, politics, and religion as well as the value they place on the relationship they share with their parents
- The amount of conflict between adolescents and their parents seems to be lower in "traditional," pre-industrial societies as a result of a lower degree of independence that adolescents expect
- Relationships with peers become more prominent during adolescence as peers allow for social comparison and provide youth with a reference group
- During adolescence, cliques and crowds begin to form; membership in these peer networks tend to depend on the degree of similarity members of the group have with each other; for example, members of groups tend to be similar on issues related to substance use and academics; cliques become less prominent toward the end of adolescence as male-female pairs become more the focus of interaction
- During the adolescent period, friendship networks become less segregated by gender
- Adolescent peer networks tend to be defined by racial and ethnic segregation, in part, as a result of minority students actively seeking out support and identity affirmation from others who share their minority status; SES appears to be another factor since adolescents tend to make friends with those that share their SES and minority students are over-represented in the low SES category; success in school also seems to be a determining factor in the peer networks that are formed; negative attitudes and stereotypes about minority students by the majority or majority students by the minority also play a role in determining friendship networks
- The social world of adolescents can be explained by differing descriptions of adolescents:
- Controversial adolescents: are liked by some peers and disliked by others; hold a high status
- Rejected adolescents: actively disliked by their peers and openly rejected by peers; hold a low status
- Neglected adolescents: receive little attention from their peers; hold a low status
- Popular adolescents: liked by a majority of their peers; hold a high status
- Adolescents tend to succumb to peer pressure in issues in which they believe their peers are experts but look to adults for guidance in issues in which they believe adults are experts
- Adolescents commit a disproportionate number of criminal activities; juvenile delinquency seems to be related to being "undersocialized" or "socialized" delinquents
- Undersocialized delinquents: Tend to have been raised with little discipline or with harsh, uncaring adult supervision; tend to be aggressive and violent which leads to them being rejected by peers and academic failure; tend to have been diagnosed with ADHD, to be less intelligent than average, and tend to suffer from psychological difficulties; tend to live on the margins of society throughout their lives
- Socialized delinquents: know and follow norms of society and are fairly "normal" psychologically; delinquency during adolescence seems to be a stage; tend to be highly influenced by peer pressure and to commit their crimes in groups
- Dating in later adolescence is a way to learn how to be intimate; dating can be fun and provide the dating adolescents with some prestige and can be useful in contributing to oneÕs growing sense of identity; dating patterns tend to differ across cultures
- Adolescent masturbation, once thought to be shameful by most of society, is now viewed by experts on sexual behavior to be a normal, healthy, and harmless activity
- Sexual activity now takes place earlier than it once did due to a lessened double standard placed on males and females; in todayÕs society, permissiveness with affection is the norm meaning that premarital intercourse is viewed as permissible if it is conducted between men and women who have affection for each other and are in a committed, long-term relationship
- Sexual preference is unrelated to gender identity; although the factors related to sexual orientation are unclear, most experts suggest that it is determined by an interplay of biological, physiological, and environmental factors
- The rates of teen pregnancy are higher in the United States than in other industrialized nations because girls in the United States are much less likely to use birth control and teens in the United States receive much less sex education than teens in other nations
- Having an unintended pregnancy during adolescence is difficult as the mother is usually raising the baby without the father, or without financial or emotional support; the mother is likely to drop out of school and, as a result, acquires low paying jobs and likely becomes dependent on welfare; children of teenage mothers are more likely to suffer from poor health and show poorer school performance and are more likely to become teenage mother
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