Introduction
The sense of agency is a process through which individuals believe they are active agents in directing their life course (Schoon & Cook,
2021). This process translates into the perception of the ability to optimize resources, transform, or overcome constraints to achieve self-determined goals (Zimmerman & Cleary,
2006). Although research on sense of agency has increased in recent decades, it has faced some difficulties arising from different terminology and measurement approaches (Schoon & Cook,
2021). Nonetheless, there is general agreement that the sense of agency is a multidimensional construct (Bandura,
2006; Eccles & Wigfield,
2002; Schoon & Heckhausen,
2019). Its assessment can either focus on specific domains (such as educational attainment) or based on general belief orientations (Hitlin & Johnson,
2015). The current study considered four general facets of sense of agency: goal-setting, optimism, decision-making, and self-efficacy (Nunes et al.,
2022b).
Developing sense of agency is essential during adolescence (Zimmerman & Cleary,
2006). Empirical evidence has highlighted the importance of the sense of agency for individuals’ psychoemotional development and adjustment (Gallagher et al.,
2019). Nevertheless, the literature on developing an evolving sense of agency during adolescence is scarce. The socio-ecological developmental theories of motivation (Conger et al.,
2010; Schoon & Heckhausen,
2019) guided the current study, which sought to fill three gaps in knowledge. First, the current study analyzes the developmental trajectories of sense of agency during late adolescence, specifically across high school and during the significant health pandemic Covid-19. Second, it examines potential differences regarding the role of attachment to mothers and fathers in shaping the development of the sense of agency over time. Third, it considers individual and contextual factors, such as variations by sex, cumulative risk, and pandemic-related stress.
The Development of Sense of Agency During Adolescence
Sense of agency is not a personality characteristic that remains stable throughout life (Schoon,
2018). Instead, sense of agency development is a dynamic, relational process that develops and evolves from the interactions between the developing individual and a changing social context. Changes in the sense of agency depend on the maturity of the individual, the relational changes, and contextual factors (Schoon & Heckhausen,
2019). Therefore, the sense of agency is malleable through experience (Schoon,
2018). During adolescence, young people develop the ability to make independent decisions. Adolescents gradually become more able to delay gratification and develop an increased concern for their futures. Adolescents go through reorganizations in relationships with their parents and dedicate more time to their peers and romantic partners (Branje,
2018). Thus, late adolescence may be a promising period for detecting changes in sense of agency.
Young people face developmental challenges during adolescence as the construction of personal identity, the progressive acquisition of autonomy, planning for the future, and abstract thinking development. Facing such tasks will allow young people to progressively acquire a greater capacity for self-regulation (Branje,
2018), a central aspect of the sense of agency. Note that sense of agency means, in its essence, “believing to be the author of own voluntary behavior” (Deci & Ryan,
2004). Further, cognitive advances experienced during adolescence can lead young people to gain greater decision-making power in contexts controlled by their parents or teachers at earlier ages. Thus, as adolescents develop their cognitive and emotional competencies, they may experience greater ease in setting goals based on their values. They also can reveal a more optimistic perspective about the future, feel greater power to make decisions, and believe strongly in their ability to achieve volitional goals (Conger et al.,
2010).
The need to adapt to new educational contexts resulting from the transition to high school is a significant change that young people face across late adolescence. In Portugal, high school starts in the 10th grade (14/15 years), requiring students to make important decisions about the future (Torres & Mouraz,
2019). Upon entering high school, young people make vocational choices, which can be a significant step toward their affirmation. Also, young people are given more power during high school to plan and organize their learning tasks. Their investments are made to a specific goal (higher education or labor market), and they progressively achieve greater decision-making power regarding their future, which can increase their sense of agency.
Another change young people experience during adolescence is attachment reorganization, i.e., the changes in relationships with parents. During adolescence, young people show progressively greater facility in distancing themselves from their parents’ ideas and choosing according to their volitional values (Allen,
2004; Branje,
2018). Adolescents increasingly become active agents in their widening social world, striving to develop their sense of agency as they assert their place in the family and their autonomy from their parents (Thoits,
2006). A more in-depth reflection on this issue will be addressed below.
