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Lecture 6 Family relations
Part 1
How and why do (dynamics of) parents-adolescent relationships change during adolescence?
How are adolescents affected by (changing) experiences in the parent-adolescent relationship, and vice versa?
What is family?
Dictionary definition: married, 2-parent, biological offspring
But: different forms and sizes
Definition may be culture-dependent
Structures common ‘historically’ are not as common today
Ruggles:
Fragmentary household (1 parent, divorced etc.): increased
Extended households (multiple generations, family-units): decreased
In white and in non-white. But different slope of decrease and increase
In all societies, the family fulfills similar functions:
Socialization of children/adolescents
Enduring source of (practical/economic & emotional/social) support
Continuity of relationships across the life course = social embedding
The family as a system
Focus traditionally on mother (primary caregiver)-child/adolescent relationship
Family systems theory: an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence each other
System: set of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the environment
Interrelation: not A affects B, but A & B affect each other
Changing, self-organizing, and adapting to (changes in) its members and the outside environment
System is flexible, but strives for stability (= equilibrium: each person a particular role)
Family = cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Three aspects – family system theory
Holism
To understand family, not enough to look at members separately
Roles (e.g., caretaker)
Illustration of depression: mother can't take her role > influences the system > the child takes the ‘mother'-role
‘hierarchy’/structure
Organized into subsystems
By gender or generations
Dyadic relationship
Marital relationship
Parent-child relationship
Sibling relationship
Triadic level
Particular with both her parents
Family level/whole
Boundaries
At every level (subsystems, inside/outside)
Permeability varies across families
Permeability evolves over time
How much what happens when a specific subsystem of the family affects other subsystems or the entire family?
Spillover vs. Compensation
Associations between dyadic relationships within the whole family
When there are loose boundaries between subsystems
Spillover: do we see that what happens in a systems, affects what happens in other systems?
Compensation: do we see that what happens in a particular system, is compensated in another system?
Compartmentalization: systems are quite independent from each other
Sherill:
Interparental conflict > more than 2 times likely to also report higher levels of parent-adolescent conflict (within a day)
Interparental conflict > 2 times likely to also report higher levels of parent-adolescent conflict (1 day later)
Parent-adolescent conflict > 1,82x more likely interparental conflict
Presence of interparental conflict increases the odds of parent-adolescent conflict at a later moment in time, and vice versa = “spillover”
Mastrotheodoros:
Interparental conflict associated with higher levels of mother + adolescent anger > mother-adolescent conflict
Spillover
Conflict > mood > mother-adolescent conflict
Interparental conflict > mother + adolescent anger > mother-adolescent conflict = spillover
Kouros
Mother- & father-reports!
Marital quality > parent-adolescent relationship quality
“spillover” (same day)
Also vice versa: parent-adolescent relationship quality > marital quality
Lower marital quality > mother-adolescent relationship
“compensation” (next day)
“spillover” can be positive as well + some evidence for “compensation” in the family system
The family as a system
Adolescence: disruption of homeostasis
New balance/equilibrium needs to be found
Process of (family) adaption
3 influences:
Genotype
Shared environment
Unshared environment
Part 2
Parenting styles
Warmth/support - responsiveness
Control-demandingness
Combine > 4 parenting styles
Authoritative
High level of control, high level of responsiveness
Engage in adolescent in decision making (e.g., rules)
Encourage autonomy & independence
Involved & monitoring (positive way)
Open communication & trust
Authoritarian
High levels of control, low level of responsiveness
Strict rules & expectations
Discourage autonomy & independence
Punishment-heavy
Low open communication and trust
Lot of conflict in adolescence (they want to explore and make their own decisions)
Indulgent
Low levels of control, high levels of responsiveness
Very responsive to needs
Insufficient parental guidance
No behavioral expectations = no control/punishment
Adolescents require little self-regulation
Indifferent
Low levels of responsiveness, low levels of control
Not responsive to needs
Insufficient parental guidance
Provide basic needs, no more
Uninvolved, detached & disengaged
No communication & trust
Stability across time/development, specific behaviors change!
Parenting styles can have a huge impact on adolescent development/functioning.
They want more autonomy, make own decisions.
Authoritative
Independent & autonomous
Responsible
High confidence
Strong emotional parent-adolescent bond maintained
Problem solving & critical thinking
Authoritarian
Individuation interfered
Dependent & obedient
Low confidence
Low social competence
Rebellious adolescents
Passivity & lack of school interest
Indulgent
Less mature & responsible (not used to rules)
Conforming to peers
High confidence, but misbehavior
Impulsive
But: could be emotionally secure & independent
Indifferent
Impulsive
Delinquent
Early experimentation with sex, drugs, alcohol
Mature earlier (provide for themselves, no parent-role)
Academic underachievement
Important methodological considerations
Control vs. Control
Control in the context of high support/involvement vs. Low support/involvement
With high support/involvement: “monitoring”
With low support/involvement: “psychological control”
Psychological control vs. Behavioral control
Parental control in different environments
Example: safe environment or war (dangerous outside)
Cultural considerations
Are Asian parents authoritarian? (or protective/”strict-affectionate”?)
