Adolescence: Exploring Cultural Constructs, Historical Perspectives, and Global Variations

Adolescence: A Cultural Construct - Almost all cultures recognize “adolescence” as a life period - The length, content, and daily experience differs across cultures - Different cultures define adult status, roles, and responsibilities differently Adolescence in Western Cultures: A Brief History - Adolescent in Ancient Times - Plato and Aristotle: Adolescence was the third distinct stage of life, from Ages 14 to 21 - Aristotle: Children are like animals, ruled by impulse - Children’s crusade 1212 - Adolescence from 1500 to 1890 - Life-cycle service - After industrialization, institutions of social control developed - The Age of Adolescence, 1890-1920 - Child labor was widespread in the 1800s - Adolescence became a term in the late 19th century - New laws restricting child labor and requiring school attendance marked A distinction between adolescence and adulthood - G. Stanley Hall and the study of adolescence - Recapitulation - Storm and stress From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood - Adolescence Arrives Earlier - Median age has gone from 13-15 to 10 years - Social change, not biological - Hall designated the end of adolescence as age 24 - Emerging adulthood - Distinctive Features of Emerging Adulthood - Emerging adulthood is a time of - Identity explorations - Instability - Self-focus - Feeling in-between - Possibilities/optimism - Identity explorations - Trying out possibilities in love and work - Developing an identity - Who they are - Their capabilities and limitations - Their beliefs and values - How they fit into society - Instability - Residential change - Self-focus - Become more independent, self-sufficient - Focus on themselves to develop knowledge, skills, and self-understanding to Prepare for adulthood - Feeling in-between - Transitional period, not quite an adult - Possibilities/optimism - Little has been decided - Marked by optimism and great expectations - Have left home but not committed to a new relationship - Emerging Adulthood - Does not exist in all cultures - Mainly in developed cultures - Recent phenomenon The Transition to Adulthood - The transition to Adulthood: Cross-Cultural Themes - Legally, happens at age 18 - Markers include - Accepting responsibility for oneself - Making independent decisions - Becoming financially independent - Individualism - Collectivism - The transition to Adulthood: Cultural Variations - In traditional, non-western cultures it is marked by marriage - Interdependence - Also marked by chronological age or physical development, and character Qualities, such as self-control The Scientific Study of Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood - The scientific method - Identify a research question - Form a hypothesis - Choose a research method and a research design - Collect data to test the hypothesis - Draw conclusions and form new questions and hypotheses - Ethics in Human Development Research - Institutional Review Board has ethical guidelines - Protection from physical and psychological harm - Informed consent prior to participation - Confidentiality - Deception and debriefing Methods and Designs in Research - Research Methods - Questionnaires - Closed-questions - Open-ended questions - Interviews - Qualitative data - Quantitative data - Observations - Ethnographic research - Case studies - Biological measurements - Experimental research - Experimental research method - Experimental group vs. control group - Independent variable vs. dependent variable - Interventions - Natural experiments - Adoption studies - Twin studies - Monozygotic twins - Dizygotic twins - Reliability and validity - Reliability: Consistency of measurements - Validity: Measures what it claims to measure - More difficult to establish - Research designs - Cross-sectional - Sample of people on single occasion - Correlation: Positive and negative - Correlation vs causation - Longitudinal - Same people are followed over time - Attrition Adolescence Around the World: A Brief Regional Overview - Sub-Saharan Africa - Challenges to physical health - Tradition is important - Birth rate is high - North Africa and the Middle East - Muslim religion is predominant - Patriarchal authority - Dominance of men over women - Globalization having an impact - Asia - Both highly industrialized and recently industrialized countries - Confucianism - Filial piety - Emphasis on education - India - Hindu and Muslim religions - No compulsory education for children - High illiteracy - Child labor widespread - Caste system - Latin America - Political stability - Economic growth - Birth rate has declined - The West - Includes Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand - Stable, democratic, and affluent - High access to education - More leisure times - Minority groups disadvantaged in education and employment Other Themes of the Text - Interdisciplinary Approach - Primarily psychology - Anthropology - Sociology - Medicine - Education - History - Gender Issues - Differences in cultural expectations - In the west, gender differences are blurred - But they still exist - Globalization - Global village - Adolescents have similar experiences because of travel and the internet - Bicultural identities