How do Adults Think, Feel, and Behave Toward Teenagers? Measuring and Understanding Adults’ Attitudes Toward Teenagers

Abstract

Despite the pervasiveness of adult–teenager relations, research has largely neglected adults’ attitudes toward teenagers. Eight studies (N = 3,517) examined the content of adults’ attitudes toward teenagers and developed a 14-item measure that assesses three factors: openness intentions, negative beliefs, and positive emotions regarding teenagers. Openness intentions involve empathic orientations and predict more contact with teenagers and more donations to a charity benefiting teenagers. Negative beliefs involve self-oriented and conservative orientations and predict desires to control teenagers (e.g., social dominance orientation, opposing voting rights for 16–17 year olds). Positive emotions involve higher personal well-being and predict more forgiving evaluations and decisions regarding norm-defying teenagers (e.g., teenage suspects). These factors were invariant across the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Together, the findings offer fundamental new insights about adults’ attitudes toward teenagers and enable future research into how these attitudes influence adult–teenager relations and teenager well-being.