Families and Adolescence
Over the past few weeks, we have discussed adolescents and their parents during almost
each class. What are some things you have concluded about parenting and adolescents’
outcomes?
As we focus on adolescence and their families, what are different ways we might define
the term “Family?”
How are parents changing?
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Climacteric—changes in functioning of sex organs;
o Males—reduced level of testosterone
o Females—reduced levels of estrogen
Sociocultural changes
o Potentially higher levels of professional/career responsibilities
o Facing expenses (e.g. college expenses; mortgages, health care)
o Changes in peer groups for parents
Dilemma of how one’s relationship with adolescent offspring should change
Stereotype of adolescentfamily relations
 Distancing
 Separate
 Seem to be constantly antagonistic
Data indicate: (Larson, et al., 1996; van Wel, et al., 2000)
 Adolescents tend to say families remain a big part of their lives;
 Although, adolescents tend to have greater emotional fluctuations than their
parents hence frequent emotional reactions can cause moments of conflict
 Non-linear relationship between age and relationship with family
o Children and late adolescents: happier with their families, about the same
amount of time alone with parents
o Early and middle adolescents—less pleased, less positive emotional
experiences with their families
Parent-child communication and emotional transmission
 Early: Parent Child/Early and middle adolescence
 Toward later adolescence: Parent  Late Adolescent
 Emotional transmission (Larson & Almeida, 1999)
o Parents tend to be impacted by forces outside the home
o Negative emotions are more easily transmitted;
o Fathers’ emotions are more likely to be transmitted than mothers’
 Davies & Lindsay (2004)
 Hammen, Shih, & Brennan (2004)
Parenting Styles: Diana Baumrind:
 Two dimensions—
o Responsiveness—warmth, caring, sensitive, supportive
o Demandingness—expectations, supervising, monitoring
o Authoritarian:
 Low responsiveness
 High demandingness
 Parenting behaviors:
 Likelihood of high levels of punitive actions (corporal
punishment, severe sanctions against infractions)
 High expectations
 Low support
 Little involvement in family decisions
 Decisions are not open to discussion
 Rationales are not provided
 Outcomes
 Rigid
 Lack problem-solving skills
 Tend to turn to peers for support and information
 Likely not eager to make difficult decisions
o Premissive—Indulgent
 High responsiveness
 Low demandingness
 Parenting behaviors:
 Attempts to respond positively to every request made by
the adolescent
 Few rules or boundaries
 Attempts to control adolescents’ behavior are grounded in
reason with little or no consequences for less than favorable
conduct
 Adolescent is not accountable for behavioral outcomes
 Adolescent is an active and frequently equal participant in
family decisions and frequently decisions are based on
adolescents’ own perspectives
 Inappropriately involves adolescent in parental lives
 Outcomes
 Poor emotional control
 Low persistence to difficult or unpopular tasks
 Frequent externalizing behavior when desires are denied
 Poor decision-making skills
 Blurred boundaries between adolescent and parent (e.g.
adults may engage in adolescent behavior to show
closeness—adolescent does not recognize boundaries)
o Neglectful—Indifferent
 Low responsiveness
 Low demandingness
 Parenting behaviors
 Inconsistent discipline based on impact of behavior on
parents’ own activities and preferences
 Few rules or boundaries
 Punishment, when given, can be harsh
 Low parental monitoring
 Outcomes
 Low levels of performance in social and academic
domains, and frequently poor emotional control
 Typically lacks clear understanding of contingency of
outcomes on behaviors (little link between behavior and
outcome)
 May seek out peers for support with little attention to
norms of the peer group
o Authoritative
 High responsiveness
 High demandingness
 Parenting behaviors
 Sets consistent and reasonable boundaries for adolescents’
behaviors
 Uses reason and discussion as first option for discipline
 Low-to-no use of corporal punishment
 Models civil discussion
 Monitors adolescents’ behaviors, peers, etc.,
 Allows adolescents’ involvement in family decisions where
appropriate
 Maintains parental role with little or no enmeshment
 Outcomes
 Higher levels of achievement in social and academic
domains
 Recognizes relationship between behaviors and
outcomes—understands contingencies
 Adaptive level of emotional control
 Develops adaptive decision-making skills
 Lower levels of psychological distress (e.g. stress, anxiety,
depression)
Sandra Scarr—“just good enough parenting”
 Beyond a certain level of nurturing, little is gained relative to other forces
outside the family (genetics, peers, other institutions).
 Genotype-Environment interaction types:
o Passive: genetic contributors (parents) also structure the environment
hence, phenotypic expression typically fits the constructed
environment
o Evocative: child’s and adolescent’s actions and demeanor elicit from
others responses that reinforce or extinguish those behaviors
o Active: adolescents select those environments that provide a
maximum fit with actions and demeanors.
o The point is that parents do have roles in their children’s
lives….but at some point the impact diminishes
Family Paradigm:
 Basic beliefs about the environment—hostile/chaotic or
orderly/predictable
 Key is in how families solve problems or make decisions
o Problem analysis (as opposed to perseveration or emotion focused)
o Cooperative/Working Together (as opposed to independently
approaching the problem)
Wkng
Togthr
High
Low
Family Paradigm
Problem Analysis
High
Low
Multiple
plausible
solutions
Focus is on
affective
responses
not on
problem
Independent Little
activity with exploration
little
of options
interaction
and little
interactions