Identity and self esteem.

Erikson argued that adolescents face a crisis between identity

and role confusion. This crisis involves balancing the desire to try out many possible
selves and the need to select a single self.

As adolescents strive to achieve an identity, they pass through a few phases.

Many young adolescents may be in a state of diffusion.
The common element in these phases is that teens are not exploring alternative
identities, but have resolved it by taking on
an identity suggested by parents or other adults.
As adolescents grow into adults diffusion becomes less common and
achievement and moratorium become more common.
Their identities cause them to shift between moratorium and achievement.
As they consider their identities they become self oriented and believe they are being
watched by an imaginary audience.
Adolescents consider their actions as unique and and believe themselves to be invulnerable.

Parents have an influence on the development of the identity of their children.

• Adolescents are likely to establish a well-defined identity in a family atmosphere where

parents
• encourage children to explore alternatives on their own but do not pressure or provide
explicit
• direction.
• Peer influence is an important aspect of adolescent identity.
• The broader social context contributes as well.
• Personality factors such as openness and agreeableness are likely to contribute to a stable
identity.

• Ethnic identity
• In multicultural societies as in India and the US early identities are tied to their family and
culture.
• In India identities are rooted in the family of birth, geographical location, religion, language
• and occupational status of the family.
 Children grow in different contexts and are recognized as belonging to a region with an
identity

that is preserved over the life span.

• In migrant cultures as in the US or other countries children are members of ethnic minority
• groups.
These individuals typically develop an ethnic identity.
Achieving an ethnic identity occurs in three phases.

Initially, adolescents have not examined their ethnic roots.

They would rather take on the characteristics of the majority of their peers.

• Adolescents begin to explore the personal impact of their ethnic heritage by

• wanting to learn more about their history and parents country of origin.

• Individuals achieve a distinct ethnic self-concept.

• Older adolescents are more likely than younger ones to have achieved an ethnic identity because
• they are more likely to have had opportunities to explore their cultural heritage.
The nature and consequences of a strong ethnic self-concept may differ across ethnic groups

Adolescents with a strong ethnic identity are less affected by discrimination.

• They maintain their self-worth even if experiencing racial or ethnic discrimination.

• Adolescents who have achieved an ethnic identity tend to have greater self-esteem
• and find their interactions with family and friends more satisfying.

When parents maintain strong feelings of ethnic identity that their children do not share,
• problems sometimes develop:
• while immigrant parents retain their ethnic identity, their children embrace the new culture.
• When adolescents strongly identity to the larger peer culture they are more prone to
• depression and antisocial behaviour.
• Thus, children’s failure to identify with their parent’s cultural roots can lead to difficulties.
Some biracial adolescents first identify themselves as monoracial and then embrace a biracial
identity.

• Others shift, converging on a single racial identity;

• and still others shift from one racial identity to another.

• Youth with shifting racial identities tend to have lower self-esteem than those with a
• consistent biracial identity.

• Self esteem in adolescence

By the beginning of adolescence, self-esteem has usually stabilized—
• it neither increases nor decreases in these years.

• Self-esteem is normally very high in preschool children but declines gradually during the
• early elementary school years as children compare themselves to others.

•
Peer comparisons begin anew, and self- esteem often suffers temporarily

during the early elementary years.

• As a new school becomes familiar and students gradually adjust to the new order, self-esteem
• increases.
• Self-esteem becomes more differentiated as children enter adolescence.

Youth are able to evaluate themselves in more domains as they develop,

and their evaluations in each domain become increasingly independent.

• Children’s ratings of self-esteem are often consistent across different dimensions of self- esteem.
Adolescents’ ratings more often vary from one domain to another (high in sports, low in music).

• As children progress through elementary school and enter junior high or middle school,
their academic self-concepts become particularly well defined.
Children form beliefs about their ability in different content areas.

These beliefs contribute to their overall academic self-concept.

• During adolescence, the social component of self-esteem become particularly well differentiated.
• Adolescents distinguish self-worth in many different social relationships.
• One may be good at art and appreciated by peers,
• but may be unappreciated in sports and have negative feelings toward peers at sports.
• Growth of self-worth among children and adolescents also varies depending on their
ethnicity.
• Self esteem may vary with age and circumstances.
• When self esteem changes with age and circumstances in ethnic groups, an explanation is that as
• they take pride in belonging to a distinct social and cultural group, their self-worth
increases.
• Between the late preschool years and adolescence, self-esteem becomes more complex as older
• children and adolescents identify distinct domains of self-worth.
Influences on adolescents self esteem.
Genes to some extent influence adolescents self worth-
they seem relatively sociable and attractive resulting in better competence.

