Overview of Theory, Research, and Application Topics

Abstract

This second chapter serves as an overview of the three main parts of this book: theorizing about families with adolescents, research on families with adolescents, and application topics concerning families with adolescents. Theoretically, an intergenerational nurturing definition of families with adolescents is advanced in order to provide parameters around the literature covering two theoretical frameworks most associated with the field of human development and family science – family development theory and family systems theory – as well as three additional theories that claim more individual psychological origins: ecological theory, attachment theory, and social learning theory. The empirical overview offered in this chapter presents a number of heuristic models that help readers to understand the ways in which the direct and indirect effects of family factors are measured by researchers, as well as discussing unit of analysis issues that help to define both dyadic and polyadic efforts to understand families with adolescents. Finally, the application overview sets the stage for a review of both prevention and intervention efforts targeting families with adolescents. Here, our intergenerational nurturing definition regarding families with adolescents is used as a litmus test to determine which initiatives actually “do” something that is family-oriented.