The Future Is Bright (Mostly): How Anxiety Shapes Teens' Perceptions About Their Futures

 By Taylor Decuir  

    Most teens imagine bright futures; however, for teens with anxiety, this is harder. Ramsgaard et al. (2019) investigated the differences in how anxious teens versus teens without anxiety describe their past, future, and cultural expectations. One hundred and sixty-nine teens were instructed to write about their past, future, and how these events were shaped by cultural expectations of life experiences. While anxious teens still envisioned bright futures, when compared to peers, their narratives contained fewer details of positive social support. Their narratives also reflected the limitations and struggles of their current lives, suggesting that they believed anxiety would predict their quality of life.

References

Beaumont, M. (2018). [Teen girl contemplating future] [Photograph]. Milton Accountant. http://www.miltonaccountant.com/ 4-tips -achieving -positive-money-mindset/

Ramsgaard, S., Bohn, A., & Thastrum, M. (2019). Past and future life stories in adolescents with anxiety disorder: Comparison with community controls. Memory, 27(7), 998-1010. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.159566

Does Parenting Really Affect Aggressiveness in Adolescents?

    My parents are the best people I know. Out of the 20 years of my life, they have never tried to hurt or betray me. Everything they do is to benefit and help me grow to become successful and happy. I know they are so good to me because I am their oldest daughter. Their parenting style is authoritative. Authoritative is defined as parents will listen and respond to my thoughts while having high standards. When I have their support, it makes me feel good and always puts me in a good mood.

    Parental support is the love and affectionate bond between children and their parents. Van et al. (2020) hypothesized that when adolescents feel supported, they are less likely to show aggressive behavior. On the other hand, aggression increases when parents are too controlling or use negative parenting (Van et al., 2020).  The study tested the association between parenting and aggression and if dopamine genetics also play a role. 

    The authors of this article found that there is no association between parenting and behavior. However, the study did provide some proof that the link between parental support and aggression was controlled by dopamine reactivity. According to Van et al., (2020), the dopaminergic pathway is connected to the neurotransmitter dopamine which is linked to impulsivity and emotion regulation skills which can contribute to aggression. For example, if an adolescent has low or high levels of dopamine, they become less active in being normal. Instead, they will go towards risky behaviors such as experimenting with drugs. 

    Van et al., (2020) goes in depth that a stronger dopamine level leads to more aggressive behavior. Those who have high levels could also involve adolescents in risky behaviors. This proves that an adolescents’ aggressive behavior could be from genetics. Based on the Biosocial Developmental Model, there are many ways where aggression can take place. One of them is associated with genetics by high levels of dopamine, another is parenting which is associated with effortful control. Effortful control is the ability to detect mistakes and engage in planning (Van et al., 2020). 

    According to the study by Eisenberg et al. 2005, the connection between aggression and parental support and punishment respectively became less correlated when adolescent effortful control took place. I even had those moments where even though I knew my rights and wrongs but I still would be angry if my parents did not allow me to do something. When it comes to parenting, it is important to observe your child and think of ways of how to successfully raise kids.

References:

Van Heel, M., Bijttebier, P., Claes, S., Colpin, H., Goossens, L., Hankin, B., Van Den Noortgate, W., Verschueren, K., Young, J., & Van Leeuwen, K. (2020). Parenting, Effortful Control, and Adolescents’ Externalizing Problem Behavior: Moderation by Dopaminergic Genes. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 49(1), 252–266. https://doi-org.ezproxy.franu.edu/10.1007/s10964-019-01149-1

What do Adolescents think about Sexual Education?

 

What do Adolescents think about Sexual Education?

Sexuality, education, adolescents

Ansleigh Barras

You may find yourself wondering if the adolescents in your life need or want sexual education? As adults, we understand the importance of sexual education for our adolescents health, safety, and sanity. The idea of sexual education is uncomfortable for some, yet we know that the transition from childhood to adulthood will naturally come with questions. Sexual education will not only teach one about safe sex, but also about their reproductive health. One ought to assess what patterns are found among adolescents concerning their perception of the best time and place for sexual education. The empirical article I found polled a total of 250 students, and found that only 4% of the girls and 4% of the boys had received sexual education from their parents (2018). This left the majority of the group to rely on their schools, communities, or else where to teach them the basics of sexual education. From the small percent of girls and boys whose parents taught them about sexual education, 50% of the girls found it helpful, and 33% of the boys found it helpful; both 14% of the boys and girls claimed that their parents' training was embarrassing (2018). We can begin to conclude here that the parents do have an impact on their adolescents in regards to sexual education. 

Moving from the household to the schools, 41% of the girls claimed that sexual education ought to be given in a school setting and 26% of girls voted that sexual education be taught in college specifically; turning to the boys, 35% voted that sexual education should be taught in schools, whereas 45% voted that sexual education be reserved for college (2018). Sexual education includes more than just preaching abstinence-only. A well rounded education involves (but is not limited to) information about STDs, contraception, and pregnancy. 