In the Portuguese cultural context, young people reach the age of majority at 18 years old—i.e., youth become legally responsible for their actions, also having total civil obligations and rights. Therefore, at this stage of their lives, young Portuguese are expected to become more autonomous and independent—this cultural expectation might boost the youth’s sense of agency. Even so, Portuguese youth at this age only sometimes achieve complete independence from their parents. The postponement of independence from family mainly results from sociocultural changes, including youth increased investment in longer educational trajectories and subsequent delay of professional integration, as well as increasing economic instability and labor uncertainty (Mota et al.,
2022; Saraiva & Matos,
2016).
Based on cognitive, emotional, and relational changes that young people experience during adolescence and the importance that these changes have for their sense of agency (Eccles & Wigfield,
2002), the average levels of sense of agency could increase during adolescence. Previous empirical evidence also shows that some indicators of a sense of agency increased during adolescence (Gutman & Eccles,
2007; Wray-Lake et al.,
2010). For instance, in a 6-year longitudinal study of 1329 adolescents (from 13 to 19 years), the decision-making power increased over time (Gutman & Eccles,
2007). A higher increase occurred between ages 15 and 17 (during high school). This finding was attributed to a progressive match between the needs of developing adolescents and the opportunities in their various social contexts (Eccles et al.,
1993). Another longitudinal study analyzed the patterns in parents’ reports of 201 families about the decision-making autonomy of their children between ages 9 to 20 years. Decision-making autonomy increased gradually across middle childhood and adolescence before rising sharply in late adolescence, after age 15 (Wray-Lake et al.,
2010). These results are consistent with the person-environment adaptation perspective (Eccles et al.,
1993), which considers that an ideal family context should provide higher levels of control and lower levels of autonomy in early childhood and the reverse pattern in late adolescence.
Attachment to Parents and Sense of Agency
Humans have an inherent ability to create and develop emotional bonds with significant others. According to attachment theory-guided (Ainsworth,
1969; Bowlby,
1988) empirical studies, one’s secure relationships with caregivers are characterized by trust in their availability and responsiveness (Bowlby,
1988) and are linked to the development of more positive dynamic internal models (Lopez & Brennan,
2000). These positive models about themselves, others, and the world facilitate the individual’s development of self-regulation (Allen & Miga,
2010) and autonomy (McElhaney et al.,
2009).
The period of adolescence is especially characterized by rapid biopsychosocial changes that will impact the adolescent’s relationships with others. For example, parents and adolescents are likely to reorganize their interactions to promote their experience of more egalitarian and reciprocal relationships with one another (Branje,
2018), which promotes the adolescents’ biological or cognitive maturation and predicts developmental changes in parent-adolescent relationships (Allen,
2004). Hormonal changes related to puberty can lead adolescents to seek autonomy and initiate separation-individuation from parents. These relational changes do not imply that parents lose their relevance as attachment figures but that adolescents become less dependent on them (Allen,
2004). Parents are likely to remain a secure base for adolescents when necessary (Allen,
2004) and can shape adolescents’ sense of agency (Nunes et al.,
2022a).
Given the relational nature of the sense of agency, it is important to consider the contributions of adolescents’ attachment to parents when analyzing their development of a sense of agency over time. Attachment to parents may have a stable contribution to the adolescent’s sense of agency over time. On the other hand, specific attachment dimensions to parents may have a more time-specific effect on the adolescent’s sense of agency. In addition, as the relative roles of mothers and fathers in shaping the adolescent’s development of the sense of agency over time remain unclear (Schoon & Eccles,
2014), the current study will consider the role of both parents in this process. Although it is important to recognize that adaptive changes and reorganizations in adolescence are also shaped by peers (Allen et al.,
2007; Schoon,
2018), the current study focuses exclusively on the adolescent’s attachment to each parent.
Individual and Contextual Factors: The role of Sex, Cumulative Risk, and Pandemic-Related Stress in Shaping Sense of Agency
Socio-ecological models of human development emphasize the role of multiple contextual factors in shaping the sense of agency (Conger et al.,
2010), including the contribution of sex, cumulative risk exposure, and characteristics of changing social context. There is established evidence of sex differences in adolescents’ sense of agency, with boys reporting a stronger sense of agency than girls (Schoon & Cook,
2021). Gender stereotypes and inequalities in most Western societies can explain these findings (Schoon & Eccles,
2014).