Adolescents accept more strict rules
Correlation between ethnic (minority) background and family environment
Still: “even though authoritative parenting is less common in ethnic minority families, its effects on adolescent development are beneficial in all ethnic groups”
Parenting styles & adolescent functioning
Cross-cultural comparison on: substance use, self-esteem, school performance, personal disturbances
Parenting styles relate to these outcomes in the same way in different countries.
Authoritative parenting more positive outcomes
Authoritarian parenting more negative outcomes
Part 3 – Changes in the (dynamic of the) parent-adolescent relationship
Parents and adolescents?
Challenge to deal with for parents
Teenage years are portraited as survival years for parents
“storm and stress”
Storm and stress
Hall & Freud
Detachment inside family > parent-adolescent conflict
Normal, healthy and inevitable
Universal/across cultures
Current scientific view
Yes:
Increase in conflict
Decreases in closeness
Adolescence perceived as most difficult developmental period
No:
Average, but variation across individuals
Minor arguments, do not undermine attachment (no universal detachment)
Not in all cultures (not universal)
Study: large individual differences in family constellations + change over time
Turbulent: low levels of support, high levels of negative interactions, parents more powerful than adolescents
Harmonious: relatively stable, followed by increase
Turbulent: increase, then decrease
Adolescent development isn't a vacuum
Developmental history of parent-child interaction patterns and relationship quality before adolescence = important predictor of how parents and adolescents go through adolescence period.
Laursen: perceived support
Most negative group decreased most in support compared to other relationships
Low negative group: decreased much less
The worse you go in adolescence, the worse you come out
Normative developmental changes
Longitudinal study De Goede in NL
Adolescents from high school
Support/warmth
Mother:
Early-mid adolescence: decreased support
Mid-late adolescence: increase by girls, stable by boys
Father:
Early-mid adolescence: decreased support
Mid-late adolescence: increase by girls, stable by boys
Conflict/negative interaction
Mother:
Steep increase in early-mid adolescence, particularly for girls
Mid-late: decrease for boys and girls
Fathers: similar pattern
Power
Mother:
Early-mid-late: decreases in both boys and girls
Fathers: similar pattern
Parent-adolescent relationship becomes more egalitarian over time
Normative developmental changes in sum:
From vertical to horizontal
From asymmetrical to symmetrical
From dependent to interdependent
Normative developmental changes: why? (particularly conflict)
What do parents and adolescent fight about?
Autonomy-related issues (control-issues)
Adolescents develop their autonomy (sense of independence, but different than independent). Autonomy is cognitive (opinions, discover who they are). Independence: behavioral
Making independent choices and decisions, having independent thoughts and feelings (> increased need for privacy)
Predictors/driving forces > autonomy > parent-adolescent conflict
Separation-individuation theory:
De-individualize from their parents
Evolutionary perspective:
Pubertal development (hormonal changes + individuation > sexual partner)
Parent-adolescent conflict as a predictor of reorganization/realignment of the parent-adolescent relationship
Maturational perspective
Cognitive development (question parental legitimacy of ‘control’ + egalitarian)
Expectancy violation-realignment theory
Discrepancies in autonomy/independence expectations initially, particularly timing autonomy <> self-regulation
Social domain theory
Parental control is effective depending on domain
Discrepancies in personal vs. Prudential/social-convention/moral domain issues
Is it indeed that higher level of conflict go together with lower levels of power?
Early – middle adolescence: Greater increase conflict = greater decrease support & smaller decreases in power (so, more power)
Middle to late adolescence: greater decrease conflict = greater increase support & greater decrease power
Individual differences in support, conflict & power co-occur
Conflict doesn't appear to drive more equality
We don’t know: conflict resolution/open communication vs. Conflict?
Important methodological consideration
Who is the best informant for information on the parent-adolescent relationship/parenting?
Also concerning parenting style!
What do you think?
Parent self-report?
Other parent
Adolescent self-report?
Observant
Study Mastrotheodoros
Findings typically suggest that adolescents experience less support than parents report to provide
But, these results: mothers and fathers report less support than adolescents
Maybe it is because of this sample
Findings typically suggest that adolescents experience higher control than parents report to provide
But, these results: parents report higher control than adolescents
From early to late adolescence: increasing convergence in parent and adolescent views of their relationships. At the end, the reporters are more on the same line.
Birth order
Assumption ‘traditionally’ that within each family the same process are at play for all parent-child dyads = siblings
But: family systems theory!
Parental differential treatment (PDT)?
Parent-adolescent relationship as unshared environment
Adolescence = increase parent-adolescent conflict > for all siblings when the eldest enters adolescence, or for each sibling when entering adolescence?
Individual development theory: each sibling experiences peak in conflict when they reach adolescence.
Learning from experience: only 1st-born experiences peak. 2nd-born trajectory is flatter (because they have already come through this experience and learn from their other children).
Spillover: 2nd-borns' peak happens at the same period in time as 1st-borns' peak. Higher conflict occurs when 2nd-borns are younger
Results: support for learning from experience + spillover
Why learning from experience?
Parents have better coping skills and new conflict resolution strategies
Areas of disagreement already resolved for 2nd-born
All motivated to avoid the stress of conflict with 1st-born
Why spillover?