• Children’s and adolescents’ self-worth is also affected by how others view them.
• Children have greater self-esteem when families live in harmony and parents nurture their
children.
• Parents’ discipline also is related to self-esteem.
• Children with high self-esteem generally have parents who have reasonable expectations for
their children and are willing to discuss rules and discipline with their children.
• Peers’ views are important. Children’s and particularly adolescents’ self-worth is greater when
they believe that their peers think highly of them.
• Changes are natural by-products of an evolving parent–child relationship in which the “child” is
nearly a fully independent young adult.
• Parent–child conflicts in adolescence are more serious and are associated with behaviour
problems in adolescents.
Development of identity in relation to life transitions and events.

Adolescents and young adults develop a sense of self during a phase of life that involves many
role changes.

• Individuals need to integrate important experiences in their lives into their identity.
• Identity maturation occurs as the result of individuals’ investment in social roles that require
• them to engage in mature and socially responsible behaviour.
• Transitioning into adult roles may foster the development of the self, but might also confront
• some adolescents with challenges to their identity.

Micro-processes of identity.
• Researchers have paid increasing attention to the micro-level processes that underlie
• developmental changes in identity commitment and exploration.
• These micro-level processes refer to the real- time experiences and expressions of identity in
• adolescents’ daily lives.
• and are thought to accumulate in the macro-level development of identity processes.
Identity is not only directly related to relationship quality.

It also affects how susceptible youth are to the influence of others.

• Adolescents with lower self-concept clarity were more susceptible to the influence of their
• friends’ delinquency and subsequently showed more delinquency themselves.

• Whereas adolescents with stronger identity commitment engaged in less risk behaviour
• suggesting that identity might protect against peer pressure.

Romantic relationships
•

In late adolescence and young adulthood, individuals are faced with several important
• developmental transitions, which involve the adoption of new social roles.

One of these transitions is the establishment of a committed romantic relationship .

• Romantic relationships are an important life domain because research suggests that relationships
• influence a wide range of personality and well-being outcomes.
Transitions in Romantic Relationships and Development of Self-Esteem . (Luciano and Orth,
2017).
Self-esteem of an average person starts to rise in adolescence, continues to increase in young
and middle adulthood.

. Several longitudinal studies suggest that self- esteem might also be a cause of relationship
outcomes, such as
• relationship satisfaction and social support.
• Relationship satisfaction is a crucial factor for relationship continuation.
• Given that stressful life events include negative transitions in the relationship domain such as
• separation or loss, self-esteem might have selection effects on relationship transitions.

• Theoretical perspectives suggest that transitions in romantic relationships have the potential
to
• influence a person’s self-esteem.
• Normative life transitions in romantic relationships, which imply the commitment to new
social roles, have the potential to initiate personality change.
The age periods of late adolescence and young adulthood are characterized by change and
exploration, which frequently leads to important developmental transitions.

• Longitudinal research indicates that self-esteem predicts relationship quality

• which, in turn, is a crucial factor for relationship continuation vs. break-up.

• Participants who had high self- esteem and were single had a higher
• probability of beginning a high-quality relationship that held at least for one year.

• Results suggest that high self- esteem selects for finding a partner with whom the person
• maintains a more stable, and potentially more satisfying, romantic relationship.
•

• This was supported by further analyses suggesting that self-esteem selects for the beginning of a
• high-quality relationship but not for the beginning of a low-quality relationship.
Once individuals with high self-esteem begin a relationship, they might show more competent
relationship behaviour.

Self-esteem is not merely an outcome of a person’s life circumstances,

but is influenced by the environment a person selects.
• The relation between self-esteem and transitions in romantic relationships involves both
• selection and socialization effects.

• Adolescents' relationships with parents and romantic partners in eight countries (Gorla et
al., 2024).
• Romantic relationships are also influenced by cultural context, as every culture has its own
• traditional gender role ideologies, social norms, and values that regulate the timing and ways
• that adolescents bond with peers.
Cultural groups differ in whether they promote or discourage adolescents' romantic
relationships.

• In countries such as China, romantic relationships are discouraged,

• whereas in the United States and many European countries,
• romantic relationships are encouraged.
• Cultural groups also vary in gender role beliefs,
• with Western cultures encouraging boys to be
• focused on independence and girls on affiliative values,
• while other cultures pressure girls to be
• shyer and less engaged in romantic relationships.
• The proportion of adolescents who report being involved
• in romantic relationships varies across countries.
• Nevertheless, most research has been conducted in North America and Europe,
• and more studies still need to be done in other geographical areas.
A positive relationship with parents in childhood and throughout adolescence is critical for the
future development of good romantic relationships.

