Parent-adolescent Relationship Quality Research Articles

Parent Marital Quality and the Parent–Adolescent Relationship: Profiles of Relationship Quality

Rigorous studies repeatedly have demonstrated the negative effects of parental divorce on outcomes for families. However, very few studies have examined the quality of the marital relationship within intact families or how the quality of the marital relationship interacts with the quality of the parent–adolescent relationship. The present study examines how aspects of parent marital quality, such as marital support and conflict between the couple, existed within married families and examines how patterns of mother–adolescent and father–adolescent relationships quality varied longitudinally from 1997 to 1999. The study uses data from the NLSY97 cohort, a nationally representative sample of adolescents who are being followed into adulthood. Four profiles of parent marital quality were developed using latent class analyses. Four growth profiles for the mother–adolescent relationship and for the father–adolescent relationship were created using latent growth class analysis in Mplus. To examine how the parent marital quality profiles and the parent–adolescent relationship quality interact, we examined how they overlapped. Six distinct groups were evident from this examination: (1) high marital quality and good relationships with both parents, (2) high marital quality and a good relationship with only one parent, (3) high support and high conflict marital quality and a good relationship with at least one parent, (4) low marital quality and a good relationship with at least one parent, (5) high marital quality and bad relationships with both parents, and (6) low marital quality and bad relationships with both parents.

Adolescent Family Context and Adult Identity Formation

This study examines the links between adolescent family context and coming to see oneself as an adult. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we investigate how adolescent family structure, resources, and processes together influence adult identity and whether they do so similarly for men and women. We find that youth in single- or step-parent families, but not in two parent adoptive families, are more likely to identify as adults compared to those in two biological parent families. These relationships, however, are mediated by both family resources and processes. We also find that one of these processes, parental control, is especially influential for youth in single-father and "other" family structures, and that parent-adolescent relationship quality and living in "other" structure families are more consequential for young women than men.

Exploring Mothers’ and Fathers’ Relationships with Sons Versus Daughters: Links to Adolescent Adjustment in Mexican Immigrant Families

Drawing on ecological and gender socialization perspectives, this study examined mothers' and fathers' relationships with young adolescents, exploring differences between mothers and fathers, for sons versus daughters, and as a function of parents' division of paid labor. Mexican immigrant families (N = 162) participated in home interviews and seven nightly phone calls. Findings revealed that mothers reported higher levels of acceptance toward adolescents and greater knowledge of adolescents' daily activities than did fathers, and mothers spent more time with daughters than with sons. Linkages between parent-adolescent relationship qualities and youth adjustment were moderated by adolescent gender and parents' division of paid labor. Findings revealed, for example, stronger associations between parent-adolescent relationship qualities and youth adjustment for girls than for boys.

Toward a Transactional Model of Parent-Adolescent Relationship Quality and Adolescent Psychological Adjustment

The present study includes externalizing problems, internalizing problems, mother-adolescent relationship quality, and father-adolescent relationship quality in the same structural equation model and tests the longitudinal reciprocal association among all four variables over a 1-year period. A transactional model in which adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems are negatively related to the quality of adolescents' relationships with their parents and relationship quality is related to internalizing and externalizing problems is hypothesized. Moderation by gender, ethnicity, and parental marital status is also investigated. The sample consists of 246 boys and 253 girls from the sixth and seventh grades of a large public middle school. The study's final model suggests a longitudinal, reciprocal association between the quality of adolescents' relationships with their mothers and internalizing problems. Results suggest longitudinal unidirectional effects from externalizing problems to the quality of adolescents' relationships with their fathers and from the quality of adolescents' relationships with their mothers to externalizing problems.

Apples and Oranges: Divergent Meanings of Parents' and Adolescents' Perceptions of Parental Influence.

