Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 Adolescence 8th edition By Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D. Chapter Four: Families Insert photo of text

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 2 Chapter 4 Overview  Is conflict between parents and teenagers inevitable during adolescence?  What are the main changes in family relationships during adolescence?  How do family relationships affect adolescent development?  How can behavioral genetics inform the study of adolescent development?  How are adolescents affected by divorce, remarriage, or poverty?

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 3 Is There Emotional Distance Between Teens and Parents?  Very little emotional distance between parents and adolescents (unlike stereotypes)  Most Teens  Feel close to parents  Respect parents’ judgment  Feel loved by parents  Respect parents as individuals  20% say their top concern is not having enough time with parents

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 4 Is There A Generation Gap?  Popular advice for parents of teens  Emphasizes nonnormative development, stereotypes of strained relationships  Self-fulfilling prophecy  Research indicates  Very little emotional distance between teens and parents  Parents and teens have similar beliefs about core values  If generation gap, it exists in matters of personal taste (e.g., style of dress, music preferences, leisure activities)

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 5 What Do Parents and Teens Fight About?  Mundane issues, not big ones (e.g., curfew, leisure time, cleaning room)  Disagreements stem from different perspectives on issues  Parents see issues as a matter of right or wrong (social conventions or moral issues)  Teens see issues as a matter of personal choice (e.g., how to dress) Insert Picture fighting teen/parent PRT013.JPG

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 6 Changes in Family Relationships: The Parents  Parents of adolescents  Increased concern about bodies, physical attractiveness, and sexual appeal  Midlife crisis (most are in 40s)  Beginning to feel that the possibilities for change are limited  Occupational plateau  Mental health of parents Insert Picture midlife parent(s) jpg

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7 Changes in Family Relationships: Family Needs  Changes in the family as a whole unit  Changes in economic circumstances  Large anticipated expenditures (e.g., college)  Parents belong to “Sandwich generation”  Changes in family’s relationship to other social institutions  Increasing importance of peers  Changes in family functions  Family’s role during adolescence less clear than infancy or childhood

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 Transformations in Family Relationships  Changes in the balance of power  Shift from an asymmetrical relationship toward a more equal relationship with parents  The role of puberty  Biological/cognitive maturation at puberty throws the family system out of balance  Violations of Expectations  Cognitive changes in views of family expectations

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 9 Sex Differences in Family Relationships  Minimal differences between sons and daughters in family relations  Similar degrees of closeness, types of rules, patterns of activities  Sex of the parent may be a more important influence than sex of the teen  Teens tend to be closer to their mothers, have more intense relationships  Fathers rely on mothers for information about adolescent, perceived as distant authority figures

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 10 Adolescents who differ in temperament are affected in different ways by the same parenting Parenting and Temperament

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 Parenting Styles Diana Baumrind suggests two critical aspects (dimensions) of parenting:  Parental responsiveness  Degree to which parent responds to child’s needs in an accepting, supportive manner  Parental demandingness  Degree to which parent expects/demands mature, responsible behavior from the child

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 12 Parenting Styles  Authoritative  warm but firm, use induction  Authoritarian  place a high value on obedience and conformity  Indulgent  behave in an accepting, benign, and somewhat more passive way  Indifferent  minimize the time and energy they devote to interacting with their child

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 13 Ethnic Differences in Parenting Styles  Authoritative parenting is less prevalent among African-American, Asian-American, or Hispanic-American families than among white families  Beneficial effects are found for all ethnic groups

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 14 Ethnic Differences in Parenting Styles  Authoritarian parenting is more prevalent among ethnic minority than among white families (even when SES is taken into account)  Adverse effects are greater for white adolescents than for ethnic minorities  May carry benefits for ethnic minorities who live in dangerous areas

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 15 Autonomy and Attachment in the Family  Adolescents who are permitted to assert their own opinions within a family context that is secure and loving  develop higher self-esteem  develop more mature coping abilities  Adolescents whose autonomy is squelched  at risk for developing feelings of depression  Adolescents who do not feel connected  more likely than their peers to develop behavior problems

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 16 Sibling Relationships  Adolescent’s relationships with siblings  become more equal  become more distant  become less emotionally intense  Quality of sibling relationships are affected by quality of parent-child relationship  Quality of adolescent-sibling relationship affects adolescent’s relationships with peers

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 17 Behavioral Genetics: Influences on Development  Behavioral Genetics Asks  To what extent a given trait is genetically vs. e nvironmentally determined  How do genes and environment interact?  Two types of environmental influences  Shared environmental influences  Nonshared environmental influences

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 18 Behavioral Genetics: Why Are Siblings So Different?  Siblings may have very different family experiences  Treated differently by parents  Perceive similar experiences in different ways  Unequal treatment often creates conflict among siblings, but most (75%) treatment is not differential  If all siblings are treated well, research shows that differential treatment can actually be a good thing  Leads to siblings getting along better  Less sibling rivalry  Sibling deidentification  Trying to distinguish self from sibling can also diminish feelings of competition

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 19 Family in a Changing Society  Implications of high divorce rates and high rates of childbirth outside of marriage  Most American adolescents born during 1990s will spend some of their childhood or adolescence in a single-parent household  Half of teens whose parents divorce will spend time in a stepfamily

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 20  The divorce rate rose dramatically between 1960 and 1980  It has more or less leveled off since then. The Changing Family: Divorce

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 21 Family in a Changing Society Maternal Employment  80% of all married women with adolescent children are employed  Nearly half of these women work full-time Poverty  16% of children in the United States grow up in abject poverty  Additional 22% grow up in low-income families  Nonwhite children  More likely to be in single-parent families  More likely to be poor

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 22 The Changing Family: Divorce  Quality of relationships with the important adults in a teen’s life matters most  Not the number of parents present in the house  Process of going through a divorce matters most  Not resulting family structure (single-parent or stepfamily)  Exposure to marital conflict and disorganized parenting linked to adverse outcomes  Some differences between teens whose parents have divorced and those from intact families are due to genetic factors

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 23 The Changing Family: Divorce  The Longer-Term Effects of Divorce  Individuals whose parents divorce during preadolescence and adolescence often demonstrate adjustment difficulties later

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 24 The Changing Family: Divorce  Custody, Contact, and Conflict following Divorce  It is the quality of the relationship between the adolescent’s divorced parents (not which one he or she lives with), that matters most Insert Photo from DAL

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 25 Effects of divorce on the development of emotional problems: A long-term study of British individuals (Cherlin et al, 1998)

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 26 The Changing Family: Remarriage  75% men and 67% women remarry after divorce  Adolescents growing up in stepfamilies often have more problems than their peers  African-American teens more likely to experience parental divorce and less likely to experience parents’ remarriage

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 27 The Changing Family: Economic Strain and Poverty  Parents under financial stress are harsher, more inconsistent, less involved  Adolescents living in these conditions have greater risk of  psychological difficulties  problem behaviors

Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 28 The Importance of the Family in Adolescent Development  Adolescents who feel that their parents or guardians are “there” for them – caring, involved, and accepting – are healthier, happier, and more competent than their peers  Despite growing importance of peers, adolescents still need love and support of adults who care about them