The construction of an anxious attachment constitutes

a risk factor for future romantic relationships

A study by Gorla et al., 2024 assessed

Adolescent romantic relationship quality and satisfaction

Adolescent romantic relationship conflict.

• Parent–adolescent conflicts
• Parent–adolescent attachment

• Positive parenting
• Parent–adolescent communication
Lower levels of destructive conflicts with parents were linked to higher quality romantic
relationships.

• There was more satisfaction, and lower conflicts within the couple.

• There is a significant association between anxiety in attachment between parents and

• adolescents only for adolescents' romantic relationship quality.
•
• Results are consistent with previous studies highlighting that adolescents with
• difficulties in attachment with their parents perceive low romantic relationship quality.

• Results support the essential role attachment with parents has for adolescents
• in bonding with peers,
• and the role of anxious attachment as a risk factor for future romantic relationships.
 Physical and cognitive development in adolescents
Body image perceptions.

Adolescence represents a pivotal stage in the development of positive or negative body

image.
Many influences exist during the teen years including transitions (e. g., puberty) that affect
one’s body shape, weight status, and appearance.
The many physical changes that occur during puberty are caused by the pituitary gland (a
major endocrine gland) that helps to regulate physical development by releasing growth
hormone (a regulatory substance).
During the early elementary school years, before there are any outward signs of
puberty, the pituitary gland signals the adrenal glands to release androgens (male
hormones), initiating the biochemical changes that will produce body hair.
A few years later, in girls, the pituitary signals the ovaries to release oestrogen ( female
characteristics of the body).
Puberty occurs earlier in adolescents who are well nourished and healthy than in adolescents who are not.

The social environment also influences the onset of puberty, at least for girls.

Menarche occurs at younger ages in girls who experience chronic stress or harsh punishment.

• Body Image
• Interest in the area of body image parallels growing public health concerns about weight status,
• physical inactivity, obesity, eating disorders, and the associated spectrum of health consequences.
Weight status exists along a spectrum between being obese to being underweight.
• Salient influences on body image include the media, which can target adolescents, and peers who
help shape beliefs about the perceived body ideal.
• Internalization of and pressures to conform to these socially prescribed body ideals help to
explain associations between weight status and body image.
• The concepts of fat talk and weight-related bullying during adolescence greatly contribute to an
overemphasis on body weight and appearance.
Body image is a multidimensional construct encompassing how we perceive, think, feel, and act
toward our bodies.
It lies on a continuum from healthy body perceptions to unhealthy body perceptions.

• Body image has “developmental significance” such that it is not a static personal characteristic, but
rather a dynamic aspect of ourselves that changes over the lifespan.

• Adolescence represents a critical period

• for healthy body image development due
to the type and magnitude of age- related
transitions occurring during this time.
A variety of cultural, social, physical, and psychological changes that characterize

adolescence uniquely interact to shape body image between the ages of 12 years and 18 years.

• Groesz et al. (2002 ) found that the greatest decline in body satisfaction occurred in
girls
• under the age of 19 following exposure to overtly thin media images.
• Studies indicate that current diet, exercise, and beauty trends displayed in reality television
• shows and social media outlets can contribute to unhealthy adolescent body perceptions.
• Ashikali et al (2014) found that 15–18-year old girls exposed to a cosmetic surgery show
• reported more weight-related and appearance dissatisfaction than a control group
exposed
• to a home improvement show.
• Findings suggest that in addition to print media, current television and internet trends are
• sources of promoting unrealistic and so-called ideal images to adolescents.
These cultural ideals and beliefs are also reinforced by significant others in adolescents’
immediate environments, including family, peers, and romantic partners .
• Negative weight talk and dieting among family members, especially from mothers who serve as
• role models for body image, has been shown to be related to body image concerns and
disordered eating behaviours in adolescent girls.
• How adolescents perceive their bodies is strongly influenced by their larger sociocultural
context.
• Maturing girls may be especially vulnerable to developing a negative body image when they
• perceive their changing bodies to be misaligned with cultural ideals.

• The perception of physical changes in a sociocultural context plays a critical role in shaping
• body image throughout adolescence.
• Body image may improve as adolescent’s sense of self becomes increasingly stabilized.
Appearance- and weight-related concerns and pressures mediate associations between body

weight/ BMI and body image.

• Thus, although body size, as indicated by BMI, may contribute to body image, it is perception (e.
• g, internalization, pressures, social comparison) that appears to play a key role in adolescents’
• assessment of their bodies.

