Self-Regulation in Adolescence

This interdisciplinary volume examines the challenges adolescents face and the self-regulation tools that most effectively ease the transition to adulthood.

Gabriele Oettingen (Edited by), Peter M. Gollwitzer (Edited by)

9781107036000, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 September 2015

444 pages, 22 b/w illus. 2 tables
23.7 x 16 x 3.4 cm, 0.8 kg

'This wonderful book brings together top scholars from diverse fields and perspectives to address one of the most centrally important issues for understanding human life, namely how young people acquire and use the powers of self-regulation so as to change from being dependent children into adult citizens. From the details of brain processes to the grand sweep of historical change to comparisons across species, the perspectives represented in this book offer powerful and useful insights. Some adolescents fall prey to the problems and pitfalls of this period, while (most) others navigate it fairly successfully and emerge into adult life; this book illuminates why and how those things happen.' Roy F. Baumeister, Florida State University

During the transition from childhood to adulthood, adolescents face a unique set of challenges that accompany increased independence and responsibility. This volume combines cutting-edge research in the field of adolescence and the field of motivation and self-regulation to shed new light on these challenges and the self-regulation tools that could most effectively address them. Leading scholars discuss general principles of the adolescent period across a wide variety of areas, including interpersonal relationships, health and achievement. Their interdisciplinary approach covers perspectives from history, anthropology and primatology, as well as numerous subdisciplines of psychology - developmental, educational, social, clinical, motivational, cognitive and neuropsychological. Self-Regulation in Adolescence stresses practical applications, making it a valuable resource not only for scholars, but also for adolescents and their family members, teachers, social workers and health professionals who seek to support them. It presents useful strategies that adolescents can adopt themselves and raises important questions for future research.

Part I. Concepts and Processes of Self-Regulation: 1. Self-regulation: principles and tools Gabriele Oettingen and Peter M. Gollwitzer
2. Expectancies, values, identities, and self-regulation Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Jennifer A. Fredricks and Peter Baay
3. Self-regulation: conceptual issues, and relations to developmental outcomes in childhood and adolescence Nancy Eisenberg
4. Effortful control in adolescence: individual differences within a unique developmental window Koraly Pérez-Edgar
Part II. Historical and Biological Influences: 5. Historical perspectives on self-regulation in adolescence Joseph F. Kett
6. Adolescence: biology, epidemiology, and process considerations Sir Michael Rutter
7. Emotion regulation and primate sociality Frans B. M. de Waal
Part III. Neural Mechanisms: 8. The neural underpinnings of adolescent risk-taking: the roles of reward-seeking, impulse control, and peers Laurence Steinberg
9. Development of the social brain in adolescence Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
10. The role of reflection in promoting adolescent self-regulation Philip David Zelazo and Sabine Doebel
Part IV. Peer and Parent Relationships: 11. Goals and goal pursuit in the context of adolescent-parent relationships Judith G. Smetana
12. Self-regulation and adolescent substance use Laurie Chassin
13. The cultural context of adolescent self-regulation Alice Schlegel
Part V. Interventions: 14. Rumination and self-regulation in adolescence Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, Kirsten Gilbert and Lori M. Hilt
15. Promoting youth self-regulation through psychotherapy: redesigning treatments to fit complex youth in clinical care John R. Weisz
16. Parent-based interventions to reduce adolescent problem behaviors: new directions for self-regulation approaches James Jaccard and Nicole Levitz.

Subject Areas: Clinical psychology [MMJ], Educational psychology [JNC], Education [JN], The self, ego, identity, personality [JMS], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Social work [JKSN]