From these statistics, one can conclude that many of the 250 adolescents seem to want sexual education in some classroom setting, and for those whose parents braved themselves into sharing some education of sex and sexuality, about half of the boys and girls found it helpful. All in all, we know that adolescent’s reproductive and sexual health ought not to be overlooked, for their choices in adolescence impact their future.

References

Rupali, Chhina, A. K., Gupta, S., Grover, S., Shivani, & Chhabra, S. (2018). Study To Assess Perception And Need Assessment Of Sex Education Among School Going Adolescents. International Journal of Community Health & Medical Research, 4(4), 43–46. doi: 10.21276/ijchmr

Association Between Peer Acceptance and Sexual Behaviors from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Wesche et al. (2019) hypothesized that well-liked adolescents are more likely than their peers to participate in sexual activity. This could lead to adolescents with sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. Wesche et al. (2019) conducted a research to find connections between adolescent peer acceptance and sexual outcomes in adolescence and young adults. Results show that peer acceptance is associated with increased likelihood of sexual activity prior to the age of 16. By the age of 19, adolescents were more protective against having STI. This contradicts to the authors’ hypothesis. Adolescents who are well-liked is not associated with the risky young adults who have sex without condoms, have casual sex, and having more sex partners. As a matter of fact, well-liked adolescents are protective against contracting an STI by young adulthood.

References:

Wesche, R., Kreager, D. A., Feinberg, M. E., & Lefkowitz, E. S. (2019). Peer Acceptance and Sexual Behaviors from Adolescence to Young Adulthood. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 48(5), 996–1008.

The Power of Teenage Girls' Friendships: What We Can Learn from Help-Seeking

By Taylor Decuir

The power of teenage girls’ friendships is widely recognized; this is reflected in buzz terms such as “girl squad'' used to describe female adolescent social networks. As parents, we recognize the increasing importance of friendships in the teen years due to the changing nature of friendships during the transition from childhood to adolescence. Children's friendships are limited to shared activities and interests, components of companionship, while adolescents' friendships become defined by closeness, a component of intimacy (Sears & Mcafee, 2017). An important feature in developing intimate friendships is help-seeking, the process of seeking guidance, advice, or emotional support. While help-seeking is a building block of female adolescent friendships, little research exists on the role of help-seeking in facilitating intimacy. Sears and Mcafee (2017), researchers from the University of New Brunswick, conducted a study to determine if a relationship existed between intentional help-seeking and emotional competence and self-disclosure, or the sharing of personal thoughts and information and if these through the nature of friendships based on companionship or closeness. 

Sears and Mcafee (2017) hypothesized that teen girls would possess strong intentions of engaging in help-seeking. They also predicted that a direct correlation between emotional competence and self-disclosure would be present and that girls’ perceptions of their self-disclosure, emotional competence, and intentions would be indirectly influenced by the nature of their friendships based on whether the friendship is distinguished by closeness or companionship. Two hundred and twenty-two Canadian high school girls in ninth through twelfth grade, between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, were selected to participate in the study. Participants completed multiple surveys that required them to rate perceptions about their capacity for emotional competence and self-disclosure in friendships, perceptions about their closeness to their friends, and the likelihood they would seek help from friends. Based on responses, Sears and Mcafee (2017) concluded that while there was no evidence of a direct relationship between emotional competence and intentional help-seeking, they found a direct correlation between perception of emotional competence and the nature of friendships defined by closeness or merely companionship. Responses from the survey also indicated that girls were motivated to engage in help-seeking. This finding is consistent with previous research that emphasizes the preference of friends over parents as sources of advice and guidance for teens as their social networks expand.  

It can be hard to watch your children rely on their friends for advice more, but this is a healthy sign of effective socialization and competence skills that will benefit your children later in life, regardless of gender.  For example, when contrasted with girls, boys often have larger social networks consisting of companion-based friendships, often at the expense of intimacy. This results in boys having lower levels of self-disclosure when compared to girls. While this is probably unsurprising, considering society's expectations for boys to be less verbally expressive, boys should be encouraged to form intimate friendships the way we expect our daughters to do. Girls welcome help-seeking when they view their friendships as worthy emotional investments they can draw upon for emotional support. It is time boys have this opportunity, too. 

References

Sears, H. & Mcafee, S. (2017). Seeking help from a female friend: Girls’ competencies, friendship features, and intentions. Personal Relationships (24)2, 336-349. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12180 

Shutterstock. (2020). [Teen girls at a slumber party] [Photograph] Mom Junction.

            https://www.momjunction.com/arciles/sleepover-party-games-for-teens_00399873

Will my kid choose to do the right thing and recycle?

