Infantilization of adolescents in the digital environment

Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Institute of Psychology, 191186, Saint Petersburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: a.miklyaeva@gmail.com

Abstract

The article presents the results of studying the personal maturity of adolescents aged 13-17 (n=1078) who are infantilized in intergenerational relationships (on the model of relations with parents and teachers). Empirical data were collected with the use of the Self-Assessment Scale of Personal Maturity, as well as the modified Dembo-Rubinstein Self-Assessment Diagnostic Method, which measured the actual self-assessment of adolescents’ adulthood, as well as reflected assessments of their own adulthood from the parents’ and teachers’ positions. Infantilization in intergenerational relationships was assessed by comparing the self-assessment of adulthood and the reflected assessments of parents and teachers. The results show that the relationships between adolescents, on the one hand, and parents and teachers, on the other hand, are characterized by a tendency to infantilization. Obvious infantilization is found in about 10 % of cases. Infantilization in intergenerational relationships affects, first of all, the regulatory maturity of adolescents, and its influence differs depending on who is the subject of infantilization: in the case of infantilization by parents, the regulatory maturity of adolescents decreases as they grow up, while in the case of infantilization by teachers it increases. In general, infantilization in relations with parents has more intense negative impact on the formation of personal maturity in adolescence, in comparison with infantilization on the part of teachers.