Adolescent Development - Artikelen - Universiteit Utrecht
The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18-29 years: implications for mental health - Arnett et al. - Universiteit Utrecht
The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18-29 years: implications for mental health
Arnett, Zukauskiene, Sugimura
Introduction
Conceptions of the transition to adulthood have shifted from a focus on events such as leaving home to the gradual attainment of psychological markers such as accepting responsibility for one's self and making independent decisions. Transition to adulthood has become longer, and in developed countries happens later in life than previously, as measured by the timing of traditional markers such as the entry to stable work, marriage and parenthood > new life stage between adolescence and young adulthood: emerging adulthood. Cross-national indicator of changes in the demographic patterns of the transition to adulthood is mother's age of first birth.
USA: five features of emerging adulthood
Identity explorations entail trying out various possibilities for what kind of person to be and what kind of life to live. Traditionally, identity explorations have been associated with adolescence. However, today identity explorations occur mainly during the period of emerging adulthood. Emerging adulthood is the most unstable period of the lifespan. It is the time when changes in love relationships and work are most frequent. This instability is derived partly from their identity explorations. The instability can be troubling, especially when changes are involuntary > anxiety, feeling depressed.
Emerging adulthood is a self-focused time of life, in the sense that it is the time when people have the fewest daily social roles and obligations to others. Emerging adults in the USA often thrive on their self-focused independence. However, being self-focused might be accompanied by low social support and consequent depression.
Emerging adults tend to view themselves as being neither adolescents nor adults but somewhere in-between. This feeling might elicit feelings of depression and anxiety, especially for those who believe they should feel more adult at their current age than they actually are.
Although emerging adulthood is often a time of struggle and mixed emotions, nearly all emerging adults in the USA believe their future is bright > possibilities and optimism.
Europe: struggle amidst prosperity
Currently, Europe is one of the most affluent and healthy societies in human history. Difficulties have increased in the aftermath of the 2007-08 global economic recession > youth unemployment. Unemployment is especially high in young people who have little education. Even for people with tertiary education, the entry into the workforce presents some issues. Thus, young workers are susceptible to employment instability even when they are able to find a job.
In both Europe and the USA, unemployment has been associated with increased risk of depression, especially for emerging adults who do not have strong parental support.
Japan: movement towards individualism
Similar to other high-income countries, Japan has had demographic changes that suggest the rise of a new life stage of emerging adulthood, especially with respect to the length of education, and the timing of marriage and parenthood. Arnett has proposed four cultural beliefs that underlie the period of emerging adulthood in high-income countries: 1) the value of attaining independence and self-sufficiency before making adult commitments; 2) the goal of finding a so-called soul mate in marriage who will complement one's own identity; 3) the search for work that
.....read more Theory of suicide and effects of school-based suicide prevention interventions - Barzilay et al. - Universiteit Utrecht
Theory of suicide and effects of school-based suicide prevention interventions
Barzilay
Introduction
Suicide ideation (SI) and attempts (SA) peak during adolescence and young adulthood. The current study tests two psychological models of suicide. One prominent model is the interpersonal theory of suicide (IPTS). IPTS proposes that the interaction of two interpersonal constructs: “thwarted belongingness” (experience of loneliness/isolation) and “perceived burdensomeness” (perception of being a burden on others) predicts SI. This combination leads to SA only in the presence of “acquired capability for suicide", through exposure and thus habituation to painful or fearsome experiences such as prior self-injury or risk behaviors.
An alternative model of suicidal behaviors is the two-pathway model. This model conceptualizes two separate mechanisms leading to SA among adolescents. One pathway is through reactive self-directed aggression and impulsivity, which may have underlying dysregulated serotonin metabolism. The other independent pathway is that of an internalizing process based on anxiety and depression that may be related to interpersonal distress.
Methods
…
Results
The modeling estimation indicated that the IPTS hypothesized model is superior to the two-pathway model in fitting the observed data.
The IPTS hypothesized model
Predicting suicidal ideation
Results indicated that higher depression and anxiety, but not externalizing symptoms, predict a higher likelihood of endorsing SI at 12-month follow-up. Belongingness to parents (but not peers or burdensomeness) predict lower likelihood of endorsing SI.
Predicting the trajectories of change in suicide attempts over time
Results indicated that among the control group, the group with no SA was less likely to endorse SI, self-injury, and had lower risk behaviors at baseline than repeated SA group.
