Adolescent Social Development
The social development of adolescents is very much affected by the social world. Peer relationships, family relationships, school, work, and community play a critical role in an adolescent’s social development as well as culture. Adolescence begins around the age of eleven and lasts into the early twenties. As a child enters into adolescence, many changes are taking place, including physical changes in appearance, sexual maturity, hormonal changes, and the ability to reflect on one’s identity of self (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). As adolescents begin to experience these changes; they also experiment with new behaviors to help them transition from childhood to adulthood. Risk taking is a normal way that adolescents shape their identities, try new decision making techniques, and evaluate themselves, others, and the world (APA, 2000).
Peer Relationships
During this period of time, parental influences often decrease as peer influences increase. This shift helps establish independence from their parents. Adolescents begin to assert more control over their decisions, emotion, and actions. These peer groups often provide adolescents with information about how the world operates outside of their family. Popularity, status, prestige, and acceptance are often reinforced by peer groups (APA, 2002). The nature of friendship changes over the course of adolescence. Younger adolescents may have one primary peer group with whom they identify. This group will usually consist of peers with similar interests, attitudes, and values (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). There is a strong desire to conform and be accepted by peers. In middle adolescence, peer groups change and become more gender mixed. There is more tolerance of...
... middle of paper ...
...ive in: The effects of neighborhood residence on child and adolescent outcomes. Psychological Bulletin,
126, 309-337.
Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. AmericanPsychologist. 41, 954-969
Miller J. W., Naimi, T. S., Brewer, R. D., & Jones, S. E. (2007). Binge drinking and associated health risk behaviors among high school students. Pediatrics, 119:76–85.
Resnick, M. D., Bearman, P. S., Blum, R. W., Bauman, K. E., Harris, K. M., Jones, J., Tabor, J.,
Beuhring, T., Sieving, R. E., Shew, M., Ireland, M., Bearinger, L. H., & Udry, J. R.
(1997). Protecting adolescents from harm: Findings from the national longitudinal study on adolescent health. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278, 823-832.
Steinberg, L. (2001). We know some things: Parent-adolescent relations in retrospect and prospect. Journal of Research in Adolescence, 11, 1-19
Getting Serious About Eradicating Binge Drinking is an informative article by Henry Wechsler. Wechsler has worked with the College Alcohol study since its creation in 1992, and he also lectures at the School of Public Health at Harvard. In his article, Weschler discusses the prominent trend of binge drinking on college campuses and how to solve the widespread problem. Binge drinking is a term used to describe the act drinking alcoholic beverages with the intention of becoming intoxicated over a short period of time.
Stanley, J., Gannon, J., Gabuat, J., Hartranft, S., Adams, N., Mayes, C., Shouse, G. M.,
Forsyth, K., Taylor, R., Kramer, J., Prior, S., Richie, L., Whitehead, J., Owen, C., & Melton, M.
Cox-Foster, D. L., Conlan, S., Holmes, E. C., Palacios, G., Evans, J. D., Moran, N. A.,…
Zhang, Y. B., Harwood, J., Williams, A., Ylänne-McEwen, V., Wadleigh, P. M., & Thimm, C.
Biological influences combined with societal and social expectations contribute to how well people learn to adapt to their environments (2013). According to Erikson, there are eight stages of development. Within these states, there are different psychological, emotional and cognitive tasks. In order to adjust, individuals must learn to develop these tasks. During adolescence, Erikson states that each person needs to navigate through the development task of ‘‘Identity vs. Identity confusion ’’ (2013). He defined this task by stating that adolescent children must learn to develop a sense of self and establish independence. Prior to this stage of development, a person’s parents largely influence their identity. In this stage the adolescent children begin to explore and develop their identity outside of their parents’ influence (Hill, Bromell, Tyson, & Flint, 2007). Adolescents are generally more egocentric at this stage and have an increased sense of self-consciousness. They also have a strong desire to conform to peer influence and develop concerns regarding their appearance. They develop concern about their level of competence in relation to their peer group as well. As peer influence increases, during this stage, parental influence decreases (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013; Hill et. al, 2007). Conflict generally increases between parent and child at this stage of development (2007).
Lily, Henrietta M. and Harmon, Daniel E. Alcohol Abuse and Binge Drinking. New York: the Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 2012. Print.
Ottenberg, A. L., Wu, J. T., Poland, G. A., Jacobson, R. M., Koenig , B. A., & Tilburt, J. C.
Kobau, R., Zack, M. M., Manderscheid, R., Palpant, R. G., Morales, D. S., Luncheon, C., et al.
Vahey, C. D., Aiken, H. L., Sloane, M. D., Clarke, P. S., and Vargas, D. (2010 Jan. 15).
Ornstein, R., Rosen, D., Mammel, K., Callahan, S., Forman, S., Jay, M., Fisher, M., Rome, E., &
Zosuls, K. M., Ruble, D. N., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Shrout, P. E., Bornstein, M. H., & Greulich,
Wechsler, Henry and Kuo, Meichun. College Students Define Binge Drinking and Estimate Its Prevalence: Results of a National Survey. EBSCO Publishing 29 Oct. 2000
Duley, S. M., Cancelli, A. A., Kratochwill, T. R., Bergan, J. R., & Meredith, K. E. (1983).
Hill, T.F., & Nabors, L.A., & Reynolds, M.W., & Wallace, J., & Weist, M.D. (2001). The