This study examines the hypothesis that effective parental influence stems from the qualities of the parent-adolescent relationship rather than from explicit efforts to alter adolescents' behaviors. Adolescents' versus parents' perceptions of parental influence as predictors of parent-adolescent relationship quality and of adolescents' social functioning are examined using observational and multireporter data obtained from a sample of 167 adolescents (90 female, 77 male; age M = 13.34 years, SD = 0.65), their parents, and their same-sex peers. Analyses revealed that adolescents' and parents' perceptions of parental influence were uncorrelated with one another and were differentially related to qualities of adolescents' relationships with parents and friends. Adolescents' perceptions of high parental influence were linked to observations and self-reports of warm, supportive relationships with parents (particularly mothers). In contrast, parents' reports of high influence were linked to lower levels of adolescent autonomy with parents and friends and less relatedness with mothers and friends.

Family Structure History and Adolescent Adjustment

As patterns of union formation and dissolution in adult lives become complex, the living arrangements of American children are becoming increasingly fluid. With a sample ( N = 12,843) drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study attempted to capture this complexity by mapping out children's family structure histories across their early life course, investigating the implications of these arrangements for their general adjustment, and finally, identifying family processes that explained these associations. The findings suggest that a sizable minority of young people experience dynamic family structure arrangements. Moreover, family structure at adolescence best predicted later emotional distress, and family structure at adolescence plus an indicator of cumulative family instability across childhood best predicted current marijuana use. More so than indicators tapping social control, levels of family connectedness and parent—adolescent relationship quality were key conduits for these associations.

Testing an Interactive Model of Symptom Severity in Conduct Disordered Youth

This study presents data from 85 young offenders referred for court-ordered mental health assessments. A model of interactive risk was tested, in which parent-child relationships, social-contextual adversity, and antisocial thinking were predicted to be associated with aggressive and delinquent behavior in a multiplicative fashion. For aggression, strong associations were found with parent-adolescent alienation, but there were no interactions with social-contextual risk or antisocial thinking. For delinquency, parent-adolescent relationship quality interacted with both social-contextual risk and antisocial thinking. Better parent-adolescent trust-communication was associated with an attenuated effect of social-contextual risk and antisocial thinking on delinquency. Greater parent-adolescent alienation, however, was associated with relatively high levels of delinquent behavior irrespective of social-contextual risk, whereas adolescents reporting less attachment-alienation showed greater delinquency as social-contextual risk increased.

Understanding parental monitoring through analysis of monitoring episodes in context.

