Family Relationships in Adolescence

Theories of Relationship Transformation

Conceptual models of adolescent family relationships vary in whether their primary focus is on the adolescent or on the relationship. One set of theories holds that adolescent maturation undermines [Page 630]patterns of interaction established during childhood, whereas another set of theories emphasizes enduring bonds that are assumed to be the foundation for continuity in the relationship. Most theories focus on parent-child relationships; less attention has been given to sibling relationships during adolescence.

Theories Emphasizing Individual Change

Maturation models focus on relationship disruptions caused by adolescent physical, social, and cognitive maturation. These models hold that changes in adolescents provoke changes in families. Diminished closeness and heightened conflict are expected to accompany adolescent maturation and continue until parent-child relationships are renegotiated. Sibling relationships may undergo similar transformations.

Puberty is central to many models. Psychoanalytic theorists assume that hormonal changes at puberty give rise to Oedipal urges that foster rebelliousness and distance from the family. Evolutionary views also link puberty to relationship transformations, such that physical and cognitive advances encourage adolescents to separate from the family to seek mates elsewhere.

Other maturation models give cognitive development a central role in relationship change. In these accounts, advances in abstract and complex reasoning foster egalitarian views that are inconsistent with the unilateral organization of relationships with parents and siblings. As a result, adolescents increasingly aspire to reciprocity and equal power, which may create conflict and curtail closeness. Eventually, familial roles are renegotiated to acknowledge the adolescent's enhanced status and maturity.

Systemic theorists argue that as relationships with firstborn children change, so too must relationships with later-born children. According to the spillover model, relationships with later-born children deteriorate and are renegotiated concurrent with (or shortly after) relationships with firstborn children. The Learning-from-Experience Model posits that parents hone their skills with firstborn children and are thus better able to cope constructively with developmental changes in later born children. According to this view, the magnitude of change in parent-child relationships differs between firstborns and later-borns, rather than the timing of that change.

Theories Emphasizing Relationship Continuity

Alternative models of family relationships focus on forces that promote stability. The most prominent example, Attachment Theory, emphasizes the strong emotional ties between parents and children. As a mutually regulated system, parents and children work jointly to maintain the relationship in a manner consistent with cognitive representations derived from their history of interactions. Attachment in adolescence is different from attachment during earlier age periods, but the functions are similar. Whereas security facilitates exploration of the immediate environment for young children, security affords adolescents a sense of confidence in family support for explorations outside the family, including those that involve the formation of new relationships. Children and parents with a history of sensitive, responsive interactions and strong emotional bonds should maintain these positive features throughout adolescence. Children and parents with a history of difficult, unresponsive interactions should also experience continuity in the quality of their interactions, however unsatisfactory they may be.

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