Adolescence: Identity, Peers, and Family

This is Unit Ten, part one, on the transition to adulthood, identity, and the self in adolescence. Unit Nine closed on the great decline in adolescent substance use. Unit Ten turns from the adolescent body and mind to the self, and to the people around it. Carry one question through this part: how does an adolescent come to know who she is? Rites of passage, Erikson's crisis and many models of ethnic, gender and sexual identity all bear on it. At the entry on Marcia's identity statuses, the part answers with two questions: explored, and committed? By the end you will be able to explain why no single marker settles adult status. To name Marcia's four statuses. To describe adolescents' self-concept and self-esteem. To put Phinney's and Cross's stages in order. And to state the average order of sexual-minority milestones.

Four entries on adolescence as a transition: its tasks, its rites, and its many markers.

Adolescence as a transition.

HGD 1351 Adolescence as Transition

Many societies set adolescence aside as a transition to adult stature, status and roles, while elsewhere children take adult responsibilities quickly, as older adolescents in rural Cambodia become caretakers and family supporters. Within one country, family, culture, opportunity and income change how smooth the transition is.

Developmental tasks.

HGD 1352 Developmental Tasks

Havighurst described developmental tasks, the biological, psychological and social challenges of a period; in adolescence they include decision-making, impulse control, identity and belonging. The tasks shift across early, middle and late adolescence, from emotional independence from parents toward intimacy and career skills.

Rites of passage.

HGD 1353 Rites of Passage

Rites of passage are explicit cultural markers of progress toward adult status, from a bar or bat mitzvah at twelve or thirteen to a quinceañera at fifteen. US legal markers include driving at fifteen to seventeen, voting at eighteen and alcohol at twenty-one, and they vary by state.

Why no marker settles it.

HGD 1354 No Single Marker of Adulthood

No single marker confers adult status in every area: an eighteen-year-old can vote but not buy alcohol, and can drive but not rent a car. A graduation, a licence and a first job each mark adulthood in one domain only, one reason adolescence can feel ambiguous.

Six entries on identity, from Erikson's crisis to Marcia's four statuses. The opening question is answered here.

Erikson's fifth crisis.

HGD 1355 Identity Versus Role Confusion

Erikson's fifth crisis, identity versus role confusion, from about twelve to eighteen, is forming a full sense of self: traits, capabilities, interests, values and social roles, as a fifteen-year-old tries on personas, athlete one month, artist the next. Failure brings role confusion, feeling fragmented or lost.

Identity and well-being.

HGD 1356 Identity and Well-Being

In a Belgian study of twelve- to twenty-five-year-olds, identity synthesis, a coherent sense of self, generally rose and identity confusion fell with age; synthesis went with fewer depressive symptoms. A strong identity helps adolescents reject negative self-evaluations, and identity remains a lifelong project.

The payoff: Marcia's identity statuses.

HGD 1357 Marcia's Identity Statuses

Marcia classified identity by two questions, and they answer this part's question: has the person explored options, and has the person committed? Identity diffusion is neither, closest to Erikson's role confusion. Foreclosure is commitment without exploration. Moratorium is active exploration without commitment yet. Identity achievement is commitment after exploration. Four seniors asked about careers: one shrugs, one will take over the family firm without considering alternatives, one is job-shadowing in three fields, one chose nursing after trying several paths. Statuses apply domain by domain, and exam items give exploration and commitment and ask for the status.

Foreclosure is not achievement.

HGD 1358 Foreclosure Is Not Achievement

Foreclosure looks settled, but it is commitment without exploration, often to choices parents made, like a teen whose political views mirror his parents' but who cannot give reasons for them. The misconception is that foreclosure is achievement; achievement requires exploration first.

Moratorium, and possible selves.

HGD 1359 Moratorium and Possible Selves

Moratorium, active exploration without commitment, is where adolescents spend much of their time, fuelled by imagining possible selves, the people they might become; college is a classic moratorium of courses, clubs and majors tried and dropped. It can feel unsettled, but achievement depends on it.

Identity after eighteen.

HGD 1360 Identity Beyond Eighteen

Identity achievement is often reached in early adulthood or later, and it can be revised across life as roles change, like a thirty-five-year-old returning to exploration after a career change. The misconception is that identity is settled by the end of adolescence; statuses shift, domain by domain.

Five entries on emotion and the self: emotional intelligence, self-regulation, self-esteem, and body image.

Two models of emotional intelligence.