Abstract A model of monitoring interactions was proposed that is based on behavioural principles and places episodic parent-adolescent interactions at the centre of analysis for monitoring. The processmonitoring model contends that monitoring is an interactive process between parents and their adolescents, nested within a social setting. In the model it is proposed that monitoring occurs in discrete episodes that change over the course of adolescent development. To explain monitoring interactions it is essential to expand research to include a functional assessment of monitoring exchanges between parents and adolescents and to also measure the quality of parent-adolescent relationships, consider adolescent age and development, parental characteristics, and the context of the family. Keywords: parental monitoring, adolescent problem behaviour, parent-adolescent relationships ********** Parental monitoring is a hypothetical psychological construct that has been used to explain a composite of parenting practice variables including awareness, communication, concern, supervision, and tracking of adolescent behavior. Poor monitoring is consistently associated with antisocial behavior in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Patrick, Snyder, Schrepferman, & Snyder, 2005; Patterson, Capaldi, & Bank, 1991; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992; Patterson & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1984; Patterson & Yoerger, 1997). Problem behavior has strong associations with deviant peers, and there is a flow on effect of further reducing monitoring (Ary, Duncan, Duncan, & Hops, 1999; Dishion, Patterson, Stoolmiller, & Skinner, 1991; Smetana & Daddis, 2002). Poor monitoring is also consistently associated with alcohol use, tobacco and substance use, higher sexual risk taking, poorer contraceptive use, lowered safe sex practices, and unwanted sex (Barnes & Farrell, 1992; Barnes, Reifman, Farrell, & Dintcheff, 2000; DiClemente et al., 2001; Li, Feigelman, & Stanton, 2000; Luster & Small, 1997; Metzler, Noell, Biglan, Ary, & Smolkowski, 1994; Reifman, Barnes, Dintcheff, Farrell, & Uhteg, 1998; Thomas, Reifman, Barnes, & Farrell, 2000). Poorly monitored adolescents are also more likely to report depressive symptoms, lowered self-esteem, and poor academic achievement (Crouter, MacDermid, McHale, & Perry-Jenkins, 1990; Gil-Rivas, Greenberger, Chen, & Lopez-Lena, 2003; Hartos & Power, 2000b). Despite the many studies that have shown poor monitoring is associated with problem behaviors in adolescents there are very few clinical studies reporting on interventions to improve monitoring. Of note is the work of Dishion and colleagues (2003) who recently demonstrated that it is possible to change parental monitoring and reduce problem behavior. More of this type of experimental intervention research is needed. Patterson and colleagues (Patterson & Bank, 1987; Patterson et al., 1992; Patterson & StouthamerLoeber, 1984) developed the parental monitoring construct in their seminal work with the Oregon Youth Study. Presently there are two prominent monitoring definitions in the research. The original definition of monitoring is stated as: parental awareness of the child's activities, and communication to the child that the parent is concerned about, and aware of, the child's activities (Dishion & McMahon, 1998). The important aspect of this definition is that monitoring is a broad term that covers both structuring of the adolescents' environment, and tracking their activities. The alternative definition comes from research by Kerr and Stattin (Kerr & Stattin, 2000; Kerr, Stattin, & Trost, 1999; Stattin & Kerr, 2000) and purports that monitoring is defined by parental knowledge of adolescent activity and that knowledge depends on adolescents' willingness to disclose. This knowledge definition is narrower and focuses on parental knowledge of adolescent behavior during freetime. …

Abstinence among female adolescents: Do parents matter above and beyond the influence of peers?

The purpose of this study was to determine whether parental variables predict abstinence above and beyond the influence of peer variables in a sample of African American adolescent females (n = 568). In order to determine predictors of abstinence, hierarchical logistic regressions were conducted for the entire sample, the younger adolescent girls, and the older adolescent girls. Results indicated that for the total sample and older adolescents, both parental sexual attitudes and parent-adolescent relationship quality predicted abstinence after accounting for the variance associated with peer variables. For the younger girls, perceived parental attitudes were the only significant predictor. These findings suggest that adolescent sexual risk reduction interventions may benefit from including parents, stressing the importance of articulating parental sexual attitudes, and highlighting the significance of the parent-adolescent relationship.

The Link between Acculturation Disparity and Conflict among Chinese Canadian Immigrant Mother-Adolescent Dyads

This study explores the assumption that acculturation disparity can disrupt the quality of parent-adolescent relationships among immigrant families. Participants included 113 Chinese Canadian immigrant and 30 Anglo-Canadian mothers and their children living in Toronto, Canada. Self-reports of mothers' and adolescents' acculturation and perceptions of conflict in the mother-adolescent relationship and mothers' responses to vignettes depicting adolescent misbehavior were obtained. Acculturation disparity was associated with reports of a greater number of conflicts, particularly regarding interpersonal issues, but not with reports of the emotional intensity of these conflicts nor with mothers' use of more negative responses to hypothetical depictions of adolescent misbehavior. Some interesting cross-cultural differences were also found. The importance of exploring the construct of acculturation disparity as a useful tool both methodologically and clinically is discussed.

Delinquency, victimization, and substance use among adolescents with female same-sex parents.

The question of whether parental sexual orientation has an impact on human development has important implications for psychological theories and for legal policy. This study examined associations among family type (same-sex vs. different-sex parents), family and relationship variables, substance use, delinquency, and victimization of adolescents. Participants included 44 adolescents living with female same-sex couples and 44 adolescents living with different-sex couples, matched on demographic characteristics and drawn from a national sample. Analyses indicated that adolescents were functioning well and that their adjustment was not associated with family type. Adolescents whose parents described closer relationships with them reported less delinquent behavior and substance use, suggesting that the quality of parent-adolescent relationships better predicts adolescent outcomes than does family type.

