Chapter 10.PDF

Chapter 10 The Social World of Adolescence Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: 10.1 Explain the instability of adolescent autonomy and the shift from parent to peer dependency. 10.2 Describe the s...

Chapter 10 The Social World of Adolescence Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: 10.1 Explain the instability of adolescent autonomy and the shift from parent to peer dependency. 10.2 Describe the structure and characteristics of peer relationships in adolescence and explain how they shape social identity. 10.3 Describe adolescent views of parental authority and discuss common sources of parent–adolescent conflict as well as the positive and negative effects of various parental approaches. 10.4 Identify elements of schooling that support adolescents’ developmen- tal needs and promote academic success across ethnic/racial groups. 10.5 Discuss research-based evidence of positive and negative effects of extracurricular activities, jobs, and media consumption on ado- lescent behavior and attitudes and suggest guidelines that reduce risks and promote beneficial outcomes. 10.6 Analyze various views of risky adolescent behavior including adolescent reasoning and adult concerns and suggest appropriate patterns of parenting and intervening in the context of managing risks. 10.7 Weigh contrasting views of adolescent problem behavior including attitudes about adolescent self-sufficiency and adult/societal responsibility. Sixteen-year old Ashley is having a hard time falling asleep again. Her phone beeps incessantly with new text messages, which she reads immediately. After coming home from school, she checked Instagram and discovered a photo of her new boyfriend par- tying with girls in the grade above hers. This upset her so much that she couldn’t finish her homework and got into another argument with her mother about cleaning her room. Ashley thinks her mom wouldn’t understand and that sharing this embar- rassing discovery with her would only start another disagreement. A week ago, her mother overheard Ashley talking with a friend about obtaining birth control, and that sparked a real battle. She hasn’t told her parents about her new boyfriend because she fears it will create a lot more drama in her life, which she really doesn’t need right now. 388  The Social World of Adolescence 389 Instead, she has been texting her friends most of the night and has gotten their advice. Her close friends have agreed to go with Ashley to confront the older girls about the humiliating photo. She’ll tell her mother she’s going to the library to study and can’t be home for dinner. She’s a little worried about the social studies presentation sched- uled for the next day, because she hasn’t had time to prepare. But right now, she can’t concentrate on anything else. The search for identity is considered the primary developmental task of the ado- lescent period. In this chapter, you will find that the outcome of an adolescent’s search is very much affected by the social world. Peers play a critical role, and so do par- ents, schools, neighborhoods, technology, and the larger culture. All are influenced by the social, political, economic, and historical context in which the adolescent’s identity is formed. Despite the power of macrosystem influences, much of the day- to-day action affecting adolescent social development occurs within the peer context. Although benefits to autonomy accrue from increased social exposure, certain kinds of peer-related experiences, like being rejected or being exposed to deviant behavior, have been associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems (Lansford, Dodge, Fontaine, Bates, & Pettit, 2014). Parents and families are an especially powerful influence, although the changes that occur over the adolescent period shift relation- ships with parents to ones that are characterized by greater mutuality than in earlier stages of development. Increasing needs for autonomy result in less disclosure to par- ents, especially about personal information. Parents, like Ashley’s, may have no idea about some of the concerns their children face in school and in other social settings. Despite this, the importance of family relationships for adolescents remains constant. Just how these relational shifts play out, what benefits they offer to adolescents, and what potential pitfalls they present will be discussed in the following sections. Adolescent Autonomy and Social Identity 10.1 Explain the instability of adolescent autonomy and the shift from parent to peer dependency. Theorists have long argued that one’s identity develops within the context of inter- personal interactions (Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934), and peers are particularly important in the construction of identity at adolescence (Erikson, 1968). To understand fully the function of peers, let’s look again at what happens when a child enters adolescence. The body changes in appearance; adult sexual needs emerge; hormonal shifts may heighten irritability; the capacity to reflect on the future and on the self expands, bring- ing its own brand of egocentrism; and demands for autonomy increase. All of these changes are supported by dramatic alterations in the adolescent brain. These profound shifts can produce a state of instability and anxiety unique to adolescence: The adolescent is at sea. Previous boundaries and guideposts are no longer functional. In earlier developmental periods, expansion and growth exist within a context of famil- iar motion and exercise. The adolescent condition is different, however. The adolescent is possessed of new physical and intellectual capabilities that are both mystical and mystifying.... The allure of the adult world calls, and is strong, even as the safety of childhood is close and still beckons. Yet neither fits; the one is outgrown, the other not yet encompassable.” (Seltzer, 1982, p. 59) The adolescent’s passage to adulthood is in some ways parallel to the infant’s pas- sage to childhood status. To exercise their developing skills and to explore the beckon- ing world, infants must give up the security of the caregiver’s continual presence and care. Most attachment theorists believe that toddlers manage the stress of this separa- tion by referring to their working model of the other, a kind of mental representation of the caregiver, which provides feelings of security and makes independent explora- tion possible. For adolescents, the task of establishing adult independence requires 390 Chapter 10 separating from caregivers on a new plane, a process traditionally called the FIGURE 10.1 Parents, peers, and “second” individuation (Blos, 1975). adolescent feelings of autonomy. In a classic study, Steinberg and Silverberg (1986) asked 10- to 16-year-olds High in the United States questions about their relationships with parents and age- mates. As most studies have found, children between fifth and eighth grades showed a marked increase in agreement on items assessing emotional auton- omy from parents, such as “There are some things about me that my parents don’t know” and “There are things that I would do differently from my mother and father when I become a parent.” When the students in this study were Low asked “What would you really do?” if a friend suggested either some antisocial 5 6 8 9 act such as cheating or some neutral act such as joining a club, they showed a marked decrease between the fifth and eighth grades in their ability to resist GRADE IN SCHOOL peer influence, as you can see in Figure 10.1. Studies indicate that increasing Autonomy from peers susceptibility to peer influence is greatest for antisocial or risky behaviors, and Autonomy from parents more likely for boys than for girls (Sim & Koh, 2003). Resistance to peer influence SOURCE: Based on Steinberg, L. & Silverberg, S. B. begins to rise in middle adolescence, increasing most between 14 and 18 years, (1986). The vicissitudes of autonomy in early with continuing, shallower gains in young adulthood (Steinberg & Monahan, adolescence. Child Development, 57, 847. Repro- duced with permission of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2007). Overall, it appears that between the ages of 11 and 14 children transfer at least some of their emotional dependency from their parents to their peers. The Peer Arena Why do peers become so important? Adolescents spend much more of their time with peers, so proximity is an important factor. Peers are of similar chronological age and educational status and may share similar feelings of aloneness and loss of past certain- ties. Social psychologists established long ago that people under stress tend to affiliate with others perceived as having similar experiences (Schacter, 1959); so adolescents’ shared sense of instability makes the peer group a likely target of affiliation. The some- times difficult movement toward identity can, at least in part, be shared. Peers are thus a source of support and a reflection of the adolescent’s own con- cerns. Teens compare themselves to others and develop themselves through model- ing other’s behaviors, appearance, and attitudes (Seltzer, 1982). A formerly quiet boy might imitate the wisecracking style of a friend, a girl may explore the mysteries of the occult espoused by a classmate, or a mediocre student