Communication and Understanding in Parent-Adolescent Relationships

Abstract

This research examined communication and parent-adolescent understanding, including understanding about family conflicts, adolescent self-concepts, and immediate thoughts (or "empathic accuracy"). Fifty parent-adolescent triads completed questionnaires, held a discussion, and reported on immediate thoughts during the discussion using video-assisted recall methods. Alternative measures of understanding produced distinct results. Parental understanding of the child's self-concept was associated with frequent and open communication, high parent-child relationship satisfaction, and a strong child self-concept. Parental understanding of conflict perceptions was associated with high conformity and low relationship satisfaction. Parental understanding of the immediate thoughts of children was quite low overall and was not consistently related to communication, relationship satisfaction, or child self-concept. The results suggest that alternative measures of understanding reflect different family processes.A notable feature of parent-adolescent relationships is the amount of change that occurs over a relatively short period of time. Individually, adolescents undergo profound physical, social and cognitive changes, at the same time that parents navigate significant life stage transitions of their own (Kidwell, Fischer, Dunham, & Baranowski, 1983). These individual changes increase the salience of relational dimensions

A Social Relations Model of Everyday Talk and Relational Satisfaction in Stepfamilies

“…Likewise, social relations model analyses of family conflict behaviors and general misunderstanding (cf. Sillars et al, 2005) may further theoretical explanations of key relational dynamics that impede relational satisfaction in stepfamilies. Through these types of investigations, family scholars can further delineate the interpersonal communication dynamics that facilitate healthy (step)family functioning.…”

“…To date, most of the communication research on relational satisfaction has focused primarily on romantic and married couples (e.g., Caughlin, 2002;Caughlin & Huston, 2002;Caughlin, Huston, & Houts, 2000;Miller, Caughlin, & Huston, 2003), parent-child relationships (e.g., Caughlin & Afifi, 2004;Caughlin & Golish, 2002;Sillars, Koerner, & Fitzpatrick, 2005), and general family satisfaction (e.g., Caughlin, 2003). There is, however, more recent evidence documenting various associations among disclosure patterns and relational satisfaction in first-marriage families (e.g., Finkenauer, Engels, Branje, & Meeus, 2004).…”

Parent–child discrepancies in the assessment of children’s and adolescents’ happiness

“…These discrepancies were due to an egocentric bias, as parents used their own happiness as an anchor point to estimate their children's happiness. Being unable to read child's happiness appropriately may increase misunderstanding between parents and children/adolescents, which has been shown to have negative consequences for parent-child relationships (Sillars, Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2005). Furthermore, parents may not be able to provide the appropriate emotional support or attend to the child's needs accurately (Goodnow, Knight, & Cashmore, 1985).…”

Methodological approaches to studying the self in its social context

“…Accordingly, the term metaperspective has a different meaning to the concept of meta-position used by Hermans and Hermans-Konopka (2010) Misunderstandings arise when direct perspectives differ but there is no awareness of this. The underlying argument is that disagreements and divergences in perspectives occur but it is misunderstanding and the feeling of being misunderstood that can cause problems within relationships (Sillars, Koerner and Fitzpatrick 2005). The IPM is a systematic self-report methodology for analysing interpersonal perception within dyadic relations.…”