Abstract
Timing matters in the development of adolescents’ behavioral autonomy. Drawing from two German national surveys, the present studies showed that premature curfew autonomy (measured retrospectively) was associated with developmental risks in late adolescence (16–21 years, assessed in 1996) and young adulthood (25–30 years, assessed in 2005). Premature individuals neither experienced socioeconomic disadvantages nor had lower educational aspirations in late adolescence, but they attained lower levels of education in young adulthood. Premature curfew autonomy was further associated with maladjustment regarding certain developmental challenges of late adolescence (higher deviant behavior, lower disclosure, higher identity diffusion, and lower planfulness) and young adulthood (no differences in employment and partnership status, but higher demands of social change in work, family, and public life). Finally, premature curfew autonomy was related to lower subjective well-being in late adolescence and young adulthood.
References
1991). Measures of subjective well-being. In , Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes (pp. 61–114). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
(2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480.
(1987). Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, 23, 611–626.
(1986). A revision of the extended version of the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status: An identity instrument for use with late adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 1, 183–197.
(1999). Emotional autonomy, psychosocial adjustment and parenting: Interactions, moderating and mediating effects. Journal of Adolescence, 22, 753–769.
(1993). Psychopathology and early experience: A reappraisal of retrospective reports. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 82–98.
(2006). The effects of marginal deviations on behavioral development. European Psychologist, 11, 79–89.
(1998). A cross-cultural study of family and peer correlates of adolescent misconduct. Developmental Psychology, 34, 770–781.
(1991). Adolescent competence and the shaping of the life course. American Journal of Sociology, 96, 805–842.
(2005). The accuracy of adult narrative reports of developmental trajectories. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 345–355.
(2005). A cross-cultural variation of autobiographical memory: On the universality and cultural variation of the reminiscence bump. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 739–749.
(2005). Middle-class African American families’ expectations for adolescents’ behavioural autonomy. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 371–381.
(1993). BSI Brief Symptom Inventory: Administration, scoring, and procedures manual (4th ed.). Minneapolis, MN: National Computer Systems.
(2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34–43.
(2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill. Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61, 305–314.
(2004). Premature adolescent autonomy: Parent disengagement and deviant peer process in the amplification of problem behaviour. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 515–530.
(1990). Family decision making and academic performance in a diverse high school population. Journal of Adolescent Research, 5, 143–160.
(1974). Children of the great depression: Social change in life experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
(1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
(1988). Factors influencing age expectations for adolescent autonomy: A study of early adolescents and parents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 8, 325–343.
(1991). Age expectations of behavioural autonomy in Hong Kong, Australian, and American youth: The influence of family variables and adolescents’ values. International Journal of Psychology, 26, 1–23.
(1994). Parents’ expectations for preadolescent sons’ behavioral autonomy: A longitudinal study of correlates and outcomes. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4, 45–70.
(2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60, 678–686.
(1930). Civilization and its discontents. Oxford, UK: Hogarth.
(1998). Authority, autonomy, and parent-adolescent conflict and cohesion: A study of adolescents from Mexican, Chinese, Filipino, and European backgrounds. Developmental Psychology, 34, 782–792.
(1999). Adolescents’ subjective age: An indicator of perceived maturity. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 9, 309–337.
(2000). Adolescents’ psychosocial maturity, problem behavior, and subjective age: In search of the adultoid. Applied Developmental Science, 4, 178–192.
(2006). The many faces of adolescent autonomy: Parent-adolescent conflict, behavioral decision making, and emotional distancing. In , Handbook of adolescent development (pp. 135– 153). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
(1984). Defining psychosocial maturity in adolescence. Advances in Child Behavioral Analysis and Therapy, 3, 1–37.
(in press-a). Goal engagement during the school-to-work-transition: Beneficial for all, particularly for girls. Journal of Research on Adolescence.
(2008). Adolescents’ transitions to behavioral autonomy after German unification. Journal of Adolescence, 31, 337–353.
(1976). Developmental tasks and education (3rd ed.). New York: David McKay.
(1999). Developmental regulation in adulthood: Age-normative and sociostructural constraints as adaptive challenges. New York: Cambridge University Press.
(1999). Selectivity in life-span development: Biological and societal canalizations and individuals’ developmental goals. In , Action and self-development: Theory and research through the lifespan (pp. 67–103). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2001). Developmental regulation before and after a developmental deadline: The sample case of “biological clock” for childbearing. Psychology and Aging, 16, 400–413.
(1990). Practical sampling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2005). Autonomy and relatedness in cultural context. Implications for self and family. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 403–422.