might work for hours on a spe- cial project, mimicking the approach of a more successful peer. In early adolescence, the imitation is rapid, intense, and undifferentiated, but toward later adolescence, some features actually become more stable and will form the foundation of the young adult’s identity. These reasons underscore the importance of the adolescent social net- work, within which adolescents co-construct their identity. MyLab Education Self-Check 10.1. The Structure of the Peer Network 10.2 Describe the structure and characteristics of peer relationships in adolescence and explain how they shape social identity. By early adolescence, a typical youngster is part of a nested set of peer relationships that seem to form concentric circles. He spends most of his time with a few close friends, the innermost circle. In the case that opens this chapter, these are the friends who will accompany Ashley to confront the girls who flirted with her boyfriend. A larger clique of about 6 to 10 members forms a less intimate second circle, composed of friends who eat lunch or go to class together. The clique’s boundaries are somewhat permeable, and the membership may fluctuate. Finally, the much larger third circle is the adolescent’s crowd. What crowd members share is not necessarily friendship, but instead similar interests, attitudes, behaviors, and appearance. Brown (1990) defined  The Social World of Adolescence 391 adolescent crowds as large “reputation-based collectives of similarly stereotyped indi- viduals who may or may not spend much time together” (p. 177). Crowds reflect the individual’s social status. And, they “demarcate different val- ues and lifestyles that can form the core of an individual’s identity” (Brown, Herman, Hamm, & Heck, 2008, p. 530). Many studies suggest that association with a crowd can be linked to youngsters’ healthy or unhealthy eating, drug and alcohol use, sex- ual behavior, academic commitment, achievement, and even the types of psychiatric symptoms they display (Moran, Walker, Alexander, Jordan, & Wagner, 2017). A classic example of the impact of crowds on adolescent behavior was pro- vided by Steinberg and his associates (Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbusch, 1991; Mounts & Steinberg, 1995; Steinberg, 1996; Steinberg, Fegley, & Dornbusch, 1993; Steinberg, Lamborn, Darling, Mounts, & Dornbusch, 1994; Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch, & Darling, 1992). More than 20,000 adolescents and their families from nine public high schools in Wisconsin and northern California were studied. Stu- dents came from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse communities (more than 40% were ethnic minorities) and from a variety of family structures (intact, divorced, and remarried). Student data were collected over a 3-year period from 9th through 12th grades. Teens answered questions about their emotional adjustment, academic achievement, and behavior, as well as the parenting practices of their families and their peer associations. Steinberg and his colleagues found a characteristic crowd structure that many other large-scale studies of U.S. teens have confirmed (Barber, Eccles, & Stone, 2001; Brown et al., 2008). Roughly 20% of students belonged to popularity-conscious crowds (“populars” and “jocks”), who were moderately achievement oriented and might engage in some illicit behavior, such as drug use. About 20% belonged to “alienated” crowds (“druggies” or “burnouts”), who were even less invested in academic success and who might be involved in heavy drug use and delinquent behavior. “Average” crowds, comprising about 30% of students, were not openly hostile to academics but, like the populars, were only moderately concerned about grades. In majority White high schools, some crowds were defined primarily by ethnicity (roughly 10% to 15% MyLab Education depending on the school), and academic achievement differences existed among these Video Example 10.1 ethnically defined crowds. Less than 5% of high schoolers belonged to crowds charac- Adolescents spend most of their terized by high academic achievement. These students were unlikely to use drugs and time with their inner circle of were more likely to form strong ties with teachers. Membership in the largest, most friends but are aware of the cliques appealing, and preferred crowds (populars, jocks, and average) was related to more in their schools. Whether by choice modest academic achievement. Most students in these crowds, representing about or by default, most teens also asso- 50% of high schoolers, earned Bs on average. ciate with a larger group—a clique Distinct crowd structures also exist in other cultures. Researchers in Denmark, with whom they have much in for example, found four major crowd categories: Alternative, Urban, Conventional, common. and Achievement-Oriented (Delsing, ter Bogt, Engels, & Meeus, 2007). Alternative crowds (“punks,” “metal heads,” “goths”) tended to display more nonconformist, rebellious behavior than more conventional crowds. The Urban crowd was character- ized by an orientation to musical and cultural activities typically found in urban areas (“hip-hop,” “rasta”). The Conventional crowd was made up of “normals,” rural, and religious youth. The Achievement-oriented crowd (“posh,” “brains”) was oriented toward academic and financial success. Affiliation with the two nonconventional crowds (Alternative and Urban) was associated with higher rates of delinquency, aggression, and depression. In Singapore, where the cultural rules for dress and behavior are stricter and where a relatively strong norm for conformity exists, adolescents also identify with different crowds. Sim and Yeo (2012) identified seven primary crowd orientations from a large number of suggestions obtained from open-ended questions (“Nerd,” “Gangster,” “Athlete,” “Computer Geek,” “Joker,” “Ordinary,” and “Loner”). “Gang- sters” were generally rebellious in the ways they dressed, were rude toward others, and were disinterested in academics. You may suspect some overlap between these crowds and those seen in U.S. schools, notably with jocks, brains, delinquents, and nerds. While groups in both cultures show a similar distinction between conventional and unconventional, there are also notable differences. Because of the cultural value 392 Chapter 10 placed on academic achievement and filial piety, “nerds” in Singapore were primarily identified with academic achievement rather than social awkwardness, and thus were viewed much more positively. Although socializing and “partying” are common fea- tures of the “popular” crowd in the United States, a comparable “popular” group did not emerge in Singapore. The authors suggest that this is due to the relative absence of these types of activities among Singaporean youth. “Nerds” and “gangsters” were the largest and most commonly identifiable crowds. “Athletes” came in a distant third, a much less recognizable group compared to those in U.S. schools. Although the sample in this study did not represent the whole of Singapore, findings are interesting in light of how cultural values and practices shape adolescent behavior and identify formation. Interest in how crowd affiliation affects adjustment has currently extended to stu- dents in the post–high-school years. Hopmeyer and Medovey (2017) identified four groups (athletic, social, scholastic, and countercultural) among their college sample. Athletic crowd members (“jocks”) were oriented towards sports and fitness activi- ties. Social crowd members (“partiers”) were attracted to the parts of campus life that involved entertainment and recreation. Scholastic members (“academics,” “eth- nics”) identified with scholarly and political pursuits, while the countercultural group (“stoners,” “slackers”) showed more deviant patterns of behavior. Social adjustment was assessed to be higher among scholastic and athletic groups, whereas more loneli- ness was reported in the countercultural group. Crowd affiliation was also related to achievement (Hopmeyer, Troop-Gordon, Medovoy, & Fischer, 2017). Scholastic crowd members showed higher levels of achievement and belongingness. Social crowd affilia- tion was related to belongingness but also to engagement in risky behaviors. In contrast to high school samples, athletic affiliation was not related to achievement and showed little relationship to risky behavior. Most disadvantaged were countercultural members who showed the greatest levels of social isolation and the most substance misuse. While any taxonomy applied to crowds is appealing, some suggest this approach may be oversimplified. Cross and Fletcher (2009) have pointed out that definitions of crowds are fuzzy, and pathways to crowd affiliation are unclear. Does the adolescent himself select his crowd, or is it assigned to him by the peer group? Steinberg (1996) suggests three determining factors: children’s personalities and interests as they enter adolescence, the types of crowds available, and the ways that parents attempt to man- age their children’s peer relationships. Research findings also show that adolescents operate according to the principles of group dynamics that govern any social group— namely, they often choose to participate in shared norms, roles, and expectations, a process called peer selection (Cohen & Prinstein, 2006). They are influenced by peers, and sometimes that peer influence is related to negative control tactics by their peers, such as teasing and threats of rejection. Under the powerful influence of peers, teens may willingly engage in peer-sanctioned behavior. Research has shown that deviant peers mutually influence each other (Gifford-Smith, Dodge, Dishion, & McCord, 2005), a process called deviancy training. Some students are hard to classify into the crowd structure. Some may fit into more than one crowd, and some students change crowd affiliations over time. The study of social identity complexity (Roccas & Brewer, 2002), which is a measure of overlapping alignment with more than one peer crowd or network, shares some simi- larities with identity development theories covered in previous chapters. Many young people identify with multiple groups. For example, the 10th grade honor roll student and standout football player of Latino origin may consider himself a jock, a nerd, and also a member of a minority group. The nature of this young person’s experience, pos- sibly due to the composition of his school and neighborhood, makes it more likely that he sees himself as having multiple, somewhat fluid, affiliations (Miller, Brewer, & Arbuckle, 2009). Students with higher social identity complexity (multiple affiliations) MyLab Education showed less in-group/out-group bias, more positive relationships with out-groups, Video Example 10.2 By early adolescence, a typical and greater personal well-being (Knifsend & Juvonen, 2014). Here it appears that the youngster is part of a nested set of composition and the social structure of the school are quite important, either amplify- peer relationships. Notice the struc- ing or constraining opportunities to develop cross-group friendships. Diverse, multi- ture of the peer network described ethnic schools can be beneficial to youth in advancing the complexity of their social by the adolescent in this video. identities, reducing bias, and fostering positive intergroup attitudes.  The Social World of Adolescence 393 MyLab Education Self-Check 10.2. The Role of Parents 10.3 Describe adolescent views of parental authority and discuss common sources of parent–adolescent conflict as well as the positive and negative effects of various parental approaches. Adolescents rework their views of their parents, deidealize them, and loosen, somewhat, their emotional dependency (Steinberg & Belsky, 1991; Steinberg & Mona- han, 2007). Figure 10.2 illustrates the typical decline between the ages of 11 and 17 of adolescents’ willingness to acknowledge the legitimacy of their parents’ claims to authority or to endorse the notion that they (the children) are obligated to follow paren- tal dictates. These data are from a large sample of Chilean youth, but young people in many countries, including the United States, show similar patterns of decline, with the steepest drop coming in early adolescence (Darling, Cumsille, & Martinez, 2008). Thus, it appears that in early adolescence the mental representation or concept of the parent becomes more peripheral to the child’s self-system. However, a teenager’s increasing individuation and sense of autonomy does not come without a price. As adolescents experience a loss in feelings of security, their sense of uncertainty can increase. Psychological separation from parents does not mean cutting ties in some dra- matic fashion, even though stereotypes about adolescence might imply this. We know that emotional attachments persist across the life span, and there is more than one pathway through the adolescent period. Cultural assumptions of interdependence and virtues such as filial piety can help shape alternative narratives of adolescence with respect to parent–child relationships. While the movement towards separation and independence becomes stronger over the course of early adolescence in many countries, the same is not completely true for adolescents in China. For example, U.S. MyLab Education adolescents report more conflicts, less emotional closeness, and a reduced sense of Video Example 10.3 obligation to parents compared to their Chinese counterparts (Pomerantz, Qin, Wang, Camila, at age 16, states that friends & Chen, 2009). Filial piety, which involves the sense of repaying and honoring parents say she and her mother seem like for their role in child rearing, appears to influence the developmental course of Chi- “best friends,” but she then goes on nese early adolescents substantially. Pomerantz and her colleagues (2011) found that to describe a variety of disagree- Chinese adolescents’ sense of obligation to parents increased over 7th and 8th grades ments that she has with her parents. How does she try to exert her inde- compared to a declining pattern among U.S. youth (see Figure 10.3). The trend toward pendence, and how do her parents increasing levels of obligation to parents was associated with better grades, greater respond? mastery of learning, and improved self-regulation. FIGURE 10.2 Adolescents’ likelihood of endorsing parental legitimacy and their own obligation to obey, by age. 90 90 Likelihood of Endorsing Likelihood of Endorsing 80 80 Legitimacy Obligation 70 70 60 60 50 50 40 40 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Age Age SOURCE: Darling, N., Cumsille, P., & Martinez, M. L. (2008). Individual differences in adolescents’ beliefs about the legitimacy of parent authority and their own obligation to obey: A longitudinal investigation. Child Development, 79, 1103–1118. Reproduced with permission of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 394 Chapter 10 FIGURE 10.3 Obligation to parents across two cultures. U.S. and Chinese adolescents show differences in their academic motivation as a function of their intention to please parents. 4 US 3.9 Motivation in School to Please Parents China 3.8 3.7 3.6 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 3 Fall, Grade 7 Spring, Grade 7 Fall, Grade 8 Spring, Grade 8 SOURCE: Pomerantz, E. M., Qin, L., Wang, Q., & Chen, H. (2011). Changes in early adolescents’ sense of responsibility to their parents in the United States and China: Implications for academic functioning. Child Development, 82, 1136–1151. Reproduced with permission of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. It is important to note, however, that Confucian cultural values, such as filial piety, did not necessarily imply parental dominance. Some contemporary Chinese parents also encourage adolescents’ personal autonomy and decision making, which they per- ceive as a way to prepare youth for success in a rapidly globalizing world (Wang, 2014). And even in more individualistic cultures, becoming independent and person- ally responsible is not necessarily accompanied by emotional detachment from parents (Collins & Laursen, 2004; Offer, 1969). Because I’m the Parent, That’s Why... Although not necessarily intense, conflict with parents is a very common feature, espe- cially in early adolescence. Some research shows that frequency of conflicts peaks in early adolescence but the intensity of conflict increases into middle adolescence across many cultures (Smetana, 2015). Much of it centers on dissimilar perspectives about who can or should control behavior. What are the different ways that parents and their teenage children perceive authority? This topic applies to the work of helping pro- fessionals, who often negotiate family conflicts, and has, fortunately, been the subject of much research attention (Darling, Cumsille, & Martinez, 2007; Darling et al., 2008; Smetana, 2006). As reasoning, social cognition, and the press for autonomy increase, adolescents perceive authority to be more or less legitimate depending upon the nature of its domain and who gives the advice. As we introduced in earlier chapters, both moral and social conventional domains concern behavior that has consequences for self and others. Parental authority in the moral domain, concerned with issues of right and wrong (e.g., stealing and cheating), is generally viewed by adolescents across cultures as quite legitimate. The social-conventional domain, or what is deemed appropriate in certain circumstances, varies by culture and may be considered less consequential. Standards of neatness or table manners fall into this category. Parents often report conflicts in this area because violations of social-conventional norms add to family workload (like not taking out the trash) or potentially embarrass them (like styles of dress). The personal domain involves issues perceived to affect only the self, and they are more likely to be contested by adolescents when they come into conflict with parents. Some personal issues may not involve potentially harmful effects (like hair style or certain clothing preferences). However, one class of personal issues, called prudential issues, can involve safety and health concerns (like drinking and smoking).  