Chapter 4: Families
Changes in family relationships at adolescence
Family systems theory: a perspective on family functioning that emphasizes interconnections
among different family relationships. Says that relationships in families change most
dramatically during times when individual family members or the family’s circumstances are
changing.
What do adolescents and parents usually fight about?
Most common sources of conflict between adolescents and parents were everyday issues, such
as time spent on schoolwork, household chores and choices of friends.
A major contributor to adolescent-parent bickering is the fact that teenagers and their parent
define the issues of contention very differently. Parents view many issues as right and wrong,
adolescents are likely to define these same issues as matters of personal choice “Maybe
you don’t dress like this, but I do”
Adolescents are willing to accept their parents’ rules as legitimate when they agree that the
issue is a moral one (whether it is permissible to cheat on a test) or one involving safety
(whether you should drink and drive), they are less likely to accept their parents’ authority
when they view the issue as personal (wearing clothes to a party).
Adolescents who are less likely to believe that their parents have a right to know how they
spend their time are more likely to conceal their activities from them. Adolescents who think
their parents are overcontrolling, are likely to become oppositional.
‘snooping’, as opposed to asking, is likely to lead to problems, as is close parental monitoring
in the absence of a warm parent-adolescent relationship.
The adolescent’s parents at midlife
Overlaps in crisis when midlife meets adolescence:
1. At the same time that adolescents enter the period of puberty, their parents are
beginning to feel increased concern about their own bodies, sexual appeal and physical
attractiveness.
2. At the same time that adolescents develop the capability to think systematically about
the future, their parents are beginning to feel that possibilities for changing their own
lives are limited. Midlife adults are reminded of mortality because they see their own
parents aging.
3. Adolescence is the time when individuals are on the threshold of gaining a great deal
of status. For their parents, many choices have already been made.
The adolescent’s desire for independence appears to be especially stressful for parents.
In families with middle-aged adults, adjusting to adolescence may take more of a toll on the
mental health of parents than their adolescents.
Changes in family needs and functions
The family as a unit changes in its economic circumstances, its relationships to other social
institutions and its functions:
- Family finances are often strained during adolescence.
- The adolescent’s family also must cope with the increasing importance of the peer
group. Adolescents give up time for family activities for friends
,Special concerns of immigrant families
Familism: an orientation toward life in which the needs of one’s family take precedence over
the needs of the individual. Adolescents who value familism and assist their families are more
likely to develop prosocial values, less likely to get depressed and less likely to get involved
with antisocial peer groups.
Adolescents assigned to a lot of housework but who do not have strong familism values, are
more likely to do poorly in school, especially when they come from high SES families.
When adolescents are expected to spend a lot of time translating important paperwork for
their parents this can lead undermining parents’ authority and to problems in family
relationships and adolescent psychological well-being.
Generational dissonance: divergence of views between adolescents and parents that is
common in families of immigrant parents and American-born adolescents. One way to reduce
this is by having immigrant parents be more accepting of the new culture and adolescnets be
more accepting of the old one.
Transformations in family relations
Changes in early adolescence:
1. Changes in the balance of power. Young people
begin to try to play a more forceful role in the
family, but parents may not yet acknowledge
adolescents’ input. Between 12-16, adolescents
increasingly try to assert their autonomy and
conflict with parents is common.
2. The role of puberty. Puberty seems to distance
adolescents from their parents, but it is not
associated with familial “storm and stress”.
There is increased privacy and less physical
affection between teenagers and parents.
Individuals who reported more conflict with their parents during adolescence had more
problems later in adolescence, young adulthood and midlife. Family conflict leads to the
development of teenagers’ mental health problems and emotional distress. Frequent criticism
by parents can affect adolescents’ mood and elevate their cortisol levels.
Sex differences in family relationships
Differences between the family relationships of sons and daughters are minimal. There are
exceptions to the rule. Adolescent girls are more affected by the quality of their relationships
with their parents.