Increase in conflict > spills over to relationship of parents with younger siblings
Part 4 – Changes in the parent-adolescent relationship & adolescent adjustment
Do parents matter for adolescent adjustment?
Yes: stage-environment fit theory
Parental behavior that does not fit with adolescents’ (changing) developmental needs = adolescent maladjustment
Parents need to be:
Sensitive/responsive
Involved
Encourage open communication
Trustful
Support autonomy & independence
> authoritative parenting
Empirical evidence (meta-analyses)
Rejection + control important for internalizing symptoms
In varying degrees for anxiety and depression
Anxiety: autonomy-granting
Depression: aversiveness
But: parent factors are not the only important factors (18/11%)
Externalizing symptoms
Warmth almost as important for internalizing and externalizing
Hostility more important for externalizing
Behavioral control important for both
Parents matter for adolescent adjustment, but...
Family systems theory: an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence each other
System = set of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the environment
Interrelation: not A affects B, but A & B affect each other
Bidirectional/reciprocal/transactional effects
Adolescents react to parents and changes in the parent-adolescent relationship
And vice versa: parents react to adolescents and adolescents may evoke changes in the parent-adolescent relationship
What is the strongest direction? Study Nelemans:
Maternal criticism leads to higher levels of adolescent depression, but also results for reverse effect = “vicious developmental cycle”
Longitudinal “child effects” for adolescents GAD symptoms. GAD symptoms > higher levels of perceived criticism = relationship erosion effect.
Bidirectional longitudinal associations for adolescent delinquency = vicious developmental cycle
Parenting needs to be: sensitive/responsive (both for adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms)
“spillover” from marital relationship > parent-adolescent relationship > adolescent adjustment (internalizing and externalizing)
Or: marital conflict > parent harsh discipline > externalizing problems
Impact of the parent-adolescent relationship can depend on:
Discrepancies in perceptions of the parent-adolescent relationship
NI: negative interaction/conflict
Mother:
Low levels of conflict adolescent + low levels of conflict mother > lowest levels of depression symptoms
Both agree high levels of conflict > highest levels of adolescent depressive symptoms (cumulative effect)
Father:
Both low levels of conflict > lowest levels of depressive symptoms
Adolescent high levels of conflict + father low levels of conflict > highest levels of depressive symptoms
When the father and adolescent are not on the same line > problem for adolescent
Other social relationships (e.g., peers)
Study:
Highest levels of externalizing behavior: high levels of power imbalance + low friendship quality and high friend externalizing behavior
High friendship quality, high friend antisocial + high friendship quality, low friend antisocial > lower levels of externalizing behavior (with both low and high levels of power imbalance)
Reitz:
Higher levels of positive parenting associated with lower levels of adolescent externalizing problems
Higher levels of friends externalizing problems associated with higher levels of adolescent externalizing problems
Long time: adolescent externalizing behaviors predicted of lower levels of positive parenting but when taking friends externalizing behaviors that was only significant related with higher levels of adolescent externalizing problems, but the parenting did not predict to this outcome anymore.
Thus: positive parenting wasn't associated with adolescent externalizing problems when friends’ externalizing problems were taken into account.
So: the impact of parenting can depend on other relationships
Genetic make-up > individual differences in sensitivity to parenting
Gene-environment correlation versus gene-environment interaction
Diathesis-stress/dual risk model: vulnerable individuals: negative environment > negative developmental outcomes
Differential susceptibility model: not genetic vulnerability, but genetic sensitivity: better or worse
Negative parenting > negative outcomes
Positive environment/parenting > positive outcomes
Graph
Low levels of parental criticism > genetics don't have impact
Combination of high genetic risk of MDD + high parental criticism > highest level of depressive symptoms
In line with diathesis-stress/dual risk model
In sum: parent matter for adolescent adjustment. But: within a larger system.
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Lecture 1
Part 1
10 risk behaviors
Alcohol
Delinquency
Gambling
Internet
“extreme sports”
Smoking
School
Unsafe sex
Softdrugs
Traffic
When being different becomes the norm: how microaggressions affect Dutch lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.
Who are adolescents?
Beginning: 10/11 years old children > you see differences in size and how old they look.
The end: physique that is like the adult level. So huge change in physical appearance, but also from being relatively immature to much more mature.
Defining adolescents
The period between the onset of sexual maturation and the attainment of adult roles and responsibilities.
The transition from:
“child” status (requires adult monitoring)
To “adult” status (self-responsibility for behavior)
Adolescents in action 1
Video ‘tieners reageren op Nederland verwelkomt Trump’
The adolescents understand this form of comedy and can reflect on it and can see what other countries think.
Part 2
The health paradox of adolescence
Adolescence is the healthiest and most resilient period of the lifespan
From childhood to adolescence:
Increase strength, speed, mental reasoning, immune function
Resistance to cold, heat, hunger, dehydration, and most types of injury
Yet: overall morbidity and rates increase 200-300% from childhood to late adolescence
Sources of morbidity and mortality in adolescence:
Primary causes of death/disability are related to problems of control of behavior and emotion.
