Parent-Adolescent Relationship Quality as a Moderator for the Influences of Parents’ Religiousness on Adolescents’ Religiousness and Adjustment

Prior investigations have demonstrated that parents’ religiousness is related inversely to adolescent maladjustment. However, research remains unclear about whether the link between parents’ religiousness and adolescent adjustment outcomes—either directly or indirectly via adolescents’ own religiousness—varies depending on relationship context (e.g., parent-adolescent attachment). This study examined the moderating roles of parent-adolescent attachment on the apparent effects of the intergenerational transmission of religiousness on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms using data from 322 adolescents (mean age?=?12.63?years, 45?% girls, and 84?% White) and their parents. Structural equation models indicated significant indirect effects suggesting that parents’ organizational religiousness was positively to boys’ organizational religiousness—the latter of which appeared to mediate the negative association of parents’ organizational religiousness with boys’ internalizing symptoms. Significant interaction effects suggested also that, for both boys and girls, parents’ personal religiousness was associated positively with adolescent internalizing symptoms for parent-adolescent dyads with low attachment, whereas parents’ personal religiousness was not associated with adolescent internalizing symptoms for parent-adolescent dyads with high attachment. The findings help to identify the family dynamics by which the interaction of parents’ religiousness and adolescents’ religiousness might differentially influence adolescent adjustment.     

Predictors of Adolescents’ Disclosure to Parents and Perceived Parental Knowledge: Between- and Within-Person Differences

Adolescents’ willingness to share information with parents is a central process through which parents gain knowledge of their adolescents’ lives. This paper addresses four questions important to understanding adolescents’ decisions to voluntarily disclose areas of parent-adolescent disagreement: What are the contribution of parent-adolescent agreement and adolescents’ non-disclosure of disagreement to adolescents’ perceptions of parental knowledge?; Which adolescents are most likely to disclose to parents in case of disagreement?; Under what conditions are adolescents more or less likely to disclose disagreement?; and What type of non-disclosure will different adolescents use and under what conditions? Self-report data from 120 adolescents (M age=15.8) revealed that failure to disclose disagreement, but not overall agreement, predicted perceived parental knowledge. Adolescents from authoritative homes and those less involved in disapproved leisure were more likely to disclose disagreement and less likely to lie. Within-person differences in disclosure were predicted by the presence of explicit rules and adolescents’ beliefs about required obedience.Dr. Darling is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on social relationships during adolescence, with a special interest in contextual variation in developmental processes. Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Darling atDr. Cumsille is a developmental methodologist whose research focuses on adolescent well-being.Dr. Caldwell's research focuses on the experience of adolescent leisure, with a particular interest in adolescent boredom and well-being.Dr. Dowdy is a developmental psychologist specializing in adolescent social relations.     

A self-report measure of pubertal status: Reliability,validity, and initial norms

Puberty is a central process in the complex set of changes that constitutes the transition from childhood to adolescence. Research on the role of pubertal change in this transition has been impeded by the difficulty of assessing puberty in ways acceptable to young adolescents and others involved. Addressing this problem, this paper describes and presents norms for a selfreport measure of pubertal status. The measure was used twice annually over a period of three years in a longitudinal study of 335 young adolescent boys and girls. Data on a longitudinal subsample of 253 subjects are reported. The scale shows good reliability, as indicated by coefficient alpha. In addition, several sources of data suggest that these reports are valid. The availability of such a measure is important for studies, such as those based in schools, in which more direct measures of puberty may not be possible.This research was supported by a grant to A.C.P. from the National Institutes of Mental Health (MH 38052/38142).She earned the Ph.D. in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis at the University of Chicago. Her research interests focus on biopsychosocial development in adolescence.She earned the Ph.D. in Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her research interests focus on social development and gender roles.She earned the Ph.D. in Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her research interests focus on adolescent development and gender issues.His research interests focus on parent-adolescent relationships.     

