Social Change and Adolescent Developmental Tasks: The Case of Postcommunist Europe

Abstract

The radical political transformations of the 1990s in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, overlaid by effects of globalization and related economic crises, have had an effect on young people, particularly by changing contexts relevant for psychosocial development. According to research on major developmental tasks in adolescence, young people benefited from new freedoms, such as the open borders and advanced communication technologies, but they also faced new economic uncertainties concerning work and family for which they have tried to compensate by postponing traditional transitions to adulthood. Nevertheless, results show that the nature of the developmental tasks was not in jeopardy and that effects on development overall were moderate. This article reviews the research against the backdrop of a general model on how change at the macro level translates into individual adaptation in societies affected by the challenges of globalization, individualization, and demographic shifts.

Antecedents of political trust in adolescence: Cognitive abilities and perceptions of parents

“…Fifth, it must be considered that our finding that warm parenting predicts adolescents' political trust and the similar finding by Gniewosz et al (2009) both come from post-communist areas where the role of state has become weakened, which shifted the responsibility for socialization between family and state to families (Tomasik & Silbereisen, 2012). Therefore, further studies are needed to confirm whether the association has the same strength in other sociopolitical contexts.…”

Adolescents’ Civic Commitments in Stable and Fledgling Democracies: The Role of Family, School, and Community

“…Raised under one set of rules, they had to negotiate the transition to adulthood and the selfdetermination that democracy offered within the context of economic uncertainties (Tomasik & Silbereisen, 2012). Insofar as trust in others is premised on a sense of security, the anxiety that many youth were feeling provided neither a solid foundation for reaching out and helping others nor fertile ground for nurturing social trust in fellow citizens (Flanagan, 2003).…”

“…We fitted the same regression model for two polities at the same time and compared relationship patterns and regression coefficients between them. Three outcome variables were predicted all at once with maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors (MLR) using Mplus 7.1 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2012. To compare regression coefficients between two types of polities, we conducted the Wald test, which provides similar results as the likelihood ratio different test.…”

Social and Economic Change: Psychological Challenges for Individuals

“…A review of relevant research have shown that it is not usually the substance or appreciation of the developmental tasks that are affected by social change, except perhaps for the new role of public selfpresentation in modern mass media, but that the accustomed steps toward those goals may lose their relevance in the changed societal structure (Tomasik and Silbereisen, 2012). A review of relevant research have shown that it is not usually the substance or appreciation of the developmental tasks that are affected by social change, except perhaps for the new role of public selfpresentation in modern mass media, but that the accustomed steps toward those goals may lose their relevance in the changed societal structure (Tomasik and Silbereisen, 2012).…”

“…While social change is obviously not a new phenomenon, many believe that the pace of social change has been accelerating over the recent decades (see Tomasik and Silbereisen, 2012). While social change is obviously not a new phenomenon, many believe that the pace of social change has been accelerating over the recent decades (see Tomasik and Silbereisen, 2012).…”