Increased rates of accidents, suicides, homicides, depression, alcohol & substance use, violence, reckless behaviors, eating disorders, health problems related to risky sexual behaviors
Increased risk-taking, sensation-seeking, and erratic (emotionally influenced) behavior
Recognized for a long time
Youth are heated by Nature as drunken men by wine – Aristotle
I would that there were no age between ten and twenty-three …. for there is nothing in between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting... - Shakespeare
Scientific questions (Ronald Dahl)
What is the empirical evidence that adolescents are heated by Nature?
Are these changes based in biology?
In the hormones of puberty?
In specific brain changes that underpin some behavioral and emotional tendencies & problems that emerge in adolescence?
What are the implications for interventions? Should we intervene?
If we don't intervene
Onset of problems such as nicotine dependence, alcohol and drug use, poor health habits, etc. Will show up as mortality in adulthood.
Many adult onset problems such as depression can be traced to early episodes in adolescence.
The father
.....read moreLecture 3
Part 1 – adolescent cognitive development
Conditional reasoning/propositional logic: Classic Modus Ponens (MP) inference: if p then q
What is cognition?
Cognition: aspects of mind related to the acquisition, modification, and manipulation of knowledge in particular contexts
Cognitive development: changes in how an individual thinks, solves problems, and changes in memory, attention and information processing
Two perspectives in text: Piagetian and Information Processing
Piagetian perspective: focuses on what are the changes that we see all people go to
Information processing perspective: how do we process information? How does this change across time? Based on individual differences.
Textbook: adolescent thinking compared to children differ in (at least) 5 ways
Better at thinking about what is possible
Children: focus on here and now
Better at thinking about what is abstract
More often think about the process of thinking – able to think about how they think about things (metacognition)
Thinking is multidimensional (what persons say, how they say it and what they mean)
Able to see things as relative rather than absolute (not black - white)
Cognitive development during adolescence: a Piagetian perspective
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist
Stage Theory of Cognitive Development (individuals in different stages think differently)
How thinking changes in varies stages of adolescence. Piaget believed that children were active instructors of their knowledge (not only teachers/parents).
Stages | Age | Brief Description |
Sensorimotor | 0–2 | Cog. dev. involves learning how to coordinate activities of the senses with motor activities
|
Preoperational | 2–7 | Capable of representing the world symbolically (e.g. language) |
Concrete Operations | 7–11 | Become more adept at using mental operations which leads to a more advanced understanding of the world
|
Formal Operations | 11–15+ | Allows adolescents to reason about more complex tasks and problems involving multiple variables
|
Cognitive development during adolescence: a Piagetian perspective
Formal operations – final stage of cognitive development
Concrete: discuss world as it is
Formal: as it might be/become
Increase in ability for abstraction/abstract thought, speculation about the future
--> Allows an individual to place their lives in a personal and societal perspective
Needed to: achieve identity, form goals, select an occupation
Adolescent cognitive abilities
Understand impact of: past on present, present on future
How one thing relates to another
Greater capacity to evaluate immediate and long-range costs and benefits
World as might be, ought to be
Formal operations: 4 overlapping
.....read moreLecture 4
Morality: right and wrong. How do we know what is right/wrong?
Trolley problem 1
There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead there are 5 people tied to the tracks. You are standing near a level that will switch the trolley to a different track where 1 person is tied.
Should you pull the lever to divert the runaway trolley onto the sidetrack?
Clash between utilitarianism – (actions that maximize happiness and well-being) and deontological ethics – the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences of that action…
2 options: do nothing and allow the trolley to kill 5 people, or pull the lever divert the train and kill one?
Trolley problem 2
A trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will pass, and you can stop it by putting something very heavy in front of it. There is a very fat man next to you – your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track, killing him to save five. Should you proceed?
Most people: do nothing, don't push an innocent person.
This solution is essentially an application of the doctrine of double effect, which says that you may take action which has bad side effects, but deliberately intending harm (even for good causes) is wrong.
Different rationale for making the same decision.
Trolley problem
A moral dilemma is a conflict in which you have to choose between two or more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each action.
Trolley problem 1:
Utilitarianism (greatest good; 1 person dead is better) vs. Deontological ethics (moral action regardless of consequence; putting the lever gets you involved in a situation > you become in a criminal act)
Trolley problem 2:
Utilitarianism: push the person
Deontological: you don't push the person. Don't get involved.
Nature-nurture debate on moral development
Biological/evolutionary viewpoint
Developmental process of maturation. Morality rises because of this maturation.
Nature of the human being is ‘good’. Something built into us: we recognize who is helpful or not > nature of human is good.
Cultural viewpoint
Developmental process of interiorization/internalization
Nature of the human being is ‘bad’
Teach people to have certain values (not built into us). Teach the child to move the original sin.
Interactionist viewpoint
Nature of the human being is morally neutral, neither good nor bad. It depends on what happens and how they interact and mature
Lecture 5 Self and Identity
Part 1 - Introduction
Video: what kind of elements of identity do you recognize?
Everybody wears a mask
Insecurity, focus on others
Different faces > multiple identities
Showing her true face > search for autonomous identity: being yourself
Social/peer identities, peer groups
Why is identity an adolescent issue?
