ABSTRACT This article examines whether there is a morally relevant difference between adolescents and adults even if both are similarly autonomous. Understanding that difference accounts for the particular moral significance of adolescence and explains what we owe to adolescents as individual members of that age group. I first raise the plausibility of this morally relevant difference by highlighting the difficulties that any attempts would face which try to assimilate adolescents to either adults or children. I then consider two recent (...) proposals that have been made in the literature in support of the moral significance of adolescence and show that none of them can adequately account for it. In light of this diagnosis, I advance the Relational View according to which it is necessary for the development of adolescents' autonomous capacities that they are supported in both their self‐governance and self‐authorisation in close relationships while they are adolescent. As a result, the morally relevant difference between adolescents and adults consists in the fact that close relationships and the support they provide are necessary for adolescents to become skilled autonomous agents but only causally relevant for adults. An implication of this view is that paternalism is justified only in rare cases, and that friendships and partnerships later in life are unable to make up for what has been missed during adolescence. (shrink)

The ability to notice and reflect on distressing internal experiences from an objective perspective, often called psychological decentering, has been posited to be protective against mental health difficulties. However, little is known about how this skill relates to age across adolescence, its relationship with mental health, and how it may impact key domains such as affective executive control and social cognition. This study analysed a pre-existing dataset including mental health measures and cognitive tasks, administered to adolescents in Greater London (...) and Cambridge (mean age (SD) = 14.4 (1.77) years, N = 553). A self-report index of decentering based on available questionnaire items in the dataset was developed. Multiple linear regression was used to examine associations between decentering and mental health, affective executive control (measured using an affective Stroop Task, affective Working Memory Task, and affective Sustained Attention to Response Task) and social cognition. Higher decentering was significantly associated with lower depression and anxiety scores and higher psychological wellbeing. Results did not indicate significant relationships between decentering, affective executive control and social cognition. Further research is needed to discover cognitive mechanisms associated with this process, which could allow for optimisation of existing psychological therapy and reveal new avenues of intervention. (shrink)

Philosophical discussions on childhood increasingly emphasize its intrinsic value, moving away from traditional “deficit perspectives” that see childhood merely as a preparatory stage for adulthood. While similar views are often applied to adolescence, this paper argues that youth constitutes a distinct life phase with its own special goods. These include identity formation, the development of autonomy, authenticity, deeper social relationships, and moral and political exploration. Adolescence is characterized by rapid cognitive and emotional development, enabling an intense engagement with (...) the self and the social world. By drawing on philosophical and interdisciplinary perspectives, this paper demonstrates that these special goods are not merely transitional features leading to adulthood but have intrinsic normative significance. Furthermore, it explores the challenges of providing social, familial, and institutional support to enable adolescents to realize these goods. Critical objections—such as the cultural specificity of adolescence or the blurred boundaries between life stages—are examined and contextualized. Ultimately, this paper advocates for a broader philosophical and societal recognition of adolescence as a valuable life phase with its own ethical and normative implications, underscoring the need to protect and foster its unique developmental and experiential dimensions. (shrink)

Intervening on causal systems can illuminate their underlying structures. Past work has shown that, relative to adults, young children often make intervention decisions that appear to confirm a single hypothesis rather than those that optimally discriminate alternative hypotheses. Here, we investigated how the ability to make informative causal interventions changes across development. Ninety participants between the ages of 7 and 25 completed 40 different puzzles in which they had to intervene on various causal systems to determine their underlying structures. Each (...) puzzle comprised a three‐ or four‐node computer chip with hidden wires. On each trial, participants viewed two possible arrangements of the chip's hidden wires and had to select a single node to activate. After observing the outcome of their intervention, participants selected a wire configuration and rated their confidence in their selection. We characterized participant choices with a Bayesian measurement model that indexed the extent to which participants selected nodes that would best disambiguate the two possible causal structures versus those that had high causal centrality in one of the two causal hypotheses but did not necessarily discriminate between them. Our model estimates revealed that the use of a discriminatory strategy increased through early adolescence. Further, developmental improvements in intervention strategy were related to changes in the ability to accurately judge the strength of evidence that interventions revealed, as indexed by participants' confidence in their selections. Our results suggest that improvements in causal information‐seeking extend into adolescence and may be driven by metacognitive sensitivity to the efficacy of previous interventions in discriminating competing ideas. (shrink)

Adolescents are routinely treated differently to adults, even when they possess similar capacities. In this article, we explore the justification for one case of differential treatment of adolescents. We attempt to make philosophical sense of the concurrent consents doctrine in law: adolescents found to have decision-making capacity have the power to consent to—and thereby, all else being equal, permit—their own medical treatment, but they lack the power always to refuse treatment and so render it impermissible. Other parties, that is, individuals (...) who exercise parental responsibility or a court, retain the authority to consent on an adolescent’s behalf. We explore four defences of the doctrine. We reject two attempts to defend the asymmetry in the power to consent to and refuse medical treatment by reference to transitional paternalism. We then consider and reject a stage of life justification. Finally, we articulate a justification based on the distinctiveness of adolescent well-being. (shrink)

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by intense changes, which impact the interaction between individuals and their environments. Moral reasoning (MR) is an important skill during adolescence because it guides social decisions between right and wrong. Identifying the cognitive underpinnings of MR is essential to understanding the development of this function. The aim of this study was to explore predictors of MR in typically developing adolescents (n = 92, 33 males, M = 16.3 years, SD = 2.2 years) (...) and the specific contribution of higher order cognitive processing using an innovative visual MR assessment tool and measures of executive functioning and intelligence. MR maturity was correlated with four executive functions (cognitive flexibility, feedback utilization, conceptual reasoning, verbal fluency) and was predicted by four variables: age, intelligence, nonverbal flexibility and verbal fluency. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of MR during adolescence and highlight the importance of using innovative tools to measure social cognition. (shrink)

