The Core Adolescent. Universal Aspects of the Adolescent Experience

Because adolescents experience the same biological, cognitive, and psychosocial changes and face the same developmental tasks, it is reasonable to expect that certain aspects of their experience will be common to all adolescents. Due to the growing number of studies using self-report questionnaires, even internationally, areas in which the adolescent experience is similar are now identifiable.

Universal Aspects of the Adolescent Experience. When attempts to understand adolescents are made using standard psychological measurements, many common developmental patterns, as well as feelings, concerns, and interests, are found. In fact, adolescents seem to have little difficulty understanding each other. Teenagers today have a body of knowledge that is shared across many cultures, due largely to the emergence of what can be seen as a world culture. With television and other media often having global audiences, one event or idea can influence an entire global cohort of adolescents in the same way at the same time.

Recent empirical studies have verified that, worldwide, today’s teenagers do share a collective personality as well as a collective consciousness. They have assimilated common elements of human nature, culture, and civilization, as well as a common pattern of meanings that have been dispersed and spread throughout the world. The media transmit ideas and events to all corners of the globe, defining what is new or desirable, and they are adopted by young developing minds.

The result of this process is that it is now possible to provide a self-portrait of the universal adolescent. Teenagers who have the most in common with their peers describe themselves as being happy most of the time. They enjoy life, perceive themselves as able to exercise self-control, are caring, and are oriented toward others.

They care about how others might be affected by their actions, prefer not to be alone, derive a good feeling from being with others, and like to help a friend whenever they can. They feel there is plenty they can learn from others. They value work and school. They enjoy doing a job well, think about the kind of work that they will do in the future, and would rather work than be supported.

Sexually, they feel confident about their body image and hold age-appropriate sexual attitudes. They do not feel far behind their peers, are not afraid to think or talk about sex, and do not feel they are boring to the opposite sex.

In the family they have positive feelings toward their parents. They feel that both parents are basically good and will not be disappointed or ashamed of them in the future. They do not carry a grudge against their parents and feel that their parents are usually patient and satisfied with them most of the time.

They cope well with life’s vicissitudes, are able to make decisions, feel talented, like to put things in order and make sense of them, do not give up after their first failure, try to prepare in advance for new situations, and feel that they will be able to assume responsibilities for themselves in the future.

This profile of the core adolescent contrasts with popular conceptions of adolescence as a time of alienation from one’s parents and as a time of self- centeredness and directionlessness. Instead, adolescents do generally accept their parents' attitudes and values, respecting them as well as their own responsibilities. Importantly, aspects of their common experience that teenagers most agree on are values, goals, and relationships.

The Well-Adjusted Adolescent. Teenagers are fundamentally family oriented. To one degree or another, they change their relationships with their families of origin, both physically and psychologically, as they increasingly become more invested in peer relationships. This does not necessarily mean rebelling from or becoming antagonistic toward their immediate family. Contrary to previous thought, an adolescent is able to become more independent from his or her family of origin without bitterness or disavowal.

Cognitively and psychologically, adolescents are able to express both love and respect for their parents and affirm good feelings toward their peers at the same time. In fact, new friends do serve to facilitate the needed separation from their parents and also aid in the subsequent identity formation within the larger context of the social network they are moving into.

Sources for the core adolescent experience are the biological, cognitive, and pyschosocial changes that occur during these years. Biological development is universal, offering clear characteristics that distinguish childhood from adolescence, but variation in timing requires different types and degrees of personal adjustment to these changes. Similarly, cognitive development offers the universal of formal operational thinking, but there is considerable individual difference as to when this is achieved and to what end.

Psychosocial development is also similar for all adolescents. The universal tasks are to form a clear coherent view of self, to separate from one’s family of origin, to relate well to others of a like age, to prepare to form a conjugal family of one’s own, and to develop a viable social, as well as personal, identity that will synthesize personal characteristics with an acceptable social role.

There is also a great deal of individual variation in accomplishing these tasks, but the added difficulty for the adolescent lies in the lack of clearly defined social recognition of the status of adulthood and when this is finally achieved. The well-adjusted adolescent will be the one who accomplishes and understands these developmental changes and also has the help of parents who offer support when it is needed, but allow the teenager enough independence to be challenged by these tasks.