The Social World of Adolescence 395 Smetana and her colleagues (Smetana et al., 2009) call some issues multifaceted because they involve personal choice as well as potentially risky consequences. Ashley’s choice of boyfriend is an example. Whom one chooses as a friend would seem to be a personal decision, but the possibility of risky sexual behavior moves the needle into the prudential range. The fact that Ashley asks for friends’ advice suggests that she sees her choice of action as primarily personal in nature. In some studies, romantic relationships have been studied as a separate class of multifaceted issues, given their salience in adolescence (Smetana & Rote, 2015). Adolescents report conflicts about autonomy in personal issues, or control over their own body, personal preferences, and privacy. For teens, gaining control over this personal domain is a way of establishing autonomy and therefore is an impor- tant identity issue (Smetana, Crean, & Campione-Barr, 2005). Parents tend to believe that they, as parents, have more authority over teen behaviors than their children do (Smetana, 2011). Parents may feel they should have this level of control because of their responsibility for children’s well-being. It is in the highly charged area of multifaceted concerns, where adolescent personal and parental prudential concerns collide, that most disagreement occurs (Smetana et al., 2006). There are some normative patterns in adolescent behavior that confirm teens’ typical strategies for handling conflict with parents. Research has consistently found that teens become more secretive as they get older (Cumsille, Darling, & Martinez, 2010) and that parents become less knowledgeable about their children’s lives (Masche, 2010). Adolescents report a number of strategies to deal with information they consider personal or subject to parental disapproval: sharing information only if asked, omitting details, avoiding the conversation, and lying (Bakken & Brown, 2010). Similarly, adolescents have a number of reasons to justify these information man- agement strategies. They don’t want to disappoint or worry their parents, they don’t want to be restricted, or they just don’t think their parents have the right to know (Smetana, 2008). Adolescents learn to discriminate between those aspects of peer rela- tionships they want to share and those they wish to keep to themselves. Studies show that they are most likely to disclose information about activities with peers but less likely to disclose details about the quality of these relationships (Chan, Brown, & Von Bank, 2015). Youth protect relationship details and negative information about their peers because of loyalty to them as well as to avoid the risk of parents’ curtailing their access. Adolescents use their more advanced moral reasoning ability to differentiate among goals when making decisions about what or what not to disclose. Most par- ents, however, overestimate how much information their children actually do share with them (Smetana, 2008). With increasing age, adolescents perceive more and more aspects of peer relation- ships to fall within the personal domain, thus not requiring parental oversight. Youth in highly individualistic cultures like the United States may have more areas that they believe to be personal than do youth in other cultures. However, it is the norm for teens across the world to view important aspects of their lives as something they have a right to manage independently (Ahmad, Smetana, & Klimstra, 2015). A small cross-cultural study investigated information management in African American and Hmong low-income samples (Bakken & Brown, 2010). Unlike the African American families in this study, the Hmong families were recent immigrants/refugees to the United States who faced language and cultural barriers. The African American parents had a long history in the United States and were more knowledgeable about cultural norms. Hmong adolescents perceived their parents to be more restrictive and less able to help them with some of the challenges they faced. Understandably, Hmong parents wanted to protect and preserve the values of their culture, but frustrations and dif- ficulties of life in a new country affected both parents’ and adolescents’ experience. Hmong adolescents justified withholding information from parents on pragmatic grounds (e.g., because they wouldn’t understand) and also because they wanted to maintain good relationships with their parents. Hmong adolescents didn’t want to worry parents by disclosing some aspects of teenage life in the United States. Younger African American adolescents believed that their parents had the resources to find out whether they were telling them the truth. Compared to older African American 396 Chapter 10 adolescents, younger adolescents engaged in more disclosure. African American par- ents believed that they needed to balance their children’s growing need for autonomy with their parental inclination to protect them from experiences of racial discrimina- tion. Although African American youth could understand parental protectiveness, they were secretive about some things to preserve their own growing autonomy. Both universal aspects of adolescent autonomy-seeking and culturally specific rationales for information management were noted in this study. Even though the authors con- clude that lying to parents is typically not a good idea, “more careful work is revealing that adolescents are both thoughtful and strategic in deciding what information about peers to share with parents. Often, they consider not only the quality of the parent– child relationship and the best interests of their parents but also their obligation to maintain confidence of peers” (Brown & Bakken, 2011, p. 155). Raising Adolescents Let’s revisit the case of Ashley’s unsuspecting parents. Without knowing about her boyfriend or that upsetting photo, they will probably allow her to go to the library to study. This raises an issue that strikes fear into the heart of every parent of an adoles- cent: What is my child not telling me? How can I control what I don’t know? This common dilemma raises questions about the determinants of effective parenting in adolescence, when parent–child relationships are changing and new rules are in order. For years, conventional wisdom has advised parents to monitor adolescents’ behavior in order to ensure less deviance during a potentially difficult developmental transition. Originally, parental monitoring was conceptualized as parental behaviors that track a child’s whereabouts, friendships, and activities so as to offer guidance when needed (Dishion & McMahon, 1998). Studies done over the last half of the 20th century that investigated the antecedents of deviant behavior showed that parental monitoring was related to lower rates of delinquency and other problematic behav- iors (Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1986). Helping professionals came to believe that parental monitoring was an important protective factor and routinely advocated for this practice. But what does monitoring mean? What does it mean in Ashley’s situa- tion? Parents frequently question adolescents directly about their lives and activities, a process called parental solicitation by researchers. Monitoring and solicitation tech- niques might be easy when adolescents are open and chatty about their lives. In other circumstances, monitoring might conjure up images of detective work, involving close supervision, interrogation about peers, and an intense and exhausting parent-driven process. It seems reasonable to clarify what value monitoring offers by parsing its components to take a more fine-grained look at this construct. In their important con- tribution to this area of research, Kerr and Stattin (2000; Stattin & Kerr, 2000) revealed that it was parental knowledge (knowing what is going on in the child’s life), not monitoring/solicitation per se, that was associated with healthy outcomes for teens. Table 10.1 shows each dimension as assessed in research with parents and youth. Longitudinal work that separated parental monitoring from parental knowledge was done to explore connections among monitoring, knowledge, and later delinquency TABLE 10.1 Parental Monitoring Unpacked PARENTAL CONTROL PARENTAL KNOWLEDGE PARENTAL SOLICITATION YOUTH DISCLOSURE Parents If your child comes home late, do Do you usually know when your How often did you start a conver- Does your child usually tell you you require him or her to explain child has an exam or paper due sation with your child about what about school when he/she gets what he/she did and whom he/ at school? they do in their free time? home? she was with? Youth If you come home late, do your Do your parents usually know How often did your parents start a Do you usually tell your parents parents require you to explain when you have an exam or paper conversation with you about what about school when you get home? what you did and whom you were due at school? you do in your free time? with? SOURCE: Adapted from Margaret Kerr, A Reinterpretation of Parental Monitoring in Longitudinal Perspective, Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20(1), 39–64.  