Antecedents of parent-adolescent disagreements

In this investigation, we tested a theory that suggests that the level of parent-adolescent conflict is, in large part, determined by family context. According to this theory, a family atmosphere of warmth and supportiveness promotes successful negotiation of disagreements between parents and adoles...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marriage and family 1995-05, Vol.57 (2), p.435-448
Main Authors: Rueter, M.A, Conger, R.D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescence
Adolescent Development
Adolescents
Antecedents
Child Behavior
Children
Conflict
Drug Use
Early Adolescents
Families & family life
Family Characteristics
Family Conflict
Family Environment
Family Life
Family members
Family Problems
Family Structure
Home Environment
Hostility
Interpersonal communication
Longitudinal Studies
Modeling
Mothers
Parent Attitudes
Parent Child Relations
Parent Child Relationship
parent-child relationships
Parents
Parents & parenting
Problem Solving
Research Design
Secondary Education
Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations
Siblings
Social research
Sociology
Sociology of the family. Age groups
Structural Equation Models
Teenagers
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this investigation, we tested a theory that suggests that the level of parent-adolescent conflict is, in large part, determined by family context. According to this theory, a family atmosphere of warmth and supportiveness promotes successful negotiation of disagreements between parents and adolescent children and thereby helps to keep conflict at low to moderate levels. Under hostile, coercive conditions, however, parents and adolescents will be unlikely to resolve disagreements and conflict will escalate to dysfunctional levels. We tested this theory using structural equation modeling of data collected from 335 families over a 4-year period of time, from the target children 's early adolescence into their middle adolescence. The results support the theory. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the progressive nature of the proposed family process. Difficulties in hostile and coercive families appeared to worsen throughout early to middle adolescence, while parent-adolescent relationships in warm, supportive families tended to improve.
ISSN:0022-2445
1741-3737
DOI:10.2307/353697