Adolescent psychosocial maturity and alcohol use: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of longitudinal data - Statistical Data Included

Adolescence, Spring, 2002 by Sigrun Adalbjarnardottir

Thus, the available literature draws very little on the developmental perspective. A developmental analysis of how adolescents understand, manage, and make meaning of the risky choices they face can be an important contribution. For example, the developmental point of view reveals important differences in the way adolescents, like those quoted below, reflect on why they drink, depending on their ability to coordinate social perspectives. Considering their responses at face value, an adolescent who responds, "Well, everybody else is drinking," sounds dismissive. Another, who says, "It's fun to be drunk, you know," appears to be rule-oriented, taking only his own perspective into account, thinking it to be true for everyone. He also seems impersonal, not referring clearly to any awareness of self ("it's"). A third says, "I feel more a part of the group. I tend to feel shy when I am in a group like this," and a fourth, "I loosen up a bit, feel more daring. I can talk with people, like girls I have a crush on." T hese two adolescents reflect more clearly on themselves by differentiating their needs from those of others, referring to their personality traits. The ability to reflect on one's own needs and behavior in social situations, we propose, generally relates to less risky substance use (Selman & Adalbjarnardottir, 2000).

The present study is part of a systematic effort to construct and evaluate a psychosocial developmental framework that describes how children's and adolescents' psychosocial maturity relates to their risky behavior and relationships (Selman & Adalbjarnardottir, 2000; Selman, Levitt, & Schultz, 1997). This framework, developed by our Group for the Study of Interpersonal Development (GSID), directed by Robert L. Selman at Harvard University, aims at understanding how important cultural, developmental, and relationship-oriented issues interact in the world of the adolescent. The study reported here focuses on adolescents' heavy drinking in relation to their psychosocial maturity both concurrently and longitudinally.

THE PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK

Central to the psychological theory of individuals' psychosocial competence is the developing human capacity to differentiate and coordinate perspectives by understanding the relationship between one's own thoughts, feelings, and wishes and those of others (Selman, 1980). Competence in coordinating social perspectives is claimed to be a basic capacity in social thought and action, that is, in how individuals understand and make meaning of social and moral issues and how they function in human relationships (Habermas, 1984; Kohlberg, 1984; Mead, 1934; Selman 1980).

Applying this cognitive-developmental view to the domain of substance use, we believe that the ability to coordinate the perspectives of self and others--or of individual and society--plays an important role in adolescents' understanding risks to their health, such as drinking (Selman & Adalbjarnardottir, 2000). The essential questions are: From a developmental point of view, how do adolescents understand the facts they are provided with about the risky business of substance use, such as drinking alcohol? How do they reflect on their own drinking? How do they apply that understanding in their relationships with family and friends? These questions capture three constructs of the psychosocial developmental framework that are closely related: interpersonal understanding, personal meaning, and interpersonal skills. Interpersonal understanding refers to how individuals understand facts about the nature of risks, in this case alcohol use, in the general context of social relationships. Interpersonal skills refer to the repertoire of strategies they have available to manage risks (in both hypothetical and real-life situations). Personal meaning refers to how adolescents make meaning of the risks they take or choose not to take in relation to the quality of their personal relationships, such as those with family members and friends.