UCLA CDA Co-Executive Director Andrew Fuligni and Policy and Practice Director Elise Brumbach explain how insights from developmental science could help schools promote attendance and engagement for middle and high school students.
Leveraging the Opportunity of Adolescence to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism
Leveraging the Opportunity of Adolescence to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism
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This fact sheet gives an overview of adolescent brain development and explains how access to resources, opportunities, and meaningful relationships during adolescence can build connections within our brains and with the world around us that support us into adulthood.
Brain development during adolescence is fundamentally a story of connections.
Around age 9 or 10, hormonal changes kick off a period of intense learning and development, when brain cells form, strengthen, and streamline connections in response to our experiences more rapidly than in any period of life after early childhood.
Activity increases especially in the brain networks that propel us to explore the world, learn from our mistakes, and connect with others in new ways. In turn, these new experiences prompt our brain cells to connect with other neurons in ways that help us adapt to new events and new information. These neural connections become stronger the more we use them, while unused connections are pruned away, helping the brain become more efficient at acquiring and mastering new skills and new ways of thinking.
This brain-building learning happens through direct experiences in our environments and interactive, responsive relationships—with our families and peers, in our classrooms and neighborhoods, in community activities, and even online. The resources, opportunities, and experiences we as adults provide in and out of school can help young people’s brains build the extensive networks of connections that will manage the complex knowledge and behaviors needed to navigate adulthood.
Learning by Exploring the World Around Us
One of the networks that changes significantly with the increase in hormones and dopamine at the beginning of puberty is the “reward system” in our brain. Heightened activity in this system increases the feeling of reward we get from exploring the world, taking risks, and learning from the results.
Meanwhile, the network of brain regions that make up the “social brain” also changes during adolescence. These changes help us tune into social and emotional cues, like facial expressions or social rejection and approval, and increase our desire to earn respect and contribute to others. It also enables us to learn the nuances of changing social contexts in ways that help prepare us for adult relationships.
The prefrontal cortex (the region of the brain that orchestrates critical thinking and behavioral control) undergoes its most rapid period of development during adolescence. It builds on many other systems within the brain to manage our responses to the flood of new information and intensifying emotions. Engaging with other people and our environment and learning from our successes and our mistakes, known as “action-based learning,” helps shape the prefrontal cortex by strengthening the connections within it and between it and other brain networks. We learn through repeated practice—which includes trying and sometimes failing—what is adaptive and appropriate in different situations and how to guide our behavior accordingly, in ways that equip us to pursue new forward-looking goals.
When adults provide youth with opportunities to try new things, to practice navigating emotions, and to learn from failures along the way, it helps build the brain connections that we all need to grow into healthy, thriving adults.
Policies, Experiences, and Mindsets Shape the Connecting Brain
Although we can continue to learn new skills and behaviors as adults, the adaptability of the brain during adolescence means that these connections are much more likely to form quickly in response to experiences. The extent of these changes make the adolescent years a critical window when investments in the right policies and programs for youth can shape long-term positive development.
Likewise, this makes the adolescent years a time when negative experiences including racism, other forms of discrimination, poverty, or abuse can create steeper hills for young people to climb toward a healthy adulthood. When adults ensure that all young people, especially those who have experienced earlier adversity, have what they need along their journey, they can build the skills and capacities they need to thrive as adults. This includes opportunities to explore and take healthy risks, to connect with and contribute to those around us, to make decisions and learn from the outcomes, to develop a healthy sense of identity, and to rely on support from parents or other caring adults.
Understanding how and why the brain develops during adolescence lets us provide the support young people need to build healthy connections—in their world and within their brains—that will help our youth and our communities thrive.
Secure Relationships with Supportive Adults Continue to Matter for Adolescents
Fact sheet | Education | Community Engagement | Mental Health | Out-of-School Time | Foster Care | Juvenile Justice
This fact sheet offers insights from research about the critical role of adult support in our healthy development during adolescence and how policies and programs can ensure all young people have a caring adult in their corner.
Policies and programs that prioritize adolescents’ positive connections with supportive adults lead to healthier and more connected communities.