Biological changes
Puberty
Appearance
Changes on the outside have an impact on how one perceives oneself.
Cognitive changes
More self-conscious
Develop a future orientation
Imagine themselves from the outside, different time, able to consider different types of identities that they may want to adopt.
Social changes
Norms and values
Social choices
Educational choices
What is important for them?
Identity
Who am I?
Personal identity: who am I in terms of sense of self
Central is the process of figuring out who one is
Social identity: who am I in terms of group memberships
Identifying with social group
Central is one's sense of belonging to social groups
These identities may influence ones believes about oneself > self-concept
Mental image that one has about oneself
Views about oneself, including:
Values
Attributes
Goals
Self-esteem
Competence
Self-concept clarity (consistent self-concept)
Identity + self-concept > the self (the totality of me)
Part 2 – personal identity
Erikson's identity development
Adolescence = psychosocial moratorium
Time gap between childhood security and adult autonomy
Adolescents experiment with numerous roles and identities
Sense of insecurity: what is the future? What am I going to do?
Crisis in adolescence
Identity diffusion versus achievement
Identity diffusion: failure to form a stable and secure identity
Identity achievement: establishing a clear and definite sense of who you are and how you fit into the world around you
Erikson: achievement by end of adolescence
Characteristics that can help you to achieve identity achievement:
Mental and emotional capacity (so, not possible before end of adolescence)
Interactions with others (others serve as a mirror)
Exploration (trying out possibilities, only possible in environment that gives you the opportunity to explore)
Commitment (making choices among alternatives. Making decisions: who are you?)
Marcia's 4 stages model (extension of Eriksons model)
4 markers: commitment vs crisis/exploration
Absent/present
Lecture 6 Family relations
Part 1
How and why do (dynamics of) parents-adolescent relationships change during adolescence?
How are adolescents affected by (changing) experiences in the parent-adolescent relationship, and vice versa?
What is family?
Dictionary definition: married, 2-parent, biological offspring
But: different forms and sizes
Definition may be culture-dependent
Structures common ‘historically’ are not as common today
Ruggles:
Fragmentary household (1 parent, divorced etc.): increased
Extended households (multiple generations, family-units): decreased
In white and in non-white. But different slope of decrease and increase
In all societies, the family fulfills similar functions:
Socialization of children/adolescents
Enduring source of (practical/economic & emotional/social) support
Continuity of relationships across the life course = social embedding
The family as a system
Focus traditionally on mother (primary caregiver)-child/adolescent relationship
Family systems theory: an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence each other
System: set of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the environment
Interrelation: not A affects B, but A & B affect each other
Changing, self-organizing, and adapting to (changes in) its members and the outside environment
System is flexible, but strives for stability (= equilibrium: each person a particular role)
Family = cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Three aspects – family system theory
Holism
To understand family, not enough to look at members separately
Roles (e.g., caretaker)
Illustration of depression: mother can't take her role > influences the system > the child takes the ‘mother'-role
‘hierarchy’/structure
Organized into subsystems
By gender or generations
Dyadic relationship
Marital relationship
Parent-child relationship
Sibling relationship
Triadic level
Particular with both her parents
Family level/whole
Boundaries
At every level (subsystems, inside/outside)
Permeability varies across families
Permeability evolves over time
How much what happens when a specific subsystem of the family affects other subsystems or the entire family?
Spillover vs. Compensation
Associations between dyadic relationships within the whole family
When there are loose boundaries between subsystems
Spillover: do we see that what happens in a systems, affects what happens in other systems?
Compensation: do we see that what happens in a particular system, is compensated in another system?
Compartmentalization: systems are quite independent from each other
Sherill:
Interparental conflict >
Lecture 7 Peers
Book ‘The nurture assumption’: peers play a big role in development of youth (instead of (only) the parents)
Part 1 - Importance of peers across adolescence
Higher in needs fulfillment when you fulfilled the lower needs (survival needs) > belongingness and love needs and esteem needs. These are psychological needs.
Importance also visible in the brain: social relationships. Example: exclusion from playing a game: social pain when excluded (analogous in its neurocognitive function to physical pain).
Peers become more central in adolescence
Time spent with family decreases
Time spent with peers increases
Peers compared to parents in adolescence
Differences between the two relationships
Parents = vertical (parents are more powerful), peers = horizontal relationship
Being equal in experiences, characteristics etc.
Shift from parents to friends as main source of support and happiness
Discuss with friends for romantic issues, emotional issues;
Discuss with parents for career/education issues;
Thus: relationships are different and friends become more important
Peers vs friends
Peers
Large network of same-age peers
Friends
People you know, like and with whom you develop a valued, mutual relationship (broad definition)
More specifically:
Mutual liking
Emotional closeness
Loyalty
Reciprocal validation of self-worth
General support
Time spent together
Childhood vs adolescence
From shared activities (childhood) to intimacy: trust, loyalty, self-disclosure > relying on each other
Why? It requires a certain role-play: perspective-taking, keep their own views and other's views in mind at the same time (that's complex to do)
Social competences therefore increasingly important (conflict management, perspective-taking etc.)
