Adolescent pubertal status and affective family relationships: A multivariate assessment

This research attempted to more adequately dimensionalize the study of affective family relations during adolescent pubertal maturation by employing a multivariate approach. Fifty-one families responded to an assessment battery consisting of a series of questionnaires designed to measure affective relations between parents and their adolescent children. Families were classified into prepubertal, transpubertal, or postpubertal groups according to their modal response on pubertal status criteria. A stepwise discriminant analysis was performed to identify measures that maximize between groups differences. Based on this analysis, a correct classification rate of 70% was achieved for all families. The two significant discriminant functions that emerged indicate that differences in family relationships are due to the transformation of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relations. The pattern of results replicate those of other researchers and provide elaborations concerning the affective nature of family relations during adolescence.Received his Ph.D. in Life-span Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in 1984. Research interests in dialectical models of adolescent development.Received his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas in 1979. Research interests in decision-making in adolescence and adulthood.     

Communication and connectedness in mother- and father-adolescent relationships

In Study 1, 605 adolescents estimated how well their parents knew them and said how much they cared what their parents thought about them. Sons and daughters judged that mothers knew them fairly well, but daughters judged that fathers did not know them so well. At the same time, statements of caring indicated high concern by sons and daughters for both parents. A supplemental result was that sons from white-collar families gave relatively low estimates of how much their mothers knew them and daughters from blue-collar families gave very low estimates of how much their fathers knew them. In Study 2, 52 adolescents from single-parent families and living with their mothers but not with their fathers also gave estimates for knowing and caring. Knowing followed the above pattern, with an expected lowering of estimates for fathers by sons and daughters. Further, estimates of caring declined especially for fathers by daughters. These results add to the growing literature that shows mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships contribute differentially to psychological development. The results seem especially relevant for adolescents' sex role development and constructed individuality as mediated through relationships with both parents.Received Ph.D. in experimental psychology from The Catholic University of America. Research interests are in social development, developmental theory, and the history of the concept of psychological development.Received Ph.D. in developmental psychology from The Catholic University of America. Research interests are in social development in adolescence and the effects of parental divorce on development.     

Fathers,mothers, and adolescents: Gender-based differences in parental roles during adolescence

This study examined the involvement and satisfaction of adolescents with their fathers and mothers. Possible age and sex differences were investigated for three components of involvement: proportion of time spent with fathers and mothers, type of activities engaged in, and degree of satisfaction with those activities. Telephone interviews were used to obtain information about previous day's activities from 61 adolescents in grades 6–12. For each activity, data were obtained on duration, who else was present, and satisfaction. Results indicated that adolescents spent a greater proportion of time in leisure than in work with fathers, and equal time in work and in leisure with mothers. In general, adolescents were as satisfied with activities with their fathers as with their mothers. Adolescents enjoyed working with fathers more than mothers, however. The results demonstrate that activity satisfaction varies as a function of what activities adolescents engage in and who is present.Received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Major research interests are in parent-adolescent relations.Received his Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Major research interests are in early peer relations and mother-child interactions.