Dr. Theresa A.

Thorkildsen
University of Illinois at Chicago

IX CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE SALUD MENTAL, 05 07 de Marzo de 2015

Centro Universitario de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mxico
Pas invitado: Estados Unidos de Amrica

Dennett, 1989; Thorkildsen, 2013

What might this mean to a person who is

thinking about self-care?
What might this symbol mean to someone
who is supporting a cause?
What universal moral principles might be
advocated using this symbol?

As adolescents and young adults move to a

greater level of social participation, how well do
they situate themselves in public discourse?
How can we improve the ways in which we invite youth to
participate in local, national, and transnational governance?

Personal Discourse
Activities that promote the acquisition of knowledge about
well-being, opportunities for reflection, and modes of
information sharing to enhance self-discovery and self-care.

Self-care
Interests
Talents or abilities
Identity

Adolescents need solitude for

personal growth.
Many have trouble balancing this
need for solitude with increasing
pressures to participate in local
and global activities.

Larson, 1990, 1995; Larson, Moneta, Richards, & Wilson, 2002; Larson, & Verma, 1999

One level of personal discourse explores the

question, Who are you?

Those of us who study motivation often focus

on youths perceived ability and how that
aligns with other aspects of their intentions.

Predictors of Adolescents
Perceptions of Their
Academic Ability

Self-Efficacy

.06*
-.09**

Task
Orientation

Why is this
negative?

Need for
Autonomy,
Belongingness,
& Competence

.07**

Ego
Orientation

.10***

Perceived
Academic
Ability

N=1953
Adj R2 = .02

How Task Orientation Moderates Adolescents

Perceptions of Their Academic Ability
5.15

Low Task Orientation

Moderate Task Orientation
High Task Orientation

5.1
5.05
5
4.95
4.9
4.85
4.8

4.75
4.7
4.65

Low

Moderate
Perceptions of Self-Efficacy

High

Predictors of Adolescents
Perceptions of Their
Athletic Ability

Self-Efficacy

.21***

-.08***

Why are
these
negative?

Task
Orientation

.05*
.08***
Work
Avoidance

Perceived
Athletic
Ability

.21***
-.06*

Need for
Autonomy,
Belongingness,
& Competence

Why are
these
negative?

N = 1953
Adj R2 = .12

How Task Orientation Moderates Adolescents

Perceptions of Their Athletic Ability
5.3
5.2

Low Task Orientation

Moderate Task Orientation
High Task Orientation

5.1

5
4.9
4.8
4.7
4.6
4.5
4.4

4.3
Low

Moderate
Perceptions of Self-Efficacy

High

How Work Avoidance Moderates Adolescents

Perceptions of Their Athletic Ability
Low Work Avoidance

5.3

Moderate Work Avoidance

5.2

High Work Avoidance

5.1
5
4.9
4.8
4.7
4.6
4.5
4.4
4.3

Low

Moderate
Awareness of Basic Needs

High

Another fair question, salient in adolescents

professional discourse is, Who do you want to be?

To explore career potentials, youth benefit from

opportunities to compare their talents and interests
with those commonly represented in the career
awareness literature.

Percent of Talents Endorsed by Age Group

100
90
80
70

Early Adolescence (n = 943)

Mid-Adolescence (n = 306)
Late Adolescence (n = 456)
Adulthood (n = 217)

60
50
40
30

20
10
0

Undefined

Realistic

Investigative

Artistic

Social

Enterprising

Vocational Talents
Age group differences were significant at p<.001

Percent of Career Pathways Endorsed by Age Group

100

Early Adolescence (n = 943)

Mid-Adolescence (n = 306)
Late Adolescence (n = 456)
Adulthood (n = 217)

90
80
70

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Undefined

STEM

Social Services

Arts

Business

Career Aspirations
All age group differences were significant at p<.001

Percent of Job Interests by Self-Reported Vocational

Talent Profiles
100

90
80

Undefined (n = 302)
Business (n = 725)
Social Services (n = 778)
Arts (n = 783)
STEM (n=789)

70

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Realistic

Investigative

Artistic
Vocational Talents

Social

Enterprising

And, youth benefit from conversations

exploring, Who should you try to be?

Regular conversations about different virtues

and opportunities to align beliefs, desires, and
actions help youth strengthen their character.

