Social Contexts and Adolescent Development

1. Social Contexts and Adolescent Development Jacquelynne S. Eccles University of California, Irvine INID Meeting February 8, 2014

2. Goals • Describe some of the “average” changes we see in motivation and socio-emotional development during adolescence • Relate these changes to changes adolescents in the USA experience as they make the transition from elementary to secondary school in order to illustrate how one can use a developmental approach to study person context interactions

3. Goals • Discuss more broadly how we need to think about assessing social contexts in order to study their impact on human development.

4. Changes in Motivation Associated with Adolescent Development • Decline in General Interest in School and Other Adult Dominated and Created Activities • Leading to increased school disengagement in the most extreme cases • Increases in school burn out • Increase in Interest in Peer Acceptance and Peer Dominated and Created Activities • Leading to increases in involvement in risky behaviors in the most extreme cases

5. Changes in Motivation Associated with Adolescent Development • Increasing Salience of Identity-Related Developmental Needs, Which Can Lead to: • Increases in the salience of social group memberships and social identities • Increases in concern with one’s personal identity • Increasing need to balance the need to fit in with the need to stand out.

6. Changes in Motivation Associated with Adolescent Development • Increasing Desire for Autonomy in One’s Own Behavioral Regulation • Increasing Concern with the Relevance of What One is Doing for One’s Current and Future Goals. • Increasing Salience of Sexual Desires

7. More Specific Changes in Achievement-Related Motivation Associated with Adolescent Development • Decline in Confidence in Some Academic Disciplines • Math and Physical Science for Many Students • Literacy-Related Subject Areas for Some Students • Decline in Subjective Task Value attached to Some Academic Disciplines • Math and Physical Science for Many Students • Literacy-Related Subject Areas for Some Students

8. Specific Changes in Achievement-Related Motivation Associated with Adolescent Development • Increase in Test Anxiety and in the Relation of Test Anxiety to School Performance and Intrinsic Motivation • Increase in School Burn Out

9. More Specific Changes in Achievement-Related Motivation Associated with Adolescent Development • Increase in Extrinsic Motivational Orientation • Work for Grades and Tests • Decrease in Intrinsic Motivational Orientation • Work for Enjoyment of Subject and Desire to Learn

10. More Specfici Achievement-Related Changes in Motivation Associated with Adolescent Development • Increase in Ego-Focused and Performance-Oriented Motivation (Nicholls, Ames, Midgley, Maehr, Elliott) • Focus on Doing Better than Others • Focus on Avoiding Doing Worse than Other • Decline in Mastery Motivation • Focus on Learning to be Learning • Increase in Endorsement of View that Ability is Stable Entity rather than Incremental Skill (Dweck)

11. Change in Mental Health Indictors During Early and Middle Adolescence General Affective Experience Inner Conflict/Negative Affect Slight increase from age 11 to 15; Stress Increase from age 11 to 15; girls>boys Loneliness Mixed results; goes up slightly in USA Self-Consciousness Slight increase from age 11 to 15 Perceived Anonymity/Victimization Increases across secondary school Feelings of Belonging in School Decreases across secondary school General Self-Perceptions Self-Esteem Drops initially and then increases in High School Years

12. Change in Mental Health Indicators During Early and Middle Adolescence Depression and Suicide Depressive Symptomatology Increases during early adolescence; Girls>Boys Suicide Attempts and Completions Increases during adolescence Problem Behaviors Delinquency-Truancy-Suspension Increases in early adolescence; Boys>Girls Substance Use/Abuse Increases across adolescence (e.g. cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, etc.)

13. Why? • Most common explanations of such group level “developmental” phenomena by psychologists often focus on the biological changes associated with maturation • In this case with the maturational changes associated with puberty • Hormone Changes • Brain Developmental Changes

14. Why? • Alternatively we could look to shared social transitions that create what look like “stage-related” maturational changes • If many individuals share similar types of shifts in their social contexts, then we may see average levels changes in individual level functioning that reflect these social contextual shifts rather than, or in conjunction with, shared maturational changes.

15. Nature of the Change But before continuing with the importance of this distinction regarding the likely origins of average level age-related changes, it is important that we look more closely at the nature of the change itself, particularly in light of the recent work using latent growth curve analytic techniques.

16. Nature of the Change • All of the patterns I discussed a moment ago reflect significant changes across age in the group means for these constructs. • These patterns show up in many studies and thus are quite reliable.