From same-sex to mixed-sex
And “friends with benefits”
From dyads (2) and small groups (3-4) to cliques (5-6) or larger crowds (these are larger to contain)
“Subcultures” used to form identity > understand who you are
Selection vs influence
Friends are often similar to each other
Is this due to selection or influence?
Research:
On the one hand: due to selection. Principles of interpersonal attraction:
Proximity (being close by)
Homophily/similarity (in values, interests, characteristics)
Adolescents: orientation toward school, leisure activity, SES, ethnicity (perhaps due to attitudes/prejudice)
Reciprocity
So: selection plays a role > “birds of a feather flock together”
But, parents also play a role in this selection process
Expressing disapproval
Type of school
Neighborhood
Extra-curricular activities
Adolescent personality & behavior
Lecture 8
Part 1 – adolescents in school
Schools:
Educate young people: prepare them for adulthood
Define young persons’ social world
Context in which they spend most of their waking hours
Shape their psychosocial development
Classroom factors:
Classroom climate
Teachers' expectations
Instructional quality
Emphasis on performance vs learning (grades)
Friends' engagement
Peer norms
Social organizations of schools
School transition at age 12
Educational tracks
Select school
Admission by lottery
School size
Part 2 – Dutch school system
NL: freedom of education
Guiding principle in educational governance is article 23 of the Constitution:
Education shall be the constant concern of the Government
All persons shall be free to provide education (start their own school), without prejudice to the authorities’ right of supervision
Then: protestants vs Catholics
Now: many different school types
Based on religion
Based on teaching philosophy
Relatively easy to change teaching principles as long as it meets the quality criteria
Consequences of freedom of education for classroom climate
Diversity educational approaches
Relatively large differences in learning outcomes in different schools
Consistency values home & school
Segregation: similar peers
“free-market system” (popularity of schools varies > competition between schools)
NL: early educational tracking
Level on which they receive their teaching
Red countries: single school for both primary and lower secondary education
Pink: transition between primary and lower secondary education, but still with common core curriculum for students
Blue: differentiated branches/tracks
Decrease in combined educational tracks in the 1st year of secondary school
E.g., havo-vwo
Consequences of early educational tracking for classroom climate
Instruction adapted to level of understanding > teaching is more efficiently
Similar performing classmates
Achievement constrained by level of instruction
Less contact between different social groups
Lower status of vocational pathways
Selection based on?
Test scores standardized achievement test
Also based on achievement motivation and work ethic of the student
Lower level advised to students with low SES parents > unequal opportunities
But: reading level at age 15 overlaps (PISA)
Maybe students become different because we put them in different tracks
How is the Dutch system doing?
PISA scores 2018: Netherlands score average on performance, but in regard to variation, there is more variance in comparison with other countries
Conclusion: the way a society organizes a school system shapes the experiences of adolescents in the classroom.
Part 3 – school transition
School transition involves many changes
Lecture 9 Media use
Adolescents are heavy users of media.
How does this media use impact the development? (2)
How does adolescent development influence media use? (1)
Moderate discrepancy hypothesis (MDH)
Children and adolescents are predominantly attracted to entertainment that deviates only moderately from the things they know, understand, and are capable of.
Children and adolescents are not or less interested in entertainment that deviates too much from their existing framework and experiences.
Developmental approach: Hypothesis is a viable explanation of why media preferences differ so much among different age groups. As children develop, they learn and understand more, so what attracts them in media also changes.
Children and adolescents like to be challenged, but not too much. It has to relate to the things they know.
Media can be used to gratify certain needs. Individuals select media to gratify needs that they have (e.g., needs to lift your mood (> choose a happy song))
Needs are determined by developmental level
Depends on different situational and individual factors, including development
Five main developmental characteristics that inform needs and gratifications
Identity exploration
Autonomy and self-efficacy
Peer orientation (and romantic partners)
Emotionality and sensation seeking
Physical development (hormonal changes)
Changes in appearance
Interest in sex (curious and questions)
Impact on mood (moody, fluctuations in mood)
Link to media
Needs in media preferences
Adolescents have a need for information: insecure about bodies, interest in sex > what should a body look like? What is attractive?
Media can used to seek advice about these topics
Risky consequence: e.g., boys asking girls for nude selfies, difficult to oversee the consequences
Physical development
Pruning: decline grey matter > more efficient processing
Cell bodies and synapses
‘Use it or lose it’
Explains why after this process of pruning, it becomes much harder to learn new things
Cognitive development
Formal operational thinking: logical, abstract hypothetical, problem-solving, interest in future
Only completely in place at the end of adolescence
Adolescents will switch between concrete and formal operational thinking
Disadvantages:
Egocentrism is on overdrive. They imagine this audience: what would other people think about what I’m doing?
