Family

• Conflict Between Teens and Parents

  Unlike stereotypes, there is usually little emotional distance between parents and teens
• Most Teens


  • Feel close to parents
  • Respect parents' judgment
  • Feel loved by parents
  • Respect parents as individuals
• Generation Gap


  Popular advise for parents of teens place an emphasis on non-normative development and highlights the idea that these relationships are strained and characterized by conflict
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  Idea that individuals behavior is influence by others expectations for them
• In reality, parents and teens share many common values and beliefs about important topics such as religion, work, education
• Adolescent-Parent Conflict


  Often times, parents and their children report arguing over mundane issues (curfews, leisure time activities, clothing, cleanliness of their rooms)
• Major contributor to bickering

  Parents and their children often define the issues of contention differently
• Parents view many issues as right/wrong

  Not necessarily in a moral sense, but as a matter of a custom or convention
• Adolescents rarely rebel against their parents for the sake of rebelling
• Adolescents will accept their parents rules when they agree that the issue is a moral one
• Adolescents who see their parents as having more legitimate authority have less behavior problems
• Adolescents spend less time in family activities, especially in group activities with the family
• Family systems theory


  Relationships in families change most dramatically during times when individual members of the family's circumstances are changing, because it is during these times that the family's equilibrium often is upset
• Genogram


  Graphic representation of a family tree that allows the person to analyze patterns in relationships
• Genograms can also note medical and psychological diagnoses
• Midlife crisis


  Parents of adolescents experience increased concern about bodies, physical attractiveness, and sexual appeal
• Nearly 2/3 of mothers and fathers describe adolescence as the most difficult stage of parenting
• Fathers report a greater sense of loss when children leave the home
• Sandwich generation


  Parents belonging to this generation are preparing for future expenses (e.g., college)
• Familism


  Orientation in which family needs are prioritized over the needs of the individual
• Generational dissonance


  Differing views between adolescents and parents that is common among immigrant parents and American born adolescents
• Family's role during adolescence


  Less clear than infancy or childhood
• Adolescents need


  • Support > Nurturance
  • Guidance > Protection
  • Direction > Socialization
• Changes in balance of power

  Shift from parents as the main decision makers to more equal role in decision making
• Adolescents and parents often perceive their day to day experiences differently
• Young adolescents are especially sensitive to emotional signals given by others
• Biological/cognitive maturation at puberty


  Throws the family system out of balance
• Increased distance and conflict

  A function of increased privacy on the part of the teenager and decreased physical affection
• Parent-child relationships tend to become more intimate and less conflicted during late adolescence and there is no decline in closeness during early adulthood
• Changes in the way adolescents view family rules and regulations

  May contribute to the increased conflict
• Minimal differences between sons and daughters in family relations
• Teens tend to be closer to, spend more time alone with, feel more comfortable talking to, and fight more often with their mothers
• Fathers rely on mothers for information about adolescent, perceived as distant authority figures
• Fathers may be sought for objective information (homework help) but rarely sought for support or guidance (help with boyfriend problems)
• Time spent with fathers is more predictive of adolescents' social competence and feelings of self-worth
• Kids benefit from supportive parenting as long as it is frequent and high quality
• More similarities than differences in mother and father parenting
• Parenting roles are dynamic- they can change in response to contextual shifts
• Dependent on the rearing history, cultural history and biological history of parents
• Parent–adolescent relationships differ from family to family