Family Relations

 Is conflict between parents and teenagers

inevitable during adolescence?
 What are the main changes in family
relationships during adolescence?
 How do family relationships affect
adolescent development?
 How can behavioral genetics inform the
study of adolescent development?
 How are adolescents affected by divorce,
remarriage, or poverty? 1

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 Is There Emotional Distance
Between Teens and Parents?
 Very little emotional distance
between parents and
adolescents (unlike
stereotypes)
 Most Teens
 Feel close to parents
 Respect parents’ judgment
 Feel loved by parents
 Respect parents as individuals
 20% say their top concern is
not having enough time with
parents 2

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Is There A Generation Gap?
 Popular advice for parents of teens
 Emphasizes non-normative development, stereotypes of strained
relationships
 Self-fulfilling prophecy
 Research indicates
 Very little emotional distance between teens and parents
 Parents and teens have similar beliefs about core values
 If generation gap, it exists in matters of personal taste
(e.g., style of dress, music preferences, leisure activities)

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What Do Parents and Teens
Fight About?
 Mundane issues, not big
ones (e.g., curfew, leisure
time, cleaning room)
 Disagreements stem from
different perspectives on Insert Picture
issues fighting
 Parents see issues as a teen/parent
matter of right or wrong
(social conventions or PRT013.JPG
moral issues)
 Teens see issues as a
matter of personal choice
(e.g., how to dress)

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 Changes in Family
Relationships: The Parents
 Parents of adolescents
 Increased concern about
bodies, physical attractiveness,
Insert Picture
and sexual appeal
midlife
 Midlife crisis (most are in 40s)
parent(s)
 Beginning to feel that the 120000025.jpg
possibilities for change are
limited
 Occupational plateau
 Mental health of parents
5

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 Changes in Family
Relationships: Family Needs
 Changes in the family as a whole unit
 Changes in economic circumstances
 Large anticipated expenditures (e.g., college)
 Parents belong to “Sandwich generation”
 Changes in family’s relationship to other social
institutions
 Increasing importance of peers
 Changes in family functions
 Family’s role during adolescence less clear than infancy
or childhood
6 6

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 Transformations in
Family Relationships
 Changes in the balance of power
 Shift from an asymmetrical relationship toward a
more equal relationship with parents
 The role of puberty
 Biological/cognitive maturation at puberty throws
the family system out of balance
 Violations of Expectations
 Cognitive changes in views of family expectations
7

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 Sex Differences in
Family Relationships
 Minimal differences between sons and daughters
in family relations
 Similar degrees of closeness, types of rules, patterns of
activities
 Sex of the parent may be a more important
influence than sex of the teen
 Teens tend to be closer to their mothers, have more
intense relationships
 Fathers rely on mothers for information about
adolescent, perceived as distant authority figures

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 Parenting and Temperament
Adolescents
who differ in
temperament
are affected
in different
ways by the
same
parenting

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 Parenting Styles
Diana Baumrind suggests two critical aspects
(dimensions) of parenting:
 Parental responsiveness
 Degree to which parent responds to child’s needs in an
accepting, supportive manner
 Parental demandingness
 Degree to which parent expects/demands mature,
responsible behavior from the child

10

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 Parenting Styles
 Authoritative
 warm but firm, use induction
 Authoritarian
 place a high value on obedience
and conformity
 Indulgent
 behave in an accepting, benign,
and somewhat more passive
way
 Indifferent
 minimize the time and energy
they devote to interacting with
their child

11

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 Ethnic Differences in
Parenting Styles
 Authoritative parenting is less prevalent
among African-American, Asian-American,
or Hispanic-American families than among
white families
 Beneficial effects are found for all ethnic
groups

12

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 Ethnic Differences in
Parenting Styles
 Authoritarian parenting is more prevalent
among ethnic minority than among white
families (even when SES is taken into
account)
 Adverse effects are greater for white
adolescents than for ethnic minorities
 May carry benefits for ethnic minorities who
live in dangerous areas
13

