Cognitive Development of Adolescence

People often connect caprice,menace,violence,sedition and other negative words with adolescents.But how far can society influence the development of adolescence? This paper focuses on analyzing Piaget’s formal operational thinking,controversies about formal operational thinking and other approaches toward adolescent thinking.Limitations in the existing research and suggestions for further research will be brought forward afterwards.     

浅议青春期性教育

青春期性教育不仅是性知识的教育 ,还是人格教育和生活教育 ,因为在知识掌握的基础上 ,必定会有性道德知识和性法律知识的渗透。青春期性教育不仅仅是学校的任务 ,它还应该是家庭和社会的任务。     

Intimacy of Friendship, Interpersonal Competence, and Adjustment during Preadolescence and Adolescence

This study examined the hypotheses that (a) intimacy of friendship is more integral to socioemotional adjustment during adolescence than preadolescence, and (b) that competence in close relationship skills is more important during adolescence than preadolescence. Subjects were 102 10-13-year-old preadolescents and 70 13-16-year-old adolescents. Self- and friend ratings of friendship intimacy were gathered using a 2-step procedure ensuring that students rated only reciprocated friendships. Self- and friend ratings of close relationship competence were gathered using the newly developed Adolescent Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire. Intimacy of friendship was consistently and moderately correlated with adjustment and competence among adolescents but less consistently related among preadolescents. Significant age differences in coefficients were predominantly found for correlates of self-reported rather than friend-reported intimacy. Overall, the findings support the view that the ability to establish close, intimate friendships becomes increasingly important during early adolescence.     

青少年压力性生活事件、应对效能与自杀意念的关系

目的:考察压力性生活事件与青少年自杀意念的关系,以及应对效能在其中的补偿、中介和调节效应.方法:采用青少年压力性生活事件问卷、应对效能量表和自杀意念问卷对1217名青少年进行调查.结果:(1)压力性生活事件与青少年自杀意念显著正相关;(2)应对效能在压力性生活事件与自杀意念之间同时存在补偿、中介和调节效应.结论:应对效能可以有效地部分阻抗、中介和缓冲压力性生活事件对青少年自杀意念的作用.     

Cross-Cultural Concepts of Adolescence in Europe,the United States and Japan

In the twentieth century, in Europe and North America, the origin and development of the concept of adolescence owes much to the growth of universal education. However, in the latter years of the present century the countries of Europe and North America began to experience relative economic decline and, at the same time, develop growing respect for the educational achievements of the countries of the Pacific Rim. This paper seeks to examine models of adolescence more closely both in the countries of the first industrial revolution and in the country that leads the world in academic achievement – Japan.     

Youth's Conceptions of Adolescence Predict Longitudinal Changes in Prefrontal Cortex Activation and Risk Taking During Adolescence

The development of cognitive control during adolescence is paralleled by changes in the function of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). Using a three‐wave longitudinal neuroimaging design (N = 22, M_age = 13.08 years at Wave 1), this study examined if youth's stereotypes about teens modulate changes in their neural activation during cognitive control. Participants holding stereotypes of teens as irresponsible in the family context (i.e., ignoring family obligations) in middle school showed increases in bilateral ventrolateral PFC activation during cognitive control over the transition to high school, which was associated with increases in risk taking. These findings provide preliminary evidence that youth's conceptions of adolescence play a role in neural plasticity over this phase of development.     

Friendships and Social Networks in Childhood and Adolescence: Fluidity, Reliability, and Interrelations

Social networks and friendships were tracked over a 3-week period for 132 students enrolled in fourth- and seventh-grade classrooms. Individual interviews were employed to collect data on friendships. Social group membership was determined by the composite social-cognitive map (SCM) procedure and by self-reports. Considerable overlap was found among the methods for establishing relational patterns (i.e., friendships, self-reported groups, composite social-cognitive maps). When loose criteria for stability were employed, high stability was found in friendships ( p = .56–.75) and social group membership ( p = .90) over a 3-week period. But when stringent criteria were employed, only modest social relationship stability was observed in both methods, suggesting that there is much greater fluidity in peer bonds than has been generally recognized. The relationship between friendship and social network measures, the distinctive information yielded by social networks, and gender and age differences in group structure, fluidity, and friendships are discussed.     

