Because adolescents in contemporary society spend so much time away from the direct supervision of adults, an understanding of the processes through which young people become responsible and self-reliant is extremely important. The development of a healthy sense of independence, or autonomy, is one of the fundamental psychosocial concerns of adolescence.
The development of autonomy in adolescence can be studied in relation to the biological, cognitive, and social changes. For example, puberty, formal operational thought, and new societal roles provide the adolescent with new opportunities to express their independence.
THREE TYPES OF AUTONOMY
Psychologists generally differentiate among three types of autonomy in adolescence: emotional autonomy, which refers to emotional independence in relationships with others, especially parents; behavioral autonomy, which refers to the development of independent decision-making abilities; and value autonomy, which concerns the development of independent beliefs.
The Development of Emotional Autonomy: Changes in the adolescent-parent relationship all reflect the development of emotional autonomy.
Emotional Autonomy and Detachment: In the past, adolescence was formally viewed as a time during which individuals needed to break away from or rebel against their parents. Anna Freud referred to this separation as a form of detachment.
Emotional Autonomy and Individuation: More recent research indicates that this view is incorrect. Healthy emotional autonomy is more likely to be achieved through a gradual transformation and surprisingly undramatic individuation process. As adolescents age, they are more likely to de-idealize their parents, become more dependent on themselves, and feel more individuated from their parents. The ability of adolescents to see their parents as people does not develop until much later--perhaps young adulthood.
Emotional Autonomy and Parenting Practices: Healthy individuation is fostered by close, rather than distant, family relationships. According to Stuart Hauser, adolescents whose parents are enabling rather than constraining, are more likely to develop in healthy ways. In particular, adolescents from authoritative families develop a healthier sense of autonomy than those from authoritarian, indulgent, or indifferent households.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIORAL AUTONOMY
Changes in Decision-Making Abilities: As adolescents develop, they exhibit changes in decision-making abilities, susceptibility to the influence of others, and feelings of self-reliance. Due to the cognitive advances of adolescence, individuals are now better able to seek out and weigh the advice of different "experts" and use this information to make decisions. In this regard, they are becoming more behaviorally autonomous.
Changes in Conformity and Susceptibility to Influence: For a short time during early adolescence, however, it appears that adolescents are especially susceptible to the advice of their peers, especially on issues concerning day-to-day behavior. Susceptibility to peer pressure increases from preadolescence to early adolescence, and then begins to decline as adolescents enter high school. The strength of peer pressure, however, increases steadily throughout adolescence. Adolescents who are the most susceptible to this type of pressure (especially anti-social influences) tend to have parents who are authoritarian or permissive in nature.
Changes in Feelings of Self-Reliance: Adolescents' subjective feelings of how autonomous, or self-reliant, they are appears to increase with age. Also, contrary to popular assumptions, girls report feeling more self-reliant than boys, however, parents grant autonomy more readily to their sons than to their daughters.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF VALUE AUTONOMY
Value autonomy involves the development of independent beliefs, morals, and values. Research indicates that, during adolescence, youngsters' beliefs become more abstract, grounded in general principles, and less tied to the dictates of authority. Although most research on value autonomy has examined moral development, studies of political and religious thinking have revealed similar patterns.
Moral Development During Adolescence: Kohlberg's theory of the development of moral reasoning is a dominant perspective in the study of adolescent value autonomy. Adolescence is characterized as a shift from a morality that defines right and wrong in terms of associated rewards and punishments (e.g., preconventional) to one that defines right and wrong on the basis of societal norms (e.g., conventional). Since this shift occurs during late childhood or early adolescence, most adolescents function at the conventional level of moral reasoning. The final stage of moral reasoning, postconventional, involves an emphasis on moral principles and a recognition that social rules are subjective, rather than absolute. Postconventional reasoning emerges, usually, during late adolescence or early adulthood, and is viewed as an important marker in the development of value autonomy.
Gilligan has argued that Kohlberg's theory of moral development overemphasizes traditional conceptions of morality (which emphasize justice) and underemphasizes conceptions that are more likely to be espoused by females (which emphasize care). For example, females score higher on dimensions of prosocial moral reasoning (such as helping others or volunteering their time).
Similar to shifts in moral development, adolescents' political and religious thinking becomes more abstract, less authoritarian, and more principled. During late adolescence, individuals begin to question many of the political and religious teachings to which they were exposed during childhood, as they search to find belief systems that reflect their own values - not simply the values of their parents.
