Compartmentalization

Many youth, especially middle adolescents, keep different aspects of their lives in airtight compartments.

• They may be the “church-boy/church-girl” who, on the Friday night gets drunk, who on a late night gets really vulgar on Facebook, who during school is the teacher's pet.
  
• They do not view this as “hypocritical” and do not see any relationship between these different “selves.”
  
• They may try to keep their different groups of friends rigidly separate. They would consider it “weird” for a school friend to attend their church.