Welcome to Western

1
Welcome to Western
2
Identity Development A Parent Perspective

• Presenters
• Nancy Corbin, Director, Counseling Center
• Susan Adams, Coalition Student Activities
  Coordinator
• Jackie Stein, Health Educator, Prevention and
  Wellness Services

3
Objectives

• Expand the understanding of your childs behavior
  as he or she struggles with achieving a unique
  identity during the college years.
• Learn strategies for making the shift from
  parenting a teenager to parenting an emerging
  adult.
• Learn of resources available at the Counseling
  Center and Prevention and Wellness Services.

4
Questions to ponder

• What are your students goals for the coming
  years?
• What are your goals for your student in the
  coming years?
• What kind of person do you hope to see walk
  across the stage at graduation?

5
What does this ability to function in the world
look like?

• Possibilities include being able to
• Make sound decisions
• Take responsibility for those decisions
• Establish and maintain healthy relationships
• Balance confidence with a healthy level of
  humility
• Be emotionally resilient in the face of loss or
  disappointment
• Be able to see negative experiences as an
  opportunity for learning
• Invest themselves and their energies in their
  goals
• The list goes on

6
(No Transcript)
7
Developing Competence

• Intellectual Competence
• Increase skill in critical thinking and reasoning
  ability
• Recognize the complexity of the world and their
  vulnerability in the world
• Intellectual growth fostering a new sense of
  community
• Physical Competence
• Involvement in athletic and recreational
  activities
• Attention to wellness and artistic pursuits
• Interpersonal Competence
• Increase in communication skills, leadership and
  working with others.

8

• Parents can join university personnel as
  partners in encouraging their children to explore
  and take risks, to discover their multifaceted
  world and in so doing to discover themselves.
• Corburn and Treeger, 1992

9
Managing Emotions

• Common concerns are roommate conflicts, sexual
  impulses, academic anxiety and aggression.
• Increasing awareness of ones feelings and how
  they are expressed.
• Developing the ability to recognize and label
  feelings, trust ones feelings, and express
  feelings appropriately in relationships.
• Dealing with anger, controlling impulses, and
  learning to balance negative emotions with
  counteracting feelings of courage and optimism.

10
Moving Through Autonomy Toward Interdependence
This is defined as Freedom from continual and
pressing needs for reassurance, affection or
approval from others (Chickering Reisser,
1993).

• Students become self-directed, increase their
  problem solving abilities
• Recognize and accept the importance of
  interdependence an awareness of their
  interconnectedness with others.

11
(No Transcript)
12
Developing Mature Interpersonal Relationships

• Development of intercultural and interpersonal
  understanding and acceptance
• Respect difference and appreciate commonalities
• Capacity for healthy lasting intimate
  relationships with partners and close friends

13
Establishing Identity

• Comfort with body, appearance, gender, sexual
  orientation
• Reflect on ones family of origin and ethnic
  heritage
• Define themselves as a apart of a religious or
  cultural tradition while also seeing self within
  a social and historical context
• Establish a clear sense of self in light of
  feedback from significant others
• Increase self acceptance, personal stability and
  self-esteem

14
Developing Purpose and Integrity

• Developing Purpose
• Develop clear vocational goals
• Maintain a meaningful commitment to specific
  personal interests and activities
• Establish strong interpersonal commitments
• Intentionally make and stay with decisions even
  in the face of opposition

15
Developing Integrity

• The interest of others is balanced with own
  interests creating a humanized value system
• Core values are consciously affirmed and the
  beliefs of others are acknowledged and respected
  developing a personalized value system
• Values and actions become congruent and authentic
  as self-interest is balanced by a sense of social
  responsibility which develops congruence.

16
(No Transcript)
17

• It is easier to be supportive when we can see
  the broader view. Our children may rebuff our
  advice, but they will appreciate our
  acknowledgement of their distress a listening
  ear that doesnt judge, even if we disagree, a
  sense of confidence that doesnt crumble when
  they do, an adult who provides perspective on the
  very predictable but often painful changes that
  they are bound to go through. Coburn
  Treeger, 1992

18
References

• Coburn, K.L. Treeger, M.L. (1992). Letting go
  a parents guide to todays college experience.
  Bethesda, MD Adler Adler.
• Johnson, H.E. Schelhas-Miller, C. (2000). Dont
  tell me what to do, just send money the
  essential parenting guide to the college years.
  New York, Ny St. Martins Griffin.
• Josselson, R. (1990). Finding herself pathways
  to identity development in women. San Francisco
  Jossey-Bass Publications.
• Reisser, L. (1995). Revisiting the seven vectors.
  Journal of College Student Development, 36, no. 6.

19
Welcome to Western