The accumulation of risk situations can enhance adolescents’ perception that they have limited resources to face, modify or overcome life’s constraints (Conger et al.,
2010). The current study focuses on psychosocial risk, defined as the absence of development opportunities resulting from poor contextual experiences unsuited to individuals’ needs (World Health Organization,
2020). According to the literature, features of the family’s immediate context, such as the size of the household (single-parent families or large families with three minors), the parents’ low education and the disqualified professional occupations, as well as low family income, tend to impoverish individuals’ developmental experiences (Gutman et al.,
2019). Several studies frame these features as risk factors for youth development (e.g., Guedes,
2015; Gutman et al.,
2019; Price & Hyde,
2009; Schoon & Henseke,
2022). For instance, low parental education and unskilled professional occupations are associated with a family’s lower income and children’s health problems (Buehler and Gerard
2013; January et al.,
2017). Unemployment and parental retirement (accompanied by financial difficulties) can limit the options and, consequently, young people’s choices (Guedes,
2015; Sleskova et al.,
2006). These situations tend to diminish resources and promote adaptation problems. Retirement can give individuals more time to dedicate to personal and family activities. However, when the individual does not voluntarily choose to retire, this transition might be the source of physical and mental health issues and significant economic concerns, with implications for adolescents’ well-being (Dave et al.,
2008). Other risk factors described in the literature include experiencing adverse life events, such as bereavement (e.g., Harrison & Harrington,
2001), parental separation/divorce (e.g., Obeid et al.,
2021) and academic or residential mobility (e.g., Langenkamp,
2016; Simsek et al.,
2021). Due to these factors, young people may feel more constrained to take risks and explore new paths (Schoon & Lyons-Amos,
2017).
Despite the importance of individual risk factors, the current study focuses on the accumulation of different risk factors, which determines the context’s adversity (Gutman et al.,
2002). Several empirical studies have supported this assumption, showing that the number of risk factors is more relevant for determining the developmental outcome than any single factor considered alone (e.g., Dannefer & Huang,
2017; Price & Hyde,
2009). Based on this notion, the most common approach for measuring a context’s adversity is to add up a set of dichotomized risk factors (1 = risk; 0 = no risk) into a cumulative risk index (Gutman et al.,
2019). Given the higher developmental challenges that young people face, adolescence tends to be a period of some emotional lability that may be exacerbated by the experience of cumulative risk situations. From this perspective, unraveling the contribution of cumulative risk to the adolescent sense of agency development is relevant.
Furthermore, it was considered the role of broader contextual factors, such as challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which disproportionately affected young people (Cohen et al.,
2021). In addition to its physical health consequences, the Covid-19 pandemic substantially impacted the mental health of individuals, particularly adolescents (Cohen et al.,
2021; Kowal et al.,
2020), as well as their education, training and employment opportunities (ILO,
2020; Harmey & Moss,
2021). Many aspects of the pandemic, such as fear of infection, general lockdown, social isolation, and distance learning, likely elevated stress reactions that could undermine adolescents’ mental health (Duan et al.,
2020). Evidence also suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic can adversely impact adolescents’ sense of agency and outlook on the future (Schoon & Cook,
2021). The current study will consider and analyze the contribution of pandemic-related stress on the evolution of the sense of agency during adolescence. The contribution of pandemic-related stress on initial values of the sense of agency will not be examined as the first wave of data collection occurred before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Discussion
The literature points out that sense of agency is a dynamic and contextualized process that develops through interactions between the developing individual and the changing social context. However, studies on fluctuations in the sense of agency during adolescence, specifically during high school, where adolescents make crucial decisions about their future, still need to be made available. Documenting the stability or change in the sense of agency throughout high school education is only a first step to understanding the development of sense of agency during this crucial developmental period. Identifying predictors of stability or change establishes critical insights toward building models linking variations in adolescents’ life contexts to developing sense of agency. The current study examined changes in the trajectories of the sense of agency during the high school years. In addition, an attempt was made to understand whether attachment to both parents and whether adolescents’ sex, cumulative risk at baseline, and pandemic-related stress have related to these trajectories, controlling for the contribution of the school year that adolescents attended at baseline.