The interaction between SI and self-injury predicted repeated SA.
Thus: the likelihood of repeated SA compared with no SA was significantly higher for adolescents who reported SI and self-injury at baseline than those who only reported self-injury.
Discussion
Consistent with IPTS predictions and prior studies, in the present study, thwarted belongingness to parents predicted higher levels of SI as assessed one year later. This effect remained significant after controlling for depression and anxiety.
The higher likelihood of repeated SA was related to risk behaviors and repetitive self-injury at baseline, with SI augmented self-injury risk for repeated SA. Thus, the IPTS interpretation that each repeated SA is evidence of increased acquired capability is supported.
Comparison between the IPTS and the two-pathway model indicated a superior fit for IPTS. Nevertheless, some findings supported the two-pathway model such as the independent main effects of SI, risk behaviors, and self-injury on the likelihood of SA, which is consistent with the previous report.
Limitations
The measures may not fully capture the end cognitions in belongingness and burdensomeness as well as pathways to acquired capability other than risk behaviors and self-injury. Therefore, other interpretations of the reported results may also apply.
Furthermore, not all the interactions suggested by IPTS model were tested in the current study.
Finally, the study time frame examined predictors over 12-months. This time interval was too long to allow examination of more proximal predictors to distinguish different patterns
In search of explanations for early pubertal timing effects on developmental psychopathology - Ge et al. - Universiteit Utrecht
In search of explanations for early pubertal timing effects on developmental psychopathology
Ge & Ntasuaki, 2009
Abstract
Early puberty maturation has been identified as a potential risk factor for internalizing and externalizing problems during adolescence. Four hypotheses:
Hormonal influence hypothesis predicts that an increase in hormones at puberty leads to increased psychopathology.
Maturation disparity hypothesis focuses on the gap between physical, social and psychological maturation in early matureres that exacts the toll on individuals’ adjustment.
Contextual amplification hypothesis proposes that experiencing early pubertal transition in a disadvantaged context increases the risk for psychopathology.
Accentuation hypothesis maintains that preadolescent vulnerabilities and challenges during early pubertal transition together increase problems.
Adolescents who undergo pubertal maturation earlier than their same-age, same-sex peers are more likely to have a number of detrimental outcomes, including problem behaviors, substance use, and emotional distress in adolescence. This article: describing four hypotheses to explain why early puberty exerts its influence on externalizing and internalizing psychopathologies.
The hormonal influence hypothesis
→ The rise in the adrenal and gonadal hormones at puberty increases risks for developing psychopathologies.
Adrenarche, which typically occurs between ages 6 and 9, refers to the maturation of the HPA-axis. In this period, adrenal androgens begin to rise. There is some evidence that adrenal androgens are related to dominance, depression, and antisocial conduct.
Gonadarche, which begins at ages 9 to 11, involves the maturation of the HPG-axis. Hormones of the HPG-axis, gonadotropins and sex steroids, increase rapidly during pubertal transition. Individual differences in concentration in testosterone and estradiol are related to negative affect, behavior problems, and aggressive tendencies.
What are possible connections with psychopathology?
Pubertal hormones, particularly gonadal hormones, organizing neural circuits in the developing adolescent brain and leading to behavioral consequences.
Pubertal hormones are linked to psychopathology via alternations in stress sensitivity.
Social and environmental factors may mediate the effects of pubertal hormones on behavior (including reactions on physical changes).
Although it is intuitively appealing to directly ascribe the rise of psychopathology at puberty to a surge of hormonal activities, the empirical findings for such a link in humans are fragmented and equivocal. Verifying a direct link requires a rigorous demonstration that puberty-related hormonal changes precipitate the increase in externalizing and internalizing psychopathologies. It is also important for researchers to attend to the confounding nature of hormonal changes, puberty, and age in examining their relations to psychopathology.
The maturation disparity hypothesis
→ It is the gap between physical and psychosocial maturities that places early (physical) maturers at risk for developing psychopathology. Developmental change is sequential: chronologically ordered developmental tasks in childhood must be completed successfully before the transition to adolescence to ensure normative adjustment. Because early maturers experience a briefer prelude to pubertal change than do their peers, they might be less well prepared socially and cognitively for the biological and psychosocial challenges at puberty.
Despite its plausibility, this hypothesis has more often been implied rather than directly tested.
Conceptual difficulty
Moral identity: what is it, how does it develop, and is it linked to moral action? - Hardy et al. - Universiteit Utrecht
Moral identity: what is it, how does it develop, and is it linked to moral action?
