1. Adolescents and Well-being
Changing context (review)
Inequality & well-being (The Spirit Level)
Core themes
Identity
Belonging (connectedness)
Purpose/meaning
Developmental contextualism:
Becoming an individual (face-to-face & digital
experiences) in the social world of family,
school, work, community (incl peers)
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 1
3. Storm and stress… in
adolescence
Youth…
…."are heated by Nature as drunken men by
wine.” (Aristotle)
Inclined to "contradict their parents” and
"tyrannize their teachers.” (Socrates)
"As the roaring of the waves precedes the
tempest, so the murmur of rising passions
announces the tumultuous change.... Keep
your hand upon the helm,…or all is lost”
(Rousseau, 1762/1962, pp. 172-173).
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 3
4. Adolescents’ “storm & stress”
and well-being: myths & facts
“Storm & stress” (Hall, 1904):Conflict
with parents, mood & risk behaviour
Myth: All experience storm & stress
Fact: Minority, individual differences and
cultural variation (f) Western individuation as
‘growing up’
Changes over time:
Recurrent conflicts with parents, high risk
behaviors (later adolescence)
Developmental contextualism (Lerner,
1993, see Coleman, 2001, Ch 1)
Ecology, timing, continuity/discontinuity,
reciprocity, agency & goodness of fit
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 4
5. Growing Up in Ireland
• Two cohorts of children included – nine-
year-olds and nine-month olds
• Child Cohort: 8,500 nine-year-old children
interviewed at 9-years and 13-years.
• Infant Cohort: families of 11,000 nine-month old
infants interviewed at 9-months and 3-years.
• 120 households from both cohorts for in-depth
qualitative interview
• All data (quantitative and qualitative) will be
deposited in data archives as a national
resource – all anonymised
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 5
6. 9 year olds & their parents
(Growing Up in Ireland, 2009)
In general, children record getting on
well with their parents:
86% said they got on very well with their
mother and 83% very well with their
father.
The majority of both mothers and
fathers (77% and 68%) adopt an
authoritative parenting style:
This combines high control with high
support - usually associated with optimal
outcomes for children
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 6
7. Parenting style & well-being
Internationally validated Parenting Style Inventory
completed by the children with a set of 12 age-
appropriate questions:
Authoritative - high control; high responsiveness/support
Authoritarian - high control; low responsiveness/support
Indulgent (permissive) - low control; high
responsiveness/support
Uninvolved (neglectful) - low control; low
responsiveness/support
• Authoritative - control with responsiveness/support,
usually considered optimal
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 7
8. Parenting styles: mothers &
fathers - children’s views
Majority of both mothers and fathers adopt
authoritative parenting style – 77% mothers
and 68% fathers Gender differences:
Mothers/fathers & Boys/Girls
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 8
10. Well-being & mental health
Prevalence of mental health issues
across life-span
Changing attitudes not getting over our
vulnerability but living with & learning from it
Some changes in mood a part of
adolescence
Keeping an eye out for:
Drink & drugs given centrality of alcohol in
Ireland’s culture
Hidden special needs:
Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, suicide
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 10
11. Schools and mental health
In context of overall approach to well-
being
Having, loving, being & health (Allardt, 1993,
see O’Brien, 2008)
Paying attention & awareness of signs &
symptoms
In-school: awareness, initial response &
referral
Self-care as a teacher
Support (in & out of school), mindfulness
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 11
12. Mindfulness
Getting in touch with experience ‘the
now’
Efficacy of mindfulness, e.g. Langer
(1987) in nursing home
Choice of houseplants & make small number
of decisions about daily routines
Trapped by categories, automatic behaviour
& single perspectives
Minding your mind with mindfulness
(Bates, 2009)
Headstrong: National Centre for Youth
Mental Health (Ireland)
www.headstrong.ie
P Conway, PDE @ UCC 12
