These early maturing females are in a minority in regard to physical appearance, at a time when social expectance is important, rejection by peers means that they have a smaller social network of same age peers to look for support, many adolescence in this situation begin to seek an older more mature group of friends, and this association of older peers can render them more vulnerable to deviant behaviour and sexual pressures. Magnusson (1988) found that early maturing girls were more likely to be involving in taking alcohol, drugs, breaking social norms and behaviour problems in school; however this was not true of all early maturers only of those who associated with a older peer group. Adolescences respond to peer group influences more readily because of the crucial role that peer relationships play in identity formation, the desire for acceptance and approvals renders them more susceptible to peer influences.
Boy’s reactions to early puberty are different to that of girls generally it is viewed as positive giving them status among peers. Williams (1999) carried out research on pubertal timing and delinquency among male adolescence and concluded fairly consistent findings that there was significantly higher reporting of deviant behaviour among ‘of timers’ whether early or late. Late maturers have been variously found to feel inadequate rejected and dominant to more independent, aggressive and insecure, and to rebel more against their parents. Of those studies that do report an association between pubertal timing and delinquency among boys, early maturers have most often been shown to engage in higher rates of deviance (Buchanan (1992).
The gains in physical and physiological development that take place during adolescences are accompanied by gains in intellectual and cognitive development. Piaget provided a theory that changes in adolescent behaviour might be associated with cognitive abilities. The final stage of cognitive development in Piaget’s theory is that of ‘formal operations’, which emerges at the time of adolescences and with this stage, mental operations become more abstract, complex and logical. This could account for adolescences becoming more vocal and argumentative that what they previously have been
The relationship between parents and children during adolescence generally gathers greater distances, triggered by biological and cognitive changes, disagreements between teenagers and parents increases and this is a critical time for rearrangement and redeveloping of family ties. This is most intense during the middle stage of adolescence and is associated with autonomy and as this is an important issue for identity, the struggle for autonomy becomes more and more an important issue in the adolescence battle for independence from the family, however Coleman states, “this establishing rights to freedom and independence happens at a stage when parents least wish to lose control.” Research carried out by Steinburg (1987) found that, irrespective of when puberty occurred, it was associated with increase behaviour autonomy, decreased emotional closeness to parents and increased conflict.
This period of self-identity is a curial period of development, adolescences must separate there own identity from that of there parents and develop autonomy in order to maintain maturity. There are gender differences in identity formation between the sexes based on autonomy and attachment. Identity formation for girls is not based as much on autonomy as it is based on attachment, whereas the male identity formation is more autonomy based, this is because the boy’s primary care giver is normally his mother. Therefore, “ the path for a boy towards development lies not in the continuation of attachment, but is the separation of the early care giver, and in the definition of himself as different, masculine, and independent.”(Browne 1987)
Erikson saw this stage of crises in adolescences as involving identity verses role confusion, Muuss (1996) comments that, “rapid physical growth and new genital maturity alert young people to there impending adulthood and they begin to wonder about there roles in adult society.” Erikson believes that those who are attracted to delinquency have a poorly formed since of personal identity and low self esteem. The adolescence that fails in the search for identity will experience role diffusion and role confusion; the individual may become involved in self-destructive activities to release the anxiety that role diffusion creates.
Self-esteem is a central component of personality and identity, because adolescences are confronting experiences about there intellectual abilities, popularity, social skills and the biological changes associated with puberty there self perception can change. According to Happer (1991) low self-esteem is associated with a host of problems including drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, depression and suicide. Overholser (1995) explains that self esteem is usually formed during childhood, but it does not begin to effect a person until adolescence because of the presence of improved cognitive Skills which allows an adolescent to evaluate his or herself critically and this can lead an individual to value themselves negatively.
Erikson also saw our social culture and environment as having significant influence on our dominant models of acting and thinking. So what other factors can account for deviant adolescent outcomes?
There has been for some time growing recognition that parenting styles and practices may be responsible for the problematic and anti-social behaviour of young people. Kandel (1996) informs us that parents have direct and indirect effects on their children’s deviance. Direct parental effects stem from he type of role modelling that they set, by example of their behaviour and the role that they play within society and the local community, through this social reinforcement adolescence conform to norms and standards that are appropriate. Parent child social interaction and especially monitoring of children’s activities and peer groups are of vital importance. Papalia (1986) informs us that social learning theories suggest ways in which adolescences learn how to behave; there major contribution is that they have helped us understand how the specific content of environment may influence adolescent behaviour. Adolescent deviance is caused indirectly through deviant parental behaviours, poor management techniques, inappropriate monitoring of adolescent activities and poor quality of interaction. Communication between parents and adolescences is especially important, for those who turn solely to peers for advice are particularly vulnerable to negative peer pressure.
There are clear relationships between adolescent ego development and family interactions. Family environments, which emphasize authoritative parenting through warmth, acceptance and understanding support higher levels of ego development whereas the absence of these equals diminished levels of ego development. Therefore research has looked at the consequences of different parenting styles as this is an important component of identity formation and can be associated with specific behavioural, cognitive and social characteristics of the child. Stanford (1985) informs us that authoritherian parenting can lead to lower emphasis by the child on internal moral judgement and the development of low self-esteem. Whereas permissive parenting can lead to impulsive and aggressive behaviour lacking in social responsibility and independence. A single parent family are an increasingly large proportion of all households and is something that is increasingly more common. Stanford (1985) carried out research on single parents and the control of adolescence and concluded that family structure does affect deviance within each sex, but the impact of family structure was stronger for males. Recent research in the journal The Lancet Stated that children from single parent families were more likely to commit suicide, suffer from mental problems and that boys were four times more likely to use drugs, while girls were three times more likely.
In conclusion the physical changes of adolescence are enormous, they reach sexual maturity and gain the ability to intellectually think abstractly and hypothetically, and personalities mature. These changes bring with them emotional stress, turmoil and social changes. It is a time of transition and the onset of puberty plays an important part. We looked at the growing body of research that suggested that adolescences that experience puberty ‘of time’ compared to age mates face various adaptive problems as a consequence, gender differences were considered in relation to this deviant behaviour.
The development of autonomy can be a stressful time for both parents and adolescence, but this is essential for the development of an adolescent identity. Erikson’s theory of ‘identity crises’ was discussed and concluded that those who had poorly formed sense of identity and poor self-esteem were more likely to be deviant.
The evolution of the change family unit and parenting styles were considered as a stimulus for deviant behaviour in adolescence and the research stated that family structure dose effects deviances among adolescences. From the theories and research on adolescences and deviances, it becomes clear that there are a number of interrelating factors and issues that are associated with deviant behaviour in adolescences and these all must be considered from the biological, physical, and inner turmoil, to family and community environment to individual personality, vulnerability and peer influences, which when organised by focus are independent and intertwined.
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