Agency, communion, and pubertal status: Separating between- and within-person associations to examine social goals development

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Social Relationships

Abstract

Introduction: Rooted in Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory, the social goals of agency (valuing independence and status) and communion (valuing warmth and connectedness) are thought to shape how adolescents transact with their social environments. Social developmental researchers have argued that adolescents need to develop both agency and communion to successfully navigate the challenges of adolescence (Baumrind, 1991; Meisel & Colder, in press). Despite the theoretical importance of these higher-order personality dimensions, little work has focused on the development of these social goals. Evolutionary psychology as well as developmental neuroscience frameworks both posit that changes in pubertal status should be associated with increases in valuing agency and communion (Crone & Dahl, 2012; Ellis et al., 2012; Chan et al., 2018). Informed by these theoretical frameworks, the current study examined associations between pubertal status and the development of agentic and social goals across early to middle adolescence.
Hypotheses: The current study forwarded the following hypotheses: (1) Agentic social goals, communal social goals, and pubertal status would demonstrate significant growth from early to middle adolescence. (2) Overall levels of pubertal status during early to middle adolescence (between-person effect) as well as increases from an adolescent’s typical level of pubertal status (within-person effect) would be cross-sectionally associated with higher levels of agentic and communal goals. (3) Overall levels of pubertal status during early to middle adolescence (between-person effect) as well as increases from an adolescent’s typical levels of pubertal status (within-person effect) would be prospectively associated with higher levels of agentic and communal goals. (4) At both the between- and within-person levels of analysis, associations between puberty and agency would be stronger for males and associations between puberty and communion would be stronger for females.
Sample: Participants were drawn from the first three waves of a longitudinal study examining early risk factors of the initiation and escalation of substance use during adolescence. The sample included 387 families (1 caregiver, 1 child) and was evenly split on gender (N = 213 females, 55%). Most adolescents were non-Hispanic Caucasian (83.1%) (9.1% African American, 2.1% Hispanic, 1.0% Asian, and 4.7%mixed ethnicity). The average age of participants was 12.1 at wave one and 14.1 at wave three.
Methods: Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine growth in pubertal status and agentic and communal social goals as well as between- and within-person associations between pubertal status and social goals across early to middle adolescence.
Results: Pubertal status as well as agentic and communal social goals significantly increased from early to middle adolescence. On the within-person level, pubertal status was concurrently associated with higher levels of agentic and communal social goals (above and beyond age, gender, and socioeconomic status). Between-person pubertal status was concurrently and prospectively associated with higher levels of agentic social goals. No support was found for sex differences in these associations. Findings suggest that pubertal status, in part, drives developmental shifts in the value adolescents place on forming close peer relationships and obtaining status and independence in peer relationships.

Authors

• Samuel Meisel, Brown University
  Presenting Author

• Craig R Colder, State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matthew J Paul, University at Buffalo
  Non-Presenting Author