By: Catherine Blanchard

Olimpia Zagnoli

When it comes to adolescents, we can often worry about the decisions they are making. Their autonomy is developing in new and exciting ways, but this brings risk and uncertainty for those responsible for the adolescent. One of the biggest worries for parents is whether or not their child will make morally upright decisions. Lucky for us, Tobias Krettenauer at Wilfred Laurier University researched how adolescents’ morality develops in the context of environmental decisions (2017). By looking at and understanding his findings, we can better understand how adolescents approach these specific decisions, apply these findings to other moral decisions adolescents have to make, and thus take some of the mystery out of the mysterious moral musings of minors.

            So, why exactly was Krettenauer trying to research the moral development of adolescents surrounding the environment? For starters, there wasn’t much research about it to begin with! Previously people had studied how adolescents generally approached the topic of environmental concerns, but there wasn’t much information about the differences that occurred as adolescents developed their moral decision-making abilities (2017). Knowing this, Krettenauer got his crew together and preformed a cross-sectional study which gathered 325 Canadian adolescents who ranged from early adolescents to late adolescents and asked them a series of environmental questions. These questions were aimed at having the adolescent engage in imaginative scenarios, some involving their own family and others involving a hypothetical family, and then express their feelings towards these scenarios (2017). With these questions, Krettenauer and his crew were measuring their emotional responses to the scenarios, their moral judgements concerning them, their overall appreciation for nature, and the active steps they would take in engaging in behavior that would benefit the environment (2017). What is interesting about their measurements is that they captured, not only the adolescents’ thoughts and feelings about engaging in pro-environmental behavior, but also their willingness and likelihood to put their money where their mouth is and engage in these behaviors. Now, Krettenauer found that as adolescents aged, they were more likely to fall off the environmental band-wagon. The reason why, ironically enough, was because they saw it as a band-wagon or, in other words, just a social convention that wasn’t actually obligatory. Another reason, Krettenauer found, that caused this dip off in late adolescents was a decrease in appreciation for nature (2017). All that being said, Krettenauer’s research with Canadian adolescents and their feelings towards the environment can tell us a lot about the moral developments of adolescents in general.

            I’ll circle back around to that daunting question all parents ask themselves: Will my child do the right thing? If you’re looking at Krettenauer’s results and feeling hopeless, don’t be! If the reason the adolescents break moral obligations is that they only see them as social conventions, then the solution is written in the problem. As a parent, you can help your adolescent understand that some things aren’t merely social conventions. So, fear not and have hope that they’ll make good decisions!

References

Krettenauer, T. (2017). Pro-environmental behavior and adolescent moral development. Journal of Research on Adolescence (Wiley-Blackwell), 27(3), 581–593. doi: 10.1111/jora.12300

Zagnoli O. (Photographer). (2015, Feb 27). n.d. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/opinion/sunday/is-the-environment-a-moral-cause.html

How your Parents Influenced your Identity

By: Hunter Doiron

            In my angsty adolescence, I would have never admitted that my parents were somehow affecting my own identity. I had found my own friends, listened to my own music, did my own schoolwork, etc., and so I would have told you that I was controlling my own identity for myself.

            Even though I was learning to form my own self-image and act true to myself, research has found that there is a link between one’s family security and satisfaction of psychological needs to one’s true self behavior as an adolescence (Goldner and Berenshtein-Dagan, 2016). This particular study began by hypothesizing that there was indeed a connection between high levels of family security and emotional fulfillment with higher levels of an adolescent experiencing both true-self knowledge and behavior (Goldner and Berenshtein-Dagan, 2016). They gave questionnaires to 302 total Israeli adolescents that asked both about their family life, such as marital status of their parents and meeting emotional needs from family, along with questions pertaining to how they viewed their true-self (Goldner and Berenshtein-Dagan, 2016). The researchers did find that their hypothesis was correct which means that even though I wanted to follow my own path to finding my identity, I should be giving credit to my parents for giving me a secure and stable home life along with allowing me to experience emotional satisfaction whenever necessary.

            Me graduating high school thinking that I was forming my own identity by myself, but now I look back and see that my parents were right there behind me always helping me discover my true-self potential.

 

            The researchers say their goal was, “to shed light on the construct of the true self during early and middle adolescence by exploring the contribution of security within the family and satisfaction of basic psychological needs to these adolescents’ true-self behavior” (Goldner and Berenshtein-Dagan, 2016). Similarly, my goal in this blog is to share their findings so that you reading this can look back on your adolescent days and see where maybe your parents actually did help you find your identity or even where you still wish they would have done better. Regardless, most of us will be parents one day ourselves, or maybe you’re already one, so by having a solid understanding of a parent’s role in helping their children discover themselves, we can all better strive to fulfill that crucial component of our potential or actual children’s lives.

I’m sure if I ever have kids they will hang out with their own friends, listen to their own music, and do their own school work, but that won’t ever stop me from doing my best to give them the safe and secure environment they deserve to foster their own true-self image and behavior just like my parents did for me.

References

Goldner, L., & Berenshtein-Dagan, T. (2016). Adolescents’ true-self behavior and

adjustment: The role of family security and satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly (1982-), 62(1), 48–73. https://doi.org/10.13110/merrpalmquar1982.62.1.0048