Aims: Early adolescence represents a critical developmental period both from a psychological and a psychopathological point of view. During this period, one of the most common disorder that frequently arises is represented by depression, that tends to become chronic and may produce many subsequent psychosocial impairments. The present study aimed to analyse characteristics of depressive symptoms in an Italian sample of early adolescents, and to explore their connections with self-esteem levels and perceived maternal and paternal emotional availability.Methods: 594 adolescents (...) (50% females) with a mean age of 12.11 years (sd =.98) were administered the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the maternal and the paternal forms of the Lum Emotional Availability of Parents (LEAP).Results: Findings highlighted a slightly higher level of depressive symptoms in girls than in boys. Regression analysis showed that, as far as predictors of depression, self-esteem was the most relevant one, followed by maternal and paternal emotional availability.Conclusions: Our results strongly suggested to plan intervention programs aimed at monitoring early adolescents’ self-esteem and supporting relationship with both parents, in order to prevent the emergence of depressive symptoms. (shrink)

IntroductionPrevious studies on metacognitive ability were explored using self-report questionnaires that are difficult to adequately measure and evaluate when the capacity for self-reference is undeveloped. This study aimed to validate the Congruency-based Metacognition Scale to measure metacognition and the feeling of confidence abilities and to investigate the development of metacognition during adolescence.MethodsThe CMS was administered to 633 child–parent pairs in Japan. The CMS metacognition score was assessed based on congruency scores between the self-report of the child from a third-person (...) perspective and the parent’s report from the first-person perspective. The CMS self-judgment accuracy score was assessed by the congruency scores between the children’s self-report from the 1PP and 3PP. For both measures, the more distant the 3PP on the self-report was from the 1PP on the parent’s report and child self-report means low ability. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine construct validity and then a confirmatory factor analysis was used. Criterion validity was examined by calculating Pearson’s correlation coefficients with scores on the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale and Autism Quotient. We used intraclass correlation and Cronbach’s alpha to examine the test–retest and internal consistency reliability.ResultsBased on the results of the EFA and CFA, we adopted one factor structure with five items. The CMS metacognition and CMS self-judgment accuracy showed evidence criterion validity, exhibiting significant correlations with the BCIS self-reflectiveness and self-certainty scores, respectively. Regarding to the AQ, only the CMS metacognition score had significant correlations with the social skills and total scale score. The test–retest reliability showed adequate. Adolescents were found to have significantly lower metacognitive ability compared to young adults.ConclusionCMS could be a valid and reliable measure to examine metacognitive abilities for adolescents. (shrink)

Adolescents present a puzzle. There are foundational unclarities about how they should be regarded as decision-makers. Although superficially adolescents may appear to have mature decisional capacity, their decision-making is in many ways unlike that of adults. Despite this seemingly obvious fact, a concern for the claims of autonomy has led to the development of the legal doctrine of the mature minor. This legal construct considers adolescents, as far as possible, as equivalent to adults for the purpose of medical decision-making. The (...) movement to support independent decision-making by adolescents through providing information to them and securing their consent apart from their parents is encouraged by those legal understandings that hold that unemancipated minors should generally be considered as possessing effective decisional capacity. Such legal structures, however, do not adequately take account of the wide variations in adolescent capacities, the immaturity of most adolescent decision-makers, or the important contributions made by parents to the development of their adolescents through parental partnering in the adolescent’s decision-making. The data available indicate that in general adolescents should be regarded as apprentice decision-makers who should make decisions in collaboration with their parents until at least the age of 18. Steps should not be taken pre-emptively to isolate adolescents from the guidance of their parents. As a general rule, what Piker has referred to as “collaborative paternalism” appears most likely both to protect adolescents from their own untoward choices, while also very importantly helping them with parental guidance to develop into mature decision-makers with the capacity to make medical choices on their own. (shrink)

Examining the costs and motivations of warfare is key to conundrums concerning the relevance of this troubling phenomenon to the evolution of social attachment and cooperation, particularly during adolescence and young adulthood—the developmental time period during which many participants are first recruited for warfare. The study focuses on Samburu, a pastoralist society of approximately 200,000 people occupying northern Kenya’s semi-arid and arid lands, asking what role the emotionally sensitized, peer-driven adolescent life stage may have played in the cultural and (...) genetic coevolution of coalitional lethal aggression. Research in small-scale societies provides unparalleled opportunities for sharply defined variables, particularly in age generation societies in which all young men are initiated into “warriorhood.” Proposing an epigenetic and component behavior approach, we examine whether raiding activities such as number of raids, killing, and sparing enemy lives associate with DNA methylation in two candidate genes: MAOA, linked to mood and arousal, and NR3C1, linked to stress and immune response. We report statistically significant associations between the epigenetic variables and the combat variables of overall raiding activity and reportedly showing mercy to enemies. In contrast, epigenetic variables did not associate with post-traumatic stress disorder symptom scores, and the only combat variable associated with PTSD was losing one’s own livestock in a raid. These findings raise important questions concerning the mechanisms driving warfare’s paradoxical mix of violent and altruistic behaviors. (shrink)