The Social World of Adolescence 397 (Kerr, Stattin, & Burk, 2010). Results corroborated what other cross-sectional stud- ies had observed. Greater disclosure by youth increased parental knowledge, which was associated with less delinquency. Parental control, sometimes referred to as active parental monitoring and solicitation, did not elicit youth disclosure, and in some cases, reduced it substantially. Active parental monitoring, despite its good intentions, did not affect delinquency outcomes. Research with African American youth has reported some beneficial effects of parental monitoring on reducing risky behavior (Lamborn et al., 1996; Lansford, Deater-Deckard, Dodge, Bates, & Pettit, 2004; Walker-Barnes & Mason, 2001). Espe- cially in unsafe environments, parents who may be perceived as more controlling were more successful in protecting their children from exposure to community violence (Moed, Gershoff, & Bringewatt, 2017). However, this recent work clearly separates the effects of behavioral control from harshness. Parental harshness had deleterious effects on violence-exposed youth, actually driving them away from home and what protections it could provide. Clearly, we need to understand these distinctions in order for helpers to be able to provide sound advice to parents about monitoring their adolescents. You might recognize, in this discussion, some of the themes presented in earlier chapters on parenting. Just as in childhood, the quality of the relationship with par- ents is extremely important, but this relationship must adjust as the child matures. Let’s review the characteristic of optimal parenting style to see what this means dur- ing adolescence. Two dimensions define all parenting. First is parental warmth or responsiveness. By being warm, involved, and accepting of their children’s needs and feelings, responsive parents seem to encourage their children’s self-acceptance, con- fidence, and assertiveness. They take their children’s feelings and expressed needs seriously and are willing to explain their own actions, particularly when they impose limits on the child. The second dimension is parental control or demandingness. Demanding parents apparently foster self-discipline and achievement by making appropriate maturity demands on their children. They provide consistent supervi- sion and consequences for misbehavior, when needed. According to a large body of research, the most effective parenting style, authoritative parenting, combines high responsiveness and high demandingness and is associated with most beneficial out- comes (Baumrind, 1991; Sorkhabi & Middaugh, 2014). Treating responsiveness and demandingness as two distinct dimensions, three other categories of parenting style can be derived. Besides authoritative, there are authoritarian, indulgent (also called permissive), and dismissive (also called neglecting or uninvolved) styles (Maccoby & Martin, 1983). In the large-scale study of 14- to 18-year-olds by Steinberg and his colleagues (1994), teenagers whose parents were authoritative showed higher achieve- ment, greater resilience, and less internalizing and externalizing behavior compared to those from neglectful homes. In general, research on parenting styles from as early as the 1940s (Baldwin, 1948) has produced results that are consistent with the large-scale studies of today, support- ing the notion that both responsiveness and demandingness are beneficial. Overall, responsiveness seems more closely tied to adolescents’ self-confidence and social competence, and demandingness is more closely associated with “good” behavior and self-control. Some work indicates that it can be useful to consider responsive- ness as comprising two separable factors. Acceptance is being affectionate, praising the child, being involved in the child’s life, accepting the child’s strengths and limita- tions, and showing encouragement and concern for the child’s needs; it is correlated with children’s self-esteem and social adjustment. Democracy is the degree to which parents encourage children’s psychological autonomy by soliciting their opinions or encouraging self-expression, and it is most closely linked to children’s self-reliance, self-confidence, willingness to work hard, and general competence (Steinberg, 1996). Democracy, important during adolescence, is the opposite of “psychological control,” which we described in Chapter 5: a parent’s tendency to subvert an adolescent’s auton- omy by invalidating his feelings, constraining his verbal expression, criticizing, inap- propriately curtailing activities or peer interactions, and violating personal privacy. 398 Chapter 10 Parental Control Parental monitoring strategies might be conflated with psychological control in some circumstances and, thus, might help explain some inconsistent research findings. One important lesson from this research is that parental monitoring, like many other complex constructs, needs to be defined before drawing conclusions. The distinction between behavioral and psychological control is increasingly made in research to describe parenting and monitoring practices (see Table 10.2). Psychological control is associated with both internalizing and externalizing prob- lems and disorders (Barber et al., 2005; Pinquart, 2017). Within African American single- mother families, adolescents whose mothers used psychological control as part of their parenting were more likely to develop both internalizing and externalizing problems and engage in more risky behavior (Kinkaid, Jones, Cuellar, & Gonzales, 2011). As men- tioned previously, harsh or psychologically controlling parental practices such as severe punishment, restrictions, and coercion were associated with increases in exposure to violence in a multiracial New York City sample of youth (Moed et al., 2017). Similar adjustment difficulties were observed for Chinese adolescents with controlling parents (Wang, Pomerantz, & Chen, 2007; Xiang, Liu, & Bai, 2017). Overall, this body of work indicates that the danger of parental psychological control and harsh parenting practices to adolescent development exists across cultures. On the other hand, lack of behavioral control or behavioral monitoring has been associated with externalizing problems, as we have seen in the case of neglectful parents. Remember that adolescents view parental authority or control as legitimate in certain domains but not others. When adolescents view prudential issues to be within the personal domain, the distinction between psy- chological and behavioral control can become murky. Consider a mother who is upset that her son is spending a lot of time with a friend, whom she knows smokes cigarettes. She attempts to restrict the amount of time they spend together, a type of behavioral control. Her son, on the other hand, perceives that she doesn’t like his friend, registers her displeasure with him, and feels that she is trying to tell him what to do, a form of psychological control. Clearly, the effectiveness of parental control tactics may be depen- dent upon the domain to which they are applied (Arim, Marshall, & Shapka, 2010). Conflicting results about parental monitoring can confuse helpers and parents as they search for answers about parenting youth. Building on the two-component model of parental monitoring described above, Flemish researchers provided an even more refined model of parenting that could be used to consider parental conflict-manage- ment approaches (Janssens, Goossens, Noortgate, Colpin, Verschueren, & Van Leeu- wen, 2015) in the hopes of defining best practices. Their five-factor model includes dimensions that range from positive and non-controlling to more negative control. The first dimension, support, refers to parental emotional availability, interest, and acceptance. Three kinds of behavioral control are distinguished: proactive (establish- ing rules for guiding behavior), punitive (dominant), and harsh punitive (dominant and physical) control. The fifth factor is psychological (intrusive, coercive, critical, manipula- tive) control. Although these advances offer more clarity about the nature of parental monitoring and help us understand beneficial and deleterious practices, we still have much to learn. Both relationship (parent–child) and individual (within child) variables need to be explored over time to better understand what helps prevent specific youth from engaging in specific problem behaviors (Keijsers, 2016). TABLE 10.2 Some Differences in Parental Control Characteristics PARENTAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL PARENTAL BEHAVIORAL CONTROL Communicates the message that she/he is trying to change the child in Asks the child about plans, including who will drive, supervise, attend a some way. function, etc. Reduces conversation, looks upset or hurt if child misbehaves. Establishes curfews. Wants the child to see things (or others) the same way as parent does or Checks homework (at an age-appropriate level). expects child to value the same things. SOURCE: Adapted from Barber, 2002; Barber, 2005.  