First‐ and second‐born adolescents' decision‐making autonomy throughout adolescence

Abstract

First-and second-born adolescents' and their parents' perceptions of adolescents' decision-making autonomy were compared from ages 12 to 19 in a longitudinal sample of 145 predominantly White, middle class families. Utilizing a multivariate, multilevel modeling approach, differences in perceptions of adolescents' autonomy between parents and each adolescent, as well as by social-cognitive domain were examined. The present study found that when comparing parents' perceptions of their children at the same age, second-borns were granted more autonomy regarding conventional issues than first-borns during early adolescence, but by later adolescence first-borns were granted more autonomy regarding prudential issues than second-borns. However, comparisons between adolescents' and siblings' perceptions showed no differences. Potential reasons for, and implications of, differences in perceptions of adolescent autonomy are discussed.

La influencia de la familia y la educación en la autonomía de los jóvenes: una revisión sistemática

“…Una cuarta categoría de esta dimensión incorpora 3 investigaciones que relacionan los efectos de ciertas características del grupo familiar con diferencias en los niveles de autonomía de los hijos (tabla 1, C4). Investigando la autonomía en relación con el orden de los hijos, se ha encontrado que los padres ofrecen más autonomía a los segundos hijos durante la adolescencia temprana, pero en la adolescencia posterior se otorga más autonomía a los primogénitos (Campione-Barr et al, 2015). Por otra parte, alcanzar niveles medios de autonomía en los jóvenes con frecuencia tiene que ver más con la separación de la madre que con la conexión con ella (Esteinou, 2015 (2014) señalan por su parte que en determinadas edades los hijos prolongan su dependencia de la familia, permaneciendo en la casa paterna; algo que se atribuye a las recientes transformaciones sociales, que rompen con la expectativa de independencia de los hijos más allá de su mayoría de edad.…”

Impact of Gender and Relationship Status on Young People’s Autonomy and Psychological Wellbeing

“…For achievements to permeate young people’s perception of their psychological wellbeing, they must target their personal development toward attaining life skills ( García-Castilla et al, 2016 ) that give rise to positive assessments of happiness ( Melo and Mota, 2013 ); peer acceptance ( Arnett, 2015 ; Campione-Barr et al, 2015 ; Oudekerk et al, 2015 ; Jorgensen and Nelson, 2018 ); image or physical appearance and self-esteem ( Rocha, 2008 ); capacity to undertake challenges – and risks – in relation to personal growth and social relationships, based on the quality of social and personal interaction such as establishing romantic relationships ( Melo and Mota, 2013 ; Hausler et al, 2017 ) or living as a couple. The global outcome depends on young people’s level of self-esteem and the assessment they make of this evolutionary stage.…”

Transition to Adulthood Autonomy Scale for Young People: Design and Validation

“…In the case of the relationship between autonomy and the family, numerous studies highlight the influence of family educational styles and certain family characteristics on young people's autonomy (Ponciano and Féres-Carneiro, 2014;Campione-Barr et al, 2015;Esteinou, 2015;Van Petegem et al, 2015). With reference to the relationship between autonomy and formal education, research has highlighted its influence on academic success and on the role of teachers (De Carvalho and De Almeida, 2011;Bustamante et al, 2014;Hein and Jõesaar, 2015).…”

“…The second, the relational or intersubjective approach, analyzes different aspects of relationships between individuals such as: cooperating in the development of personal attitudes, knowledge and competences (Thomas and Da Costa, 2014); promoting the transmission and dissemination of information and mechanisms of reciprocal influence (Jodelet, 2009), and encouraging "co-autonomy, " which involves compassion and reciprocal recognition (Cortina, 2017) especially in the family (Esteinou, 2015;Van Petegem et al, 2015;Duineveld et al, 2017;Garberoglio et al, 2017;Kiang and Bhattacharjee, 2018) and educational environments (Barker, 2014;Bustamante et al, 2014;Hein and Jõesaar, 2015;Antunes and Correia, 2016) both of which are privileged spaces for the study of this type of autonomy. This approach, which appears on many occasions to complement the intrasubjective approach or other constructs relating to autonomy, has given rise to models which provide interesting and differential contributions, such as: the Autonomy-Connectedness Scale (ACS-30) (Bekker and van Assen, 2006) which includes a subscale focusing on sensitivity to others, and the College-Student Scale/Parental Behavior Questionnaire/Perceptions of Parents Scale (Campione-Barr et al, 2015), which focus on family relationships between parents and children.…”