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the relation between self-perceived executive functions and the school achievement of young adolescents, while controlling for parental education and sex. We specifically focused on executive aspects of daily life behavior and the higher-order EFs, as measured with self-report, rather than on the more basic EFs which have been the primary focus of prior investigations. In two independent samples of sixth graders, students evaluated their EFs on a self-report questionnaire, the Amsterdam Executive (...) Functioning Inventory. School achievement in the domains of mathematics and reading comprehension were evaluated with nationally used, norm-based achievement tests. Results revealed that the self-perceived EFs of young adolescents were significantly correlated with their school achievement in both study samples. School achievement was also correlated with the level of parental education, but the factor sex did not have such influence. In study 1, self-perceived EFs explained additional variance in school achievement, while controlling for parental education and sex. In study 2, this was only the case for the most robust measure of school achievement, i.e., the end-of-primary-school final achievement test. Furthermore, besides the relation with achievement tests, we also found a relation between self-perceived EFs and teacher ratings behavioral problems in the classroom. Together, our findings imply that young students can properly reflect on the effectiveness and appropriateness of their EFs in a way that is relevant to their academic achievement and classroom behavior. The findings underscore the importance of considering the development of EFs and parental education in the evaluation of academic achievements in early adolescence. (shrink)

RESUMEN La sexualidad es parte de la personalidad, la manera de expresarla y vivirla es diferente en cada persona, en tanto, la adolescencia, como etapa del ciclo vital humano, se caracteriza por cambios biológicos, sicológicos y sociales. Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica para profundizar en el estudio de la sexualidad en la adolescencia y las acciones educativas como alternativa de la educación sexual. Se ejecutó una búsqueda en la literatura digital de artículos de investigaciones originales en las bases de datos (...) SciELO Cuba, SciELO Regional, ScienceDirect, ClinicalKey, Cumed, Lilacs, así como los sitios web Organización Panamericana de la Salud, Organización Mundial de la Salud, Fondo de Población de las Naciones Unidas de Cuba, Fondo de las Naciones Unidas. Se concluye que las acciones educativas sobre sexualidad en la adolescencia permitirán a los jóvenes tomar decisiones fundamentadas sobre su sexualidad y su salud, prepararse para la vida y mantener una conducta sexual responsable. ABSTRACT Sexuality is part of personality, the way to express it and live it is different in everyone. Meanwhile, adolescence, as a stage of humans' life, is characterized by biological, psychological and social changes. In order to deepen on the study of sexuality in adolescence and on educational actions as alternatives of sexual education, a bibliographic review was carried out. It was made a digital literature search of articles from original researches in SciELO Cuba, SciELO Regional, ScienceDirect, ClinicalKey, Cumed, Lilacs, as well as the Pan-American Health Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, and the United Nations Fund websites. It was reached the conclusion that educational actions about sexuality in adolescence will allow young people to make conscious decisions about their sexuality and health, prepare for life and maintain a responsible sexual behavior. (shrink)

Plato’s ideal of perfect personality was originally shaped in the image of a beautiful youth—a soul in which reason, spirit, and desire achieve inner harmony. Although Plato himself reached this state only in old age, this ideal can now be fully actualized in adolescence. This individual is a physically beautiful young man with a gay orientation, raised with strong moral values from his family. Innately sensitive and deeply empathic, he endures rumors about his identity, through which he realizes that (...) people hold contradictory perspectives and interpret the same person in vastly different ways. This pushes him into constant reflection, and from his extreme sensibility he forges an equally powerful rationality. After transferring to a new environment, he finally finds a space where he can relax and be free from tension and hostility. Even without explicit love, the peace of this environment allows him to regain psychological stability. He becomes determined not to return to the hurtful, defensive ways he once adopted to survive. Instead, he chooses to maintain rationality even in moments of intense empathy, while remaining open to emotion when exercising reason. Rationality and sensibility constantly influence one another, creating a delicate, conscious balance rather than a simple unity. In this stable, relaxed state, he achieves the psychic balance Plato envisioned. The once abstract ideal of the beautiful, integrated youth thus becomes a living reality: a person who consciously holds both empathy and reason, in constant, gentle tension. (shrink)

Catherine Driscoll est professeure associée en études culturelles et de genre à l’Université de Sydney. Ses recherches portent sur trois domaines : la jeunesse et les filles (l’accent étant mis sur l’adolescence, les médias et la culture populaire), les théories culturelles (l’accent étant mis sur la modernité et le modernisme), les études culturelles en milieu rural (l’accent étant mis sur l’Australie et les recherches ethnographiques). Les ouvrages ici présentés s’inscrivent dans les deux p...

Cet ouvrage est né d'une réalité et d'un besoin. La petite Maëlle, enfant autiste, est devenue adolescente, alors il fallait la suivre pour mieux l'accompagner dans cette nouvelle étape de sa vie. Comme cela arrive chez les autres enfants qui entrent dans l'adolescence, tout est remis en question : les idéaux, l'identité, l'amitié, l'amour. Entre-temps, il y a eu la publication de la cinquième version du Manuel diagnostique et statistique des troubles mentaux (DSM-5). Il fallait donc étudier cette entrée (...) dans l'adolescence à partir des données diagnostiques les plus récentes. Autisme et adolescence est la suite de L'autisme, un jour à la fois et d'Accompagner un enfant autiste. Encore ici, la mère Catherine Kozminski et la psychologue Nathalie Poirier entrent en dialogue afin de se mettre à l'écoute des besoins de l'adolescente et d'élaborer les meilleures formes d'accompagnement. Il en résulte un ouvrage plein de sensibilité et rempli de solutions pratiques. (shrink)