(1996). Ethnicity and community context as moderators of the relations between family decision making and adolescent adjustment. Child Development, 67, 283–301.
(2002). Globalization, societal change, and new technologies: What they mean for the future of adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12, 1–30.
(1980). Identity in adolescence. In , Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159–186). New York: Wiley.
(2005). Longevity following the experience of parental divorce. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 2177–2189.
(1993). Adolescence-limited and life-course persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy. Psychological Review, 100, 674–701.
(2004). Early work as a source of developmental discontinuity during the transition to adulthood. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 1047–1070.
(1996). The meanings of age: Selected papers of Bernice L. Neugarten. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
. (2006). What works makes you happy: The role of personal goals in life-span development. In , A life worth living: Contributions to positive psychology (pp. 182–199). New York: Oxford University Press.
(2004). Human development in times of social change: Theoretical considerations and research needs. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 28, 289–298.
(2005). Understanding social change in conducting research on adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 15, 395–405.
(1991). The use of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 20, 149–166.
(2008). Stichprobenbeschreibung [
(Sample description ]. In , Individuum und sozialer Wandel: Eine Studie zu Anforderungen, psychosozialen Ressourcen und individueller Bewältigung [Individuals facing social change: A study on demands, psychosocial resources, and individual coping ]. Weinheim: Juventa.2000). The timing of adolescents’ school-to-work transition in the course of social change: The example of German unification. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 59, 240–255.
(2004). Salient and emerging developmental tasks in the transition to adulthood. Child Development, 75, 123–133.
(1999). Psychosocial adversity and child psychopathology. British Journal of Psychiatry, 174, 480–493.
(1998). Retrospective recall recalled. In , Methods and models for studying the individual (pp. 219–243). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.
(2001). Goal reconstruction and depressive symptoms during the transition to motherhood: Evidence from two cross-lagged longitudinal studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1144–1159.
(2000). Developmental systems and psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 297–312.
(2005). A life-course view of the development of crime. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 602, 12–45.
(1999). Determinants of differential acculturation of developmental timetables among adolescent immigrants to Germany. International Journal of Psychology, 34, 219–233.
(2004). Taking hold of some kind of life: How developmental tasks relate to trajectories of well-being during the transition to adulthood. Development and Psychopathology, 16, 1119–1140.
(2005). Social change and human development: Experiences from German unification. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 2–13.
(2007). Editorial: Agency and human development in times of social change. International Journal of Psychology, 42, 73–76.
. (2008). Individuum und sozialer Wandel: Eine Studie zu Anforderungen, psychosozialen Ressourcen und individueller Bewältigung [
. (Individuals facing social change: A study on demands psychosocial resources, and individual coping ]. Weinheim, Germany: Juventa.1997). Differential timing of initial vocational choice: The influence of early childhood family relocation and parental support behaviors in two cultures. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 50, 41–59.
(2003). Applied longitudinal data analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. New York: Oxford University Press.
(2004). Longitudinal development of family decision making: Defining healthy behavioral autonomy for middle-class African American adolescents. Child Development, 75, 1418–1434.
(2000). Neurobehavioral changes in adolescence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 111–114.
(2000). Parental monitoring: A reinterpretation. Child Development, 71, 1072–1085.
(1986). The vicissitudes of autonomy in early adolescence. Child Development, 57, 841–851.
(2006). Sozialprestige von Ausbildungsberufen aus der Sicht von Realschülern [
(Social prestige of vocational training jobs perceived by middle-tier students ]. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 37, 259–273.2008). Anforderungen des sozialen Wandels: Verteilung, Kumulation und psychosoziale Effekte [
(Demands of social change: Distribution, cumulation and psychosocial effects ]. In , Individuum und sozialer Wandel: Eine Studie zu Anforderungen, psychosozialen Ressourcen und individueller Bewältigung [Individuals facing social change: A study on demands, psychosocial resources, and individual coping ]. Weinheim: Juventa.1999). Vocational preferences of early adolescents: Their development in social context. Journal of Adolescent Research, 14, 267–288.
(1997). Overall job satisfaction: How good are single-item measures? Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 247–252.
(1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.
(2003). Trajectories of delinquent behaviour in adolescence and their covariates: Relations with initial and time-averaged factors. Journal of Adolescence, 26, 753–771.
(2001). Self-regulation of normative and non-normative developmental challenges. Human Development, 44, 264–283.
(2006). Authority, autonomy, and family relationships among adolescents in urban and rural China. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16, 527–537.
(2003). Autonomy development during adolescence. In , Blackwell handbook of adolescence (pp. 176–204). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
(