Adolescent psychosocial development in Brno: An ELSPAC Study 2005–2011
Our longitudinal findings are in line with published research describing current adolescence as a dynamic stage of life during which an individual‟s personal participation or influence on his or her development sharply increases. This leads, amongst other things, to higher variability of developmental changes and to an erosion of some stereotypes about the psychological and social life of adolescents. The respondents of the Brno longitudinal study (ELSPAC) represent a new generation of Czech adolescents. They were born in the time of turbulent social changes when political, economic and cultural conditions were significantly changing bringing along shifts in lifestyles, social norms and values of all generations including the parents of current adolescents. It can be hypothesised this society-wide change partially moderated the traditional inter generational conflict between adolescents and adults. We can speculate that the adults, not only the adolescents, partially spent the past two decades searching for a new personal and social identity (e.g. career changes, social security decrease, increase in personal freedom and responsibility of own life course). What was appreciated in the beginning of the 1990s as new possibilities – e.g. freedom in opinions and attitudes, opportunity to attain quality education, foreign travel, opportunities for self-actualisation etc. – is perceived as commonplace by today‟s adolescents.
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