Adolescence methamphetamine use is an issue of considerable concern due to its correlation with later delinquency, divorce, unemployment and health problems. Understanding how adolescents initiate methamphetamine abuse is important in developing effective prevention programs. We formulate a mathematical model for the spread of methamphetamine abuse using nonlinear ordinary differential equations. It is assumed that susceptibles are recruited into methamphetamine use through imitation. An epidemic threshold value, Ra\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {R}}_a$$\end{document}, termed the abuse (...) reproduction number, is proposed and defined herein in the drug-using context. The model is shown to exhibit the phenomenon of backward bifurcation. This means that methamphetamine problems may persist in the population even if Ra\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {R}}_a$$\end{document} is less than one. Sensitivity analysis of Ra\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {R}}_a$$\end{document} was performed to determine the relative importance of different parameters in methamphetamine abuse initiation. The model is then fitted to data on methamphetamine users less than 20 years old reporting methamphetamine as their primary substance of abuse in the treatment centres of Cape Town and parameter values that give the best fit are chosen. Results show that the proportion of methamphetamine users less than 20 years old reporting methamphetamine as their primary substance of abuse will continue to decrease in Cape Town of South Africa. The results suggest that intervention programs targeted at reducing adolescence methamphetamine abuse, are positively impacting methamphetamine abuse. (shrink)

Dans les groupes de parole avec les adolescents, les échanges portent sur les représentations de l’autre sexe. La prise de conscience qui en résulte amène à mesurer l’écart entre ce que l’on perçoit de l’autre, ce qu’on en imagine et la réalité. L’élaboration verbale ouvre sur la rencontre et l’échange, confrontant représentations et réalité. S’appuyant sur l’activité de représentation (P. Aulagnier) et les poèmes des adolescents où inquiétude et peur de l’autre se donnent à entendre comme avatars du désir, l’auteur (...) se demande comment intégrer en soi l’autre et son altérité. Il propose l’hypothèse qu’un des effets de la prise de conscience et de l’élaboration des représentations de l’autre sexe à l’adolescence est de prévenir les violences actualisées au sein du couple et de la famille. De là résulte la responsabilité de s’assumer comme sujet de son désir. (shrink)

Sustained attention, a key cognitive skill that improves during childhood and adolescence, tends to be worse in some emotional and behavioural disorders. Sustained attention is typically studied in non-affective task contexts; here, we used a novel task to index performance in affective versus neutral contexts across adolescence (N = 465; ages 11–18). We asked whether: (i) performance would be worse in negative versus neutral task contexts; (ii) performance would improve with age; (iii) affective interference would be greater in (...) younger adolescents; (iv) adolescents at risk for depression and higher in anxiety would show overall worse performance; and (v) would show differential performance in negative contexts. Results indicated that participants performed more poorly in negative contexts and showed age-related performance improvements. Those at risk of depression performed more poorly than those at lower risk. However, there was no difference between groups as a result of affective context. For anxiety there was no difference in performance as a function of severity. However, those with higher anxiety showed less variance in their reaction times to negative stimuli than those with lower anxiety. One interpretation is that moderate levels of emotional arousal associated with anxiety make individuals less susceptible to the distracting effects of negative stimuli. (shrink)

Social fears emerging in adolescence can have negative effects on emotional well-being. Yet the mechanisms by which these risks occur are unknown. One possibility is that associative learning results in fears to previously neutral social stimuli. Such conditioned responses may alter subsequent processing of social stimuli. We used a novel conditioning task to examine how associative processes influence social fear and attention orienting in adolescents. Neutral photographs were paired with socially rewarding or aversive stimuli during conditioning; a dot-probe task (...) then assessed biases in attention orienting. The social conditioning task modified subjective ratings of the neutral stimuli. Moreover, for the neutral stimulus that was paired with the aversive stimulus, the strength of conditioning showed a relationship with subsequent attentional vigilance. The findings elucidate mechanisms by which negative peer experiences during adolescence may affect emotional processing. (shrink)

Le processus de différenciation est singulièrement ravivé à l’adolescence au service de la conquête de l’altérité, du déploiement des capacités créatives et du devenir sujet. La gémellité à l’adolescence dédouble la difficulté de l’individuation à l’égard des figures œdipiennes par un conflit aigu lié aux enjeux de séparation entre les jumeaux. Cet article porte sur une exploration du fonctionnement psychique de deux sœurs jumelles homozygotes en fin d’adolescence. L’analyse repose sur un entretien semi-structuré et des épreuves projectives (...) dont l’analyse clinique traduit la lutte constante entre l’indifférenciation et la différenciation. Les récurrences archaïques et dépressives repérées permettent de supposer l’existence d’un « complexe d’unicité », propre à la gémellité homozygote, particulièrement mis sous tension à l’épreuve du processus de subjectivation. (shrink)

In this article, we present findings from a qualitative study examining how young women experience being long‐term bedridden with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), during childhood and adolescence. The aim is to explore how young women who fell ill with ME/CFS during childhood and adolescence look back on their lived experience of being long‐term bedridden from the vantage point of being fully or partially recovered. Informed by a phenomenological theoretical perspective, the researchers applied (...) a narrative methodological approach involving the analysis of interviews with 13 women, aged 16–29 years at the time of the interview. Attention was particularly paid to how participants structured their narratives and to the events (telling moments) they identified as important. Four major storylines were developed: Ambivalent responses to the presence of others; A body on the edge of life; An eternity in the dark; and Recasting painful memories of being bedridden and alone. Based on our findings, we argue that the experience of being long‐term bedridden with ME/CFS during childhood and adolescence can be understood and communicated as a plot in which individuals find themselves pushed to the extreme limit of suffering and loneliness. (shrink)

Que vient révéler une grossesse en adolescence? Derrière cette question mettant en scène plusieurs personnages (certains dans les coulisses) se cachent plusieurs générations, des couples, la famille au sens intergénérationnel et aussi parfois au sens transgénérationnel. Comment penser ces fécondations qui entraînent des grossesses – à interrompre? à poursuivre? Quelles places pour les sujets, les couples et les familles? Trente ans d’expérience en centre de planification et d’éducation familiale nourrissent le questionnement dont l’auteur fait part dans cet article.

