Aantekeningen hoorcollege adolescent development toets 2
Hoorcollege 7: Family relationships and adolescent autonomy
The Family/Parent-adolescent relationship
What is a family: answer may be time & culture dependent
- In all societies, the family fulfils similar functions
o Socialization
o Enduring source of support (practical/economical/social)
o Social embedding = continuity of relationships across the life course
The family as a system: Theory
- Family Systems Theory = an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence
each other
o System = set(s) of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the
environment
Interrelation = not A affects B, but A & B affect each other
So the marital relationship between the parents also effects the children but
the children effect the marital relationships
o Changing, self-organizing, and adapting to (changes in) its members and the outside
environment
System is flexible, but strives for stability (= equilibrium)
o Family = cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Family systems theory: key principles
- Holism: on a individual level it is not enough to look at family members separately because a
family is something to look at as a whole, everyone had a role
o To understand family not enough to look at members separately
o Roles (caretaker for example)
Roles: growing up with a depressed mother
“When I think back to my mother when I was a child, I don’t have a single
memory of her smiling. She suffered from chronic, lifelong depression and it
affected me and my four siblings every day.
We quickly learned that we couldn’t depend on her for emotional or physical
support. At age 7, I became my family’s caretaker. I would make my mother
toast and coffee each morning. Then, I’d make lunches for my siblings, iron
their shirts, and made sure their homework was complete...”
- Hierarchy/structure, on dyadic level, so there is some sort of hierarchy, the older generation
needs to take care of the younger generation. Within the family there are individual
members, but also relationships like marriage or children-parent or siblings. All the structures
are linked together, but there are different sublevels.
o Organized into subsystems
o By gender or generation
- Boundaries
o At every level (subsystems, inside/outside)
o Permeability varies across families/time
o Spillover vs compensation
, Association between relationships, within the whole family = where there are
‘loose’ boundaries between subsystems
Study over conflict between parents and children
- Higher conflict between parents is more conflict between parent-adolescents
- More conflict between parent-adolescents leads to one day later more conflict between
parents in marital relationships and the other way around, so marital relationships to
adolescents-parent
- What happens in one subsystem can spill over to another subsystem, so parent adolescent to
parents and the other way around.
- Conflict is related to negative emotions
Another study
- • Mother- & father-reports – Marital quality + parent-adolescent relationship quality Overall
rating of “emotional quality of your relationship with your spouse/child”, ranging from 0
(negative) to 10 (positive)”
When you don’t get along
with someone you can get
along with another
relationship better
Adolescence = disruption of
homeostasis, also meets
parental midlife (crisis)
- New balance / equilibrium needs to be found
- Process of (family adaption)
Adolescent development in a system
- 3 types of influences (if the parents/family there is overlap in genotype and shared
environment, because the parents give the genes but also the environment where the
adolescent grows up in)
o Genotype (biological)
o Shared environment
o Unshared environment
,Parenting styles and adolescents
- Authoritarian: low levels of warmth
and high level of control
- Authoritative: high levels of warmth
high levels of control
- Indifferent: low levels of warmth and
low levels of control
- Indulgent: high level of warmth low
levels of control
Stability across
time/development, specific
behaviours change, styles can
change around the age of the
adolescents.
Authoritarian:
- Strict rules & expectations
- Discourage autonomy & independence (→ obedience)
- Punishment-heavy
- Low open communication & trust
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Dependent & obedient
Low self-confidence
Low social competence
Passivity & lack of school interest
Rebellious adolescents
Authoritative: this is the best style
- Engage adolescent in decision making (e.g., rules)
- Encourage autonomy & independence
- Involved & monitoring
- Open communication & trust
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Independent & autonomous
Responsible
Self-confident
Good self- & emotion regulation
Socially skilled
Problem solving & critical thinking
, Indifferent: worst mental health outcomes
- Not responsive to needs
- No parental guidance
- Provide basic needs, no more
- Uninvolved, detached, & disengaged
- No communication & trust
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Impulsive (- self-regulation)
Delinquent
Early experimentation with sex, drugs, alcohol
Mature earlier (provide for themselves, no parent-role)
Academic underachievement
Indulgent: wisselende findings, for some adolescents this is still great, but not for all
- Very responsive to needs
- Little parental guidance
- No behavioral expectations = no control/punishment
- Require little self-regulation from adolescents
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Less mature & responsible
Conforming to peers
Self-confident, but misbehavior
Impulsive (- self-regulation)
BUT: could be emotionally secure & independent
Important considerations
- Control (monitoring) vs control (psychological control)
o Control in the context of high support/involvement vs. low support/ involvement
o Psychological control vs. behavioral control, psychological is more internal things and
behavioral control are more like rules, about when to be home etcetera
o Parental control in different environments… (safe vs. dangerous), when you are in a
dangerous environment it is okay to be more controlling
- Cultural considerations
o Are non-White parents authoritarian? (or protective/”strict-affectionate”?)