The Social World of Adolescence 399 MyLab Education Self-Check 10.3. Adolescents in School 10.4 Identify elements of schooling that support adolescents’ developmental needs and promote academic success across ethnic/racial groups. Secondary school reform is the focus of contemporary debate (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2002; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2004; Smith, Cannata, Cohen-Vogel, & Rutledge, 2016). Some educational innovations, such as applications of positive behavior management techniques, have shown some success (Bradshaw, Pas, Debnam, & Johnson, 2015), yet problems in secondary schools persist. Despite the fact that dropout rates have fallen in the United States, dropping out still remains a concern because of its effects on long-term indicators of social and economic well-being. Approximately 7% of U.S. students between the ages of 16 and 24 were not enrolled in school in 2014, nor had they earned a high school diploma, compared to 12% in 1990 (Kena et al., 2014). Educational institutions have been challenged to adjust in order to support the developmental needs of adolescents (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1996). Curricular changes, structural redesigns, and promotion of student engagement are potential targets for improvement (Dolph, 2017; van Rooij, Jansen, & van de Grift, 2017). This effort derives both from accumulated evidence that demonstrates a stage- environment mismatch between adolescents and their schools (Eccles et al., 1993; Eccles & Roeser, 2009) and from the recognition that many contemporary adolescents face a host of social and academic problems that threaten their well-being (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2002, 2012). Take a moment to bring to mind your own adolescent self. How would you describe your time in middle and high school? What was most important to you at that time in your life? It is likely that your mind did not immediately leap to memories of your academic subjects, nor to your class assignments. You may recall feeling a bit disengaged from schooling as other aspects of your teenage experience took center stage. Many researchers have noted a decline in academic orientation and motivation starting in the early adolescent years that for some individuals continues throughout high school or culminates in dropping out (Eccles & Roeser, 2011; Gutman, Sameroff, & Cole, 2003). Traditional instructional practices such as whole-group lectures (Feld- laufer, Midgley, & Eccles, 1988), ability grouping (Oakes, Quartz, Gong, Guiton, & Lip- ton, 1993), and competitive rather than cooperative activities and assessment (Ward et al., 1982) all occur more frequently in middle and junior high schools than in the ele- mentary grades. These practices have been linked to low levels of student motivation and heightened social comparison. For example, just as adolescents become exqui- sitely sensitive to their place in the peer scene, school-based evaluative policies such as “tracked” academic classes may make differences in ability more noticeable to the adolescent’s peers and teachers, leading to decreased status for some (Oakes, 2005). Compared with elementary schools, middle or junior high schools place a heavier emphasis on discipline and teacher control, and they provide relatively fewer oppor- tunities for student decision making (Midgley, Feldlaufer, & Eccles, 1988). As they do at home, adolescents question authority, often perceiving school rules to be unfair (Yang et al., 2013). The large size of most middle and secondary schools is another factor that may detract from personal, mentoring relationships between students and available adults. Ravitch (1983) writes that the trade-off for bigger, more “efficient” schools means “impersonality, bureaucratization, diminished contact between faculty and students, formalization of relationships among colleagues, a weakening of the bonds of community” (p. 327). Elkind (1984) asserted that the adolescent’s identity formation is enhanced by being surrounded by a relatively small group of adults who know the student well and who, over time, are able to support the movement toward responsible autonomy. 400 Chapter 10 Students who perceived their teachers as caring and supportive were more likely than were students of less nurturant teachers to show greater academic effort and to express more prosocial goals. Interestingly, when students described teachers “who cared,” they named characteristics that were quite similar to those of authoritative parents (Gregory & Weinstein, 2004; Woolley & Grogan-Kaylor, 2006). Interest in translating parenting research about authoritative practices to school settings has emerged as a way to improve student engagement and achievement. Authoritative school climate theory (Gregory & Cornell, 2009), originating from Baumrind’s seminal work, advo- cates both teacher–student relationship improvement and provision of clear rules and MyLab Education high academic expectations. Video Example 10.4 Both elements, responsiveness and demandingness, make important contributions Teacher-student relationships are to success in schools as well as in homes. In a study of middle school students, Wen- critical to adolescents’ academic tzel (2002) found that teachers’ high expectations for their students was predictive of engagement. Notice the strategies students’ achievement and motivation to learn. In addition, negative feedback or criti- the sociology teacher uses to relate to students in this high school soci- cism from teachers, even in combination with high expectations, was found to be most ology class. clearly associated with diminished motivation and poor achievement. This finding applied to all students in her sample, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity. She points out that “by creating a context free of harsh criticism and [italics added] one in which students are expected to do their best, teachers might be better able to convey informa- tion clearly and efficiently, encourage student engagement, and focus students’ atten- tion on academic tasks” (p. 298). Similarly, a large study of school climate in over 300 U.S. high schools found that high expectations (demandingness) on their own were not the answer to increased student motivation and engagement. The quality of the student–teacher relationship appears to be a critical ingredient. In high schools with high expectations, the dropout rate was almost 35% higher than in schools with high expectations and high levels of student support (Jia, Konold, & Cornell, 2016). The level of involvement by parents in the schooling of adolescents also influ- ences achievement outcomes. Despite longstanding support of parental involvement as a critical ingredient in school success (e.g., U.S. Department of Education, 1990) particularly for poor and minority children (Comer, 1988), involvement can decline at the middle and high school levels (Steinberg, 1996; Stevenson & Stigler, 1992), espe- cially in more hands-on ways like volunteering and supervising homework. Stein- berg has indicated that approximately one third of the students in his study said their parents were uninformed about their school performance, and another one sixth said that their parents did not care. More than 40% of participants said their parents did not attend any school function or activity. This parental unresponsiveness seems closely tied to the child’s age and possibly to parental beliefs about an adolescent’s right to autonomy. Parents and teachers tend to view various dimensions of involve- ment (e.g., monitoring homework and use of time, helping at school, attending meet- ings and conferences, plus serving as a partner with the school in decision making) as appropriately decreasing once the child has made the transition out of the elementary grades (see Stewart, 2008). More recent work suggests that some types of parental involvement remained stable over the course of middle and high school. For example, parents continue to communicate the value of education and to express expectations for academic achievement as it relates to their children’s future goals (Bhargava & Witherspoon, 2015). How much of this phenomenon is part of some universal adolescent rejection of schooling and how much might be due to social and cultural beliefs and expecta- tions? Research from China can offer some clues. Chinese youth surpass American youth in academic achievement, and the trajectory of decreasing academic motiva- tion and involvement observed in U.S. adolescents around middle school is typically not seen in this population (Qu & Pomerantz, 2015; Wang & Pomeranz, 2009). What explains most of the gap between Chinese and American seventh and eighth graders’ academic motivation appears to be a fundamental difference in perceived responsibil- ity to parents. Recall that filial piety is a deeply held cultural value that influences par- ent–child relationships and beliefs about adolescence itself. Whereas American youth tended to minimize responsibility to parents as a feature of adolescence, their Chinese counterparts saw gratitude and obligation to parents as more central. Both groups endorsed independence as an adolescent characteristic, but American youth endorsed  The Social World of Adolescence 401 it more strongly (Qu, Pomerantz, Wang, Cheung, & Cimpian, 2016). It may be that Chinese youth take a slightly different pathway to maturity, one that emphasizes interdependence. Despite highly successful academic outcomes, this approach might not come without some personal cost. Chinese mothers, in contrast to Western parents, were found to use more psychological control practices and to regard their children’s per- formance as a reflection of their parenting quality (Ng, Pomerantz, & Deng, 2014). Unfortunately, the deleterious consequences of psychological control are not mitigated by cultural attributions. Adverse emotional consequences were found for both Ameri- can and Chinese adolescents whose parents engaged in psychologically controlling parenting practices (Pomerantz & Wang, 2009). In their