The development of social responsibility in adolescence: Dynamic socialization, values, and action

Promoting adolescents' development as socially responsible citizens is a shared goal of researchers, practitioners, and parents. Recent revisions to value socialization theory argue that parental strategies for cultivating values are flexibly adapted, value messages are content-specific, and adolescents are active agents in the process. This dissertation advanced theory by investigating change in value socialization messages over time, the role of socialization in shaping adolescents' values, and value-behavior links in the context of health promotion. Data came from a three-year longitudinal and socioeconomically diverse sample of adolescents (ages 10 to 18) and their mothers. Study 1 explored correlates of mothers' value messages using mother and adolescent reports across three years (N =1638). Two fundamental socialization dimensions were assessed: messages of compassion (e.g., looking out for the good of others) and messages of caution (e.g., being wary of others). Separate multilevel models revealed distinct between-person and within-person correlates for mothers' compassion and caution messages. Compassion messages were predicted by the family context (e.g., mothers' knowledge of friends and concerns for their child's future) and neighborhood climate; compassion also declined in concert with adolescents' experiences of being bullied. Caution messages were predicted by mothers' education levels, race/ethnicity, and marital status, and increased in relation to mothers' concerns and perceptions that illegal substances were easily attainable. Study 2 examined the ways in which adolescents' reports of value messages of compassion and caution predicted adolescents' self-interest and public-interest values and beliefs using data from two waves (N = 2516). Results from multiple regression models indicated that adolescents' perceptions of parental compassion messages positively predicted their self-transcendent values, social responsibility beliefs, and public health beliefs, and negatively predicted self-enhancement values and private health beliefs. In addition, democratic parenting consistently predicted adolescents' public-interest orientations across outcomes and waves. Caution messages were best understood in relation to compassion messages. When caution was coupled with compassion, self-transcendent values were enhanced, yet when caution messages were emphasized without compassion, self-enhancement values were more likely to result. Study 3 tested a process model of maternal socialization of adolescents' social responsibility values and behaviors using mother and adolescent reports across three waves (N = 1870). Structural equation models supported a theoretically-derived sequential process of value internalization: The link between mothers' compassion messages and adolescents' values of social responsibility operated through adolescents' perceptions of compassion messages. Adolescents' social responsibility values predicted greater willingness to intervene in the substance use of friends as well as lower personal use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana one year later. The dissertation's contributions to science were strengthened by the use of longitudinal data and multiple reporters, the reduction of missing data bias through quantitative strategies, and the integration of disparate literatures from multiple disciplines. Conclusions suggest that compassion and caution are distinct yet complementary value messages that parents communicate. Furthermore, adolescents' social responsibility values, developed in part through the socialization of compassion, may facilitate health promotion behaviors. Understanding adolescents' values and the role of parental strategies in cultivating these values has implications for parent-child communication, positive youth development, and substance use prevention.