o Correlation between ethnic (minority) background and family environment
o STILL: “even though authoritative parenting is less common in ethnic minority
families, its effects on adolescent development are beneficial in all ethnic groups”
In a study found
Overall conclusion = “Parenting styles relate to substance use and other outcomes in the same way in
different countries explored” comparing European country’s. even though there are differences in the
(even aan chat vragen wat dit betekent)
Hoorcollege 7: Family relationships and adolescent autonomy
The Family/Parent-adolescent relationship
What is a family: answer may be time & culture dependent
- In all societies, the family fulfils similar functions
o Socialization
o Enduring source of support (practical/economical/social)
o Social embedding = continuity of relationships across the life course
The family as a system: Theory
- Family Systems Theory = an organized whole, consisting of interrelated parts that influence
each other
o System = set(s) of elements standing in interrelation among themselves and with the
environment
Interrelation = not A affects B, but A & B affect each other
So the marital relationship between the parents also effects the children but
the children effect the marital relationships
o Changing, self-organizing, and adapting to (changes in) its members and the outside
environment
System is flexible, but strives for stability (= equilibrium)
o Family = cohesive emotional unit (emotional bond)
Family systems theory: key principles
- Holism: on a individual level it is not enough to look at family members separately because a
family is something to look at as a whole, everyone had a role
o To understand family not enough to look at members separately
o Roles (caretaker for example)
Roles: growing up with a depressed mother
“When I think back to my mother when I was a child, I don’t have a single
memory of her smiling. She suffered from chronic, lifelong depression and it
affected me and my four siblings every day.
We quickly learned that we couldn’t depend on her for emotional or physical
support. At age 7, I became my family’s caretaker. I would make my mother
toast and coffee each morning. Then, I’d make lunches for my siblings, iron
their shirts, and made sure their homework was complete...”
- Hierarchy/structure, on dyadic level, so there is some sort of hierarchy, the older generation
needs to take care of the younger generation. Within the family there are individual
members, but also relationships like marriage or children-parent or siblings. All the structures
are linked together, but there are different sublevels.
o Organized into subsystems
o By gender or generation
- Boundaries
o At every level (subsystems, inside/outside)
o Permeability varies across families/time
o Spillover vs compensation
, Association between relationships, within the whole family = where there are
‘loose’ boundaries between subsystems
Study over conflict between parents and children
- Higher conflict between parents is more conflict between parent-adolescents
- More conflict between parent-adolescents leads to one day later more conflict between
parents in marital relationships and the other way around, so marital relationships to
adolescents-parent
- What happens in one subsystem can spill over to another subsystem, so parent adolescent to
parents and the other way around.
- Conflict is related to negative emotions
Another study
- • Mother- & father-reports – Marital quality + parent-adolescent relationship quality Overall
rating of “emotional quality of your relationship with your spouse/child”, ranging from 0
(negative) to 10 (positive)”
When you don’t get along
with someone you can get
along with another
relationship better
Adolescence = disruption of
homeostasis, also meets
parental midlife (crisis)
- New balance / equilibrium needs to be found
- Process of (family adaption)
Adolescent development in a system
- 3 types of influences (if the parents/family there is overlap in genotype and shared
environment, because the parents give the genes but also the environment where the
adolescent grows up in)
o Genotype (biological)
o Shared environment
o Unshared environment
,Parenting styles and adolescents
- Authoritarian: low levels of warmth
and high level of control
- Authoritative: high levels of warmth
high levels of control
- Indifferent: low levels of warmth and
low levels of control
- Indulgent: high level of warmth low
levels of control
Stability across
time/development, specific
behaviours change, styles can
change around the age of the
adolescents.
Authoritarian:
- Strict rules & expectations
- Discourage autonomy & independence (→ obedience)
- Punishment-heavy
- Low open communication & trust
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Dependent & obedient
Low self-confidence
Low social competence
Passivity & lack of school interest
Rebellious adolescents
Authoritative: this is the best style
- Engage adolescent in decision making (e.g., rules)
- Encourage autonomy & independence
- Involved & monitoring
- Open communication & trust
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Independent & autonomous
Responsible
Self-confident
Good self- & emotion regulation
Socially skilled
Problem solving & critical thinking
, Indifferent: worst mental health outcomes
- Not responsive to needs
- No parental guidance
- Provide basic needs, no more
- Uninvolved, detached, & disengaged
- No communication & trust
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Impulsive (- self-regulation)
Delinquent
Early experimentation with sex, drugs, alcohol
Mature earlier (provide for themselves, no parent-role)
Academic underachievement
Indulgent: wisselende findings, for some adolescents this is still great, but not for all
- Very responsive to needs
- Little parental guidance
- No behavioral expectations = no control/punishment
- Require little self-regulation from adolescents
o This will let the adolescent function like:
Less mature & responsible
Conforming to peers
Self-confident, but misbehavior
Impulsive (- self-regulation)
BUT: could be emotionally secure & independent
Important considerations
- Control (monitoring) vs control (psychological control)
o Control in the context of high support/involvement vs. low support/ involvement
o Psychological control vs. behavioral control, psychological is more internal things and
behavioral control are more like rules, about when to be home etcetera
o Parental control in different environments… (safe vs. dangerous), when you are in a
dangerous environment it is okay to be more controlling
- Cultural considerations
o Are non-White parents authoritarian? (or protective/”strict-affectionate”?)
o Correlation between ethnic (minority) background and family environment
o STILL: “even though authoritative parenting is less common in ethnic minority
families, its effects on adolescent development are beneficial in all ethnic groups”
In a study found
Overall conclusion = “Parenting styles relate to substance use and other outcomes in the same way in
different countries explored” comparing European country’s. even though there are differences in the
(even aan chat vragen wat dit betekent)