Masculinity, Femininity, and Sex Role Attitudes in Early Adolescence: Exploring Gender Intensification

This longitudinal study of 200 young adolescent girls and boys (mean age 11.6 years in sixth grade) investigated the hypothesis that differences in masculinity, femininity, and sex role attitudes would intensify across the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades (between 11 and 13 years of age) and that pubertal timing (early, on time, late) would play a role in this intensification. Analyses revealed that sex differences in masculinity and sex role attitudes increased across grades, but not sex differences in femininity. Pubertal timing was not associated with this gender divergence, although the evidence is equivocal for boys. The results provide support for gender intensification, but the role of pubertal timing may not be as strong as previously supposed.     

A Prospective Study of Life Stress, Social Support, and Adaptation in Early Adolescence

This study employed a 2-year longitudinal design to examine the relation of stressful life events and social supports to psychological distress and school performance among 166 early adolescents (mean age = 13.5 years). A prospective approach was utilized to control for initial levels of adjustment when examining the relation of Time 1 stress and support variables to Time 2 psychological distress and school performance. Both stress and support variables made significant contributions to the prediction of subsequent psychological distress. Stresses, but not supports, made a significant contribution to the prediction of subsequent school performance. Evidence for reciprocal and interactive linkages was also found, including effects of psychological distress and school performance on subsequent stresses and supports, and greater adaptive impact of school-based supportive resources under conditions of heightened risk outside of school. Implications for ecological and transactional models of development relating to the targeting and efficacy of preventive efforts are discussed.     

Orientations to Institutional Authority in Adolescence

Abstract

Following Weber (1947), we argue that legal socialization entails a commitment to ‘legal-rational’ or institutional authority and that variations in attitudes to such authority emerge in adolescence. Attitudes to institutional authority as represented by the police, the law, and the school or university, were examined in three separate samples with ages varying from 13 to 20 years. In all the groups studied, males were found to have more negative attitudes to institutional authority than females. This corresponded to a sex difference in degree of compliance with legal requirements as assessed by self-reported behaviour in relation to laws, regulations and other institutionally approved standards of conduct. In all but one group, attitudes were significantly, and usually highly, correlated with behaviour. The results are interpreted as lending support to an attitude model of legal socialization.     

青春期心理危机现状探析

一、青春期心理危机的内涵心理危机是指事件带来的影响超出了个体的应对能力后,个体陷入的一种应激状态,需要借助外界力量的帮助才能解决。青春期是个体的生理和心理发生急剧变化发展的特殊时期,是从幼稚走向成熟、从家庭步入社会的重要转型时期。青春期心理危机是指处于这一时期的青少年在其学习和生活中由于生理、心理、社会等各方面的原因,自身已有的资源和应付机制无法承受各种突发事件对自身心理的冲击,需要求助外界的帮助才能使自己重新达到心理平衡。     

Ethnic and Racial Identity in Adolescence: Implications for Psychosocial,Academic, and Health Outcomes

The construction of an ethnic or racial identity is considered an important developmental milestone for youth of color. This review summarizes research on links between ethnic and racial identity (ERI) with psychosocial, academic, and health risk outcomes among ethnic minority adolescents. With notable exceptions, aspects of ERI are generally associated with adaptive outcomes. ERI are generally beneficial for African American adolescents' adjustment across all three domains, whereas the evidence is somewhat mixed for Latino and American Indian youth. There is a dearth of research for academic and health risk outcomes among Asian American and Pacific Islander adolescents. The review concludes with suggestions for future research on ERI among minority youth.