HGD 1361 Two Models of Emotional Intelligence

Salovey and Mayer define emotional intelligence as an ability; Goleman's broader model adds recognizing emotions, staying motivated, empathy and social skill. Authoritative parenting goes with higher emotional intelligence in teens, and high emotional intelligence goes with better grades, less burnout and more life satisfaction.

Self-regulation in adolescence.

HGD 1362 Self-Regulation in Adolescence

Self-regulation, managing behaviour and emotion without outside help, rises across adolescence with the maturing of frontal and limbic systems, as a teen persists at a hard task and asks for help when frustrated. Parent–teen relationships and self-regulation influence each other, and caregivers withdraw support gradually.

Self-concept and self-esteem.

HGD 1363 Self-Concept and Self-Esteem in Adolescence

Adolescents' self-concept grows abstract, fair, loyal, and built by comparison with others. Harter's dimensions include scholastic competence, social acceptance, athletic competence, physical appearance and behavioural conduct. Self-concept is fairly stable from middle childhood to mid-adolescence, while self-esteem, the emotional piece, rises overall, predicted by good parental relationships, physical activity and positive body image. Kling and colleagues' meta-analysis found a small male advantage in self-esteem, largest in late adolescence, but boys' and girls' scores overlap far more than they differ. Low self-esteem predicts depression, and self-compassion can buffer it.

Body image in adolescence.

HGD 1364 Body Image in Adolescence

Body image is the mental representation of one's body, healthy when positive and realistic. Every adolescent is susceptible, and early maturation is a key risk, as when an early-maturing girl's changing shape clashes with thin or athletic ideals. Mothers' and peers' comments about weight matter; the course describes rather than advises.

Culture, media, and body image.

HGD 1365 Culture, Media and Body Image

Media and culture shape body image: mainstream television lowered Latina girls' body satisfaction, while Black-oriented television raised it for more acculturated Latina girls. The US Surgeon General's twenty twenty-three advisory flagged social media's risks for body image, especially for girls.

Five entries on heritage and identity, from the terms themselves to a stage model that parallels Marcia's.

Heritage, ethnicity, and race.

HGD 1366 Cultural Heritage, Ethnicity and Race

Cultural heritage is the shared adaptations passed between generations; ethnicity derives from heritage, and race is a social construct that often incorporates it. Minority refers to opportunity and power as well as numbers. Daily discrimination at school worsens mood for African American, Asian American and Latinx adolescents.

Children in the twenty twenty Census.

HGD 1367 Children in the 2020 Census

In the twenty twenty Census, about one in four US children was Hispanic or Latino, and fewer than half were non-Hispanic White alone; children are more diverse than adults. Census categories are self-reported and have changed over time, which affects comparisons across censuses.

A positive ethnic-racial identity.

HGD 1368 Positive Ethnic-Racial Identity

A positive ethnic-racial identity, feeling connected to one's community with healthy esteem, is linked to self-esteem, mental health, achievement and resilience against discrimination, as a teen draws strength from her community after a biased remark. Ethnoracial identity marks racial experience within an ethnicity.

The Identity Project.

HGD 1369 The Identity Project

The Identity Project, an eight-session high-school programme on identity, stereotypes, racism and heritage, increased identity exploration and improved coping, in a study by Umaña-Taylor and colleagues; students map their family's migration and discuss stereotypes. White adolescents may identify as American, European-descended, local, or a blend.

Phinney's ethnic identity model.

HGD 1370 Phinney's Ethnic Identity Model

Phinney proposed ethnic identity stages paralleling Marcia's: unexplored ethnic identity, ethnic identity search, and achieved ethnic identity, as a teen who never thought about her heritage begins asking her grandparents about it. Those of European ancestry in the United States explore ethnic identity less than others.

Six entries on models of ethnic-racial identity, and on shifting between cultural settings.

Cross's nigrescence model.

HGD 1371 Cross's Nigrescence Model

Cross's nigrescence model describes Black identity development in four stages. Pre-encounter: internalizing the majority culture's views. Encounter: an event, often discriminatory, that forces a rethink, like being followed by a store guard. Immersion and emersion: turning toward Black culture, building what Cross called cultural armour. Internalization: a secure identity, comfort with allies, and action for justice. Stage models of ethnic-racial identity are descriptive, not universal; not everyone follows them in order, and other models describe Latino, Asian American, American Indian and biracial identity. For the exam, know the order, and that an encounter usually triggers change.

Latino identity orientations.

