Adolescent Affection and Helpfulness Toward Parents:

Abstract

This short-term longitudinal investigation examined the 2-year stability of adolescents' prosocial behavior toward mothers and fathers and the predictive role of attachment, conflict, and parental influence in adolescents ' prosocial behavior. At Time 1, adolescents (n = 129) in Grades 6, 8, and 10 and their mothers (n = 126) and fathers (n = 104) completed several questionnaires during two in-home visits. Two years subsequently, families (n = 42) completed the same measures from Time 1. In general, adolescents reported less affectionate behavior and helpfulness toward fathers and mothers during early adolescence and middle adolescence. Parents reported no change in adolescents' behavior. Adolescents' affection and helpfulness remained stable across 2 years. For adolescent reports, attachment predicted affection, whereas paternal influence predicted helpfulness toward fathers. For parent reports, conflict and parental influence predicted adolescent affection. The use of the relational approach for understanding adolescent prosocial behavior is discussed.Within close relationships, children learn and develop many important social skills, such as prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is defined as voluntary behavior intended to benefit another (Eisenberg, 1982) and has been studied from several perspectives, most often from a dispositional or a situational perspective. A personal relationships approach was employed for the present study. Adolescents' prosocial behavior toward parents is proposed to be embedded in parent/adolescent relationships; therefore, variation in adolescents' prosocial behavior toward parents is tied to variation in their relationships with parents.From a personal relationships perspective, the context of a close, interdependent relationship is central to understanding individual behavior within 226

Empathy and Self-Regulation as Mediators Between Parenting and Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior Toward Strangers, Friends, and Family

“…In line with this research, Staub and Sherk (1970) reported more child-reported sharing and helpfulness between friends than nonfriends, and young adolescents claimed that they were more likely to act prosocially toward parents and close friends than toward people in more distant relationships (Bigelow, Tesson, & Lewko, 1992;Eisenberg, 1983). Indeed, a driving impetus in choosing to act prosocially toward a close friend or family member may be an attempt to maintain or improve the relationship (Chapman, Zahn-Waxler, Cooperman, & Iannotti, 1987), which is consistent with a relational approach to prosocial behavior (Eberly & Montemayor, 1999).…”

“…E-mail: laura_walker@byu.edu 1999; Kerr, Beck, Shattuck, Kattar, & Uriburu, 2003;Lindsey, Colwell, Frabutt, Chambers, & MacKinnon-Lewis, 2008). In addition, parents who are involved in their child's activities (particularly prosocial activities) and model helping behavior encourage adolescents to engage in self-motivated prosocial behaviors toward strangers and family (Eberly & Montemayor, 1999;Stukas, Switzer, Dew, Goycoolea, & Simmons, 1999). Research has indicated that parental involvement and connection with the adolescent child work together in promoting moral reasoning and action (Hart, 1988) and has highlighted connection and involvement as key constructs in helpfulness toward parents (Eberly & Montemayor, 1999).…”

Parents’ Verbal Communication and Childhood Anxiety: A Systematic Review

“…Not only will this improve the generalizability of findings, it will also allow the exploration of possible developmental effects when considering the role of parental verbal communication in the development and maintenance of child anxiety. This is important, as there are substantial normative shifts in parent-offspring interactions throughout development, with, for example, increases in the intensity of conflict and decreases in affectionate behaviors as children move into adolescence (Eberly and Montemayor 1999;Laursen et al 1998). Also, when parental behaviors and offspring anxiety disorder status have been compared between children and adolescents, the nature of the association has differed significantly.…”

A Model of Subjective Well-Being for Adolescents in High School

“…Additionally, another developmental task during this period is to achieve psychological independence from parents, while maintaining connectedness (Allen et al 1994;Grotevant and Cooper 1985). The transformation model suggests that adolescents' affect with their families decreases in early adolescence and then increases in late adolescence (Collins and Laursen 2004;Eberly and Montemayor 1999;Larson et al 1996). Moreover, during adolescence, close friends play important role, and also they begin to surpass parents as adolescents' primary source of social support and contribute in important ways to adolescents' self-concept and well-being (Furman and Buhrmester 1992;La Greca and Harrison 2005).…”