The current study established three main findings: First, sense of agency revealed a positive linear slope during high school. This growth can derive from adolescents’ biopsychosocial changes during this period (Eccles & Wigfield,
2002). The physical, cognitive, and emotional development experienced during adolescence helps young people to achieve greater autonomy from parents and to develop a more concrete notion about their values and interests, which, in turn, can strengthen their “horizon of possibilities.” Another factor that can explain these results is the growing participation of adolescents in decisions that affect their lives. Parents and teachers increasingly involve adolescents in decisions that affect them (Conger et al.,
2010). As long as young people acquire more decision power, they may feel more capable of shaping their life course. These results are consistent with hypothesis 1 based on the literature suggesting that throughout adolescence, most young people tend to become increasingly active agents in their expanding social world (Thoits,
2006). These results are interesting because, despite the pandemic that affected young people’s lives, their sense of agency has revealed a growth trajectory during high school. In Portugal, between the current’s study two initial assessment waves, participants were confined for four months (March to June 2020). During this period, school activities were wholly online, and young people were deprived of face-to-face contact with figures other than the nuclear family. Despite these circumstances, there was an average increasing growth in young people’s sense of agency during this particular period.
Furthermore, although young people showed inter-individual differences in the initial values of sense of agency, there were no differences in the growth rate. These results suggest that the young people who participated in the current study all experienced growth in their sense of agency. Young people could show similar developmental growth trends even though they can vary in their biopsychosocial development (Branje,
2018). It would be valuable for future studies to analyze this development in more diverse and heterogeneous samples. Future studies should clarify whether this finding results from the characteristics of participants of this study or if they are normative and young people tend to reveal similar growth patterns in their sense of agency, whatever their starting point.
The second significant contribution of this study was to clarify the contributions of attachment to parents on sense of agency over time. The contributions of relationships with father and mother to sense of agency remained stable throughout high school. These results bring essential contributions to the literature, as they corroborate the role of attachment to adolescents’ sense of agency and clarify that this role is relatively stable over time. The perspective of relational continuity comes to mind when discussing this result. Although the content and form of parent-child relationships change as adolescents mature, the functional properties of these relationships tend to remain stable (Branje,
2018). In other words, parents’ responsiveness and availability are maintained, although the attachment behavior of adolescents reflects some distance due to the increasing need for autonomy (Branje,
2018). This relational continuity may occur in the current study, despite the significant changes in the attachment to parents. Throughout the three assessment points (preliminary exploration of data), the characteristics of relationships with father and mother that contribute to sense of agency remain the same. Despite the initial efforts to discuss these results, further studies need to clarify this issue through more extended time intervals.
Still, regarding attachment to parents, relationships with father and mother contribute differently to sense of agency over time. Results show that the quality of the emotional bond with both parents promotes a positive development of sense of agency. In contrast, the inhibition of exploration and individuality by the mother, but not the father, undermines this development. These findings expand the results from previous studies insofar as they show that the quality of the emotional bond with the father and inhibition of exploration and individuality by the mother are not only correlated concurrently with sense of agency (Nunes et al.,
2022a) but also are an essential correlate for its development. Further, these findings also show that the quality of the emotional bond with the mother is crucial to shaping adolescents’ sense of agency.
Results suggest that relationships characterized by support and security with both parents throughout adolescence promote the expansion of adolescents’ perceived opportunities to shape their life course. When adolescents perceive their parents as responsive and available, they consolidate their models of inner security and trust that can reinforce their beliefs in their capacity to be active agents in their life course. However, when adolescents perceive that their mothers do not encourage their explorative initiatives and, conversely, tend to inhibit them, they feel less and less autonomous and tend to believe that a smaller range of opportunities is available to them. Adolescents who desire more autonomous and symmetrical relationships with their parents often also need more emotional closeness and open communication with their parents. Parents, in turn, can respond to their adolescents’ need for autonomy by distancing themselves from their children’s lives or demonstrating greater control and inhibition to avoid the emergence of problematic behaviors (Eccles et al.,
1993). For instance, mothers, in response to their adolescents’ emerging sexuality and increased involvement with peers, tend to become more concerned and offer fewer opportunities for autonomous decision-making to their adolescent children (Eccles et al.,
1993), which in turn can undermine their sense of agency. However, it should be acknowledged that these maternal behaviors may be an essential protection for some adolescents, who tend to be involved in more risky behaviors. Despite the initial insights and reflections, this issue needs further examination in future research.