Higher levels of reliance on cognitive reappraisal to manage daily emotional events are commonly associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. However, reappraisal is a cognitively demanding regulation strategy, and its efficacy may depend on how successfully an individual is able to employ it. Individual differences in the association between reappraisal use and depressive symptoms may be particularly evident during adolescence, when the cognitive skills required to implement this complex strategy are still in development. The current study sought to (...) determine whether the association between reappraisal use and subsequent depressive symptom development is contingent on perceived regulatory success when using reappraisal. At Wave 1, adolescents (n = 178, mean age = 13.92, 49.7% female) used an experience-sampling smartphone app to report on their reappraisal use and perceptions of regulatory success over the course of two weeks. Six, 12, and 18 months later, adolescents completed a self-report measure of their depressive symptoms. Results showed that a) reappraisal use was associated with both subsequent depressive symptoms and trajectories of depressive symptoms over time, b) these associations were moderated by perceptions of regulatory success. Higher levels of reappraisal use were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms only for those who reported higher than average between-subject regulatory success when reappraisal was enacted. (shrink)

The main thesis that is discussed in this article is based on the criticism of the prevalent interpretative models of adolescence developed during the twentieth century. Models that today appear inadequate in grasping the socio-cultural and educational transformations that deeply mark the ways of experiencing adolescents born in the second millennium. The effects of the historical and social practices that shape the adolescent experience in the 2000s represent an essential key to understanding the forms that the adolescent system assumes (...) because of social, cultural, economic, historical, and material changes. (shrink)

In "Treating Adolescents Differently", Anthony Skelton, Isra Black, and Lisa Forsberg develop a well-being-based justification of the asymmetrical treatment of adolescent consent and refusal in the context of health-care to justify the differential and paternalistic treatment of adolescents more generally. The core of Skelton, Black, and Forsberg’s view is a variabilist theory of what is fundamentally and non-instrumentally prudentially good for adolescents, which includes the prudential value of what they call shielding—or the value of being insulated from full responsibility for (...) their choices. This theory of well-being, they argue, explains why adolescents may be treated differentially and paternalistically in numerous domains. It is good for them to be shielded because it allows for a variety of freedom from making certain kinds of decisions in the absence of a safety net provided by others in supportive and caring relationships. Skelton, Black, and Forsberg argue that their account of the justification of differential and paternalistic treatment of adolescents has attractive implications for a range of cases and holds up well in the face of philosophical criticism. (shrink)

This article analyses the ambiguous intimacies generated by the competition that permeates desire in Lisa Aschan’s She Monkeys (2011). The article argues that in a new corpus of films about adolescence, the queerness of lesbian desire is evoked as a series of affects outside of figurative norms. Desire meets and is confused with other affects such as envy and disgust, all of which attach, sometimes simultaneously, to objects that do not always seem to recognise or permit them. Slow and (...) languid scenes reveal desire’s potential but rarely its achievement. The article explores the erotic potential of those intimacies that reside in the spaces between bodies, asking what happens to that potential when it is generated but immediately contained by the negotiations of control. In dialogue with psychoanalytic work on the ambivalent relations between desire, envy, attachment and idealisation, the article advances a reading of an affective mode of filmmaking that is saturated with desire but not defined by desire’s labelling. (shrink)

This study examined whether rumination subtypes (brooding and reflection) mediated prospective associations between temperament (negative emotionality and positive emotionality) and depressive symptoms in a community sample of 423 adolescents. Effortful control and sex were examined as potential moderators of the mediated pathway. Youth self-reported negative emotionality (NE), positive emotionality (PE), and effortful control (EC) at age 12; brooding and reflection subtypes of rumination at age 14; and depressive symptoms at ages 12, 14, and 15. Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that, (...) controlling for initial levels of depressive symptoms, high NE, but not low PE, predicted increases in depressive symptoms from age 12 to age 15. Brooding, but not reflection, mediated the association between NE and depressive symptoms. Neither sex nor EC moderated either indirect pathway in the mediated model. The results confirm and extend previous findings on the association between affective and cognitive vulnerability factors in predicting depressive symptoms in adolescence. (shrink)

This paper presents the results of empirical research that explores the links between types of social participation and identity. The author availed herself of the neo-eriksonian approach to identity by Luyckx et al. (2006) and the concept of social participation types (Reinders, Butz, 2001). The study involved 1,665 students from six types of schools: lower secondary school (n=505), general upper secondary school (n=171), technical upper secondary school (n=187), specialized upper secondary school (n=214), university (n=252), and post-secondary school (medical rescue, massage (...) therapy, cosmetology, occupational therapy) (n=336). The results of the research, conducted with the use of Dimensions of Identity Development Scale (DIDS) and Social Participation Questionnaire (SPQ-S 1 and SPQ-S 2), indicate that transitive orientation increases with age and that, consequently, the frequency of assimilation and integration types of social participation tends to be higher in emerging adulthood in comparison with adolescence. The study showed that general upper secondary school students, contrary to their colleagues from technical and specialized upper secondary schools, did not differ in terms of transitive and moratorium orientation levels from lower secondary school students. The hypothesis about the relationship between transitive orientation and commitment scales was confirmed, whereas the hypotheses concerning the links between exploration scales and both dimensions of social participation were not validated. (shrink)

This paper considers the potential of impasses within cinematic assemblages and the pedagogy of cinema to expand the possible horizons of Black queer youth. Black queerness in film provides pedagogical tools for exploring the limits of the category of queer. Both Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight and Dee Rees’s Pariah counter uncritical narratives of pathology, and are research data in their explorations of affective dimensions of gender, sexuality, race, poverty, and love through moving-images and sound. After situating the context of Moonlight, Pariah, (...) and modern-day America within readings of antiblackness and heteronormativity, we explore the pedagogical work of affect and the impasse in film to make worlds differently. Through reading the impasses within Moonlight and Pariah with these concepts, we re/view how isolation, vulnerability, Blackness, and queer feeling entangle toward investment in the possible, but largely unimaginable, futures in a moment overwhelmed by queerphobia and antiblackness. In so doing, the pedagogy of cinema employed maps our collective potential to remake our moment. (shrink)