Virtues Associated with Character

Caring
Confident
Dependable
Fair
Integrity
Principled
Thorkildsen & Golant, 2008; Walker & Pitts, 1998

Percent of Moral Virtues Endorsed by Age Group

Early Adolescence (n = 91)
Mid-Adolescence (n = 169)

Late Adolescence (n = 427)

100

Adulthood (n = 217)

90
80

**

***

**

***

Honorable

Principled

70
60
50
40
30

20
10
0

Caring

Confident

Dependable

Fair

Moral Aspirations

Some youth remain involved so solidly in personal

discourse that they do not benefit from opportunities
to break away from self-focused ruminations.

Yet, most individuals can easily name multiple

ways in which they move beyond personal
discourse to participate in society at large.

Civic Discourse
Activities that promote a particular cause, political
stance, or positions on important public issues.

Identifying and promoting a cause

Skills of persuasion
Skills of identifying areas of weakness/harm

A Five Cs Model of Civic Engagement

Competence
Confidence
Connection
Character
Caring
Bowers, Li, Kiely, Brittian, Lerner, & Lerner, 2010

Youth join society by

participating in
existing communitybased organizations
such as those
designed to
preserve natural
resources.

or rebuild blighted areas in local neighborhoods.

Schools can foster civic discourse to support

adolescents engagement by.

Forming arts partnerships,

Fostering critical literacy,
Respecting multiple abilities, and
Including families in educational activities.
Camacho, Cambray-Engstrom, Laurel, Passi,& Thorkildsen, 2015

Civil Discourse
Public opinion, cultural codes, and specific social practices
that restrict the potential influence of any one person or
ideology and calls attention to universal moral principles.
Identify basic human rights.
Explore areas in need of social repair.
Support and critique the policies and procedures of
institutions that regulate public discourse.
Discover ways to respect the welfare of all persons.
Participate in symbolic forms of discourse.

Discourse in the civil sphere is

comprised of three basic dimensions
~Relational ties
~Institutional structures
~Personal motives
Alexander, J. C. (2006). The civil sphere. Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press.

People form solidarities as they

endeavor to build a just world.

Ideally, civil discourse is comprised of the

respect, criticism, and civility needed to
identify and critique such solidarities.

People who are not engaged in civil discourse

may function in pre-civil or anti-civil ways and are
ultimately excluded from conversations about how
society functions.

Validation of Civil Identities

5

n = 385

n = 698

n = 585

n = 418

individualistic

community outsider

pluralistic

4.5
4
3.5
3
unformed
2.5
2
1.5

Local life goals

Global life goals
Belief in a just world

Thorkildsen, Golant, & Cambray-Engstrom, 2008; Thorkildsen, Mitchell, & Driver, 2015

Social media offer a multitude of

opportunities for social
participation, but few educators
and users of social media directly
acknowledge the ways in which
sites such as Facebook,
Instagram, or Google+ play an
important role in civil discourse.

We conducted a baseline study of how high school

and college students use Facebook at a time when
it was technically illegal for youth under the age of
18 to hold a Facebook account and most schools
banned the use of this form of social media.
There were no relations between students civic
discourse goals and their use of Facebook, but
personal image and civil discourse goals helped
to explain the intensity with which participants
used Facebook.

# Targeted
Relationships

Exclusion
Sensitivity

.05**

How Adolescents
Use Facebook to
Form Relational Ties

.10***
-.13***
Academic
Performance

Civil
Discourse
Goals

.06**
.29***

Personal
Image Goals

-.10***
-.05*

-.08**

Academic
Participation

.08***
.33***

Profile
Openness

Interaction
Activities

Intensity of
Facebook
Use

N = 1115
Adj R2 = .60

Thorkildsen & Xing, in press

Personal
Image Goals

-.13***
# Targeted
Relationships
-.08**

.29***

.10***
Exclusion
Sensitivity

.05**
Academic
Performance

.06**

N = 1115
Adj R2 = .60
Academic
Participation

How
Adolescents
Use Facebook
to Form
Relational Ties

Interaction
Activities

Intensity of
Facebook
Use

-.10***
.33***
.08***

Profile
Openness

-.05*
Civil
Discourse
Goals

Thorkildsen & Xing, in press

Number of Targeted Close and Casual Relationships by Personal Image Goals

2.6
2.5
2.4

Low Personal Image Goals

Medium Personal Image Goals
High Personal Image Goals

2.3
2.2

2.1
2
1.9
1.8

Low

Medium

High

# of Close and Casual Relationships on Facebook

Profile Openness by Personal Image Goals

2.7
2.6

Low Personal Image Goals

Medium Personal Image Goals
High Personal Image Goals

2.5
2.4
2.3
2.2
2.1
2
1.9
1.8

Low

Medium
Profile Openness

High

Profile Openness by Civil Discourse Goals

Low Civil Discourse Goals
Medium Civil Discourse Goals
High Civil Discourse Goals