17. Nature of the Change • In contrast to patterns of mean level differences just discuseed, several recent studies using latent growth analytic techniques suggest that stability rather than change is most typical for these kinds of constructs. • For example,

18. Changes in school motivation in Finland and the UK Symonds, Schoon, Salmela-Aro, 2011

19. You will still get the mean level changes because more individuals decrease than increase. But most stay the same, which suggests The need for a more person by environment explanation than universal maturational explanations. Or at least a greater focus on the types of agency by social structure interactions prevalent in Life Course Developmental Theories

20. These latent growth curve models also suggest that most adolescents are showing very positive patterns that start and remain high. This is also key as we think about the nature of negatives changes often assumed to characterize this age period.

21. Returning to Why These Developmental Patterns Might Emerge? • Let us consider the transition into secondary school

22. Few studies available to distinguish between the biological versus social type explanatory systems for either negative or positive psychological or behavioral changes • Roberta Simmons and Dale Blyth’s work • Compared adolescents moving through two types of school systems in same city • K-8, 9-12 (ages 6-14; 15-18) versus • 1-6, 7-9, 10-12 (ages 6-12, 13-15, 16-18) • First compared self esteem changes: • Found transitional effects for girls only

23. Self Esteem Data From Simmons & Blyth – Girls Only Self Esteem K-6;7-9;10-12 School Year

24. Simmons’ Explanation for Gender Differences • At this age, girls are at the height of pubertal development • Stress theories suggest that dealing with multiple changes is more difficult than dealing with single life changes • Therefore, the Junior High School Transition should be more stressful for girls than for boys

25. BUT • On the one hand, her self esteem findings are consistent with this interpretation and • She has other data showing that the declines in self esteem at this age are directly linked to the number of other life transitions such as geographical moves, marital disruptions, and family deaths • BUT the gender differences in the patterns of change are not consistent …

26. Simmons & Blyth: Moving into AdolescenceNegative Effects of K-6, 7-9 Structure versus K-8 Structure Girls’ Self-Esteem Declines Boys’ Sense of Being Victimized Increases GPA Declines for Both Girls and Boys Extracurricular Activities Declines for Both Leadership Roles Declines for Both Feelings of Anonymity Increase for Both

27. Nonetheless • Simmons’ work did point the importance of thinking about school transitions in terms of issues of coping. • Need to consider aspects of the situation and the individual if we are to understand how well people cope with transitions • Multiple transition harder than single transition • Psychological and maturational readiness for transition is important • Psychological strengths and vulnerabilities are important

28. Eccles and Midgley “Stage” Environment Approach • We argued that it is not the transition itself that matters but the nature of that transition. • Person Environment Fit theories suggest that • People are optimally motivated when there is a good fit between the needs of the individual and the opportunities provided by the environments in which they must work, live, and study • Bad fits lead to less than optimal motivation and mental health problems

29. “Stage” Environment Fit Perhaps the motivational and behavioral changes seen during this age period reflect the fact that we force young people to move from a “good fitting” elementary school environment to a relatively more poorly fitting secondary school environment.

30. What are these needs? • Connell, Deci & Ryan - SDT • Competence – Mastery, Challenge • Emotional Support – Belonging, Attachment • Autonomy – Personal Control and Ownership • Other needs • Mattering – Making a meaningful difference • Responsibility – Being a contributing member of one’s social group • Identity – Knowing one’s place in one’s social context • Engagement – Challenge and Enjoyment

31. Developmental Needs or Tasks of Adolescence • Increasing opportunities to “matter” • Increasing need to feel respected by key cultural leaders • Increasing needs to have a strong peer group affiliation • Increasing need for sexual intimacy and pair bonding • Increasing need for close ties to non-familial adults • Increasing need to be identified with cultural institutions • Increasing need for one’s own personal identity

32. “Stage” Environment Fit versus Misfit • What is likely to happen if adolescents find themselves in poorly fitting social contexts, particularly given their increasing control over their own behaviors?

33. “Stage” Environment Fit versus Misfit • Person-Environment Fit Theory predicts two main consequences directly related to the idea of thriving: Mental well-being will decline Motivational engagement in the social context will decline

34. “Stage” Environment Fit versus Misfit Which, in turn, should lead to declines in performance in that setting or social context Shifts of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement to contexts that provide a better “Stage” Environment Fit. These shifts should be most marked for the youth who have the least amount of “Stage” -Environment Fit or the most amount of “Stage” - Environment Misfit.

