Autonomy, Development of

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-373951-3.00004-1Get rights and content

Abstract

Autonomy is a developmental task of adolescence that includes increases in self-regulation of behavior and emotion and greater independent decision-making, as well as the acquisition of new societal rights and responsibilities. Autonomy development is important because it circumscribes the quality of an adolescent's selected pathways, how good he or she will feel, and the optimization of decision opportunities. Although the study of autonomy includes many diverse lines of research and multiple controversies, this entry describes four topics that emerge from recent empirical findings. Whenever possible, the topics are organized by the most prominent theoretical views of autonomy during adolescence. The first topic concerns descriptions of different prominent theories and provides a summary of key findings from research related to these various approaches. The second topic comes from contrasting theories and research on adolescent autonomy, which highlights culture and other social influences as well as identifying individual factors inherent in autonomy development. Third, what is known about the interpersonal foundations of autonomy is described, including relationships with parents and peers, and the influence of involvement in organizations and leisure activities. Fourth and finally, newly emerging areas of research are summarized. When taken together, processes of autonomy development are shown to be a result of interactions between individual characteristics, personal actions, and interactions with others. This makes autonomy development challenging, complex and important for adolescents in all parts of the world.

References (0)

Cited by (35)

  • Intimacy development in late adolescence: Longitudinal associations with perceived parental autonomy support and adolescents’ self-worth

    2018, Journal of Adolescence
    Citation Excerpt :

    Unmitigated communion has been associated with more depressive symptoms and lowered self-worth, as well as other interpersonal difficulties (e.g., intrusiveness; Aube, 2008; Fritz & Helgeson, 1998). Autonomy support is a parenting dimension that pertains to the degree to which parents encourage their children to function volitionally and to act upon personally endorsed values and interests (Soenens et al., 2007; Zimmer-Gembeck, Ducat, & Collins, 2011). Specifically, autonomy-supportive parents are more empathic towards their children, offer relevant choice whenever possible, and provide a meaningful explanation when choice is limited (Grolnick, 2003; Joussemet, Landry, & Koestner, 2008).

  • Parents and peers as protective factors among adolescents exposed to neighborhood risk

    2017, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
    Citation Excerpt :

    Adolescence is characterized by a number of developmental transformations within the adolescent and within interpersonal relationships (Steinberg & Morris, 2001). In particular, as they age, adolescents are afforded greater levels of autonomy (Zimmer-Gembeck, Ducat, & Collins, 2011) and are supervised less by their parents (Laird, Pettit, Bates, & Dodge, 2003) as their relationships become more horizontal and less vertical (Laursen & Bukowski, 1997; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Moreover, peer relationships become increasingly more important during this developmental period.

  • From the child to the neighbourhood: Longitudinal ecological correlates of young adolescents' emotional, social, conduct, and academic difficulties

    2016, Journal of Adolescence
    Citation Excerpt :

    Although adolescence is a time characterised by greater independence and increased social experience outside of the family, research has identified that parenting and family relations still matter during adolescence (Williams & Merten, 2014; Zimmer-Gembeck & Collins, 2003). Positive parenting behaviours such as acceptance, warmth, and consistency have been linked to a greater capacity for adaptive social and emotional functioning, fewer behaviour problems, better academic outcomes, and reduced exposure to stressful life events (Cummings, Davies, & Campbell, 2000; Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, & Duncan, 1994; Skinner, Johnson, & Snyder, 2005; Steinberg & Silk, 2002; Zimmer-Gembeck, Ducat, & Collins, 2011). However, negative parenting practices that are rejecting, coercive, or controlling have been linked to an increased likelihood of emotional, behavioural and social difficulties in young adolescents (Rowe, Zimmer-Gembeck, Rudolph, & Nesdale, 2014; Skinner et al., 2005; Wiggins et al., 2015).

  • Autonomy, development of

    2016, The Curated Reference Collection in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology
View all citing articles on Scopus

Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck received her PhD in June 1998. She is professor in psychology at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia (Gold Coast), director of the Psychological Health Research Unit within the Griffith Health Institute, and director of The Family Interaction Program (FIP). FIP is a center for developing and evaluating innovative interventions for young children and their families funded by the Australian government. In addition to this work, her research interests include child and adolescent social relationships and social cognition; depression and anxiety; stress and the development of coping, emotion, and regulation; self-determination theory; and education and vocational development. She has published more than 75 articles, books, edited volumes, and book chapters, is an associate editor of the Journal of Adolescence, an assistant editor of the Australian Journal of Psychology, and serves on editorial boards of other journals. She teaches courses in developmental psychology, social psychology and statistics, and supervises Ph.D. and other graduate students in their research into child or adolescent development and child/adolescent clinical psychology.

Wendy H. Ducat is a psychologist and research associate at the Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. Her research interests are in adolescent and emerging adult development. Wendy completed a PhD in clinical psychology at Griffith University in 2009, and as part of her doctoral studies developed and tested both a new assessment of the quality of relationship behaviors in emerging adult romantic relationships and an integrated model of relationship quality and individual functioning. She also has expertise in addictions research and intervention through various roles in Queensland Health and has coordinated applied research to minimize harms in adolescents misusing alcohol and other drugs, as well as providing training and support initiatives for alcohol and other drug health workers.

W. Andrew Collins is Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Child Development and Psychology at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, MN, USA. A graduate of Stanford University, he is principal investigator in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, in which participants have been followed so far from birth to age 32. Professor Collins has also conducted research on processes of mass media influence, development during middle childhood (ages 5–11), parent–adolescent relationships and influences during adolescence, and peer and romantic relationships during adolescence and early adulthood.

Currently editor of the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, he is a fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. He served as president of the Society for Research on Adolescence from 2000 to 2002. He was chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Institutes of Health's National Longitudinal Study of Child Care and Youth Development from 2001 to 2006. He has received three university awards for distinguished teaching, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education in Child Development from SRCD (2005), and the Distinguished Mentor Award from the International Association for Relationship Research (2008).

View full text