Age in Relation to the Level of Autonomy Granted to Adolescents.

Abstract

A survey was carried out among first year university students studying psychology to determine whether age and gender influences autonomy being granted by parents during late childhood and adolescence. The 312 undergraduate students who participated were each asked to complete an amended version of a measure created by Farnhill and Hayes’s (1995) and given either a male or female version to complete. Results indicated that that age was associated with autonomy granting. Older adolescents were granted more autonomy than younger adolescents with the overall mean age at which boys were granted autonomy lower than that for girls. The results concluded that males are granted autonomy at a younger age than that of girls. Supporting Farnhill and Hayes’s study, the revised edition conducted exhibited similar findings to the original hypotheses. The study also found similarities between autonomy when approaching late adolescence such as limited age variance at 16 with sexual intercourse. Further research is required to fully clarify public opinions on levels of autonomy within the community. Due to the lack of parents and limited scope of participants aged over 30, the results were likely biased towards a younger participant base. This research needs to consider the strengths of values behind certain initiatives, the age in which people were allowed autonomy themselves and the level of personal responsibility in regard to ones child. More specific topics and a larger scope of participants questioned would profess dissimilar results.

A sense of self, identity and actualisation of the world around us is the key underlying fundaments of what separates children from adults. The years which characterise these changes, known as adolescence, implement fears, create beliefs and form greater understandings of life which have often been perceived during this time. Along with the establishment of an identity, the attainment of a sense of autonomy is one of the essential tasks during the developmental years of adolescence (Steinberg, 2005). Steinberg’s study established links between autonomy and the granting of privileges in regard to a child’s age. It was observed that acquisition of autonomy happens gradually over the years from late childhood through to the end of adolescence, with parents slowly relinquishing control and allowing their children to start making their own decisions (Farnhill & Hayes, 1995). Although this shift during adolescence towards becoming an autonomous individual is not as stressful and tumultuous as often thought it is still held that one of the main causes of parent-adolescent conflicts are disagreements about issues which are autonomy-related (Steinberg).

Research into parents who set firm limits during childhood and gradually granted autonomy to their children over the adolescence years found that under these circumstances the children prospered. Furthering this, studies into autonomous granting and the perceived age of independence was clearly inclined to older adolescents.  It was professed that the age of greater cognitive skills came greater understanding and enhanced decision making skills which would decrease instances of self induced danger which are similar with the view of the adolescent’s development of behavioural autonomy described in Steinberg (2005).

The use of tactics when allowing parental independence during adolescence to control behaviour with children showed varying responses. A child’s cognitive response was seen to display greater control in inducive decision making when under pressure when greater autonomy was administered during youth Carter (1994). Farnhill and Hayes (1995) investigated autonomy granting to adolescents by studying 217 Australia born individuals by questioning them through a survey on their behaviour and lifestyle during adolescent years. By doing so, their results determined that pre-adolescent children undergo a more austere level of autonomy which gradually decreases as the child ages (Farnhill and Hayes). The findings of the questionnaire concluded that boys generally were granted greater autonomy at a younger age on average due to stereotyping and gender roles within society. The parent-child control model, which is linked with positive self esteem, self image and general improved health within adolescents, demonstrated corresponding favourable balance between each variable. Furthering on the prior research, our study was comparably investigating parental autonomy granting during adolescence. It was hypothesised that:

1. Age would be associated with autonomy granting. Specifically, it was expected that older adolescents would be granted more autonomy than younger adolescents;
2. Overall, the mean age at which boys were granted autonomy would be lower than that for girls.

Method

Participants

The 312 participants in this study consisted of undergraduate first year psychology students from the Griffith University Gold Coast Campus. The group construct was 99 males and 213 females with 53% aged 17-19 (165 participants), 36.4 aged 20-29 (114 participants) and 10.6% 30 years or over (33 participants). Within the group dynamics there were 8.8% who were parents (27 participants) with the remaining 91.2% (285 participants) having no children.

Materials

The 22 item parent child control issue, which was revised to consist of 10 items, was separated into two groups’ dependent of the sex being queried, one for boys and one for girls. The survey was designed to measure child control-levels for granting autonomy for certain events regarding issues that may occur during late childhood to middle adolescents. Participants were asked to make judgments about age at which they believed it would be suitable for a child to be allowed autonomy without parent supervision. These questions ranged from being responsible enough to hold a part-time job to being allowed to attend mixed sex parties.

Procedure

All 312 participants received either a male or female survey sheet and were instructed to complete it accordingly. The participants were given adequate time to complete the survey then were instructed to hand back to the researcher administering the study. There was no communication between participants with the observer maintaining a quite room as to encourage privacy of the chose fields. The surveys were collected discretely as to maintain anonymity of responses and recorded with no direct information directly identifiable from the participant. The scores were then analysed and statistical information was generated to further study the group dynamics and group variance.

Results

An initial analysis of the data found significant difference towards granting of autonomy between male and females during adolescence. Gender played an initial role in pre-determining the level of autonomous behaviour due to conceptions of those who were surveyed. Generally, the results show a dramatic age variance with females being granted autonomy at a later stage compared to males. The mean difference scores are presented in Table 1.

The results of Table 1 indicate that a child’s age in relation to their sex determines their level of autonomy granting. Mean ages for both sex variance were calculated with correlation between risk level and age being determined. Stating this, it was established that a child’s activity with increased danger and responsibility lead to an increased age, such as the comparison between spending a night at a friends (mean age 9.27) and being allowed to smoke (17.66).

There was significant difference between male and female attitudes towards certain activities, such as being able to attend mixed sex parties, with direct relationship formation with sexual intercourse and consent to smoke.

Note: Numbers in the table represent average/mean ages.

Discussion

As anticipated, age was associated with autonomy granting. Older adolescents were granted more autonomy than younger adolescents with the overall mean age at which boys were granted autonomy lower than that for girls. The results concluded that males are granted autonomy at a younger age than that of girls. Supporting Farnhill and Hayes’s study, the revised edition conducted exhibited similar findings as the original hypotheses. Overall, it was concluded that age’s association with autonomy increases with maturity and levels of cognitive growth as a child matures. The hypotheses were supported with all entireties.