The Assessment and Development of Oppositionality
The main aim of this thesis was to gain a better understanding of the development of oppositionality. For this purpose, five empirical studies were conducted, of which the first three focused on the assessment of oppositionality and the last two focused on the development of oppositionality and its associated outcomes. This chapter aims to integrate the results from these studies. For this purpose, the separate studies will be summarized and discussed with regard to several key issues: (1) the (developmental) significance of oppositionality during early adolescence; (2) the value of self-reported oppositionality; (3) situational specificity; (4) and gender differences. These issues can be considered as common themes that run throughout multiple chapters of this thesis. In addition, this chapter includes some methodological considerations, discusses the clinical implications of our results, and provides recommendations for future research efforts based on the strengths and limitations of our studies.