The value of physical change in adolescence: Consequences for the parent-adolescent exchange relationship

This research examines the effects of specific physical changes associated with puberty on peer and parent relationships of early and middle adolescent white boys. The data used are from a longitudinal study of Milwaukee school children conducted by Simmons and Blyth (1979). On the basis of past research, most of the physical changes that occur during puberty were expected to increase peer status. According to Richer's (1968) exchange model, these positive effects in the domain of peer relations should, in turn, reduce the resource dependency of the adolescent on his parents. As a result, greater independence from parents should ensue and the likelihood of conflict should increase. As expected, significant positive relationships were found for the effects of various physical changes on most peer status variables and independence from parents. However, no significant relationships were found for the effects of physical changes on parent-adolescent relationship quality or conflict with parents. Also contrary to expectations, controlling for changes in peer status did not alter the positive effects of physical change on independence from parents. Finally, tests for interactions showed that the parent-adolescent relationship was negatively affected when parents did not grant greater independence to the physically changing adolescent. In conclusion, it is suggested that while resource dependencies may indeed change during puberty, parents alter their expectations for their children and grant greater independence based on the adolescent's physical appearance alone.An earlier version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations, New Orleans, 1989. It is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, submitted to the University of Minnesota.The author has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Minnesota. He is currently analyzing data from the recently completed National Survey of Families and Households on dating and remarriage in later life. He is also continuing his analysis on the data set used here to explore changes in the factor structure of orientations to parents and peers as a result of pubertal and other early adolescent transitions.     

Parental criticism and young adolescent self-disclosure: A cross-cultural study

Criticism by mothers and fathers, as well as young adolescents' perceptions of parental criticism and their self-disclosure to parents, was assessed for a sample of 80 families. Of these, 40 were resident in Australia (20 Anglo-Australian and 20 Greek-Australian) and 40 were resident in Greece (20 professional and 20 working-class). There were no differences between the groups in amount of criticism by parents nor in adolescents' perceptions of criticism. Greek- and Anglo-Australian adolescents disclosed significantly less to parents than did the Greek adolescents. For Greek-Australian adolescents there was an inverse relationship between self-disclosure on a number of topics and perceived levels of parental criticism. The results were interpreted in terms of cultural differences between the groups and adaptive behaviors of the Greek-Australian adolescents.This research was supported by a University of Melbourne grant to the first author.Received Ph.D. from University of Melbourne. Research interests include the social context of adolescent development.Received Ph.D. from Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. Research interest is in cognitive development through the life span.Received Ph.D. from Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. Research interest is in cognitive development through the life span.     

Item-Level Discordance in Parent and Adolescent Reports of Parenting Behavior and Its Implications for Adolescents’ Mental Health and Relationships with Their Parents

The phenomenon of discordance between parents' and children's ratings of the child's mental health symptoms or of parenting behavior until recently has been treated as a problem of reliability. More recent work has sought to identify factors that may influence discordance, yet much remains to be learned about why informants' ratings of developmental phenomena are discordant and the meaning of such discordance. This study examined the extent to which discordance can be treated as a measure of the difference between two equally valid perceptions, and as such an indicator of the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship. One category of concordance and three patterns of discordance were derived from item-level differences in ratings of affection, control, and punitiveness provided by a diverse sample (53% female; 46% Hispanic-American, 35% African-American, 15% European-American, 4% another race/ethnicity) of 484 adolescents aged 12-20 years (M = 15.67, SD = 1.72) and their parents. Over and above adolescents' and parents' independent ratings of parenting, the discordance between these ratings was found to predict adolescent reports of anxiety and conduct disorder symptoms, as well as the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship. This was particularly true when adolescents and parents were discordant in their ratings of affection and when adolescents rated their parents higher on affection than did parents themselves. Implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.     

Parent-adolescent congruence for adolescent substance use

Parental reports of adolescent substance use were compared to the adolescents' self-reports using identical scales. Congruence was defined as exact agreement on whether adolescents were current users, ex-users, or never-users. Both parents were found to be less accurate in predicting their adolescents' alcohol use compared to cigarette or marijuana use. Single mothers were significantly less likely to be congruent than were mothers from two-parent households. Mother and father congruence on all substances was unrelated to the adolescent's sex, race, or after school employment. For both parents, congruence for adolescent marijuana use was significantly related to the age and GPA of the adolescent. Congruence may also reflect important properties of family functioning, as significant relations were found between both adolescent and parent ratings of family cohesion and parent-adolescent congruence on perceptions of marijuana use.This research was supported by Grant DA03706 from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (Hyman Hops, Principal Investigator).Jennifer Langhinrichsen is a doctoral candidate in psychology interested in adolescent and family interactions. The other authors are psychologists or data analysts working on family influences on substance use and mental health.     

