Summary adolescence development exam 2
Lecture 8 readings:
Chapter 4: Families
Majority of adolescents feel close to their parents. A very small percentage of families who enjoy
positive relations during childhood develop serious problems during adolescence.
Changes in family relationships at adolescence:
Family systems theory = perspective on family functioning that emphasizes interconnections among
different family relationships (such as marital, parent-child, sibling). According to this theory
relationships in families change most dramatically during times when individual family members or
the circumstances are changing because during these times the family’s equilibrium often is upset.
One period in which this changes is often adolescence, a peak at 13/14 years. Adolescence is a period
of change and reorganization in family relationships and daily interactions. Self-fulfilling prophecy =
the idea that individuals’ behavior is influenced by others’ expectations for them.
What do adolescents and parents usually fight about?:
Conflict between adolescent and parents are conflict about everyday matters. Less frequent in ethnic
minority than in white families. Topics of agreements are similar across ethnic groups and cultures.
Teenagers and parents define the issues of contention very differently, parents view issues as right or
wrong (as a custom) and teenagers as matters of personal choice. That’s why parents and teenagers
argue.
Rebels with a cause
Teenagers only rebel when they view the issue as personal (what clothes to wear). They don’t rebel
when the parents’ rule is legitimate, and the issue is moral. Adolescents who are less likely to believe
that their parents have a right to know how to spend their time are more likely to not tell the truth
about their activities. Adolescents who think that their parents are overcontrolling are likely to
become oppositional. How parents get their information about their teenagers (snooping opposed to
asking) is likely to lead to problems. Adolescents understand that some issues are matters of personal
choice, rather than social convention, this is due to cognitive development. Parents are more likely to
lie to younger adolescents than older ones about activities they wish their teens wouldn’t do. But
because of negative relationships adolescents can be prompt to conceal things form their parents.
The adolescent’s parents at midlife:
Midlife crisis = a psychological crisis over identity believed to occur between the ages of 35 and 45,
the age range of most adolescents’ parents.
Midlife meets adolescence
The developmental concerns of parents and adolescents are complementary (children may worry
about their looks, but parents can also start worrying). A second overlap of crises concerns
perceptions of time and future: adolescents start thinking systematically about the future, parents
feel that possibilities for changing their own lives are limited, they are more reminded of their
mortality. Third, the issue of power status. For adolescents this phase in the family life cycle is a time
of boundless horizons, for parents it means coming to terms with the choices made when they were
younger. The adolescent’s desire for independence appears to be especially stressful for parents.
The mental health of parents
A strained relationship between a midlife parent and his or her adolescent child may drive the parent
,to devote relatively more time to work. Parents’ mental health problems negatively affect the way
they interact with their adolescents. Parents’ mental health is worse when their teens are living at
home than when they leave the home.
Changes in family needs and functions:
The family as a unit also changes. It changes in its economic circumstances, in its relationship to other
social institutions, and its functions. Family finances are often strained during adolescence. In
adolescence there is increased importance of peer group instead of the family.
Special concerns of immigrant families:
Some families are more likely to find family obligations important. 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 are more likely to develop prosocial values, less likely to get depressed and get
into antisocial peer groups. Parental effectiveness was greater in families where the parents and
teenagers preferred to speak the same language. Immigrant parents’ ideas sometimes clash with the
more individualistic orientation of the many mainstream American families. Different expectations
between immigrant parents and teenagers is associated with more stress. Generational dissonance =
divergence of views between adolescents and parents that is common in families of immigrant
parents and American-born adolescents.
Transformations in family relations:
Movement away from influence from parents where they have authority to parents and adolescents
on a more equal footing.
Changes in the balance of power
During early adolescence, teenagers begin to try to play a more forceful role in the family, even
though they have little impact then. Increase in adolescents’ negative feelings about their mothers
goes together with an increase in the extent to which they are more focused on themselves. By
middle adolescence teenagers act and are treated more as adults. Between ages 16-20, adolescents’
relationships with parents improve, they are treated more like adults (more influence). Family
members must have some shared sense of what adolescence are experiencing and how they are
changing. Yet they often live in separate realities. Parents describe their own parenting more
positively than their teenagers do.
The role of puberty
Puberty distances adolescents from parents, but this is not associated with “storm and stress”.
Diminished closeness is manifested more in increased privacy and less physical affection. Distancing
in early and middle adolescence is temporary, relations tend to become less conflicted during late
adolescence. The frequent bickering can take a toll on parents’ and teenagers’ mental health. The
first half of adolescence may be an especially strained and distant time for the family, although this
may be more true in the case of firstborns than in the case of later born.
Sex differences in family relationships:
Differences between the family relations of sons and daughters are minimal. Some evidence that
adolescent girls are more affected by the quality of their relationship with their parents. Adolescents
tend to be closer to their mothers. Fathers often rely on mothers for information about their
adolescent’s activities, they are more distant authority figures, adolescents rely on them for objective
information, not emotional support. Adolescents fight more often with their mothers and perceive
,their mothers as more controlling, but this doesn’t jeopardize the relationship. Time spent with
fathers is more predictive of adolescents’ social competence and feelings of self-worth (perhaps
because it’s more rarely).
