Adolescence 8th edition

Adolescence8th edition Insert photo of text Chapter Four: Families By Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D.

Chapter 4 Overview 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?

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

Is There A Generation Gap? • Popular advice for parents of teens • Emphasizes nonnormative 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)

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 issues • Parents see issues as a matter of right or wrong (social conventions or moral issues) • Teens see issues as a matter of personal choice (e.g., how to dress) Insert Picture fighting teen/parent PRT013.JPG

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adolescence 8th edition