Autonomy and Relatedness in Family Interactions as Predictors of Expressions of Negative Adolescent Affect

Leaders and followers in adolescent close friendships: Susceptibility to peer influence as a predictor of risky behavior, friendship instability, and depression

“…These susceptible adolescents also demonstrated relative declines in popularity from age 13 to age 14 compared to less susceptible adolescents. These findings suggest a parallel with emerging findings in studies of adolescent-parent relationships that autonomy is most adaptively established in the context of a supportive and positive relationship (Allen, Hauser, Eickholt, et al, 1994;Allen, Hauser, O'Connor, & Bell, 2002;Allen, Marsh, et al, 2002). It may be that insecurity about the quality of close peer relationships holds back the adolescent in his or her efforts to establish autonomy with close peers, perhaps out of fear of losing the friendship.…”

“…These problems may be relatively minor in early adolescence, when peer relationships are just beginning to take on a more central role, but are likely to become more pronounced as adolescence progresses and the role of peer relationships increases. Just as difficulty establishing autonomy with parents has been linked to adolescent depression (Allen, Hauser, Eickholt, Bell, & O'Connor, 1994), difficulty establishing autonomy with peers might ultimately be expected to lead to an increase in depressive symptoms. This may occur both as the adolescent struggles to appropriately assert him or herself within important relationships (Price, Sloman, Gardner, Gilbert, & Rohde, 1994), and as the developmental need to establish autonomy in this regard becomes increasingly pressing.…”

The Broader Context of Relational Aggression in Adolescent Romantic Relationships: Predictions from Peer Pressure and Links to Psychosocial Functioning

“…Previous research has documented a number of associations between adolescents' lack of autonomy from parents and different problematic behaviors, including increases in depressive affect, drug use, and delinquency (Allen et al 1994b;Casas et al 2006). Moreover, research has consistently demonstrated associations between parental psychological control, which seeks to undermine children's autonomy, and children's aggressive behaviors within the peer context (Hart et al 2003;Nelson and Crick 2002;Rogers et al 2003).…”

Growing Points for Coparenting Theory and Research

“…Yet because the study of coparenting is still so new, most of what we have learned about stability and development of coparental alliances has involved families with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers (Fivaz-Depeursinge & Corboz-Warnery, 1999; McHale, Kazali, et al, 2004;Schoppe-Sullivan et al, 2004). This is certainly not because coparenting of older children or adolescents is any less important-indeed, coparenting solidarity may be particularly important once children reach the teen years (Allen, Hauser, Eickholt, Bell, & O'Connor, 1994;Brody & Flor, 1996;Sroufe, 1991). Rather, it is likely that most research to date has targeted early family life because we do not yet have a conceptual, developmental roadmap for the evolution of the coparenting alliance through time (McHale & Fivaz-Depeursinge, 1999).…”