Hardy & Carlo
Kohlberg was convinced that mature moral reasoning would inherently motivate moral action. But several factors have led to a greater interest in looking beyond moral reasonings: 1) moral reasoning is only a modest predictor of moral action. 2) highly moral people don't necessarily have unusually sophisticated moral reasoning capacities. This article: what is moral identity? How does it develop? Is it linked to moral action?
What is moral identity?
Moral identity: the degree to which being a moral person is important to a person's identity. Perspectives:
Blasi's self-model
Links between moral judgment and action: before leading to moral action, a moral judgement can pass through a judgment of responsibility such that an action is seen not only as moral but also as something the individual is responsible for doing. Criteria stem from individual differences in the extent to which being moral is central or essential to one's sense of self.
Moral identity as unity of morality and self
What differentiates highly moral people from others is the degree to which they experience unity between their sense of morality and their personal goals.
Role of schemas
Schemas are conceptualized as mental knowledge structures that represent various aspects of ourselves, our relationships and our experiences. Moral identity may entail having morally relevant schemas readily accessible for social information processing.
There are various ways to think about moral identity in terms of schemas: for some, moral identity is primarily about one particular moral schema (one social identity), for others, moral identity more broadly entails having a set of moral schemas (only one of which might be one's mental image of a moral person).
Trait and state moral identity
Social cognitive approaches: the importance of morality to a person's identity may be rather stable, to some extent the sense of moral identity may be constructed “moment to moment" and may be more or less in particular situations.
Deliberative and automatic aspects of moral identity
It is unclear whether deliberative processes (such as wanting to live in a manner consistent with one's identity) are the primary mechanisms of moral identity.
How does moral identity develop?
The merging of the moral and self-systems
Most accounts of moral identity formation argue that it likely involves the merging of moral development and identity development rather than a unique developmental system. In fact, it may be that morality and identity are two facets of the same developmental system. There is some evidence for the presence of early precursors of moral identity in childhood. Furthermore, the affective bases of moral identity (empathy, guilt and shame) emerge early in life and their integration with moral ideas and with one's sense of self are fundamental to moral identity formation.
Throughout childhood and
.....read more Microaggressions and depressive symptoms in sexual minority youth - Kaufman et al. - Universiteit Utrecht
Microaggressions and depressive symptoms in sexual minority youth
Kaufman, Baams, Dubas
Abstract
Verschillen in mentale gezondheid tussen seksuele minderheidsjongeren en heteroseksuele jongeren worden vaak verklaard door discriminatie en ervaren afwijzing. Hoewel veel studies zich richten op expliciete discriminatie, zijn de gevolgen van subtiele, dagelijkse discriminatie (“microaggressie”) van seksuele minderheidsjongeren onbekend. In een online studie onder 267 Nederlandse seksuele minderheidsjongeren (16-22 jaar oud) onderzochten wij de samenhang tussen seksuele microagressie en depressieve symptomen via emotie-regulatie (piekeren) en of deze gebufferd kon worden door sociale steun gericht op seksualiteit. Ervaringen met microaggressie waren indirect gerelateerd aan depressieve symptomen, via piekeren. Daarnaast vonden wij dat sociale steun deze verbanden niet bufferde. De bevindingen vragen om bewustwording van de mogelijk negatieve impact van subtiele discriminerende ervaringen, naast expliciete discriminatie, en de mogelijke negatieve gevolgen voor de mentale gezondheid die ontstaan als gevolg van emotionele dysregulatie zoals piekeren.
Intro
Sexual minority or lesbian, gay and bisexual youth report more depression, self-harm and suicidality compared to heterosexual youth. Mental health disparities are often explained using the minority stress framework: result of chronic exposure to stigma-related stressors, such as prejudice. But what about subtle everyday discriminations? > this study wants to find out! This study also investigates the role of sexuality-specific support.
Minority stress and depressive symptoms
Minority stress framework: members of sexual minority groups are chronically exposed to stigma-related stressors related to one's sexual minority group. Social stress theory: stigma-related prejudice evokes stress that leads to adverse mental health outcomes, such as depression.
Microaggression experiences and psychological well-being
Microaggressions: ‘brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities, whether intentional and unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative LGBT slights and assaults to the target group or person.’ Microaggressions may be especially stressful because their subtle character makes them socially legitimized. In addition, microaggressions may lack the intensity of blatant prejudice, but have a repetitive, day-to-day nature.
