SUMMARY

Identity

1. Adolescence is a time for self-discovery. According to Erikson, adolescents seek their own identity, sorting through the traditions and values of their families and cultures.

2. Many young adolescents foreclose on their options without exploring possibilities, and many experience role confusion. Older adolescents might seek a moratorium. Identity achievement takes longer for contemporary adolescents than it did half a century ago, when Erikson first described it.

3. Identity achievement occurs in many domains, including religion, politics, vocation, and sex. Each of these remains important over the life span, but timing, contexts, and, often, terminology have changed since Erikson and Marcia first described them. Achieving vocational and sexual (gender) identity is particularly difficult in adolescence.

Relationships with Adults

4. Parents continue to influence their growing children, despite bickering between them over minor issues. Ideally, communication and warmth remain high within the family, while parental control decreases and adolescents develop autonomy.

5. There are cultural differences in the timing of conflicts and in the particulars of parental monitoring. Too much parental control is harmful, as is neglect. Parents need to find a balance between granting freedom and providing guidance.

6. Adults other than parents sometimes provide important mentoring and modeling for adolescents, making resilience possible. Adult relatives, teachers, religious and community leaders, and even public figures can be influential.

Peer Power

7. Peers and peer pressure can be beneficial or harmful, depending on the particular friends. Adolescents select their friends, including friends of the other sex, who then facilitate constructive and/or destructive behavior. Adolescents seek the approval of their peers, sometimes engaging in risky behavior to gain such approval.

8. Like adults, adolescents experience diverse sexual needs and may be involved in short-term or long-term romances, depending in part on their peer group. Finding a life partner is a long process, typically involving emotional ups and downs. Early, exclusive sexual relationships are often a sign of emotional immaturity.

9. Some youths are sexually attracted to people of the same sex. Depending on the culture and cohort, they may have a more difficult adolescence than others, including being bullied or worse.

10. Many adolescents learn about sex from peers and the media—sources that do not provide a balanced picture. Ideally, parents are the best teachers about sex, but many are silent and naive.

11. Most parents want schools to teach adolescents about sex. Education varies from nation to nation, with some nations providing comprehensive education beginning in the early grades. In the United States, no curriculum (including abstinence-only programs) markedly changes the age at which adolescents become sexually active, although some help reduce rates of pregnancy and STIs.

Sadness and Anger

12. Almost all adolescents become self-conscious and self-critical. A few become chronically sad and depressed. Many adolescents (especially girls) think about suicide, and some attempt it. Few adolescents actually kill themselves; most who do so are boys.

13. At least in Western societies, almost all adolescents become more independent and angry as part of growing up, although most still respect their parents. Breaking the law as well as bursts of anger are common; boys are more likely to be arrested for violent offenses than are girls.

14. Adolescence-limited delinquents should be prevented from hurting themselves or others; their criminal behavior will disappear with maturation. Life-course-persistent offenders are aggressive in childhood and may continue to be so in adulthood.

Drug Use and Abuse

15. Most adolescents experiment with drugs, especially alcohol and tobacco, although such substances impair growth of the body and the brain. National culture has a powerful influence on which specific drugs are used as well as on frequency of use. Age, gender, community, and parents are also influential.

16. Alcohol and marijuana are particularly harmful in adolescence, as they affect the developing brain and threaten the already shaky impulse control. However, adults who exaggerate harm, or who abuse drugs themselves, are unlikely to prevent teen drug use.

17. Prevention and moderation of adolescent drug use and abuse are possible. Antidrug programs and messages need to be carefully designed to avoid a backlash or generational forgetting.