• A construct associated with fat talk is weight-related bullying, which can include behavioural,
•
psychological, and relational components, such as teasing and social exclusion.

• Adolescents who experience weight- related bullying report negative affect, such as sadness and
• depressed mood.
• Negative health consequences that may result from the unique interaction of weight status and
• body image include physical inactivity, eating disorders, and dysfunctional exercise.
•
Eating disorders and dysfunctional exercise

• Body dissatisfaction among adolescents has been consistently shown to be the strongest predictor
• of eating disorders across psychosocial variables, such as perfectionism and locus of control.
• Negative body image among adolescents, which includes dissatisfaction with one’s body shape,
can directly impact eating behaviours in an attempt to sculpt one’s body into a perceived ideal
and gain a sense of control.
• The link between body dissatisfaction and the development of disordered eating has been
explained by the reduced self-esteem and negative emotions, such as depression, that tend to
occur when body dissatisfaction is present.
• Anorexia nervosa involves the severe restriction of food intake to unhealthy levels that results in
caloric deprivation.
By contrast, bulimia nervosa is characterized by binge episodes of overeating followed by

compensatory purging, such as vomiting, laxatives use, or obligatory exercise to counteract

excessive caloric intake.

Negative body image has been a central diagnostic

feature for all clinical eating disorders (i . e, anorexia

nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder)

as outlined by DSM 5.

Shame and harsh self-criticism have been identified as

underlying mechanisms for binge eating.

Binge eating disorder, a new classification in the DSM-5, features binge episodes without an
accompanying purging method.

• Specifically, clinical eating disorders and disordered eating disrupt nearly every bodily
system.

• Eating disorders represent a high mortality rate in adolescents among all psychiatric conditions,
• and may be associated with increased suicide risk and self-harming behaviours.

• Promotion of a healthy body image should be integrated across all interventions aimed to address
• obesity, eating disorders, and other health-related concerns among adolescents.

• Voelker et al. (2015). Weight status and body image perceptions in adolescents: current
perspectives.
Adolescents Moods (Short et al. 2020).

• Adolescence is a vulnerable period during which the onset of mood disorders occur.

• Mood disorders such as depression and anxiety often have a chronic and recurrent course, with
• earlier age of onset associated with poorer educational, social and quality of life outcomes.

Understanding causal contributors to mood is paramount for adolescents, who run a

heightened risk of developing a mood disorder as the result of the psychological, social and
physiological shifts.

• One factor posited to have a causal relationship with mood is sleep.

• Research has identified sufficient sleep as a contributor to optimal mood and the ability to better
• regulate emotions.

• Shorter sleep duration increased the odds of adolescents mood deficits by 55%.
 Mood deficits due to shorter sleep were observed across mood states
including depression, anxiety, anger.

• Scores on positive affect and negative affect, indicate that short sleep can lead to a range of
• mood deficits in otherwise healthy samples of adolescents.
• Shen et al., (2018) found that the association between sleep loss and mood was stronger for
• happiness and positive affect than it was for negative affect.
• Anhedonia, or the reduced ability to experience pleasure from normally pleasurable activities,
• is a clinically significant symptom and diminishes quality of life among those experiencing it.
• Results highlight an important potential mechanism between short sleep and mood disorders
• through reduced enjoyment or pleasure and elucidates the importance of measuring moods
• beyond common measures of depression and anxiety.
Mood is often conflated with emotion and emotion regulation.
Information processing during adolescence. There is a mature transition in thought from
childhood to adolescence.

• Working memory and processing speed are almost at par with that of adults.
• Adolescents acquire adult like knowledge in many domains. They learn from new experiences.
• They also get skilled at acquiring new strategies and monitor them indicating an awareness in
meta cognition.

• Problem solving: two approaches are involved- algorithm and heuristics.

• Algorithm is a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving
operations.

• Heuristics enables a person to discover or learn something.

• They do not guarantee a solution but are useful in solving a range of problems.
• Analytic thinking gets common in adolescence. Adolescents are more likely to rely on logic.
 Adolescents also are better skilled at finding weaknesses in arguments.
In logical reasoning they can pinpoint flaws in arguments.
In scientific reasoning adolescents recognize the hazards in making generalizations from extremely
small samples.
• Adolescents’ beliefs interfere with effective thinking:
• Adolescents use their reasoning skills selectively, with an understanding to dismiss findings that
• threaten their beliefs and admit findings compatible with their beliefs.

