94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1410170
Adolescent Agency and Behavioral Characteristics: Conformity, Problematic Behavior, Need for Cognition
Provisionally accepted- 1 Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
- 2 Center for Socio-Cultural Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
The concept of human agency has attracted considerable interest in academic and expert discussions concerning various life domains and age groups, including adolescents. However, the field lacks a unified approach to measuring agency for adolescents and understanding its relationship with their behavioral characteristics and attitudes. This study addresses these gaps by introducing an Adolescent Agency Index and examining its associations with behavioral characteristics such as сonformity, problematic behavior, and the need for cognition. The data was collected from students in grades 4 to 8 (N = 4,603; Mage = 12.6, SD = 1.7; 50.3% female). The analyses indicated a negative relationship between agency and conformity and a positive relationship between agency and problematic behavior; moreover, a stronger positive relationship was found with the need for cognition. At the same time, the nature of the relationship between agency and these characteristics is complex, non-linear. These findings provide valuable insights for educational policymakers, researchers, and families.
Keywords: agency, conformity, problematic behavior, need for cognition, behavioral
Received: 24 Apr 2024; Accepted: 26 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Goshin, Grigoryev and Sorokin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mikhail Goshin, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.