Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a podcast from the American Psychological Association.

I'm your host, Caitlin Luna.

Today we're doing a bonus episode related to the college admissions bribery scandal that was exposed this week.

This is the case in which prosecutors accused affluent parents

of paying a consultant to get their children into prestigious universities by having someone

else take their SATs or by fabricating athletic achievements. Our guest for this episode is Dr.

Sunia Luther, Foundation Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. She specializes in adolescent development,

vulnerability and resilience in young people in poverty, as well as teens from upper middle

class families. Dr. Luther was also featured in a 2014 episode of Speaking of Psychology called

The Mental Price of Affluence. Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Luther. It's great to have you

back on the show. It's my pleasure. So developing an identity and learning autonomy are crucial

parts of growing up. And of course, parents can help their teens navigate the college application

process, but teens really should have some level of control over it. So if a parent is basically

doing everything to get their

kid into a college, how does that affect their teen's self-esteem? Well, yes, I agree with you that

adolescence is a time when kids should be developing a sense of autonomy, their own identity,

and so on. And in this current generation of youngsters, that is not the case for many of them who are

aiming to get into the better colleges and schools.

Having said that, I don't believe it's fair to put the blame squarely on the parents.

Why do I say that?

Because this pressure to get ahead doesn't come only from parents.

People ask me, Professor Luther, where does this pressure come from? And my answer typically is,

...