HGD 1372 Latino Identity Orientations

Ferdman and Gallegos describe Latino identity orientations as lenses rather than stages, from White-identified and undifferentiated to Latino-identified and Latino-integrated. Darker-skinned Latinos less often identify as White. Orientations can coexist or shift with context, which is why they are lenses, not stages.

Kim's Asian American model.

HGD 1373 Kim's Asian American Model

Kim's Asian American identity model runs from ethnic awareness through White identification and social-political awakening to redirection and incorporation, a comfortable Asian American identity; a college student reclaiming her heritage language shows redirection, which often involves searching one's heritage, sometimes with anger.

American Indian and Alaska Native identity.

HGD 1374 American Indian and Alaska Native Identity

Alaska Native youth in one study described identity through self, family, community, tribe, place, values and historical knowledge, including knowledge of colonization. Walters's urban American Indian model moves from internalized stereotypes toward a resilient identity, and researchers find that frozen-in-time media images narrow Native youths' self-understanding.

Poston's biracial model.

HGD 1375 Poston's Biracial Model

Poston's biracial identity model runs from feeling pressed to choose one group, through guilt and re-examination, to appreciating both heritages and integration, like a teen with a Korean mother and a Black father refusing to tick only one box. It is one attributed account; biracial experiences vary widely.

Code-switching, and identity.

HGD 1376 Code-Switching and Identity

Code-switching in identity terms is adjusting speech, style or presentation to cultural context, as a student speaks one way with family, another at school and a third at a job interview. It is adaptive but can be tiring. Unit seven introduced it in language; here it extends to dress and manner.

Six entries to close the part, on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Gender identity in adolescence.

HGD 1377 Gender Identity in Adolescence

Gender identity is one's psychological sense of one's gender; cisgender people's identity matches their assigned sex, and transgender people's does not. Some cultures recognize genders beyond the binary, such as hijra in India and two-spirit in some Native American nations. Sex, including intersex, is distinct from gender.

The gender intensification hypothesis.

HGD 1378 The Gender Intensification Hypothesis

The gender intensification hypothesis holds that pressure to conform to gender roles intensifies in early adolescence. One study found no increase in stereotyped traits over time, with chores growing more gender-typed only in traditional homes. The misconception is that roles always intensify; the evidence is mixed.

Gender nonconformity.

HGD 1379 Gender Nonconformity

Gender-nonconforming behaviour does not match expectations for one's assigned gender, and gender-nonconforming youth face more victimization. In one longitudinal study, higher masculinity, in both sexes, predicted fewer depressive symptoms. The course defines gender identity terms; contested clinical claims about treatment are outside the exam and not voiced.

Sexual orientation.

HGD 1380 Sexual Orientation

Sexual orientation is the sex of those to whom one is sexually, emotionally or romantically attracted; heteronormativity treats heterosexuality as the norm. In the twenty fifteen survey, six percent of high-school students identified as bisexual and two percent as gay or lesbian. Heterosexual identity development is multidimensional too.

From illness to variation.

HGD 1381 From Illness to Variation

Psychology once treated same-sex orientation as an illness; the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM in nineteen seventy-three, and same-sex orientation is now understood as normal human variation. Gallup found nine percent of US adults identifying as LGBTQ+ in twenty twenty-five, up from under four percent in twenty twelve.

Sexual-minority milestones.

HGD 1382 Sexual-Minority Milestones

Early stage models, such as Cass's, which ran from identity confusion to identity synthesis, have given way to milestones. A meta-analysis by Hall and colleagues gives average ages: first same-sex attraction at about twelve point seven, self-identification at about seventeen point eight, first same-sex contact at about eighteen, starting to come out at about nineteen and a half, and a first same-sex romantic relationship at about twenty-one. Recent cohorts reach milestones earlier. Bisexual people and women tend to reach them later, and men recognize attraction earlier but disclose later. Milestones are averages; culture and religion shape when and whether a person discloses.

Look at what you can now do. You can explain why no single marker settles adult status: an eighteen-year-old can vote but not buy alcohol. You can name Marcia's statuses: diffusion, neither exploring nor committed; foreclosure, committed without exploring; moratorium, exploring without committing; achievement, both. You can describe the adolescent self: abstract, built by comparison, with self-esteem rising overall and a small sex difference outweighed by overlap. You can put the stages in order: Phinney's unexplored, search and achieved; Cross's pre-encounter, encounter, immersion-emersion and internalization. And you can state the milestones in their average order: attraction, self-identification, contact, coming out, and a first relationship. Part two covers coming out and culture.