Parent-Child Closeness as an Influence on the Projected Life Course of Rural Adolescent Girls

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between young adolescent girls' feelings of closeness to mother and father and the ages at which they expected to make certain transitions to adult life, including becoming sexually active, marrying, becoming a mother, establishing an independent residence, completing education, and beginning to work full-time. Interviews with 106 girls (13-17 years of age) from a rural school district were conducted. Results indicated that the closer girls felt to their mothers, the later they expected to make the transitions related to sexuality and family formation. Feelings of closeness to father covaried with girls' expectations of becoming sexually active later but were not related to expectations about the timing of other transitions. Although analyses of the stability of girls' ideas about life course timing revealed considerable stability in girls' timing expectations across a six-month period, it was also clear that some shifting in ideas about life course transitions and timing had occurred. A more fine-grained study of continuity and change in these ideas across the adolescent years would be a promising direction for future research.

Adolescents' Plans for Family Formation: Is Parental Socialization Important?

“…This contrast may be attributable to the fact that the adolescents studied by Hogan and Trent were about 3 years older than those analyzed in the present study. Nonetheless, consistent with Crouter et al (1988), closeness to father is not related to female adolescents' expectations of when they will marry and become parents. In contrast to Trent, Dennehy and Mortimer (1993), Hogan and Moore and Stief (1991), we did not find a race effect for marriage plans.…”

“…Crouter et al (1988) found that closeness with fathers was not correlated with female adolescents' expectations of when they would marry and become parents. Father's involvement in family work (child rearing and housework), as well as mother's gender role behavior and attitudes, were included in this study because parental attitudes and roles pertaining to the family would be expected to influence the family goals of offspring.…”

“…An individual's educational achievement and aspirations can affect plans for family formation. Adolescents' current level of school achievement may influence their expectations for the timing and patterning of life‐course transitions (Crouter, Carson, Vicary, & Butler, 1988). Hagan and Wheaton (1993) revealed a positive relation between adolescents' poor school performance and the search for role exits (e.g., early marriage or parenthood).…”

Anticipating Adulthood: Expected Timing of Work and Family Transitions Among Rural Youth

“…Among rural youth, close family ties may foster early role transitions by anchoring young people to communities with few high level jobs and few incentives for postsecondary education (e.g., Donaldson, 1986). Alternatively, poor family relationships may create an incentive for early role transitions; one study found that rural girls with poor parent-child relationships expected to marry and begin childbearing at younger ages than girls with better parent-child relationships (Crouter, Carson, Vicary, & Butler, 1988).…”

Accounting for Patterns of Father Involvement: Age of Child, Father‐Child Coresidence, and Father Role Salience

“…Some of these studies have found that the impact of fathers on children is somewhat limited, though not unimportant. Among intact families, mothers rather than fathers tend to have the greater influence in children's identity development, positive life transitions, drug use and delinquency, and general measures of adolescent adjustment (Campbell, Adams, and Dobson 1984;Crouter, Carson, Vicary, and Butler 1988;Forehand and Nousiainen 1993;Patterson, Reid, and Dishion 1992). Studies of nonresidential fathers of adolescents suggest that the fathers' influence is especially apparent in fostering children's positive adjustment to divorce (Hetherington 1989;Hetherington, Cox, andCox 1978, 1979;Simons, Whitbeck, Beaman, and Conger 1994;Thomas and Forehand 1993;Wallerstein and Blakeslee 1989).…”