Narrative Means to Manage Responsibility in Life Narratives Across Adolescence

Abstract

Adolescence is a passage from dependence to adult responsibility. Alongside identity development, social-cognitive development, and the ability to construct a life story, adolescents become increasingly aware of both their potential responsibility in an expanded sphere of life and of complex, contextual influences on their lives. This was partially tested in a cross-sectional study, both in terms of linguistic means and content expressed in life narratives. Indicators were defined for narrative agency, grading of responsibility, serendipity, and turning points, and tested for age differences in relative frequencies in 102 life narratives from age groups of 8, 12, 16, and 20 years, balanced for gender. Narrative grading of responsibility, serendipity, and turning points increased throughout adolescence. The relative frequency of narrative agency, in contrast, remained constant across age groups. Results are interpreted in the context of adolescent development of narrative identity.

Pedestrian-vehicle crashes: risk perception and responsibility attribution among children, adolescents and adults

“…They may also have a better sense of the ability of drivers to avoid crashes, having driving experience themselves and/or elevated cognitive understanding of the capacity of vehicles to stop and swerve in attempts to avert crashes. Age-graded increases in responsibility may also arise through language and socio-cognitive development, including greater consideration of situational factors 34 and more developed cognitive judgment, decision-making, impulse control, and understanding of horizontal projectile motion. 30,[35][36] Prevention efforts in this domain might best focus on educating drivers to take particular care around children, and altering the built environment to slow traffic speeds where children frequently cross streets (e.g., near schools).…”

Reflecting on a Difficult Life

“…However, we took a more narrow approach to agency, given the sample with which we were working. For example, agency typically emphasizes an orientation to future action and outcomes, is concerned with goal formulation, planning, and mastery, and is connected to the individuals' sense of meaning and purpose in life (Adler, 2011;de Silveira & Habermas, 2011;Sales et al, 2013). We recognized that the difficult life events experienced by many of the youth in this study may have constrained the participants' possibilities for achieving their most personally meaningful longer term goals.…”

“…While meaning-making captures the degree to which one learns about the self in constructing a narrative identity, we also examined the extent to which one's stories reflected a sense of agency, defined as taking responsibility for one's own decisions and actions. Success in the transition to adulthood requires that individuals assume responsibility for themselves (Arnett, 1997), which is reflected in several related constructs, including locus of control (Rotter, 1990) and broader definitions of agency (de Silveira & Habermas, 2011;Ryan, 1993;Sales et al, 2013). However, we took a more narrow approach to agency, given the sample with which we were working.…”

Contextualizing the Self: The Emergence of a Biographical Understanding in Adolescence

“…Barton, ). The growing appreciation of the role of the wider, nonimmediate social context is reflected in an increasing use of nonagentic linguistic constructions in life narratives across adolescence (de Silveira & Habermas, ).…”