35. One Empirical Example Drawn from our ongoing longitudinal study of adolescent and adult development in social contexts: Maryland Adolescent Development in Contexts = MADICS

36. Jacquelynne Eccles, PI Arnold Sameroff, PI W. Todd Bartko Elaine Belansky Diane Early Kari Fraser Leslie Gutman Oksana Malanchuk Katie Jodl Ariel Kalil Linda Kuhn Alice Michael Melanie Overby Stephen Peck Katherine Rosenblum Robert Roeser Sherri Steele Erika Taylor Cynthia Winston Carol Wong Contributors to the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study (MADICS)

37. Respondent characteristics: 66% African-American N=625 Average age = 11 at Wave 1 Seventh grade at W 1 53 % male Data being presented today is from waves 1, 3, and 4; Grades 7, 8-9, 11-12 Family background: Median Family Income (1993): $50-55,000 Highest Education: 38% College Degree Highest Occupation: 44% Skilled 30% Professional Sample

38. Longitudinal Mixed Methods • Face-to-face, in home interviews with youth and their parents which included both close-ended and quite open-ended questions • Self-administered questionnaires with youth and their parents • Open-ended phone interviews with youth and their parents • Repeated intensive interviews with a subset of the youth

39. School Achievement, Attendance & Motivation In MADICS 7th Grade 8th Grade 3.67 9.35 5.36 4.05 5.49 3.63 10.78 5.23 3.91 5.15 (ns) Grade Point Average Days Absent from School Academic Competence Beliefs Academic Importance Beliefs Academic Utility Beliefs

40. School Problem Behaviors Seventh and Eighth Grade Sent to Principal’s Office Cheated on Tests Suspended from School Skipped Class Brought Drugs/ Alcohol Expelled from School

41. CONTEXTUAL - MOTIVATION MODEL LINKED TO NEEDS INFLUENCES PSYCHOLOGICAL OUTCOME MEDIATORS SCHOOL CULTURE COMPETENCE STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH CLASSROOM AUTONOMY STUDENT PRACTICES ENGAGEMENT DEVELOPMENTAL FIT BELONGING

42. CONTEXTUAL - MOTIVATION MODEL LINKED TO NEEDS INFLUENCES PSYCHOLOGICAL OUTCOME MEDIATORS SCHOOL CULTURE COMPETENCE STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH CLASSROOM AUTONOMY STUDENT PRACTICES ENGAGEMENT FIT BELONGING

43. CONTEXTUAL - MOTIVATION MODEL LINKED TO NEEDS INFLUENCES PSYCHOLOGICAL OUTCOME MEDIATORS SCHOOL CULTURE COMPETENCE STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH CLASSROOM AUTONOMY STUDENT PRACTICES ENGAGEMENT FIT BELONGING

44. Perceived Middle School Psychological Environment: Conceptualization and Measures. School Psychological Environment Support of Competence Support of Autonomy Quality of Relationships CURRICULAR MEANINGFULNESS STUDENT EMPOWERMENT DISCRIMINATION EXPERIENCES TEACHER SUPPORTIVENESS TEACHER EXPECTATIONS ACADEMIC GOAL STRUCTURES

45. Significant Predictors:8th Grade Psychological Distress _______________________________________________ Parent Occupational Status .07* Parent Educational Attainment -.08** Youth Gender (1 = Male, 2 = Female) .07** Prior Psychological Distress .30*** Perceived School Ability Goal Structure .09** Perceived Positive Teacher Regard -.21*** Perceived Gender Discrimination .22*** Perceived Racial Discrimination .18*** _______________________________________________ Total Multiple R .66 Total Adjusted R-Square .42 _______________________________________________ Supports for autonomy had no effects

46. Significant Predictors:8th Grade School Motivation _______________________________________________ Parent Educational Attainment .08* Aggregate Grade Point Average -.08** Aggregate Subsidized Lunch .07* Prior School Motivation .28*** Perceived School Task Goal Structure .07* Perceived Positive Teacher Regard .24*** Perceived Curricular Meaningfulness .20*** Perceived Racial Discrimination -.09** Perceived Teacher Supportiveness .06* _______________________________________________ Total Multiple R .67 Total Adjusted R-Square .44 _______________________________________________

47. Furthermore When we added up for each student the total number of risks and protective characteristics they reported being exposed to in their school, we found a linear association between this number and the changes they experienced in their psychological distress and academic motivation as they moved from 7th to 9th grade.

48. Change in Psychological Distress and School Motivationby (Risks-Protections) in SchoolSeventh to Eighth Grade Change in Relative Status (Standard Units) More Protections <--------------------> More Risks

49. Change in School Problem Behaviors and GPAby (Risk - Protective) Factors in SchoolSeventh to Eighth Grade Change in Relative Status (Standard Units) More Protections <--------------------> More Risks

50. Conclusion • Indicators of both academic achievement-related outcomes and mental health increase as the number of perceived school related protective factors increase and decrease as the number of perceived school-related risk factors increase.