Family relationships and adolescent development:
Socialization is a two way street: parents affect their adolescents’ behavior and adolescents affect
how their parents behave. Harsh discipline lead to more behavior problems in adolescence, but when
adolescents behave badly, parent become more overcontrolling. Impulsive adolescents are more
likely than their non-impulsive peers to become aggressive in response to rejecting parenting (various
types of parenting affect different adolescents differently).
Parenting styles and their effects:
Diana Baumrind
Two aspects of the parent’s behavior toward the adolescent are critical. 1 Parental responsiveness =
the degree to which the parent responds to the child’s needs in an accepting, supportive manner. 2
Parental demandingness = the degree to which the parent expects and insists on mature, responsible
behavior from the child.
Four styles of parenting
Combinations of these two parenting dimensions: Authorative parents = Parents who use warmth,
firm control, and rational, issue oriented discipline, in which emphasis is placed on the development
of self-direction. They engage adolescent in decision making. Authoritarian parents = demanding but
not responsive, parents who use punitive, absolute, and forceful discipline, and who place a premium
on obedience and conformity. Indulgent parents = responsive, but not demanding (accepting, benign,
and more passive way in matters of discipline.) Mainly concerned with the child’s happiness.
Indifferent parents = neither demanding nor responsive (little energy in interaction with child,
distant, parents focus on their own needs)
The power of authorative parenting
Young people raised in this household are more psychologically mature. They are more responsible,
self-assured, creative, curious, academically successful and able to regulate their emotions and
behavior. Adolescents raised in authoritarian home are more dependent, passive and less curious.
Adolescents raised in indulgent homes are less mature, and responsible. Adolescents raised in
indifferent homes are often impulsive and more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior. Severe
psychological abuse (excessive criticism, rejection, or emotional harshness) appears to have the most
deleterious effects.
Ethnic differences in parenting practices
Authorative parenting is less prevalent among black, Asian, or Latinx families than among White.
Ethnic minority parents are often more demanding than White parents. Tiger Mother: an approach to
parenting that may foster academic achievement, but that may also increase adolescents’ anxiety and
distress. Strict affectionate style is protective, not authoritarian.
How authorative parenting works
It has an appropriate balance between restrictiveness and autonomy. The adolescent can develop
self-control while providing the standards that teenagers still need. More independence when getting
older, this helps development of self-assurance and enhances ability to withstand potentially negative
influences. Authorative parents engage their children in verbal give-and-take, they are more likely to
, promote intellectual development for the development of maturity. Authorative parents are less
likely to assert their authority by turning adolescents’ personal decisions into moral issues.
Authorative parenting is based on warm parent-child relationship, because of this adolescents are
more likely to identify with, admire, and form strong attachments to their parents which makes them
more open to their influence. The child’s own behavior temperament and personality shape
parenting practices.
Adolescents’ relationships with siblings:
As children mature to early adolescence, sibling conflict increases. Two common sources of sibling
conflict: 1 Invasion of the personal (like wearing a siblings’ sweater), 2 Disagreements over equity and
fairness. Adolescents see aggression towards siblings as more acceptable. Over time, relationships
with siblings become more egalitarian, but also more distant. In same-sex dyads, intimacy increases
between pre-adolescence and middle adolescence, and then declines. In mixed-sex dyads the pattern
is opposite: intimacy drops between pre and mid adolescence and then increases. By late
adolescence, brothers and sisters are closer than same-sex siblings.
A network of relationships
The quality of the parent-adolescent relationship influences the quality of relations among siblings.
Adolescents learn much about social relationships from sibling interactions and bring this knowledge
to other relations, the reverse is true as well. Positive sibling relationships contribute to adolescents’
academic competence, romantic competence, familism, sociability, health, autonomy, and self-worth.
Siblings influence each other’s development (antisocial behavior, drug use, anxiety etc)
Genetic influences on adolescent development:
Behavioral genetics = The scientific study of genetic influences on behavior. Researchers examine
genetic influences in 3 main ways: 1 Studying adolescents who are twins. 2 Studying adolescents who
have been adopted. 3 Studying adolescents and their siblings in stepfamilies. They examine whether
the same environment affect people with different genetics. Molecular genetics = The scientific study
of the structure and function of genes. Specific genes are associated with particular traits. Alleles =
different versions of the same gene. There are different versions of a gene that influences a person’s
vulnerability to depression, one that is short and one that is long. Short gene depression more likely.
Genetic and environmental influences on adolescent development:
Two types of environmental influences: 1 Shared environmental influences = nongenetic influences
that make individuals living in the same family similar to each other (factors in environment: siblings
share this) 2 Nonshared environmental influences = nongenetic influences that make them different
form people they live with. Can include factors within the family and outside of it (siblings being
treated differently by parents). Genetic and nonshared environmental influences are strong in
adolescence. Shared environmental factors are less influential. Genetic factors have been linked to
emotional and behavioral problems. Intelligence in adolescence is under strong genetic control,
higher in highly educated families. Adolescents with the same genetic predispositions (such as genes
for depression) develop differently if they grow up in different environments. In other words, genes
may shape tendencies, but whether these tendencies are actualized often depends on the
environment. The inverse is also true.
Differential susceptibility to the environment
Diathesis-stress model = problems are the result of an interaction between a preexisting condition
(the diathesis) and exposure to stress in the environment. Diathesis = vulnerability. This model can be