This all has implications for media use
Media implications
More complexity in story lines
More complex characters
Topic that deal with big world issues > war movies, science fiction
Fast-pace media which stimulates problem-solving skills
Multiple levels: not easily get bored
Lecture 10 Love and sex
Part 1 &2 – Adolescent romance
Not only being in a romantic relationship, but also:
Daydreaming about the person in front of you in class with whom you have never spoken
Claims to have a boyfriend, but denied by the boy
Talk on phone everyday (or texting), but never seen in public together for fear of being ridiculed
Going together but only spend time together with other members of their crowd
Going steady for 3 years (the “real” thing)
Fantasies to interactions to relationships = romantic experiences
Romance
Love or romance is central theme in 68% of pop music
One of top 5 script themes for adolescent characters on TV
Adolescent girls attribute 34% of their strong emotions to real or fantasized heterosexual relationships
Adolescent boys 25%
Substantially higher than any other topic
Organizing principles of peer culture
Focal topic of conversation in leisure time
Romantic relationship
Romantic Relationship = mutually acknowledged ongoing voluntary interactions.
Compared to other peer relationships, romantic ones typically have a distinctive intensity, commonly marked by expressions of affection and current or anticipated sexual behavior.
Applies to same-gender, as well as mixed-gender, relationships.
Romantic experiences
Refers to activities and processes that include romantic relationships and also behavioral, cognitive, and emotional phenomena that do not involve direct experiences with a romantic partner.
Includes:
fantasies and one-sided attractions (“crushes”),
interactions with potential romantic partners (including flirting) and
Brief, nonromantic sexual encounters (e.g., “hooking up,” or casual involvement in activities usually thought to take place with romantic partners, from “making out” to intercourse)
Adolescent romance
Romantic relationships support the development of interpersonal skills and promote a sense of identity.
Experiment with romantic relations
may facilitate healthy relations in adulthood.
Opportunities to gain skills in the expression and regulation of emotions, empathy and intimacy.
Developmental progression of romantic and sexual interest and behavior
8-11 (Pre and early puberty) adrenarche
First crush
Sexual attraction
Sexual arousal
More awareness of social rules
12-17 Mid and late puberty
Gender intensification
Gender binary
conformity increases and then subsides
Romantic relationships
Duration longer
More intense
Some life-long partners
Sexual Experiences increase
Not until adolescence do truly intimate relationships first emerge
Characteristics of true intimacy:
Openness, honesty, self-disclosure, and trust
Intimacy becomes an important concern due to changes of
Puberty
Cognitive changes
Lecture 11 Alcohol use and delinquency
Intro
Under the influence of alcohol, youth are at higher risk to be involved in aggressive behavior and violent behaviors.
Part 1 – alcohol use and delinquency
Do the Dutch drink?
Underage drinking
13 years old > monthly drinking = 8.8%
15 year old drinkers > binge drinking = 70.8%
Are they delinquent?
Self-reported criminal behavior (at least one delinquent act in the last 12 months):
12-17 year
2010: 38%
2015: 35%
10/11 year old
2010/2015: 20%
Most prevalent delinquent acts:
Violence acts
Threatening
Vandalism
Registered minor suspects:
50% fewer registered minor suspects in 10 year
Part 2 – Similarities and differences between alcohol use and delinquency
Shared similarities
Interrelated
Correlated and co-occurrence
Table: number of offenses and prevalence rate of different drinking behaviors. Those adolescents who were not involved in any offense, half of them had drunk alcohol at least once in their life. Number of kids that had been involved in lifetime drinking, increases in amount of offenses
Longitudinal predictions: most studies find no predictive effect of alcohol use on delinquency, whereas delinquency mostly is a significant predictor of alcohol use
Peak in adolescence
Predictor of other risk behaviors (e.g., drug use, risky sex)
Shared underlying mechanisms (e.g., self-control, peers)
Importance of parental control and warmth
Decline in recent years
decline started from 2006/2007 onwards
Registered minor suspects: also a decline starting from 2006/2007
What is going on there?
Differences
Development
Alcohol use: increases up to at least 25 years
Delinquency: decline 18 year onwards
Across gender
Alcohol use: hardly any differences between boys and girls
Delinquency: boys are more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior than girls
Representation ethnic minorities
Alcohol use: less likely to drink
Delinquency: more likely to be involved
Behavior-specific vs general parenting
Age restriction
Alcohol-specific rules/communication
Delinquency: general parenting
No age restriction
Level of control and support are important in both parenting behaviors
Four different parenting styles
Neglectful: these kids are most likely to drink and engage in risky behaviors
Balance between control and support – alcohol use
Most of the parents in authoritative/average authoritative group
Lecture 12 Depression, self-harm and suicide
Moods and emotions
Relatively sudden changes in both positively- and negatively valanced affect
The intensity and/or frequency of negative emotion peaks in early adolescence
Young adolescents also experience less positive emotions
Emotions become more complex with a comprehension of mixed emotions
Dramatic changes of mood
The incidence of dysphoric or depressed moods radically increases, especially for girls
Social aspects of emotion expression and regulation become more developed
Increased in the ability to mask emotions
The use of emotion to manage relationships
Yet, emotional expression during early adolescence
The social referencing aspects of emotion become highly attuned
in early adolescence, there is a sharp increase in the awareness of other's perceptions of the self, and therefore shame
More daily fluctuations in self-esteem
Adolescents are more “moody” or variable in their emotions across the course of a day or week
Changes in negative and positive mood in mid-adolescence
Significant drop in positive mood, no change in negative mood
Mood variability across adolescence using daily internet diaries
Three times a year at age 13-18
4 different moods: happiness, sadness, angry, anxiety
Steady decrease across mid- to late adolescence in variability
Anxiety: does not show the same pattern, slight decrease but not an entire decrease
Moodiness decreases across adolescent period
Depression in all its forms
Depression: an enduring period of sadness
Depressed mood: an enduring period of sadness, without any other related symptoms
Depressive syndrome: sadness plus other symptoms such as crying, feelings of worthlessness, and feeling guilty, lonely or worried
Major depressive disorder: depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities plus 4 of other symptoms (for at least 2 weeks)
Clinical valuation on slide
Gender differences in CDI depression in mid-adolescence
Girls show higher levels of depression than boys
Depression over the lifespan
5-9: boys are more depressed than girls, but as soon as adolescence hit, then girls show higher rates of depressive disorders than boys. Across the lifespan, women show higher levels of depression than men.