Adolescent Intimacy Revisited

Two studies examined intimacy in adolescent friendships. In the first, 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-grade students completed a questionnaire assessing perceived friendship intimacy. Age and sex differences were identified in emotional closeness, self-disclosure, emphasis on individuality, control, and conformity. Across ages, emphasis on individuality increased, whereas control and conformity declined. There were no age differences in emotional closeness and self-disclosure. Females reported more emotional closeness and self-disclosure than males. In the second study, individual differences in friendship intimacy were examined in a sample of 9th-grade adolescents. A joint problem solving task identified interdependent and disengaged friends. Perceived intimacy among interdependent and disengaged friends was contrasted with that in a control group of subjects without friends. Adolescents with friends reported more closeness than those without friends. Interdependent friends reported greater levels of respect for individuality than disengaged friends. The results underscore the salience of intimacy for peer relationships during the adolescent years and suggest that intimacy may be an important construct distinguishing between different types of close friendships.     

Adolescent autonomy and parental stress

The present investigation explores the relationship between adolescent autonomy and parental stress among families with children aged 10–17. Independent measures were obtained from parents and children. Parents of early adolescent children reported significantly more stress than parents of preadolescents or middle adolescents. Parents of first-born children reported significantly more stress than did more experienced parents. Although mothers and fathers reported comparable levels of overall parental stress, their stress was, in part, the result of different factors. Fathers reported higher levels of stress if their children reported not following their advice and being involved in deviant activities. For mothers, stress was significantly related to their children's desire for greater autonomy. Emotional detachment was not a significant predictor of parental stress for either mothers or fathers. Implications of the findings for the parent-child relationship during adolescence are discussed.Received Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1984. Research interests include parent-adolescent relations and the work-family interface.Research interests include home-school relations and parenting.Received Ph.D. in 1978 from the Pennsylvania State University. Research interests are in adult development and aging.     

Developmental Patterns in Adolescent Attachment to Mother,Father and Sibling

The aim of this study was to examine the development of quality of attachment of adolescents to their parents and siblings during adolescence and the role that gender differences play in this development, using latent growth curve analysis. In 288 families, adolescents reported on their attachment relationships with their parents and siblings. Quality of attachment changes during adolescence, and these changes are influenced by both gender of the adolescent and gender of the attachment figure. Results showed that change in mean level of quality of attachment to mother appeared to be nonlinear for boys, whereas mean level of attachment of adolescent girls to their mothers showed a linear decline. Results for attachment to father were opposite, with a linear decline in quality for boys, and a nonlinear development for girls. Quality of attachment to sibling showed differential development depending on gender composition of the sibling dyad.     

Adolescent-Mother Agreement about Adolescent Problem Behaviors: Direction and Predictors of Disagreement

Correlations between adolescent and parent reports of adolescent problems are low in magnitude. In community samples adolescents tend to report more problems than parents and in clinical samples adolescents tend to report fewer problems than parents. Indices of agreement may be biased if some adolescents in a given sample report more problems and others report fewer problems than parents. In the current study, order and mean agreement between adolescent and maternal reports of adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems, taking into account the direction of disagreement, was examined in a community sample of 133 young adolescents and their mothers. Two-thirds to three-quarters of adolescents reported more problems than mothers. Accounting for the direction of discrepancies resulted in improved agreement between adolescents and mothers and differing patterns of predictors of discrepancies. Additionally, the results demonstrate the need to control for relations between adolescent-reported problems and discrepancies when exploring predictors of discrepancies. Erin T. Barker received her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Alberta. Her research interests include internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Marc H. Bornstein received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University. He has contributed scientific papers in the areas of human experimental, methodological, comparative, developmental, cross-cultural, neuroscientific, pediatric, and aesthetic psychology. Diane L. Putnick received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from George Washington University. Her research interests include child and family processes across cultures. Charlene Hendricks received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from George Mason University. Her research interests are in the areas of early adolescent development and adjustment and families by adoption. Joan T. D. Suwalsky received her M.S. degree in Human Development from Cornell University. Her research interests include parent-child interaction and child development in at-risk populations, including families by adoption.     

