Family Relationships in Adolescence

Adolescence, the developmental period typically associated with the teenage years (though sometimes thought to extend into the early 20s), is a time of significant biological, cognitive, and social changes that have profound effects on an individual’s psychological experience and gender development. With the onset of puberty comes new hormonal influences on a child’s appearance, self-image, and behavior. Adolescence is also a period of great cognitive development as the brain matures and teens become capable of more complex and sophisticated reasoning. Socially, peer relationships become more important, and teens begin to seek greater autonomy from their parents and distance from siblings. From the family systems theory perspective, children and parents are separate but interconnected subunits of the larger system (the family) and are perpetually influencing and ...