Lecture notes Exam 2 Adolescent Development

Hoorcolleges Adolescent Development
Exam 2
Hoorcollege 8 : Family Relations and Autonomy
Central questions
Family relationships  parent-adolescent relationships
- How and why do (dynamic of) parent-adolescent relationships change during
adolescence?
- How are adolescents affected by (changing) experiences in the parent-adolescent
relationship and vice versa?
What is a family?
- Mother + father + child(ren)  nuclear
- Mother + father + child(ren) + uncles/aunts + cousins + grandparents
- Dictionary definition: married, 2-parent + offspring  outdated
 Different forms & sizes!
 Answer may be time & culture dependent!
- In all societies, the family fulfills similar functions:
 Socialization: learn how to be adult beings
 Enduring source of support: practical/economical/emotional/social
 Social embedding = continuity of relationships across the life course
The family as a system: Theory
- Family Systems Theory = an organized whole, consisting of interrelated relationships
that influence each other
 System = set(s) of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with
the environment
 Interrelation = not A effects B, but A & B effect each other
 Bidirectional/reciprocal/transactional effects
 Changing, self organizing and adapting to (changes in) its members and the
outside environment
 System is flexible, but strives for stability (=equilibrium)
 Family = cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Key principles
- Holism: to understand the family, not enough to look at members separately  take
different systems into account
 Roles: everyone has one in the system
 Example: growing up with a depressed mother  child became caretaker,
part of the system struggling effects the entire system
 Roles taken over by others  adapting
 How does everybody develop?
- Hierarchy/structure
 Organized into subsystems
 By gender or generation
 Individual level
 Dyadic level: between persons (marital relationship, parent-child
relationship, sibling relationship)

,  Triadic level: child with parents
 Family level/whole: family characteristics that makes them different from
other families
- Boundaries
 At every level (subsystems, inside/outside)
 Permeability varies across families/time
Boundaries
- Spillover vs compensation
 Associations between relationships within the whole family = when there are
‘loose’ boundaries between subsystems
- Longitudinal study by Sherrill et al. : spillover, compensation or
compartmentalization?
 Interparental conflict higher level was linked to higher levels of parent-adolescent
conflict  spillover
 Consistent across days not only within a day, also reverse effect  higher levels of
parent-adolescent conflict associated with higher levels of interparental conflict.
But only over days!
Presence of interparental conflict increases the odds of parent-adolescent conflict at a later
moment in time, and vice versa = spillover
- Why spillover?  Mastrotheodoros et al. in NL
 Interparental conflict  higher level of mother + adolescent anger  higher level
of mother-adolescent conflict = spillover
- Spillover bad?  Kouros et al. in USA
 Positive spillover: beter marital quality  higher levels of parent-adolescent
relationship quality (same day)
 Lower marital quality  higher levels of mother-adolescent relationship quality =
compensation (next day)
Spillover can be positive as well + some evidence for compensation in the family system
Family systems theory relevant?
- Adolescence = disruption of homeostasis
 New balance/equilibrium needs to be found to adjust to the new situation
 Process of (family) adaptation
- Meets parental midlife (crisis): parents need to deal with choices they made before 
under reflection
Adolescent in a system
- 3 influences: in case of parents: OVERLAP
 Genetic
 Shared environment
 Unshared environment
- Also more broadly influences outside the family (Bronfenbrenner)
 Embedded into larger influential contexts!
Parenting styles and adolescents (Baumrind)
- Static approach
- Composite parenting

,Indulgent = permissief  verwende kinderen
Indifferent = verwaarlozend




- Stability across time/development, specific behaviors change!

Authoritarian (parent-centered) Authoritative
- Strict rules & expectations  no - Engage adolescents in decision
discussion possible making  give and take possible in
- Discourage autonomy & adolescence
independence  obedience  Rules can change
- Punishment-heavy - Encourage autonomy &
- Low open communication & trust independence  supportive of this
- Less focused on what the adolescent part of development
needs are - Involved & monitoring
- Open communication & trust 
valued
Indifferent Indulgent
- Not responsive to needs - Very responsive to needs
- No parental guidance - Little parental guidance  not a lot
- Provide basic needs, no more of rules in the household
- Uninvolved, detached & disengaged - No behavioral expectations = no
 they don’t seem to care control/punishment
- No communication & trust - Require little self-regulation from
adolescents  adolescents are free
to do what they want
- Generally positive family
environment


Parenting styles & adolescent functioning

Authoritarian (not good) Authoritative (most beneficial)
- Dependent & obedient  because - Independent & autonomous
parents have a lot of demands - Responsible  able to take on adult
- Low self-confidence roles
- Low social competence  also lower - Self-confident
general well-being - Good self & emotion regulation 
- Passivity & lack of school interest  good well-being
don’t learn to think for themselves - Socially skilled
- Rebellious adolescents  they don’t - Problem solving & critical thinking
wanna deal with their parents (cognitive development)
anymore, want to discuss rules

, Indifferent (the worst) Indulgent (in the middle)  could be
- Impulsive (- self-regulation) considered okay
- Delinquent - Less mature & responsible
- Early experimentation with sex, - Conforming to peers  not used to
drugs, alcohol having any guidance
- Mature earlier (provide for - Self-confident, but misbehavior 
themselves, no parent-role) haven’t learned how to behave
- Academic underachievement - Impulsive (- self-regulation)
- BUT: could be emotionally secure &
independent  depends on
individual differences


Important considerations
- Control vs. Control
 Control in the context of high support/involvement vs. Low support/involvement
 High: adjusted to adolescents needs
 Monitoring vs. Psychological control
 Psychological control vs. Behavioral control
 Psychological: bad influence on adolescents
 Behavioral control: positively associated with well-being
 Parental control in different environments… (safe vs. dangerous)
 In dangerous environments it is important for their parents to have more
control over their children
- Cultural considerations
 Are non-white parents authoritarian? (or protective/strict-affectionate)
 Correlation between ethnic (minority) background and family environment
 STILL: even though authoritative parenting is less common in ethnic minority
families, its effects on adolescent development are beneficial in all groups
Overall conclusion = parenting styles relate to substance use and other outcomes in the same
way in different countries explored (Europa)
Changes in (the dynamic of the) parent-adolescent relationship
What changes and why?
Problems in communication
- Parents need to be prepared for all sort of things  negative image of adolesents
- Hall & Freud: Historically
 Detachment inside the family  parent-adolescent conflict
= normal, healthy, and inevitable
= universal/across cultures
Today: adolescent storm & stress?
- Yes
 Increase in conflict in adolescence
 Decrease in closeness
 Adolescence perceived as most difficult developmental period (by parents)
- No
 Average, but variation across individuals  usually minor conflicts
 Minor arguments, do not undermine attachment or quality
 Not in all cultures