Regarding the importance of the quality of emotional bonds with mothers found in the current study and not in the previous study, it is essential to clarify that the participants of the current study are, in the mean younger than adolescents in the previous study. As young people become more independent and autonomous, they may not need so much emotional support from mothers to consider themselves the authors of their life course. Despite the initial efforts to discuss these results, it would be relevant in future studies to evaluate the contribution of the quality of attachment to parents in sense of agency over a longer time to see if this developmental hypothesis is supported.
Finally, findings indicate that adolescents’ sex, cumulative risk, and pandemic-related stress affected the development of sense of agency. Concerning sex, although boys and girls did not show differences in their initial values of sense of agency, boys revealed a greater growth rate than girls over time. Boys and girls are affected differently by the demands of high school, with girls reporting significantly more concerns than boys (Rice et al.,
2011). This experience, associated with the awareness of gender inequalities in Portuguese society (Brancazio,
2019), may explain the slower growth in girls’ sense of agency compared to boys. Notably, the current study’s findings expand previous evidence, clarifying that developing sense of agency is not independent of adolescents’ sex.
Regarding cumulative risk, higher levels of psychosocial risk were associated with lower initial values but not the growth rate of sense of agency. Adolescents who experienced more psychosocial risks showed lower initial values of sense of agency, but this did not affect the development of these beliefs. Results suggest that adolescents may have characteristics (e.g., personality traits) and contexts (e.g., social support) that allow them to overcome disadvantages in sense of agency throughout late adolescence. These results make essential contributions to the literature and expand the results of previous studies (Nunes et al.,
2022a) insofar as they show that despite the impairment of adolescents’ sense of agency by exposure to cumulative risk, adolescents have resources capable of reducing the damaging impact of these risks as time goes. Despite these reflections, it is essential to highlight that most participants in the current study only reported a few risk factors simultaneously. It would be necessary for future studies to analyze more heterogeneous samples regarding multiple psychosocial risks. Despite the relevance of these results, recent approaches to adversity highlight that risk should be understood as a multidimensional construct composed of outside sources of adversity that the individual cannot control (hardness) and hardness variation (McLaughlin et al.,
2021). It would be valuable if future studies could expand the current study’s findings, articulating this multidimensional approach to risk with young people’s sense of agency.
Moreover, pandemic-related stress undermines the growth of sense of agency. These results were expected, as many aspects of the pandemic, such as social isolation, general lockdown, and uncertainties about the disease and its evolution, led the world population to a high degree of uncertainty regarding its future (Cohen et al.,
2021). It is believed that this experience had an increased impact on adolescents‘ lives who, during high school, try to develop strategies in preparation for their future. During the pandemic, adolescents had to adapt to distance learning mechanisms and “lost” the support of their peers and teachers, factors that may have triggered some doubts about their ability to achieve their self-determined goals, such as in the academic field. It would be valuable that future studies analyze the effect of pandemic stress on the trajectory of sense of agency over a longer time to effectively know the impact of the pandemic on the development of sense of agency.
This work showed an increment in adolescents’ sense of agency during high school, affected by sex, psychosocial risk, pandemic-related stress, and relationships with parents. Some limitations of previous studies were overcome, namely by analyzing longitudinal data on sense of agency and relationships with both parents and testing the contributions of the quality of these relationships across time on the development of adolescents’ sense of agency. Despite its notable strengths, this study has some limitations that must be acknowledged. First, other developmental contexts, such as peers, teachers, and the school community, are essential to sense of agency not considered in models tested in the current study. Second, the results were based on self-reported data. Future studies would be valuable to analyze these trajectories using interview data or parental reports. Third, the current study was based on a sample of adolescents in the North of Portugal, and future studies must assess the generalizability of findings across different cultural contexts. In addition, the results were based on data from adolescents who mostly lived with both parents. It may be possible that the trajectory of sense of agency over time is different between adolescents who live with both parents and youth who come from other family configurations. Additional research with more heterogeneous samples regarding family configuration would add weight to the potential implications arising from this study. It would also be valuable to analyze the effect of time-varying attachment to parents in the sense of agency from the perspective of parental figures. Further research is needed on possible bidirectional influences between a sense of agency and attachment to parents over time. The development of more studies that include new variables that explain the trajectory of sense of agency, such as basic psychological needs, relationships with peers and teachers, and belonging to schools, would allow a deeper understanding of the development of these beliefs during high school.
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