• Moral development
• People are confronted with moral dilemmas. Kohlberg was aware of decisions people were
confronted with and the decisions they had to make even when the consequences are undesirable.
• Kohlberg analysed children’s, adolescents’, and adults’ responses to a large number of dilemmas
and identified three levels of moral reasoning, each divided into two sub-stages.
• At the preconventional level, moral reasoning is based on external forces that are controlled by
rewards and punishments.
• At stage 1 individuals assume an obedience to authority. There is a belief that what is authorized
is right.
In the second stage of the preconventional level people adopt an instrumental orientation to
take care of their own needs.
It is a justification of actions according to the circumstances.

• At the conventional level, adolescents and adults look to society’s norms for
• moral guidance. Moral reasoning is largely determined by others’ expectations of them.

• Adolescents’ and adults’ moral reasoning is based on interpersonal norms.

• The aim is to win the approval of other people.
• This is followed by a social system morality. Adolescents and adults believe that social roles,
• expectations, and laws exist to maintain order within society and to promote good.

• At the postconventional level, moral reasoning is based on a personal moral code.

• The emphasis is no longer on external forces such as punishment, reward, or social roles.
• People base their moral reasoning on a social contract.
• At the postconventional level, universal ethical principles dominate moral reasoning.
Abstract principles such as justice, compassion, and equality form the basis of a personal code

•
Adolescents moral reasoning when honesty and loyalty collide. Shao et al. (2024).

According to moral pluralism theory, people practice moral reasoning based on several
fundamental dimensions, including honesty and loyalty.

• They may face dilemmas where honesty collides with loyalty.

• Adolescents (15- to 18-year-olds, N = 203) in a western, multicultural Canadian city read moral
dilemmas involving a protagonist learning that an athlete cheated (took performance enhancing
drugs) in a sports event.
• Younger adolescents projected that they personally would be more inclined to tell a loyal lie for a
friend than their country (dishonest loyalty- lie telling). (not taking)
• but older adolescents were more likely to lie for their country than younger ones (disloyal
honest- truth telling). (is taking)
• Participants judged telling disloyal truths to expose a friend significantly less favourably than
disloyal truths to expose a country.
• These adolescents reflected upon loyalty and caring, honesty and fairness, and nonmoral
practical factors when justifying their choices and judgments.
The study advances the understanding of moral development.

With sophisticated social-cognitive capacities, adolescents can coordinate different fundamental

moral values when rendering their moral reasoning.

• Psychological research has tended to focus on how globalization reshapes young people’s
values.
Mckenzie and Jensen (2024) examine the moral values of adolescents and their parents living in
• both a rural community and an urban city in northern Thailand.
Moral values are assessed via the Ethical Values Assessment (2016).

• The cultural-developmental approach assesses diversity in peoples’ moral psychology by

• differentiating three kinds of ethics by individuals in diverse world regions and across
• developmental periods:
• Autonomy, Community, and Divinity (Shweder et al., 1997).
• The Ethic of Autonomy involves a focus on persons as individuals. Moral considerations within
• this ethic address the interests, well-being, and rights of individuals.
• The Ethic of Community focuses on persons as members of social groups, such as family and society.
• Here moral considerations include duty to others, and concern with the welfare, interests, and customs of
groups.
• The Ethic of Divinity focuses on persons as spiritual or religious beings, and moral considerations
• encompass divine and natural law, sacred lessons, and spiritual purity.
The globalization and localization of moral values: A cultural-developmental study of
adolescents and their parents. McKenzie and Jensen (2024).

Stark differences in Autonomy values exist across urban and rural contexts,
with urban participants prioritizing the Ethic of Autonomy more than rural participants.
Adolescents were more likely to prioritize the Ethic of Autonomy than were their parents.

• Urban parents deemed the Ethic of Community more important than any other group.
• When pushed to choose three core values, urban adolescents were the least likely
• to prioritize community items.
• This aligns with previous research, which found that urban-dwelling Thai adolescents were less
• likely than both rural adolescents and their own parents to draw from community values when
• reasoning about private moral experiences.
Divinity values differed across age, but not cultural groups.

In rural and urban contexts, parents valued the Ethic of Divinity more than their adolescent
children.

• By revealing that adolescents growing up in a globalized urban Thai context are most likely to
• prioritize Autonomy, the study extends previous research addressing the developmental
• implications of globalization.

By revealing that urban parents prioritize community values more than rural parents,
the study points to the effects of localization in the face of rapid cultural value change.

• In total, this study speaks of how value systems are maintained, reasserted, and dynamically
• reshaped with increasing embeddedness in the collective chronosystem of globalization.

• Cultural context and developmental age jointly shape moral values in northern Thailand.