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Chapter 26 - The Importance of Serendipity in Shaping a Career

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2025

By
Laurence Steinberg
Edited by
Frank Kessel
Frank Kessel
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Summary

Laurence Steinberg describes the evolution of his career within the context of the rise of the study of adolescent development. At the time he began graduate school, in 1974, there was little research on normative adolescent development. Studies of this age group had focused mainly on problematic aspects of psychological functioning and were based largely on clinical populations. Now, however, research on normative adolescent development is central to the field of developmental psychology. Steinberg discusses his involvement in research on puberty and parent-adolescent relationships, the impact of after-school employment on teenagers’ behavior and well-being, nonschool influences on adolescent achievement and school engagement, age differences in judgment and decision-making, and in the application of the science of adolescent development science to the treatment of young people under the law. He also discusses how a series of unanticipated events had profound effects on the development of his career.

Keywords

adolescencecriminal culpabilityjuvenile justiceparent-adolescent relationshipspolicy-relevant researchpubertyschool achievementschool-year employmentUS Supreme Court
Type
Chapter
Information
Pillars of Developmental Psychology
Recollections and Reflections
 , pp. 292 - 303
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Suggested Reading

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Developmental research, public policy, and the ecology of childhood. Child Development, 45(1–2), 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, J. P. (1983). Early adolescence: A research agenda. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 3, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinberg, L. (1996). Beyond the Classroom: Why School Reform Has Failed and What Parents Need to Do. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Steinberg, L. (2001). We know some things: Adolescent-parent relationships in retrospect and prospect. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 11(1), 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinberg, L. (2014). Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence. New York: Eamon Dolan.Google Scholar
Steinberg, L. & Icenogle, G. (2019). Using developmental science to distinguish adolescents and adults under the law. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 1, 21–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinberg, L. & Scott, E. (2003). Less guilty by reason of adolescence: Developmental immaturity, diminished responsibility, and the juvenile death penalty. American Psychologist, 58(12), 1009–1018.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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