Parent-Adolescent Conflict and Adolescents' Adaptation: A Longitudinal Study of Albanian Immigrant Youth Living in Greece

Abstract

paper investigates the relationship between the frequency of parent-adolescent conflict and the quality of adaptation of immigrant Albanian adolescents and of their native Greek classmates. Aims of the present study were: (a) to compare the frequency of immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents' conflicts with their parents; (b) to compare the quality of their adaptation with respect to core developmental tasks and to their psychological well-being; and (c) to examine how parent-adolescent conflict is related to adaptation in immigrant and non-immigrant youth. These questions were investigated using two waves of data from a longitudinal study of immigrant students from Albania and their non-immigrant classmates (N = 392, mean age 12.73 years). Frequency of conflict, self-esteem and psychological symptoms were assessed through self-reports. Academic achievement, conduct in school and popularity were assessed with multiple methods and informants. A complex pattern of relationships was found between the frequency of parent-adolescent conflict, on the one hand, and adolescents' quality of adaptation and psychological well-being, on the other, differentiated by domain of adaptation, and ethnic group. Keywordst conflict, immigration, adaptation, longitudinal study During the past decade the phenomenon of migra- tion and its consequences have increasingly attracted researchers' attention. The adaptation of immigrants, an aspect of this phenomenon, has been the focus of many studies. A significant share of this attention has been devoted to the adaptation of immigrant youth, whose future has been argued to be inextricably linked to that of the host society (Hernandez, Denton, & Macartney, 2008). The quality of immigrant youth's adaptation is judged based on the way they deal with core devel- opmental and acculturative tasks in the context of a