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 Autonomy and Attachment
in the Family
 Adolescents who are permitted to assert their own
opinions within a family context that is secure and
loving
 develop higher self-esteem
 develop more mature coping abilities
 Adolescents whose autonomy is squelched
 at risk for developing feelings of depression
 Adolescents who do not feel connected
 more likely than their peers to develop behavior problems
14

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 Sibling Relationships
 Adolescent’s relationships with siblings
 become more equal
 become more distant
 become less emotionally intense
 Quality of sibling relationships are affected
by quality of parent-child relationship
 Quality of adolescent-sibling relationship
affects adolescent’s relationships with peers
15

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 Behavioral Genetics:
Influences on Development
 Behavioral Genetics Asks
 To what extent a given trait is genetically vs.
environmentally determined
 How do genes and environment interact?
 Two types of environmental influences
 Shared environmental influences
 Nonshared environmental influences

16

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 Behavioral Genetics:
Why Are Siblings So Different?
 Siblings may have very different family experiences
 Treated differently by parents
 Perceive similar experiences in different ways
 Unequal treatment often creates conflict among
siblings, but most (75%) treatment is not differential
 If all siblings are treated well, research shows that
differential treatment can actually be a good thing
 Leads to siblings getting along better
 Less sibling rivalry
 Sibling deidentification
 Trying to distinguish self from sibling can also diminish
feelings of competition 17

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Family in a Changing Society
 Implications of high divorce rates and high
rates of childbirth outside of marriage
 Most American adolescents born during 1990s
will spend some of their childhood or
adolescence in a single-parent household
 Half of teens whose parents divorce will spend
time in a stepfamily

18

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The Changing Family: Divorce
 The divorce
rate rose
dramatically
between
1960 and
1980
 It has more
or less
leveled off
since then. 19

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Family in a Changing Society
Maternal Employment
 80% of all married women with adolescent
children are employed
 Nearly half of these women work full-time
Poverty
 16% of children in the United States grow up in
abject poverty
 Additional 22% grow up in low-income families
 Nonwhite children
 More likely to be in single-parent families
 More likely to be poor 20

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The Changing Family: Divorce
 Quality of relationships with the important adults in a
teen’s life matters most
 Not the number of parents present in the house
 Process of going through a divorce matters most
 Not resulting family structure (single-parent or stepfamily)
 Exposure to marital conflict and disorganized
parenting linked to adverse outcomes
 Some differences between teens whose parents
have divorced and those from intact families are due
to genetic factors
21

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The Changing Family: Divorce
 The Longer-Term Effects of Divorce
 Individuals whose parents divorce during
preadolescence and adolescence often
demonstrate adjustment difficulties later

22

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The Changing Family: Divorce
 Custody, Contact,
and Conflict following
Divorce
 It is the quality of the
Insert Photo from DAL
relationship between
the adolescent’s
divorced parents (not
which one he or she
lives with), that
matters most

23

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Effects of divorce on the development of emotional
problems: A long-term study of British individuals
(Cherlin et al, 1998)
24

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 The Changing Family:
Remarriage
 75% men and 67% women remarry after
divorce
 Adolescents growing up in stepfamilies
often have more problems than their peers
 African-American teens more likely to
experience parental divorce and less likely
to experience parents’ remarriage

25

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 The Changing Family:
Economic Strain and Poverty
 Parents under
financial stress are
harsher, more
inconsistent, less
involved
 Adolescents living in
these conditions
have greater risk of
 psychological
difficulties
 problem behaviors
26

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 The Importance of the Family in
Adolescent Development
 Adolescents who feel that their
parents or guardians are
“there” for them – caring,
involved, and accepting – are
healthier, happier, and more
competent than their peers
 Despite growing importance of
peers, adolescents still need
love and support of adults who
care about them
27

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