classic study of ethnic difference across the United States, Steinberg, Dorn- busch, et al. (1992) found some fundamental similarities across White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American ethnic groups. First, not surprisingly, hard work was linked to academic success regardless of ethnicity; students who put in the most time on home- work, for example, were the best school performers. Second, teens across all ethnic groups were equally likely to believe that getting a good education pays off. But the researchers also found some surprising differences in beliefs about the negative con- sequences of not getting a good education. Asian American students were most likely to believe that poor academic preparation could limit their job options later, whereas African American and Hispanic youngsters were the most optimistic; that is, they were the least likely to believe that poor academic preparation would hurt their job prospects. These differences in belief systems were reflected in the degree to which vari- ous ethnic peer groups supported academic achievement: Asian crowds were usually highly supportive, whereas African American and Hispanic crowds were not. Unlike White students, minority students sometimes have little choice of which crowd to join, especially when they go to a school where White students are in the majority. They may see themselves as having access to one or a few crowds defined primarily by ethnicity. Steinberg, Dornbusch, et al. (1992) found that for all ethnic groups, the most successful students were those whose parents and peers supported academics. When peers were at odds with parents, the crowd’s support, or lack of it, for homework and hard work was the better predictor of a student’s day-to-day school behaviors. As Steinberg (1996) noted, even Asian students of disengaged parents are often “saved from academic failure” by their friends’ support of academics (p. 157). Yet African American youngsters with authoritative parents often face giving up or hiding their academic aspirations to keep their friends because the crowds they join not only fail to support school effort but also may even criticize it as an attempt to “act White” (Ford- ham & Ogbu, 1986). Indeed, at a very vulnerable age some Black adolescents may feel compelled to choose either to give up high academic standards, greatly limiting their future opportunities, or to face being cut off from peer groups that help define their ethnic/racial identity (Ogbu, 2003). MyLab Education Self-Check 10.4. Leisure, Work, and Media 10.5 Discuss research-based evidence of positive and negative effects of extracur- ricular activities, jobs, and media consumption on adolescent behavior and attitudes and suggest guidelines that reduce risks and promote beneficial outcomes. Outside of school, leisure activities occupy much of an adolescent’s time. Leisure activities can promote skill mastery, such as sports participation, hobbies, and artis- tic pursuits, or they may be more purely recreational, such as playing video games, watching TV, daydreaming, or hanging out with friends. Figure 10.4 shows how youth spent their leisure time compared to older adults on an average day in 2015. 402 Chapter 10 FIGURE 10.4 Average hours spent per day in leisure and sports activities, by youngest and oldest populations. 5.0 Ages 15-19 4.5 Ages 75 and over 4.0 Average hours per day 3.0 2.4 2.0 1.0 1.1 1.0 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.0 Watching TV Reading Relaxing, Socializing, Playing games/ Sports, thinking communicating computer use exercise, and for leisure recreation SOURCE: U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics—Available at https://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/chart10.pdf In general, young people who are involved in extracurricular activities sponsored by their schools and community organizations—athletics, social service, school news- paper staff, student government, band, and so on—are more likely to be academic achievers and to have other desirable qualities than students who are not involved in sponsored activities (Barber, Abbott, Blomfield, Neira, & Eccles, 2014). Longer and more intensive involvement is associated with better long-term effects, including greater educational, civic, and occupational success even in adulthood (Gardner, Roth, & Brooks-Gunn, 2008). Participation in extracurricular activities does appear to be pro- tective against binge drinking and drug use as well (McCabe, Modecki, & Barber, 2016). These good outcomes may arise because of exposure to adult mentors who pro- vide a disciplined structure. Developing positive friendships through extracurricular activities provides another important pathway by which activity involvement influ- ences later outcomes (Simpkins, Eccles, & Becnel, 2008). Although there are general benefits to extracurricular participation, the kind of benefit varies somewhat by activity and not all the outcomes are positive. One longitu- dinal study followed over 1,000 Michigan youth for 14 years, beginning when they were in the sixth grade, and kept track of, among other things, their extracurricular involve- ments (Mahoney et al., 2005). High school participation in either prosocial activities or sports was associated with long-term educational achievements (e.g., going to college). But although kids who participated in non-sport activities were unlikely to use alcohol or other drugs in high school, those who participated in sports were more likely than most other teens to use alcohol in high school, perhaps because of peer modeling or because sports participation is also related to high stress (Larson, Hansen, & Moneta, 2006). A study of Canadian youth showed that participation in in-school, non-sport activities (volunteering, music, art, drama, yearbook, etc.) was associated with better self-esteem, lower anxiety, higher achievement, and more prosocial behavior compared to non-participation. Weekly participation in in-school sports, however, was associated with a greater probability of failing a grade (Guèvremont, Findlay, & Kohen, 2014). While more research is needed to further understand these distinctions between non- sport and sport activities, the general consensus from researchers is that participation in extracurricular activities can provide benefits to youth. Teens in the Workplace Adolescents also spend time doing work for pay. Figure 10.5 shows a breakdown of employment as a function of school enrollment (Child Trends, Databank, 2016). Are there benefits to these early jobs for teens? It seems reasonable to propose some developmental advantages. Having adult responsibilities might help adolescents  The Social World of Adolescence 403 FIGURE 10.5 Percentage of youth (ages 16–24) employed, total, and by school enrollment: 1993–2015. 100 Total, 16–24 years Enrolled in high school Enrolled in college 80 Not enrolled in school 71.7 75.2 66.2 70.7 62.5 59.8 60 56.6 Percent 52.9 57.5 49.2 44.5 40 45.1 35.5 30.5 26.3 20 18.2 16.4 0 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor. Archived Bureau of Labor Statistics News Releases (Various Years). Available at http://www.bls.gov/schedule/archives/all_nr.htm#HSGEC feel independent and grown up, enhancing self-esteem. Searching for work and being employed might provide training that is hard to come by in any other way, such as learning how to find a job, learning one’s own job preferences, and clarifying one’s work values. Parents often assume that working will help adolescents to learn to man- age their money and their time. Mortimer et al. (1999) report that teens who work gen- erally endorse many of these presumed benefits, seeing their jobs as helping them to be more responsible, to manage their time and their money, to establish a work ethic, and to learn social skills. Adolescents also list some negative outcomes, primarily feel- ing fatigued and having less time for homework and leisure activities. But on balance, they see their work in a positive light. Do adolescents who work need to work—to save for college or even to help ease financial burdens at home? During the Great Depression, economic hardship did send adolescents into the workplace, and working was apparently linked to more respon- sible use of money and a more “adult” orientation (Elder, 1974). But the culture has changed dramatically since then. Whereas in 1940 only about 3% of 16-year-olds still in school were employed, by 1980 the government estimated that more than 40% were working. Of course, relatively more youngsters complete high school today than in 1940. Middle-class teens are more likely to be employed than those from lower socio- economic groups, and their money is unlikely to be saved or contributed to family expenses. Rather, working teens more frequently spend their money on materialistic pursuits: wardrobes, entertainment, drugs, and alcohol (Steinberg et al., 1993). Cultural change has also affected the kinds of jobs adolescents acquire. In 1940, many teens worked on farms or in manufacturing, in jobs where they were super- vised by adults (frequently adults who were family members or were known to their families), and they often received training that was directly relevant to the jobs they would have after high school. Today, teens are much more likely to work in retail