Studies suggest that microaggression experiences can have a negative impact on youth's mental health (emotional distress, depression, frustration). It is currently unknown whether microaggression experiences are also related to more severe psychological disturbances, such as depressive symptoms.
Microaggressions, rumination and depressive symptoms
Brooding: a type of ruminative emotion regulation, which is characterized by a focus on stress symptoms and its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to possible solutions to the problem. People who are stigmatized are thought to manage their devalued social identity and the required effort may diminish the resources they need to adaptively regulate their emotions.
Explicit forms of victimization is linked to rumination among sexual minority young and older adults. Moreover, research has shown that rumination explains the relation between explicit discrimination and psychological distress in sexual minority youth.
Potential buffers of the relation between microaggression experiences and depressive symptoms
Although social support can, in general, facilitate youth's adjustment, it has been suggested that social support functions best when it addresses the specific problems at hand. Previous research has shown that support directed at youth's sexual orientation can protect them from the negative impact of explicit prejudice. In addition, the impact of victimization on sexual minority adolescents’ distress has been shown to be buffered by having sexual minority friends. Further, feeling connected to the LGB community is linked to better mental
.....read more Less guilty by reason of adolescence - Steinberg et al. - Universiteit Utrecht
Less guilty by reason of adolescence
Steinberg & Scott
Authors argue that juveniles should not be held to the same standards of criminal responsibility as adults, because adolescents’ decision-making capacity is diminished, they are less able to resist coercive influence, and their character is still undergoing change. A few countries (since 1990) have executed individuals whose crimes were committed when they were juveniles > it is time to reexamine the constitutionality of the juvenile death penalty. In this article the broader question of whether juveniles should be punished to the same extent as adults who have committed comparable crimes.
Excuse and mitigation in the criminal law
Penal proportionality: proportionality holds that fair criminal punishment is measured not only by the amount of harm caused or threatened by the actor but also by his/her blameworthiness > whether, and in what ways, is the immaturity of adolescent offenders relevant to their blameworthiness and, in turn, appropriate punishment for their criminal acts?
Distinction excuse and mitigation
Excuse refers to the complete exculpation of a criminal defendant > he bears no responsibility for the crime and should receive no punishment.
Mitigation places the guiltiness of a guilty actor somewhere on a continuum of criminal guiltiness and, by extension, a continuum of punishment > actor is guilty, but the actor's capacities are sufficiently compromised, or the circumstances of the crime sufficiently coercive, to warrant less punishment than the typical offender would receive. For example, mental illness.
The public debate about criminal punishment of juveniles is often heated because people think they have to choose between adult punishment or excuse. Instead, there should be more attention to mitigation: a juvenile offender, owing to his developmental immaturity, should be viewed as less culpable (guilty) than a comparable adult offender, but not as an actor who is without any responsibility for the crime. In general, factors that reduce criminal culpability can be grouped roughly into three categories:
Endogenous impairments or deficiencies in the actor's decision-making capacity that affect his choice to engage in criminal activity. This deficiency can be due to mental illness or mental retardation, susceptibility to influence or domination.
The external circumstances (provocation, threatened injury, extreme need) faced by the actor are so compelling that an ordinary person might have succumbed to the pressure in the same way as did the defendant.
Evidence that the criminal act was out of character for the actor and that, unlike the typical criminal act, his crime was not the product of a bad character (but first offense, good citizenship, respect for the law's values).
Developmental immaturity and mitigation
Adolescents' levels of cognitive and psychosocial development are likely to shape their choices in ways that distinguish them from adults and that may undermine competent decision-making.
Decision-making capacities are immature, and autonomy is constrained > more vulnerable than adults to the influence of coercive circumstances that mitigate culpability for all persons.
Adolescents are still in the process of forming their personal identity > their criminal behavior is less likely than
Summary with Chapter 6: Adolescents by Valkenburg - 2017
Valkenburg Chapter 6 Adolescents
Generation digital
The time that adolescents spend using social media (more than three hours a day) has now surpassed the amount of time they spend on entertainment media or playing electronic games. They spend the least amount of time reading books or comic books. Adolescents aren't an homogenous group > divide: early adolescence (age 12-15) and late adolescence (age 16-19). Puberty is thought to begin at approximately eleven years of age and to conclude around fifteen.