Adults in our families and communities continue to play a critical role in our healthy development during adolescence, even as we become less dependent on caregivers as we explore and expand our social world. Secure and supportive relationships with parents and other adults can help us build resilience, develop a positive sense of self, and navigate challenges. Circumstances that disrupt these connections can negatively impact our health and well-being during adolescence and into adulthood.
During adolescence, adult support remains essential to helping young people thrive. Youth need programs and policies that build on the strengths of families—including families who are facing challenges—and that ensure all young people have a caring adult in their corner.
Research shows that relationships with our parents during adolescence affect both our physical and mental health. Secure and supportive relationships with our parents during adolescence can promote well-being, prevent negative outcomes, and help us develop a clear sense of self and identity. Positive parenting behaviors—caring, validating, affectionate, or humorous interactions—affect the growth of brain regions involved in processing rewards and helping us regulate our emotions.
We’re not only affected by what our families do for us, but also by how we contribute to our families. Contributing to the family can be an important source of belonging and identity. Helping our families can also increase our levels of happiness. A strong sense of obligation to family also appears to alter brain regions involved in reward sensitivity and cognitive control in ways that can help us develop the skills and motivation to avoid unhealthy risk taking.
These positive relationships can vary, with different benefits and outcomes among distinct cultural and social contexts. For example, young people from immigrant families might have more of a sense of interdependence and family obligation than youth in non-immigrant families. Families of youth of color, and of Black youth in particular, may also be a primary source of racial and ethnic socialization, cultural pride, and preparation for facing racism and discrimination. LGBT youth who are accepted by their families have higher self-esteem, social support, and general health than those without supportive families. Natural mentors—caring adults from a young person’s existing social circle—can play similarly positive roles, particularly sense of self and identity. Positive parenting behaviors—caring, validating, affectionate, or humorous interactions—affect the growth of brain regions involved in processing rewards and helping us regulate our emotions.
Because parents remain so important through the adolescent years, factors that disrupt these connections can have negative effects on development. For example, youth placed in foster care have higher rates of anxiety, depression, and eating disorders as well as substance misuse than young people who did not enter the system. Social inequities and biases can also interfere with positive family relationships, adding to stress in ways that affect the well-being of parents, in turn increasing depression and anxiety among youth.
Effective interventions can help reduce some of these challenges and bolster the essential connections we need. Research-informed, strength-based interventions that improve connections within families have been shown to improve mental health and reduce substance use. In addition, youth in the foster system can benefit from programs that offer foster parents training to support youth who have faced adversity and that help young people stay connected with their families.
➢ Programs and interventions that strengthen family bonds and give parents tools for communicating effectively with youth can support positive outcomes for young people. Learn more about one example, the Strong African American Families program.
➢ To meet the developmental needs of adolescents, policies and programs must also support the needs of the adults in their lives. Family-support programs can help support adolescent mental and behavioral health, either by treating mental health issues or preventing future mental health risks.
➢ Programs that connect young people with mentors who share their interests and advocate for their goals and ambitions can promote positive socioemotional, academic, and health outcomes. A review of formal mentoring programs for youth found positive benefits for adolescent development, including better academic performance, greater motivation, and fewer behavioral problems. Learn more about one example, the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.
➢ Research suggests that having a natural mentor—a caring adult from a young person’s existing social circles—can support youths’ mental and physical health. Sports, extracurricular activities, or community- or faith-based activities can help introduce youth to natural mentors. Learn more about one example, the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program.
➢ Due to the importance of relationships with supportive adults to the healthy development of adolescents, youth and families may benefit from extra support to help mitigate the effects when these relationships are disrupted. Disruptions exist in all communities and could include: the absence of a family member (for example, due to military deployment), illness or loss of a family member (for example, due to COVID-19 or substance use disorder), involvement in the criminal legal system of the adolescent or an adult family member, or relocations due to housing insecurity or job demands.
Developing a Positive Racial and Ethnic Identity During Adolescence Can Support Healthy Mental and Physical Development and Academic Achievement
Science Spotlight | Mental Health | Adversity, Bias, & Discrimination
This spotlight provides insights into how creating a positive sense of self and belonging during adolescence, which includes growing our identity as part of a particular racial as well as ethnic group, can support healthy development.