Adolescents tend to be closer to their mothers, feel more comfortable talking to their mothers
about problems and emotional matters and spend more time alone with their mothers. Fathers
are perceived as relatively distant authority figures to be consulted for objective information.
Adolescents fight more often with their mothers and perceive mothers as more controlling,
but this does not jeopardize the closeness of the mother-adolescent relationship.
Family relationships and adolescent development
Parenting styles and their effects
Parental responsiveness: the degree to which the parent responds to the child’s needs in an
accepting, supportive manner.
,Parental demandingness: the extent to which the parent expects and demands mature,
responsible behavior.
Parenting styles:
1. Authoritative parent: warm but firm.
2. Authoritarian parent: demanding but not responsive.
3. Indulgent parents: very responsive but not at all demanding.
4. Indifferent parents: not demanding and not responsive.
Young people who have been raised in authoritative households are more psychologically
mature than those who have been raised in any other home.
- Adolescents in authoritative homes are more responsible, self-assured, creative,
curious, socially skilled, academically successful, able to regulate their emotions and
behavior.
- Adolescents in authoritarian homes are more dependent, more passive, less socially
adept, less self-assured, less curious.
- Adolescents in indulgent homes are less mature, less responsible, more conforming to
peers.
- Adolescents in indifferent homes are often impulsive and more likely to be involved in
delinquent behavior and in precocious experimentation with drugs, sex and alcohol.
Authoritative parenting is less prevalent among Black, Asian or Latinx families than among
White families. Ethnic minority parents are often more demanding than White parents.
How authoritative parenting works:
- Authoritative parents provide an appropriate balance between restrictiveness and
autonomy, giving the adolescent opportunities to develop self-control while providing
the standards, limits and guidelines.
- Authoritative parents are more likely to engage their children in verbal give-and-take,
they are likely to promote the sort of intellectual development that provides an
important foundation for the development of maturity.
- Authoritative parenting is based on a warm parent-child relationship, therefore
adolescents are more likely to identify with, admire and form strong attachments to
their parents, which makes them more open to their parents’ influence.
, - The child’s own behavior, temperament and personality shape parenting practices.
Parents enjoy being around children who are responsible, independent and willing to
tell them about their activities and whereabouts.
The combination of monitoring and being supportive of the teenager’s autonomy is more
effective than monitoring alone.
Adolescents’ relationships with siblings
As children mature from childhood to early adolescence, sibling conflict increases. Two
common sources for sibling conflict are: invasion of the personal (wearing your sibling’s
sweater) and disagreements over equity and fairness (whether a sibling is doing her fair share
of chores). Adolescents’ relationships with siblings, especially younger siblings, become more
egalitarian but also more distant and less emotionally intense.
Positive sibling relationships contribute to adolescents’ academic competence, romantic
competence, familism, sociability, health, autonomy and self-worth.
Girls with older adolescent sisters are relatively more likely to engage in early sexual activity
and become pregnant during adolescence. Siblings also influence each other’s drug use,
antisocial behavior, risk taking, feelings of anxiety and thoughts about suicide.
Genetic influences on adolescent development
The family influences adolescent development through the genes they inherit from their
parents.
Genetic markers for a wide range of traits and behavioral propensities such as aggression,
depression, impulsivity, and sensation seeking have bee found.
Genetic and environmental influences on adolescent development
Two types of environmental influences:
1. Shared environmental influences, factors in the environment that individuals have in
common and make the individuals similar in personality and behavior.
2. Nonshared environmental influences, factors in the environments of individuals that
are not similar and make them different from one another.
Genes may shape tendencies but whether these tendencies are actualized often depends on the
environment. People who are exposed to the same environment may be affected differently as
a consequence of their genes.
Diathesis: a vulnerability that makes some people more likely to develop depression. Doesn’t
have to be genetic but in many instances, it is.
The diathesis-stress model:
- The product of an interaction between a predisposition (the diathesis)
- An environmental trigger (the stress)
Differential susceptibility theory: the very same
genetic factors that make some people more
susceptible to stress and other toxic environmental
influences also make them more easily influenced by