Early adolescence
Characterized by intense physical changes that, in turn, affect adolescents’ emotions and cognition. Hypothalamus > sending signals to pituitary gland > start of puberty: first menstruation/ejaculation + intense state of sexual arousal.
Besides the noticeable physical changes that puberty brings, there are other, less obvious changes that have major consequences for the way teens think and behave. These changes take place in different regions of the brain and in different ways. Gray matter is responsible for information processing. White matter consists of the pathways that connect neurons to one another. During childhood, the volume of gray matter increases significantly in many regions of the brain. Around the start of puberty, gray matter starts to decline in volume: pruning > brain is beginning to function more efficiently. White matter increases in volume throughout late childhood and adolescence > faster and more efficient communication between the different regions of the brain. The maturity of the adolescent prefrontal cortex appears to depend on their motivation to keep their appointments, to structure their thoughts, and plan their activities.
Abstract thought and metacognition: formal-operational stage of Piaget. This thinking refers to thinking that is both logical and abstract. Moreover, early adolescents can reason hypothetically and think about what could happen in specific situations > engage in systematic problem solving. In addition to adolescents’ increasingly abstract thinking and problem-solving skills, their metacognitive skills improve significantly during this period. Once early adolescents have acquired metacognition, the ability to evaluate one’s own thoughts, they are better able to summarize what they have learned or what another person’s train of thought might have been. They can not only indicate what they know, but also say why they know it. As a result of these metacognitive skills, they are capable of introspection (that is, the ability to reflect on their own thoughts and emotions). Not surprisingly, while their metacognitive skills are increasing, their social cognition—their ability to interpret and anticipate others’ desires, emotions, and motives—is also improving.
Moderate discrepancy hypothesis: children and teens are most interested in media content that departs moderately from their level of cognitive and social-emotional development. Entertainment programs should not diverge too much in content or structure from their cognitive skills. Their advancing brain development means that speed and variety are the norm in this age group. It is not clear whether this new, fast-paced media entertainment environment is changing teens’ preferences for fast-paced entertainment or whether this entertainment environment is just catering to what today's teens gravitate toward. This influence is probably reciprocal. Compared to their younger peers, early adolescents prefer increasingly complex content but
.....read more Sexting within adolescents’ romantic relationships - Van Ouytsel et al. - Universiteit Utrecht
Van Ouytsel; Sexting within adolescents’ romantic relationships
Van Ouytsel
Introduction
Sexting: the sending of self-made sexually explicit pictures. Adolescent sexting mostly takes place within the context of establishing or maintaining romantic relationships. Mixed studies: some studies have found a positive association between engagement in sexting and perceived relationship quality, other researchers have found no or only limited evidence that sexting is related to higher relationship satisfaction among adults. Adults who engaged in the sending of sexually explicit text messages and images reported higher sexual satisfaction compared to those that did not engage in sexting.
Intimacy: feelings of closeness, connectedness, and boundedness within the romantic relationship. Passion refers to the motivations that romantic partners experience to be physically close to, physically attracted to, and sexually involved with their partner. Commitment refers to the commitment to love the romantic partner and to stay in the relationship for a longer period of time.
Research question: how adolescent sexting relates to perceptions of intimacy, passion, and commitment.
Results
Adolescents' perceptions of passion and higher levels of perceived verbal aggression were significantly related with their engagement in sexting. This means that youth who perceive their relationship as more passionate or perceived more verbal conflict within their romantic relationship, were more likely to engage in sexting. Having sexual intercourse was significantly related with sending sexually explicit photographs to the romantic partner, which indicates that youth who have engaged in prior sexual intercourse were more likely to have engaged in sexting. The relation between relationship length and having engaged in sexting was marginally significant.
Discussion
Using the theoretical constructs of the triangular theory of love, the results showed that higher feelings of sexual attraction, passion and sexual arousal towards a partner are found to be related to their engagement in sexting. The findings also echo recent research among an adult sample, which found that sexting was associated with a higher self-reported sexual satisfaction compared to non-sexters. This finding, coupled with a significant relationship between having had sexual intercourse and having sent a self-made sexually-explicit photograph is also in line with previous studies that found that sending self-made sexually explicit images is associated with adolescents' offline sexual behaviors.
There are no significant associations between perceptions of emotional intimacy or commitment and engagement in sexting behavior. Adolescents might rather engage in sexting out of the motivation to fulfill their needs for sexual intimacy than to sustain emotional connectedness with their partner.
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