During adolescence, we start to form a deeper sense of who we are, what we value, and who we want to be. We become increasingly sensitive to social feedback and better able to think in abstract and complex ways that help us build a deeper sense of self around these questions related to identity. We think more about what it means to be a member of our particular social or cultural group or groups. Healthy development involves creating a positive sense of self and belonging that includes our identity as part of a particular racial as well as ethnic group.
Adolescence In An Important Period for Exploring, Integrating, and Affirming Our Racial and Ethnic Identity
Adolescence is a key window for exploring identity, including our identity as a member of a racial and ethnic group (or groups). Throughout adolescence, youth develop increasing cognitive abilities and social awareness that help them explore more complex identities and build a more nuanced understanding of how people and groups interact. This cognitive and social development often occurs as youth are moving up to middle school and high school–transitions that can introduce diverse new people and experiences. Combined, these changes propel young people to explore the concepts of race and ethnicity and their impact on opportunities and experiences within their immediate community and society at large.
Overall, research on the exploration and development of racial and ethnic identity in adolescence emphasizes its profound impact on adolescents’ social development, mental and physical health, academic achievement, and general well-being.
Developing One’s Racial and Ethnic Identity During Adolescence Has Benefits for Mental and Physical Health
Self esteem
Developing a sense of racial and ethnic identity has been shown to have positive effects on self-esteem during adolescence in youth who identify as Black and African American, Latino and Mexican American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Native American.
Mental health
Youth who report feeling a greater sense of belonging to their racial and ethnic groups also report fewer depressive symptoms and decreases in depression over time and those who perceive that their racial and ethnic group is positively regarded by others report lower depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
Youth who report higher levels of ethnic identity also feel more able to cope with problems, and are less likely to engage in risky health behaviors such as alcohol and drug use.
Adolescents Who Form a Clear Sense of Their Racial and Ethnic Identities May Feel More Engaged In School and More Invested In their Communities
Academic performance
Feelings of belonging to a racial or ethnic group and positive feelings about being a member of a particular racial or ethnic group (or groups) have been linked to better academic performance, increased academic engagement, and positive attitudes about learning and academic achievement in adolescents.
Civic engagement
Developing a stronger racial and ethnic identity in adolescence can also influence young people’s beliefs about the importance of civic engagement to advance their communities and can increase young people’s participation in local and national civic affairs. In Black and Latinx adolescents, more clarity in their racial and ethnic identity by the end of middle school predicted greater beliefs about the importance of engaging with issues affecting their communities.
Helpful behaviors toward others
Black adolescent boys who perceive that their racial and ethnic group is positively regarded by others show higher levels of prosocial behavior such as helping a classmate with homework or trying not to hurt another person’s feelings. Middle school students who engage in and value experiences with people from different cultural groups also report more prosocial behavior like standing up for kids who are bullied or helping those they don’t know that well.
Conversely, when youth who have lower levels of pride in or connection with their ethnic identity experience discrimination, they may be more likely to engage in aggressive or delinquent behavior in late adolescence.
Research Suggests That Having a Stronger Racial and Ethnic Identity During Adolescence Can Protect Against the Negative Impacts of Stress and Race-Based Discrimination
Stressful experiences such as exposure to racial or ethnic discrimination in adolescence can decrease self-esteem and academic achievement and increase symptoms of depression and anxiety. Such discrimination is also linked to externalizing behaviors such as delinquency and aggression, and risky health behaviors such as substance use.
Importantly, research suggests that having a stronger racial and ethnic identity can reduce stress and can also reduce the negative impacts that discrimination can have on academic success and physical health. Having a stronger racial and ethnic identity and higher self-esteem has also been shown to reduce the negative impact of online racial discrimination on Black adolescents’ anxiety levels.
For Black adolescents who experience higher levels of stressful life events (which can include events such as school transition, sickness or loss of a family member, or parental divorce or separation), stronger ethnic identity and activities such as exploring ethnic customs (including special food or music) can protect against negative self-perceptions. Likewise, strong feelings of belonging to a racial and ethnic group or groups can help support expectations of future educational and occupational success.