Storm and stress beliefs about adolescence: Prevalence,self-reported antecedents,and effects of an undergraduate course

The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence and self-reported developmental antecedents of beliefs in storm and stress notions about adolescence, and to investigate the effects on such beliefs of an undergraduate course on adolescent development. Subjects were 192 college students who were enrolled in a course entitled Psychology of Adolescence at a large urban university. The questionnaire, which was administered at the beginning and end of the course, contained a storm and stress scale, items tapping the nature of parent-adolescent arguments, Dusek and Flaherty's (1981) Self-Concept Scale, and several demographic questions. Results suggested that beliefs in storm and stress notions are quite prevalent, arguments between parents and adolescents are believed to occur quite frequently, and females endorse storm and stress beliefs more readily than do males. Moreover, subjects tended to endorse storm and stress notions more readily if they viewed themselves as being less adjusted during their own adolescence and if they reported more adjustment instability. After a course on adolescent development, the tendency to report that the typical adolescent experiences storm and stress decreased, and this decrease was more pronounced for those receiving higher grades in the course.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the First Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Madison, Wisconsin, March, 1986.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University. Interests are family relations during adolescence, pediatric psychology, child clinical psychology, and statistical applications in psychology.Received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University. Interests are the social psychology of adolescence and psychosocial adaptation to biological change.     

Adolescents' perceptions of the nature of their communication with parents

This study examines the effects of the age and sex of adolescent and the sex of parent upon adolescents' perceptions of the nature of their communication with each parent. Two hundred and ninety-six adolescents aged 13–17 years completed a communication schedule, rating 14 content areas along six process dimensions: frequency of conversation, initiator, levels of recognition of adolescents' opinion, self-disclosure, domination, and levels of satisfaction. Multivariate analyses of variance were conducted separately for each process dimension. Frequency ratings revealed that adolescent females of all ages reported talking more often with mothers than did adolescent males. Adolescent males, however, believed they talked more often than did females with fathers about interests, sexual issues, and general problems. Mothers were seen to initiate more conversations than fathers on a wide range of topics. Mothers were also perceived as more likely to recognize and accept the adolescents' opinions. Adolescent females believed they disclosed more to mothers than fathers, but males believed they disclosed equally to both parents. Males disclosed more to fathers than did females about their sexual or other problems, while females disclosed more often overall to their mothers than did males. Adolescent males were equally satisfied with their discussions with both parents, but females were more satisfied about conversations with mothers rather than fathers. In sum, the results suggest that mothers' more frequent initiation of discussions with their younger adolescents and their greater recognition of their opinions lead to older adolescents interacting more with mothers than fathers.Ph.D. in Social Psychology, University of Queensland. Her current interests are in the areas of marital and family communication, adolescence, and personal relationships.Ph.D. in Social Psychology, Australian National University, with research interests in adolescence, marital communication, and childless couples.     

Adolescent autonomy,parent-adolescent conflict,and parental well-being

The present study examines whether parents' reports of well-being are related to the level of parent-adolescent conflict in the family and their youngsters' level of emotional autonomy. The sample is composed of 129 intact families with a first-born child between the ages of 10 and 15. Measures included parents' reports of midlife identity concerns, self-esteem, life satisfaction, psychological symptoms, and parent-adolescent conflict, as well as youngsters' reports of emotional autonomy vis-à-vis parents. Findings indicate that (1) parents' experience of midlife identity concerns is positively related to the level of emotional autonomy reported by same-sex children; (2) mothers', but not fathers', well-being is negatively related to the intensity of parent-adolescent conflict; and (3) socioeconomic status moderates the relation between parental well-being and parent-adolescent relations. These results are discussed in terms of psychoanalytic and parental stress perspectives on parental well-being during the adolescent years.The work described herein has been conducted during the second author's tenure as a Faculty Scholar under the William T. Grant Foundation's Program in the Mental Health of Children and is supported as well by a grant to the second author from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin.Received Ph. D. in Child and Family Studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Major research interests are in the psychological well-being of parents with adolescent children.Received Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University. Major research interests are in social relations during adolescence.     

A “second look” at interviews with adolescents

Interviews are widely used in adolescent study as data collection methods. This article argues that such interviews contain an additional order of data, located in the conversing, which can complement the content analysis and interpretation of answers to questions. This argument is based on treating interviews with adolescents as actual instances of adolescent adult interaction and is illustrated by transcribed passages from a series of interviews with young adolescents. The purpose of the study is to outline how researchers using an interview method can examine records of the talk for valuable supplementary data. The conversational analysis sketched here is, of course, only one possible way of taking this second look. In this area, it would also be a valuable resource for investigators to study how adolescents manage their research participation under a variety of data collection methods. Adequately recorded interviews contain such data, and can be inspected for the presence or clues to the very phenomena researchers may be interested in. All of this requires the understanding that 1) the primary order of empirical data is the talking and, 2) the interviews are instances of adolescent behavior.     