Family communication and religiosity related to substance use and sexual behavior in early adolescence: a test for pathways through self-control and prototype perceptions.

This research tested predictions about pathways to substance use and sexual behavior with a community sample of 297 African American adolescents (M age: 13.0 years). Structural modeling indicated that parent-adolescent communication had a path to unfavorable prototypes of substance users; quality of parent-adolescent relationship had paths to good self-control, higher resistance efficacy, and unfavorable prototypes of sexually active teens; and religiosity had inverse direct effects to both substance use and sexual behavior. Self-control constructs had paths to prototypes of abstainers, whereas risk taking had paths to prototypes of drug and sex engagers and direct effects to outcomes. Prototypes had paths to outcomes primarily through resistance efficacy and peer affiliations. Effects were also found for gender, parental education, and temperament characteristics. Implications for self-control theory and prevention research are discussed.

Difficult Temperament, Parental Relationships, and Adolescent Alcohol Use Disorder Symptoms

ABSTRACT Difficult temperament has been found to be related to substance use disorders in adolescents. This study tested the hypothesis that the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship mediates the association between difficult temperament and alcohol use disorder symptoms. The sample consisted of 438 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, and their mothers. Structured diagnostic interviews were used to assess alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms. A series of multiple regression analyses were performed to test this mediational model separately for females and males. For both genders, difficult temperament was a significant predictor of AUD symptoms, and was negatively related to parent-adolescent relationship quality. For males, the relationship between difficult temperament and AUD symptoms was mediated by parent-adolescent relationship quality. For females, however, difficult temperament and parent adolescent relationship quality independently predicted the adolescents' AUD symptoms. These results suggest that alcohol abuse prevention and treatment programs should consider the role of basic temperamental characteristics in pathological drinking, and the possibility that parent-adolescent relationship quality may be a key point of intervention.

Perceived family relationships and depressed mood in early and late adolescence: A comparison of European and Asian Americans.

This study examined perceived parent-adolescent relationships and depressed mood among 173 early adolescents and 297 college students, all of European or Asian American background. Ethnic differences in depressed mood, not evident in the early adolescent sample, emerged in the college sample, with Asian Americans reporting more symptoms. Ethnic differences in depressed mood were reduced to nonsignificant when quality of parent-adolescent relationships was statistically controlled. The magnitude of associations between measures of parent-adolescent relationships and depressed mood was strikingly similar for European and Asian Americans at the same phase of adolescence. As anticipated, perceived parent-adolescent relationships accounted for more of the variance in depressed mood in early adolescence than in late adolescence: 44% to 51 % for the junior high samples and about 10% for the college samples.

The value of physical change in adolescence: Consequences for the parent-adolescent exchange relationship

This research examines the effects of specific physical changes associated with puberty on peer and parent relationships of early and middle adolescent white boys. The data used are from a longitudinal study of Milwaukee school children conducted by Simmons and Blyth (1979). On the basis of past research, most of the physical changes that occur during puberty were expected to increase peer status. According to Richer's (1968) exchange model, these positive effects in the domain of peer relations should, in turn, reduce the resource dependency of the adolescent on his parents. As a result, greater independence from parents should ensue and the likelihood of conflict should increase. As expected, significant positive relationships were found for the effects of various physical changes on most peer status variables and independence from parents. However, no significant relationships were found for the effects of physical changes on parent-adolescent relationship quality or conflict with parents. Also contrary to expectations, controlling for changes in peer status did not alter the positive effects of physical change on independence from parents. Finally, tests for interactions showed that the parent-adolescent relationship was negatively affected when parents did not grant greater independence to the physically changing adolescent. In conclusion, it is suggested that while resource dependencies may indeed change during puberty, parents alter their expectations for their children and grant greater independence based on the adolescent's physical appearance alone.