Physically, developing a strong racial and ethnic identity in adolescence has been shown to lessen the impact of discrimination on the body’s biological stress-response systems and lower elevated cytokine levels (which indicate low-grade inflammation) in young adults who were exposed to discrimination in adolescence.
INSIGHT: Multiracial youth
It is important to note that more and more adolescents identify with more than one racial and ethnic identity, and research suggests that these multiracial youth may face unique challenges in developing a stable sense of their racial and ethnic identity. Two factors that help promote positive outcomes for multiracial youth are support from teachers and parents and positive feelings about one’s racial and ethnic identity. This suggests that schools could support multiracial youth through programs or interventions focused specifically at helping students who identify with more than one racial or ethnic group build positive feelings about their racial and ethnic identity.
Research Suggests Adults Can Help Promote Positive Ethnic-Racial Identity for Adolescents In Multiple Settings
Family environment
When parents help adolescents understand their heritage, including cultural values and traditions, young people are more likely to explore and understand their racial and ethnic identity in adolescence. One school-based intervention to promote racial and ethnic identity was shown to be more effective for youth whose families encouraged them to respect the cultural values and beliefs of their ethnic-cultural background.
School environment
School-based learning practices that promote empathy and support, autonomy and agency, and classroom collaboration have been shown to help middle school students explore and feel pride in their racial and ethnic identity. Youth who report more opportunities to learn about their culture in school are more likely to feel pride and other positive feelings about their group membership and to have better grades. For white youth, school-based learning about racial and ethnic identity can shift attitudes about other racial and ethnic groups and improve their ability to consider the perspectives of others.
POLICY INSIGHT: Intervention that supports positive racial and ethnic identity development
The Identity Project is an eight-week intervention created to help high school students understand concepts of race, ethnicity, culture, and discrimination, and explore their own racial and ethnic identity. Youth who participated in the program were more likely to explore and connect with their racial and ethnic identity, which led to higher self-esteem, lower depressive symptoms, and better grades over the following year. Youth who viewed their racial and ethnic identity as an important part of their overall sense of self benefited the most from the Identity Project. A study testing the Identity Project among adolescents in Italy (approximately 70 percent born in Italy and 30 percent born abroad) showed similar effects on enhancing students’ racial and ethnic identity exploration, suggesting that the Identity Project intervention and adapted versions of its curriculum may prove effective in Europe as well as in the United States.
Conclusion
Overall, research shows the importance of a positive racial and ethnic identity for adolescents and its profound impact on mental and physical health, academic achievement, and general well-being. Developing a positive racial and ethnic identity in adolescence can foster a sense of belonging, help build a positive self-concept, and promote resilience against challenges including discrimination. When educators, parents, and policymakers understand how young people develop their racial and ethnic identity, they can more effectively support young people through positive messages about different racial and ethnic identities, school curricula that teach students about different cultural heritages, mental health services that consider a young person’s racial and ethnic identity, and other programs that promote healthy identity development for adolescents.
Policy and Practice Insights
- Developing a positive racial and ethnic identity in adolescence can foster a sense of belonging, help build a positive self-concept, and promote resilience against challenges including discrimination.
- Families can play a role in supporting a young person’s positive racial and ethnic identity development by helping them understand their heritage, cultural values, and traditions. ◆ A review of programs that focus on Black adolescent identity exploration found that these programs can also promote other positive developmental outcomes such as improving parent-child relationships.
- The positive effects of racial and ethnic identity development on self-esteem among adolescents from diverse ethnic-racial groups are well documented in research; however, the experiences of Native American adolescents are too often missing from research literature. ◆ Learn more about the Center for Native American Youth’s efforts to provide “access to accurate data that reflects the collective thoughts, opinions, experiences, and needs of Native youth from across the country.”
- Research suggests school-based opportunities are one avenue to promote positive racial and ethnic identity development among adolescents. Participants in a school-based program designed to increase racial and ethnic identity exploration among high school students showed increases in their exploration and resolution of their racial and ethnic identity and, in turn, higher self-esteem, lower depressive symptoms, and better grades over the following year.
This summary represents research related to a diverse range of youth. For specific details about each population of young people in the referenced studies, please check the cited references.