1.53

1.48

1.43

1.38

1.33

1.28

Low

Medium

Profile Openness

High

These findings suggest that adolescents primarily use

Facebook to project their personal identities into the
world at large. They may also assume that civil
discourse can occur only among individuals who
know one another.
Educators can help youth learn how to build stronger
relational ties within institutions of the civil sphere.

Schools are institutions of the civil sphere that serve

a communicative function.
~they teach the skills needed to
participate in civil discourse.
~they can reveal how and why
individuals sustain or fail to sustain a
commitment to justice.
Thorkildsen, Golant, & Cambray-Engstrom, 2008

Students Ideal School Beliefs by Civil Identity Profile

5
4.5

n = 385

n = 698

n = 585

n = 418

4
3.5
3
unformed

individualistic

community outsider

pluralistic

2.5
2
1.5
1

fairness
epistemology
motivation for all
teach strategies

Beliefs associated with each civil identity profile were significantly different from the others, F(3, 2070) = 8.49, p<.001, 2 = .012,
obs. power = .994. Ideal school beliefs also differed by age group such that youth in early adolescence reported less
favorable beliefs than those in other age groups, F(3, 2070) = 18.96, p<.001, 2 = .027, obs. power = 1.00.

Personal motives that align with civil

discourse are typically associated with
those aligned with universal moral
principlesprinciples enacted as basic
human rights valued across communities
and nationalities.

Coveted Moral Virtues by Civil Identity Profiles

5

n = 182

n = 209

n = 333

n = 182

3
Unformed

Individualistic

Caring
Confident
Dependable
Fair
Honorable
Principled

Community Outsider

Pluralistic

The interaction between civil identity profiles and moral

virtues was significant, F(15, 4450) = 2.32, p<.01, 2 = .01, obs.
power=.986. Age group differences in these beliefs were
also significantly different from one another, F(15, 4450) = 2.32,
p<.001, 2 = .04, obs. power = 1.00

Balancing Life Goals

Keeping these tensions in mind, I have begun to ask
how adolescents balance these competing agendas.
Using activities that often take on different levels of
meaning to participants, I asked whether they adopt
personal, civic, and/or civil goals.

All adolescents in the U.S. are expected to participate

in at least some form of athletics, but can do so for
different reasons.
~ gym class typically focuses on personal wellness and heath.
~ membership on sports teams allows adolescents to participate
in local forms of civic engagement, and
~ mass media promotes the universal values of collaboration in
numerous ways, but most obvious is the type of international
cooperation found in the Olympics.

How U.S. Adolescents Balance Their Involvement in

Sports by Age Group
60

Percent Reporting Goals

50

Early adolescence (n=913)

Adolescence (n=1166)
Early adulthood (n=209)

40
30
20
10
0
Undefined goals Personal image
goals

Civic and/or
civil goals

Personal and
civic goals

Personal and
civil goals

Balanced goals

Although media is considered to be a formal

institution of the civil sphere, many adolescents are
prohibited from using social media in many schools.
Naturally, this does not stop them from using sites like
Facebook, but they may receive little supervision and focus
on different uses for this global social networking site.

How U.S. Adolescents Balance Goals on Facebook by Age Group

60

Percent Reporting Goals

50

Early adolescence (n=68)

Adolescence (n=368)
Early adulthood (n=552)

40
30
20
10
0
Undefined goals Personal image Civic and/or civil Personal and
goals
goals
civic goals

Personal and
civil goals

Balanced goals

Take-Away Messages
Findings on how adolescents and young adults use their leisure
time suggest that they CAN balance their life goals as they
navigate the world of personal, civic, and civil discourse.
Not all youth are encouraged or expected to use these abilities.

Communities would be strengthened if

adults and adolescents designed
imaginative ways to use social media to
promote particular causes and/or to
advocate for human rights.

Involving youth in social governance has the

added bonus of helping individuals find greater
meaning in required schoolwork.
If done well, more youth can come to realize
that everyone is continually expected to
strengthen their intellectual abilities long
after they leave formal schooling.

Y colorn, colorado, este cuento se ha acabado!