What Is The Relationship Between Autonomy Gender Identity And Moral Development

Autonomy, Gender Identity, and Moral Development
Autonomy, general identity, and moral development in later adolescence are important to personal growth and independence. Late adolescence is the time in a child’s life where they find themselves, and where the separation from the parental figure occurs. In early adolescence attachment is the focal point; however, in order to develop an individual sense of morality, ethics, and beliefs the child must separate from their parents, and those who have been guiding them previously. As children we learned to model behavior at young age, but what is important and really shows whether they have retained the what they’ve learned is when they are allowed to make their own decisions, and find their individuality.
384). Autonomy comes with the change of attitude. Along with the change in attitude comes a change in dress, friends, hobbies, and how they rate things on a scale of importance. It is expected that a child in later adolescence must first have a change in attitude for autonomy to be successful. They must make a conscious decision to be, act, and think individually. The change in attitude comes with the change in belief. Children in early adolescence are sheltered by the family identity, which is all they know, and don’t wish to stray from. However, in late adolescence when the child develops their own identity and beliefs, once a disagreement between self and family identity occurs, it’s expected that the child will stray from what they know. Attachment is also expected to
Though beliefs play a major part in moral development you should only expect to see minor alterations to what they have learned. As you get older your moral reasoning will expand due to experiences. Although autonomy allows for independence you come to learn that your independent decisions come with moral consequences. In late adolescence the child is to thought to be in the post-conventional level of moral reasoning (Newnan & Newnan, 2015, p. 398), which delves into societal rules and laws. Morality is not only about right or wrong at this level but actions and consequences. What you can definitely expect are mistakes because of alterations in morality. Its through these mistakes and experiences that it is expected for children develop a moral identity, which is important to how they are defined in terms of their morality for others. The most important change you can expect a child in late adolescence can make with regard to morality is a change in their decisions. It’s easy to follow the crowd in social situations, but how you know that a child had developed well morally is when they make the right decisions not the easy