The Jingle–Jangle Fallacy in Adolescent Autonomy in the Family: In Search of an Underlying Structure

The construct of autonomy has a rich, though quite controversial, history in adolescent psychology. The present investigation aimed to clarify the meaning and measurement of adolescent autonomy in the family. Based on theory and previous research, we examined whether two dimensions would underlie a wide range of autonomy-related measures, using data from two adolescent samples (N = 707, 51 % girls, and N = 783, 59 % girls, age range = 14–21 years). Clear evidence was found for a two-dimensional structure, with the first dimension reflecting “volition versus pressure”, that is, the degree to which adolescents experience a sense of volition and choice as opposed to feelings of pressure and coercion in the parent–adolescent relationship. The second dimension reflected “distance versus proximity”, which involves the degree of interpersonal distance in the parent-adolescent relationship. Whereas volition related to higher well-being, less problem behavior and a secure attachment style, distance was associated mainly with more problem behavior and an avoidant attachment style. These associations were not moderated by age. The discussion focuses on the meaning of adolescent autonomy and on the broader implications of the current findings.     

The Same Old Song?—Stability and Change in Relationship Schemas from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Relationship schemas are core elements of personality that guide interpersonal functioning. The aim of this study is to examine stability and change in relationship schemas across two developmental epochs—adolescence and young adulthood—in the stories that people tell about their interactions with others. Using the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method, relationship themes were coded from semistructured interviews conducted in adolescence and again at age 25. The sample consisted of 40 participants in a longitudinal study of adolescent and young adult psychological development. There was considerable stability in the frequency with which particular themes were expressed in the narratives of adolescents and young adults. Significant changes from adolescence to young adulthood included a decrease in the perception of others as rejecting and of the self as opposing others. Young adults saw themselves and others more positively, and used a broader repertoire of themes in their relationship narratives than they had as adolescents. The basic continuity and particular changes in relationship schemas found in this study are consistent with knowledge about the adolescent-to-young-adult transition derived from other empirical and clinical findings. Relationship schemas may be rich units of study for learning about the development of interpersonal functioning.     

Gender-specific pathways to intimacy in early adolescence

As part of a larger longitudinal study of psychosocial development, 148 girls and 130 boys were administered a series of questions regarding a close friend during their eighth-grade school year. Scales corresponding to shared experience, self-disclosure, and intimacy (defined as emotional closeness) were developed from these items. Path-analytic models tested the relative strength of the self-disclosure and shared experience paths to emotional closeness for boys and girls separately. The results indicated that the self-disclosure path to emotional closeness is significant for both boys and girls. No relationship was found between shared experience and emotional closeness in girls when controlling for self-disclosure. The relationship between shared experience and feelings of closeness was, however, significant for boys even while controlling for the effects of self-disclosure. Covariance structure analysis (LISREL) indicated that the covariance matrices for the three scales were significantly different for boys and girls. The results are considered in relation to the gender socialization and friendship literature. The potential importance of defining intimacy as emotional closeness is also discussed.The research reported here was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH30252/38142 to Anne C. Petersen.Research interests include the development of the self-sytem and close relationships during adolescence and young adulthood.Research interests include adolescent mental health and parent and peer relationships.Received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1973. Research interest is biopsychosocial development in adolescence, with a focus on sex differences in mental health.     

Representation of the female body by early and late adolescent girls

A group of 153 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade girls and a group of 95 college women produced human figure drawings. Comparisons were made between early and late adolescents and, within the group of early adolescents, between pre- and postmenarcheal girls, of the frequency with which secondary sexual characteristics, namely, breasts, were explicitly depicted on the female figures. Early adolescents were found to represent breasts more explicitly than late adolescents. Parallel results were found for pre- and postmenarcheal girls in the seventh grade. The results suggest that early adolescents emphasize and are preoccupied with body parts whose changes signal the beginning of puberty, while later adolescents, being past the period of most rapid growth and change in body contour, have a more integrated body image.This research was supported in part by Wellesley College Faculty Development Awards to each of the two authors.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development. Correspondence should be addressed to this author.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.