Characteristics and psychological consequences of Japanese adolescents' personal autonomy

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Abstract

Previous studies on the concept of parental authority during adolescence have reported that the mental health of adolescents tend to deteriorate when parents control their behavior in their personal domain. Three surveys were conducted with Japanese early, middle, and late adolescents to examine whether adolescents that underestimate parental authority and exhibit personal autonomy are mentally healthy. Study 1: six-grade elementary school students (N=276), Study 2: junior high school students (N=246)and senior high school students (N=357), and Study 3: university students (N=148). In each study, judgments of adolescents about personal freedoms involved in moral, conventional, multifaced,and prudential issues that would be regulated in Japanese society were examined, and correlations with their self-formation and adaptation were analyzed. The results of in every study, adolescents could distinguish situations in which they could demonstrate their personal freedom from those in which their personal freedom is regulated. Furthermore, cluster analysis was conducted on judgments about personal freedom. The results indicated that in every study, there were two types of young people, other than those that made a judgment consistent with characteristics of each domain. One type had excessive feelings of freedom and tended to judge that personal freedom should be valued even in conventional and prudential situations. The other type excessively suppressed personal freedoms and tended to suppress it even in personal settings. The former type had relatively bad relationships with their parents and showed lower adaptation to school (Study 1). They tended to have a moral self with a sense of helplessness and social avoidance (Study 2). Moreover, their mental health deteriorated significantly (Study 3). Based on the above results and those of previous studies, it is suggested that too much control by parents and too strong feelings of personal freedom might have negative effects on the development of the self in adolescence.

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