Parent–Child Communication During Adolescence

Abstract

To appear in: Vangelisti, A. L. (Ed.). Routledge Handbook of Family Communication (2 nd ed.).

Group‐based trajectories of parent‐child communication and parental knowledge between sexual minority and heterosexual girls and their associations with substance use

“…This challenges the notion that parent-child communication frequency decreases over time due to adolescents seeking autonomy from their parents (Branje et al, 2012); however, this is also gender-dependent, because previous research has suggested that girls tend to communicate more frequently with their parents than do boys (Cumsille, Darling, & Martínez, 2010). …”

“…Youth can claim more autonomy from their parents by spending less time with them (Larson, Richards, Moneta, Holmbeck, & Duckett, 1996). Corresponding to this decrease in spending time with parents is the decrease in the frequency of parent-child communication (Branje, Brett, & Collins, 2012). However, there is variability in how parent-child communication and parental knowledge change over time.…”

Development of Parent–Adolescent Relationships: Conflict Interactions as a Mechanism of Change

“…Mother-adolescent dyads with more emotional rigidity seem to have difficulties expressing, adjusting, and regulating emotions during conflict interactions (23,25,28). They do not experience a supportive and safe context to discuss diverging views and opposing emotions (39), and are therefore less equipped to flexibly handle different emotional challenges (14). In general, these results suggest that conflict interactions between parents and adolescents are adaptive for relational development when these interactions are characterized by the ability to switch flexibly between a range of emotions.…”

“…Greater emotional variability in early adolescence was not related to concurrent maternal control but predicted a relative decrease in perceived maternal control in late adolescence. This corresponds to the idea that more parental control is considered normative in early adolescence , but from midadolescence, youth tend to see issues that were previously under parents’ jurisdiction as part of the personal domain; parents need to accommodate adolescents’ increasing need for autonomy and allow them to make decisions without informing parents .…”

Interparental Conflict Management Strategies and Parent–Adolescent Relationships: Disentangling Between‐Person From Within‐Person Effects Across Adolescence

“…Furthermore, adolescence is a developmental stage during which families and parent-adolescent relationships undergo significant change (e.g., Branje, Laursen, & Collins, 2012;Laursen & Collins, 2009;Mastrotheodoros, van der Graaff, Deković, Meeus, & Branje, 2018;Meeus, 2016). Adolescents strive for autonomy, often much earlier than parents are willing to grant it (e.g., Deković, Noom, & Meeus, 1997), which might be a reason for the increased tension between parents and adolescents (Laursen, Coy, & Collins, 1998).…”