Identity
1. Adolescence is a time for self-
2. Many young adolescents foreclose on their options without exploring possibilities, experience role confusion, or reach 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, sex, and ethnicity. Each of these remains important over the life span, but timing, contexts, and terminology have changed since Erikson and Marcia first described the domains of identity achievement.
4. Immigrant youths undergo one of four potential ethnic identities: integrated, separated, national, and diffuse.
Relationships with Others
5. Parents continue to influence their growing children, despite bickering over minor issues. Ideally, communication and warmth remain high within the family, whereas parental control decreases and adolescents develop independence.
6. There are cultural differences in the timing of conflicts and particulars of parental monitoring. Too much parental control, with psychological intrusiveness, is harmful, as is neglect. Parents need to find a balance between granting freedom and providing guidance.
7. Family closeness has four aspects, including communication, support, connectedness, and control.
8. Peers and peer pressure can be beneficial or harmful, depending on particular friends, cliques, and crowds. Adolescents select their friends, including friends of the other sex, who then facilitate constructive and/or destructive behaviour such as deviancy training.
9. Crowds and cliques are evident in high schools; they are necessary to help adolescents develop their values and life habits. Peers may be particularly crucial for ethnic-
Sexual Interactions
10. Current youth may have healthier sexual relationships than did youth a generation ago. Teen pregnancy and abortion are lower, contraception use is higher, and sexual intercourse, at least in North America, occurs at later ages.
11. Puberty triggers sexual interest, but cultures and crowds have a major influence on how, when, and to whom those interests are expressed. Early, exclusive sexual relationships are a sign of emotional immaturity.
12. Some youth are oriented toward same-
13. Problems with adolescent sexuality include adolescent pregnancy (especially for Canadian teens who are discouraged about their future career and educational opportunities) and STIs (higher in adolescence than later).
14. Sexual abuse is more likely to occur in early adolescence than at other ages, and it can permanently harm a victim’s brain and psychological development. Girls are most often the victims; the perpetrators are most often family members.
15. Incident rates of teen pregnancy, abortions, intercourse, and sexual abuse are declining, although sexually transmitted infections are the highest among Canadian youth. STIs can have long-
16. Sex education occurs in many ways, with parents the most powerful influence but often the least informed. Schools vary in scope and success of sex education.
Emotions: Sadness and Anger
17. A few adolescents become seriously depressed. Many adolescents (especially girls) think about suicide, and some attempt it. Few adolescents actually kill themselves; most who do so are boys. However, the exception is Aboriginal youth who have one of the highest rates of suicide in the world.
18. Law-
19. There are different groups of youth offenders: life-
20. Youths’ childhood experiences, family relationships, and environment are determinants of the extent of the youths’ delinquent tendencies.
Drug Use and Abuse
21. 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 the frequency of use. Age, gender, community, and parental factors are also influential.
22. Prevention and moderation of adolescent drug use and abuse are possible. Anti-