Autonomy, Relatedness, and Male Adolescent Delinquency: Toward a Multidimensional View of Social Competence

This study explored adolescents' developmental strivings for autonomy and relatedness as motivations in socialproblem-solving competence, and the relevance of those strivings to explaining variation in delinquent activity. Eighty African American and Caucasian male adolescents (11 through 18 years of age) at high riskfor delinquency provided their likely strategies for resolving hypothetical interpersonal dilemmas. Strategies reflecting relatedness striving and autonomous-related reasoning were correlated positively with social problem solving and academic competence. Acts of delinquency were more frequent among adolescents whose strategies showed little relatedness striving, combined with lackof understanding that relationships can support bothautonomy and relatedness. These findings support the view that motivations to establish autonomy while maintaining relationships characterize important dimensions of adolescent social competence and may help enhance knowledge of adolescent problem behaviors. Recommendations for prevention and intervention efforts include increased attention to providing settings that facilitate positive expressions of developmental needs for autonomy and relatedness.