Les travaux sur la parentalité se sont beaucoup intéressés à la mère, ensuite au père et au couple parental. La question de la conjugalité et de ses impacts sur les enfants est venue plus tardivement à propos du bébé puis à propos de l’adolescent. La problématique adolescente réactive non seulement les conflits de dépendance, mais aussi les questions autour de la sexualité génitale. Tant pour le couple que pour l’adolescent, nous n’avons pas affaire à de simples répétitions de la sexualité (...) infantile, mais également à l’impact de la façon dont elle se vit avec ses parts d’inconnu. Le bébé tout comme l’adolescent peuvent apparaître comme des étrangers aux yeux de leurs parents. Cet article tente de montrer les parallèles et les imbrications entre processus d’adolescence et processus de conjugalité. (shrink)

Résumé L’adolescence, phénomène corrélatif de la complexification des sociétés occidentales, soulève la question anthropologique de la sortie de l’enfance ou du « meurtre de l’enfant ». L’émergence à la « personne », pour reprendre la formulation de Jean Gagnepain, inaugure un conflit interne qui durera toute l’existence. Le parent le vit donc également en lui et l’entrée dans l’adolescence de son fils ou de sa fille vient en fait le raviver. Le contexte social actuel confère toutefois à cette (...) crise, que vivent tout à la fois l’adolescent et le parent, des caractéristiques particulières qui retentissent de manière inédite sur leur relation. (shrink)

Since March 2020, many countries throughout the world have been in lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Italy, the quarantine began on March 9, 2020, and containment measures were partially reduced only on May 4, 2020. The quarantine experience has a significant psychological impact at all ages but can have it above all on adolescents who cannot go to school, play sports, and meet friends. In this scenario, this study aimed to provide a general overview of the perceived (...) risk related to COVID-19 and the psychological experience of quarantine in a large sample of Italian adolescents. 978 adolescents (males = 339; females = 639) living in 13 Italian regions and attending upper secondary school (age range: 13–20, M = 16.57, SD = 1.20), responded to an internet-based questionnaire about perceived health risk related to COVID-19, knowledge and information on measures to control the pandemic, beliefs and opinions on stage two of the quarantine, and psychological experiences related to quarantine. 31.1% of the participants lived in "red zones," which are places where the government has imposed stricter measures of containment due to exponential and uncontrolled growth in contagion cases compared to other areas in Italy. According to our results, Italian adolescents had a low perception of risk of COVID-19. Perceived comparative susceptibility and perceived seriousness were also very low. However, they were aware of the restriction measures necessary to contain the spread of the virus, and they agreed with the limitations imposed by the government. Females and adolescents living in a “red zone” showed more significant psychological negative feelings about the quarantine experience. However, no significant differences were found about the regions where the teenagers of our sample live and the other variables related to the COVID-19 experience. This is very interesting data, leading us to hypothesize that the participants' negative feelings may be more related to the adolescent period than to the pandemic itself. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Generativity, defined as care and concern for future generations as a legacy of the self, is central to developmental success in midlife, though recent research suggests that it is also an important aspect of positive development to younger adults and adolescents. Following previous studies using midlife samples, in the current study we investigated whether generativity in early adulthood and late adolescence was associated with young people’s moral identity and well-being. Indeed, generative concern was associated with well-being, independently of (...) moral identity. These findings suggest that generative motivations are important for well-being, not only in mid-adulthood, but also for emerging adults, and even when controlling for the role of moral development. (shrink)

Adolescents are the next generation of consumers with the potential to raise standards of farm animal welfare—to their satisfaction—if their preferences and concerns are translated into accurate market drivers and signals. There are no published data about adolescent views of farm animal welfare to allow meaningful design, implementation, and evaluation of educational strategies to improve consideration of—and behavior toward—farm animals. Knowledge of farm animal welfare, as well as beliefs and attitudes about farm animal welfare and behavioral intention relevant to it (...) were determined in a sample of uk adolescents, using a survey incorporating an extended version of the theory of planned behavior and novel assessment tools. Our results indicate that adolescents have only a limited knowledge of welfare problems for farm animals and welfare-relevant product labels. Intentions to identify welfare standards for the animals from whom their food was derived were weak. Although they cared about farm animal welfare and agreed with fundamental principles—for example, the provision of space and the absence of pain and suffering—like adults they held limited belief in the power and responsibility that they possess through their choices as consumers; responsibility was often shifted to others, such as the government and farmers. (shrink)

The capacity of visual working memory (VWM) refers to the amount of visual information that can be maintained in mind at once, readily accessible for ongoing tasks. In healthy young adults, the capacity limit of VWM corresponds to about three simple objects. While some researchers argued that VWM capacity becomes adult-like in early years of life, others claimed that the capacity of VWM continues to develop beyond middle childhood. Here we assessed whether VWM capacity reaches adult levels in adolescence. (...) Using an adaptation of the visual change detection task, we measured visual working memory capacity estimates in 13 year-olds, 16-year-olds, and young adults. We tested whether the capacity estimates observed in early or later years of adolescence were comparable to the estimates obtained from adults. Our results demonstrated that the capacity of VWM continues to develop throughout adolescence, not reaching adult levels even in 16 year-olds. These findings suggest that VWM capacity displays a prolonged development, similar to the protracted trajectories observed in various other aspects of cognition. (shrink)