establishments, including restaurants, and to be under the direct supervision of other young people rather than adults. It appears that the work teens do today is often less educational than it was in 1940, and it may have less long-term career value (Aronson, Mortimer, Zierman, & Hacker, 1996; Staff & Schulenberg, 2010). Researchers report that there are both positive and negative consequences of paid employment while in high school. In general, these results are related to hours of employ- ment—the more hours the teenager worked, the more problematic were the effects in most cases. A troublesome finding is that long hours of employment (especially 20 or more 404 Chapter 10 hours per week) were associated with increases in problem behaviors like theft (e.g., giv- ing away store products to friends), school misconduct, and alcohol and drug use, includ- ing cigarette smoking (Mihalic & Elliot, 1997; Mortimer et al., 1999). The effects of work on schooling and school involvement are also mixed. Several large-scale studies have found no effects on students’ grades, but negative effects on total educational attainment. Years of schooling tend to be reduced for students who invest long hours in their jobs. Other studies have found negative correlations between working and grades even for relatively few hours of work (Largie, Field, Hernandez-Reif, Sanders, & Diego, 2001). Bachman, Safron, Sy, & Schulenberg (2003) found that negative associations between schooling and work appear to be bidirectional—for example, teens with less school involvement are more likely to seek jobs, and once they are working substantial hours, teens become even less involved in school. Monaghan, Lee, and Steinberg (2011) found that part-time work of moderate intensity (less than 20 hours per week) was not associated with either posi- tive or negative outcomes, nor with psychological benefits for adolescents. Scholarly research on paid employment during adolescence has yet to reach firm conclusions because the issue is not a simple one. Variables like SES, race/ethnicity, peer relationships, work quality, number of hours worked, and personal characteris- tics (e.g., motivation for school and for work) all play a role in determining outcomes. Hwang and Domina (2017) analyzed a large, mixed racial sample from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) to explore some of the interrelationships among employment during high school and post-secondary outcomes. In general, some limited employment (less than 5 hours per week) during the high school years was linked with better post-secondary student outcomes (Associate or B.A. degree) compared to those of non-employed students or those with high-intensity (more than 20 hours per week) jobs. Some of these relationships were more nuanced and moderated by race. For example, high-intensity work was associated with more negative edu- cational attainment for White students. For Black students, however, high-intensity work was not associated with poorer educational outcomes. The authors speculate that differential selection may help explain this finding. Black high school students who are employed at high-intensity jobs may have some specific personal characteris- tics that contribute to their academic success. Adolescents and Media No doubt about it, media also plays a major role in the life of contemporary adoles- cents, and its use is increasing rapidly for both children and youth (see Figure 10.6). A peek into the ways young people consume electronic media paints a picture of just how rapid this change has been. The rise in popularity of social media is clearly evi- dent in the lives of adolescents, many of whom report feeling “constantly connected” to some online device (Lenhart, 2015). Almost three quarters of adolescents report using more than one social media site regularly. Many share information and photos through apps and texts, and watch TV on their phones. The word “consume,” often used in regard to media, is an interesting and apt choice because researchers have long been concerned about the effects of a steady diet of technology on the brains and behaviors of young people. In the most recently available nationally representa- tive study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (2010) and its reanalysis by race (Rideout, Lauricella, & Wartella, 2011), U.S. 3rd to 12th graders increased their total daily media consumption from 6 hours and 21 minutes in 2004 to 7 hours and 38 minutes by 2009, approximating the hours of a typical adult work day. Media usage takes up even more time than work, however, because it continues during the weekend. Rates of all media consumption (music, computers, video games, TV, and movie) except for print media increased over the three waves of the Kaiser study. What percentage of 3rd to 12th MyLab Education graders have a TV in their bedrooms? If you guessed slightly more that 7 out of 10 Video Example 10.5 youth have TVs (71%), you are correct. Cable TV and video game consoles are present As portrayed in this video, texting and social media influence adoles- in 50% of bedrooms. Computers are also very common. Most children, age 8 and older, cent relationships with parents and watch an average of 2 hours of TV per day and have a wide variety of shows to watch, friends. What are the concerns, and given the popularity of streaming services (Rideout, 2015). how do parents balance autonomy But how does this kind of media exposure affect children and adolescents, and and control? how much of a threat is it? High levels of media use have been associated with a  The Social World of Adolescence 405 FIGURE 10.6 How much media do children and adolescents consume? Types and Extent of Media Use Among U.S. 3rd to 12th Graders. Media Use, by Age Average amount of time spent with each medium in a typical day: Hours 14 8–10-year-olds 11:53 12 11:23 11–14-year-olds 10 8:40 15–18-year-olds 7:51 7:58 8 6 5:03 5:29 4:22 4 3:41 3:03 2:22 1:46 1:39 2 1:08 :46 1:01 1:25 1:08 0 TV content Music Computers Video games Total media Total media exposure use Media Use, by Race/Ethnicity Average amount of time spent with each medium in a typical day: Hours 14 12:99 13:00 White 12 Black 9:44 9:14 10 8:36 8 Hispanic 5:54 6:22 6 5:21 4 3:36 2:42 2:52 1:49 2 1:48 1:17 1:24 1:25 1:35 :56 0 TV content Music Computers Video games Total media Total media exposure use SOURCE: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (2010, January 1). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- to 18-year-olds. From http://www.kff.org/other/poll-finding/report-generation-m2-media-in-the-lives/. Used by permission. number of health risks for children and adolescents, including obesity, sleep problems, underachievement, early initiation of risky behaviors like smoking and drinking, cyberbullying, sexting (sending sexually explicit messages or images via text mes- sage), and depression (AAP Council on Communication and Media, 2016). When researchers asked teenagers and their parents about the number of social media accounts the youth used, they found relationships between the number of media plat- forms used and symptoms (Barry, Sidotti, Briggs, Reiter, & Lindsey, 2017). Parents reported higher levels of attention problems, oppositional behavior, and depressive symptoms in their high-media-use children. Teenagers themselves reported more loneliness and fear of missing out when they had more social media accounts. Twenge and her colleagues (Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, & Martin, 2017) conclude that changes in ways adolescents use their leisure time (e.g., increasing screen-time versus nonscreen- time activities) have been implicated in the rise of depression and suicide-related behaviors since 2010, especially for girls. We will present some guidelines for parents and helpers about teen Internet use in the Applications section. A substantial part of the average media diet includes violence, and quite a lot is known about exposure to violence through TV, movies, and other media outlets. The link between viewing televised violence and behaving aggressively for certain individu- als has been well researched and is generally accepted (Comstock & Scharrer, 1999). Modeling processes (see Chapter 1) are presumed to account for much of this relation- ship. Recent interest in the role of media as a socializer of values expands upon social learning principles to include constructivist conceptions of how individuals make sense of their environments. In other words, people use what they perceive as raw material from which to construct ideas, beliefs, and guiding principles. Violent video games have become a source of concern for many people because they offer a double whammy: 406 Chapter 10 viewing violent acts and engaging with virtual activities in an active way. One longitu- dinal study (Willoughby, Adachi, & Good, 2012) followed Canadian adolescents over the course of their high school years to investigate relationships between playing violent video games and later aggressive behavior. Even after controlling for other media use, quality of parenting, academic and school variables, sports involvement, depression, and deviant behaviors, the relationship between a steady diet of violent video game play and aggressive behavior was significant. Furthermore, the authors did not find support