Developmental tasks and competence criteria for adolescents and young adults.
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Abstract
The construction of identity and intimate relationships or marriage, among others, have been considered important normative developmental tasks for adolescents and young adults, respectively. It is generally accepted that the criteria for adaptive development can be different in different historical moments, societies and cultures, and that different people can understand their own development differently and that of others. In this context, the general objective of this study was to explore the competence criteria used by individuals to describe adolescents and young adults in their communities. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of first-year university students to indicate 3-4 descriptors of 2 teenagers and 2 young adults they knew and considered to be doing well at their stage of development. A total of 449 descriptors was collected, whose content was submitted to content analysis, then combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The descriptors were coded in the categories of academic competence, positive conduct, positive relationships with family and peers, personality characteristics, identity construction, affect, activities and work, and romantic relationships and new family. It was found that the most frequent competence criteria were, for adolescents, identity construction, positive conduct and academic competence, and for young adults, activities/work, identity construction and positive conduct. The descriptors of academic competence and positive relationships with the family were used more often for adolescents than for young adults. The construction of identity and romantic relationships and new family were most frequently mentioned for young adults. This study suggests some continuity between lay conceptions of competence for adolescents and young adults, as well as the emergence of more specific criteria for each stage of development.
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