Family processes and the competence of adolescents and primary school children

Abstract

Associations were examined between 12 measures of family process and 6 measures of personal and social competence for 102 adolescents aged 15-16 and 99 children aged 8-9. Canonical correlations analysis revealed that general competence among primary school children was associated with high levels of support from parents, a high allocation of household responsibility, a high level of parental control, and a low level of parental punishment. Among adolescents, general competence was associated with a high level of support from parents, a low level of parental control, a high allocation of household responsibility, parental use of induction, a low level of parental punishment, high-quality sibling relationships, and high family cohesion. The findings suggest that as children enter adolescence, general competence becomes more closely bound up with the quality of sibling relations and the degree of parental control, and less closely bound up with support from parents.

Using an Emotion Regulation Framework to Understand the Role of Temperament and Family Processes in Risk for Adolescent Depressive Disorders

“…One of the primary developmental tasks for families of adolescents is renegotiating relationships such that the necessarily asymmetrical power structure evident between children and their parents starts to become more balanced, as adolescents are increasingly allowed more autonomy and input into family and personal decision-making (Amato, 1989;Baumrind, 1991;Eccles et al, 1993). These changes in parentadolescent relationships necessarily mean that external contributors to adolescent affective and behavioural regulation, in the form of parental support and structure, are reduced at the same time increases in affective reactivity and social motivations provide more regulatory challenges.…”

Attachment and Autonomy During Adolescence

“…There is, however, a large body of research that has yielded definitive support for the role of interfamilial autonomy promotion in the social functioning of younger children (e.g., Maccoby & Martin, 1983 ). Given that autonomy development is such a central task of adolescence, issues of autonomy versus control may become even more central in shaping social competence as children move into adolescence (Amato, 1989 ). In fact, one study in particular compared parental promotion of autonomy in a sample of younger children (ages 8 -9) and in an adolescent/young adult sample (ages 15 to early 20s) and found that there was a shift in the parent -child relationship variables that were associated with social competence in the two groups.…”

Adolescent perceptions of overall family system functioning and parental behaviors

“…Induction encourages adolescents to develop the capacity for self-regulation of behavior based upon principles or logic. Parental induction is positively related to adolescent general competence (Amato, 1989), aspects of moral development, self-esteem (Peterson & Hann, 1999), and empathic perspective taking (Henry et al, 1996).…”