L’intimité fait l’objet d’une conquête à l’adolescence. Lorsque la construction de l’espace intime se voit menacée, l’attaque de soi peut être une expression agie d’un insupportable vécu d’intrusion. Le cas d’Armel, adolescent de 14 ans hospitalisé pour tentative de suicide par ingestion médicamenteuse, illustre l’importance de la prise en compte des imagos parentales lors de la survenue d’un geste autodestructeur. Celui-ci peut indirectement s’adresser aux parents ressentis comme intrusifs, lorsque plane une menace incestuelle dans la relation. L’empiètement des territoires (...) et une tendance à la confusion entre le narcissisme de l’adolescent et celui de ses parents entravent le processus identificatoire et la subjectivation. Dans un tel contexte, l’espace intime guetté par l’empiètement apparaît tantôt emmuré dans une forteresse hermétique, tantôt poreux. (shrink)

Chacun s’interroge sur les effets de la séparation de couple sur l’enfant. Dans la mesure où il module les relations familiales après la séparation, le mode de garde semble être une variable centrale. Pour y voir plus clair, nous nous sommes intéressées à la période de la post-adoles-cence, qui voit le développement du second processus de séparation-individuation (Blos, 1967). Nous avons rencontré 29 jeunes femmes de 18 à 23 ans et analysé, par une série d’outils cliniques, la manière dont chaque (...) mode de garde a pu moduler l’individuation de ces sujets par rapport à leur famille. Chacun d’entre eux semble bien avoir un effet différent sur les dynamiques d’emprise et de dégagement propres à la post-adolescence, ainsi que sur la qualité des relations de l’enfant à son père et sa mère. (shrink)

Adolescence et ménopause, résultant toutes deux d’événements biologiques, imposent un travail à la psyché et, comme toute nouveauté, peuvent convoquer l’angoisse. Pour l’une il s’agit d’intégrer un organe, une fonction en plus, pour l’autre de vivre la perte de cette même fonction. Adolescence et ménopause sont interrogées à la lumière des deux théories de l’angoisse freudienne et de l’ouverture à la question du narcissisme, de la perte d’objet. La ménopause pourrait-elle, comme l’adolescence, acquérir un statut de modèle (...) permettant de penser la question de la perte pour les deux sexes? (shrink)

There is global decline in adolescent wellbeing, with evidence highlighting the prevalence of this issue among those of low socio-economic status and those with high levels of social media use (henceforth ‘LSES-HSMU’). One explanatory mechanism for this negative wellbeing is the lack of resonance in the lives of these cohorts. In this paper, theoretical underpinnings of adolescent wellbeing will be expounded through the lens of resonant experience. Dissection of this concept highlights compounding barriers to positive wellbeing, such as environmental poverty (...) and social media pervasion, that are faced by LSES-HSMU adolescents. These barriers restrict opportunities for anticipatory novelty – and the self-efficacy in finding these opportunities – such that negative cycles of worldly attunement are more likely. Diverse means of addressing this existential inequality through education are outlined, grounded in the notion of expanding the horizon of affordances that are accessible to adolescents and encouraging bodily engagement with one’s phenomenological world. (shrink)

L’adolescence est une période de transition entre l’enfance et l’âge adulte, mais les implications sociales de l’adolescence varient sensiblement selon les cultures et les classes sociales. Le fait de présenter des déficiences fonctionnelles au cours de cette période de transition peut être lourd de conséquences. Or nous manquons d’études concernant les besoins des adolescents en situation de handicap dans les pays à revenu faible ou moyen. En particulier, la parole des adolescents est encore largement exclue des recherches et (...) des processus de décision concernant leur propre vie. Ce texte recense les méthodes qui permettent d’impliquer les adolescents en situation de handicap dans la démarche de recherche. L’article traite des avantages et des inconvénients des méthodes de recherche participative en s’appuyant sur l’exemple d’une étude menée récemment dans le sud de l’Inde avec des adolescents handicapés. Il se conclu par une discussion sur les bénéfices, les limites et les implications associés à l’utilisation de méthodes participatives avec des enfants en situation de handicap. (shrink)

Integration of Schwartz's value theory and Scheler's concept of value in research on the development of the structure of values during adolescence A proposal is presented in the article of integrating Schwartz's circular model of values (1992, 1994, 2006) with Scheler's concept of values (Brzozowski, 1995). The main research goals were: 1) empirical verification of the attempt to include the values of Scheler into the circle of Schwartz's values; 2) use of the concept and measurement of Scheler's values to (...) describe the development of the value structure during adolescence. Two studies were conducted in a group of 988 persons aged from 15 to 20 years. The Scheler Value Scale of Brzozowski (1995) was used along with the new version of the Schwartz's Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz et al., 2011). In the first study, multidimensional scaling of multitrait-multimathod (MTMM) matrix was carried out, into which were introduced the indexes of Scheler's values and the indexes of Schwartz's value types. In this way, it was demonstrated that it is possible to include Scheler's values in the four higher order values within Schwartz's circle of values. In the second study, it was shown that by using the Schelerian values to analyse the development of the value structure, similar results were obtained to those that were acquired with the aid of instruments intended to measure values in Schwartz's approach. The structure becomes differentiated with age and takes on the shape of a circle. (shrink)

The life story as identity is an important concept in the formation of self. Identity, dependent on interaction with others is constantly evolving. Individuals living in modern societies begin to organize their lives in terms of self-stories in late adolescence. Meanings and values attributed to self-stories are interpretative and are therefore highly subjective. Problems arise in clarifying defining moments, due to their subjective, interpretive nature. It could be argued the maturing self can only construe in a limited number of (...) ways, as is dictated by limited life experiences. The evolving story of the self can, paradoxically, be negatively affected by the self-narratives which create the life story. Any event has a number of potential explanations or interpretations. The internalized narrative is not necessarily an accurate reflection of the event, thus the individual. Is moderating of internalized narrative a missing element in the development of the self? As educators could we by moderating internalizations through dialogue, lead to greater clarity in the development of life story? (shrink)