But: men also show a significant increase in depression across the lifespan as well.
Self-harm
NSSI: non-suicidal self-injury
What is self harm?
A variety of behaviors in which an individual intentionally inflicts harm to his or her body for purposes not socially recognized or sanctioned and without suicidal intent
Includes: see slide
Prevalence
4% of adults report a history
14% of adolescents
High
Lecture 12a suicide and related problems in adolescence
Suicide in the Netherlands
1% of all deaths
Males commit suicide 2 times more than females
Cause of death of young people in NL
10-25 years
Traffic accidents
Suicide
25-40 years
Suicide
40-60 years
Health related causes
Suicide
Methods of suicide
men: violent method: 50% hanging, 1 in 9 jump in front of train (more often among youth)
Women: less violent: 33% hanging, 25% medication overdose, 1 in 9 jump in front of train (more often in youth)
Leading cause of death US youth
Second cause of death
Also a high homicide rate
Across various ages:
Suiciding is the leading cause of death among individuals between 1 and 65 years of age
Suicide methods US: children and others
Availability of guns > firearms is the leading methods, then suffocation/hanging, ingestion, CO poisoning, jumping from a height, cutting, other causes
Suicide rates by race/ethnicity
Males are more likely to attempt suicide
Rural areas
Frequency of suicidal ideation and attempts
Thinking of suicide > ideation > attempt > suicide
Once one attempts suicide, they are more likely to do it again (15-fold)
Most common diagnoses in teen suicides:
Depression
Antisocial
Substance abuse
Anxiety
Despite the high rates of depression, among those who commit suicide, 24% who have completed suicide, were prescribed antidepressants, but zero found at autopsy: lack of using antidepressants > increases changes of suicide
Why do males complete more suicides than females, even though females are more likely to attempt suicide?
Gender paradox of suicidal behavior:
Areas with lower prescription rates (antidepressants), the rates of suicide are higher
If males are not going into doctors to get treatment, then this could be a potential explanation for why we see more suicides completions among males
Factors that predispose to suicide
Personal characteristics
Psychopathology
History of prior suicide attempt
Cognitive and personality (hopelessness & poor interpersonal problem-solving)
Homosexuality
Biological factors
Family characteristics
Family history of suicidal behavior
Higher rates of parental psychopathology
Non-intact families
Impaired parent-child relationships
Adverse life circumstances
Stressful life events
Childhood physical abuse
Sexual abuse
Contextual factors
Lecture 12b the end of adolescence
When does adolescence end?
In the past – criteria that have been used to mark entry into adulthood include:
Events such as marriage, child-bearing
Important responsibilities to provide, protect, and procreate – duties towards others
Gender-specific criteria
Average age of marriage in the Netherlands 1950-2018
Shift in percentage who marry + older ages
Average age of the mother at the birth of a child in NL in 2018
29,9. Age of marriage: 35
Shift in society to say that we don't need to marry first to have children
Demographic distinctions
Median age of marriage and child birth is now much later than it was in the past
Young people attend school and college longer than in the past
In addition, more young people are going to college before starting work
From jobs to career
Arnett's theory of emerging adulthood
Influenced by theories of
Erikson: prolonged adolescence
Love, work, worldviews
Levinson: novice phase 17-33
Keniston: youth (role exploration)
What is emerging adulthood?
In Western cultures, could last from about 18 until the mid 20's
A life period which is typically characterized by an ongoing exploration of, and experimentation with possible life directions
Young people have left the dependency of childhood and adolescence, but have not entered the enduring responsibilities of adulthood
Emerging: it is a process of becoming an adult
In Western cultures
Young people no longer consider marriage and other events (such as finishing school, getting a job, etc.) as criteria for adulthood
They emphasize the capacity of the individual to stand alone as a self-sufficient person as the criterion for adulthood
Top 3 criteria defining adulthood
Responsible behavior, accept one's responsibility
Autonomous, independent decision making
Financial independence
Individualistic qualities of character
Criteria like chronological age and role transitions ranked very low
5 aspects of emerging adulthood
Age of identity exploration
Trying out various possibilities, especially in love and work
Difference between US and European educational system
Us: university level: orientation where you can study different areas before you make a choice of your major
European: more specialized, stronger connection to the work that you will be doing
Difference between US and Southern Europe versus Nothern Europe in cohabitation (become smaller)
Cohabitation more common in Northern Europe
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