On considère souvent que l’apport de S. Freud sur la fratrie est mineur, car trop référé ou rabattu sur le couple parental et le complexe d’Œdipe. Nous montrons que cette idée répandue est en partie erronée : à partir des principales occurrences sur la fratrie et si nous nous préoccupons plus particulièrement de la question de la séduction, une théorie implicite du lien fraternel s’ouvre, donnant des éléments de compréhension essentiels concernant l’enfant et l’adolescent. Ceux-ci concernent notamment l’idée que, chez (...) l’enfant, la séduction est secondaire à la haine primitive ressentie à la naissance d’un puîné; et, au moment de l’adolescence, le frère ou la sœur constitue un viatique vers l’investissement de l’objet sexuel adéquat. (shrink)

The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of homosexual men connected with the formation of their sexual orientation in adolescence. A comparative study of 27 young adult homosexual men and 28 heterosexual men of similar age used a categorised interview questionnaire consisting of two parts: the first with questions regarding sexual dreams, fantasies and erotic encounters; the second with questions on family and social circumstances. The study yielded an abundance of interesting data on the psychological circumstances (...) of homosexual men during the formation of sexual orientation and its awareness as well as differences and similarities in that area between homosexual and heterosexual men. For instance, it revealed experience patterns concerning the formation of sexual identity and personal attitudes toward one’s sexual orientation characteristic of homosexual persons. The study verified the main hypothesis that mental-internal experiences precede behavioural-external ones both in homosexual and heterosexual persons. (shrink)

The objective of the research presented in this paper was to investigate whether an association existed between the activation of the body schema and reaching adulthood among people in late adolescence. Three activities that are known to enjoy popularity among young people were analysed, namely: dancing, playing computer games that require motor involvement (e.g. Kinect), and playing computer games of an educational and entertaining character. It was assumed that the chosen forms of activity correspond to three levels of activation (...) of the body schema. The following research methods have been applied to this study: the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), the Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ), and the Bodily Self Representation Questionnaire. The study has proven that the activation of body schema through dance is significantly related to high self-esteem and the use of mainly mature and neurotic defence mechanisms in threat situations. (shrink)

Le mot « adolescence » a une histoire : l’étude diachronique montre qu’il a subi bien des avatars avant de devenir un concept clinique qui n’a pas cours dans les milieux enseignants. Professeur de lettres, l’auteur s’interroge sur la vision qu’ont les professeurs des élèves. Il remonte à Platon et Socrate, analyse les changements qui impactent les jeunes et la société, montre que la massification de l’enseignement a fait entrer dans les lycées toutes les problématiques qui agitent aujourd’hui l’ensemble (...) des acteurs sociaux, politiques ou religieux. Le constat conduit à des perspectives plutôt pessimistes même s’il laisse entrevoir des résiliences encourageantes. Quoi qu’il en soit, le texte veut susciter une réflexion, tant sur la fonction enseignante et ses problèmes que sur l’avenir imprévisible dans un monde en mutation. (shrink)

Despite a growing need for mental health services for adolescents, treatment access among adolescents remains poor. Psychologists practicing in the United States are subject to highly variable legal standards for consent and confidentiality of minor clients, which can further suppress treatment accessibility. States permit independent consent for minors according to a wide range of criteria, but whether these criteria are empirically derived remains unknown. Inconsistencies between the law and ethical obligations for psychologists can expose minor clients to harm and force (...) psychologists to make disclosures that violate patients’ rights and ethical standards. These harms may be particularly severe for clients from vulnerable populations such as sexuality and gender diverse youth (SGDY). To prevent ethical dilemmas, psychologists and professional organizations should work toward an empirical understanding of the adolescent capacity to consent to mental health care and use that understanding to promote uniform consent and confidentiality standards. (shrink)

Background: Several researchers have argued that disturbances in embodiment play an important role in the development of psychological health problems among adolescents. The purpose of the present study was to use the 12-item Embodiment Scale (ES-12), with its three subscales Harmonious Body (HB), Disharmonious Body (DB), and Body for Others (BO), (1) to identify subgroups of adolescents with different profiles on the ES-12 scales, and (2) to see how these profiles are associated with patterns of psychological health problems. Methods: The (...) participants were 530 adolescents with a mean age of 14 years (SD = 0.89), who filled out the ES-12 and measures of disordered eating, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), anxiety, and depression. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to divide the sample into (1) subgroups with different profiles of HB, DB and BO and (2) subgroups with different psychological health profiles. Cross-tabulation was used to study associations between different embodiment profiles and different patterns of psychological health problems. Results: Five different profiles of embodiment were identified: Strong Embodiment, Average Embodiment, Weak Embodiment, Body for Others, and Low Body Harmony. Five different psychological health profiles were identified: Multiple Problems, Multiple Problems without NSSI, Disordered Eating Only, Average Psychological Health, and a Healthy profile. Cross-tabulation showed that individuals with a Strong Embodiment profile were over-represented among adolescents in the Healthy cluster, and that individuals with the Weak Embodiment profile were over-represented in both Multiple Problems clusters. Individuals with a Body for Others profile were over-represented among adolescents with a Disordered Eating Only profile but not among adolescents with Multiple Problems profiles. Conclusions: These findings align with theoretical frameworks which emphasize the importance of embodiment for the understanding of psychological health problems. At the same time, the results go against theories that attribute a central role to high levels of experienced Body for Others for the development of psychological health problems. (shrink)