Despite a number of public health initiatives targeting the sexual health of teenagers, teen pregnancy and STD rates in the U.S. remain exceptionally high. Although schools and peers are common sources of information for teens, research suggests that parents serve as one of the primary sources of sexual health information for adolescents. Many studies have focused on the content of parent-adolescent communication about sex, but more needs to be known about how such communication varies by adolescent gender and across different kinds of families. In this study, regression analysis assessed mother and adolescent In-Home interview data from Wave I of the Adolescent Health dataset (n = 20,745). Findings indicate that family structure and maternal education are somewhat predictive of the communication outcomes, yet adolescent gender remains the most significant factor in communication between mothers and adolescents. In short, mothers communicate more about sexual health with girls than boys, and this gender gap does not vary considerably across family structures or socioeconomic statuses based on maternal education. / text

Adolescence is a period of vulnerability and profound change, during which the parental relationship remains integral to positive developmental outcomes. For adolescents in military families, parental deployment creates an additional stressor which may pose challenges to the relationship between parents and adolescents. This project was a preliminary qualitative study to develop a Theoretical model of how the parent-adolescent attachment relationship is affected by parental deployment over the deployment cycle. This researcher explored these adolescents' perception of their relationship with their parents through focus group interviews with military adolescents who have experienced parental deployment. An important explanatory and predictive factor in parent-child relationships and adjustment outcomes is Attachment Theory (Bowlby, 1969/1982). Attachment Theory provides a framework for understanding the process that occurs between parents and children that leads to positive or negative outcomes and the mechanisms that underlie relational ties. Theoretical thematic analysis was employed using an attachment framework to explore the relationship between the parents and adolescents over the course of deployment. / Master of Science

This article focuses on the development of guidelines to empower parents with adolescent children to have a better relationship with their adolescent children. A qualitative research method within the context of intervention research was followed to develop the guidelines. Three major themes and some sub-themes were identified from two focus groups with the parents and two focus groups with the adolescents. The main themes are parent-adolescent relationships, conflict and communication. Sub-themes include characteristics of a good relationship, time spend together, times of crisis, reasons for conflict, resolving conflict, effectiveness of conflict, aspects of good communication, coping with sensitive issues and dealing with unacceptable friendships. Empowerment involves the process of increasing personal, interpersonal, or political power so that individuals, families and communities can take action to improve their situations. The Strengths perspective subscribes to the notion that people have a reserve of abilities that can be expressed. When this reserve of inner power is enhanced, individuals, families or communities develop their potential, mastery and self-actualization. To empower the parents with adolescent children it is necessary for a practitioner helping the family to understand how to focus on the present and to incorporate a vision of the future in the guideline developed for parents with adolescent children. The integration of empowerment mandates parents with adolescent children, to move towards emphasizing strengths and to create solutions that incorporate elements of social action to improve their situations. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This article focuses on the development of guidelines to empower parents with adolescent children to have a better relationship with their adolescent children. A qualitative research method within the context of intervention research was followed to develop the guidelines. Three major themes and some sub-themes were identified from two focus groups with the parents and two focus groups with the adolescents. The main themes are parent-adolescent relationships, conflict and communication. Sub-themes include characteristics of a good relationship, time spend together, times of crisis, reasons for conflict, resolving conflict, effectiveness of conflict, aspects of good communication, coping with sensitive issues and dealing with unacceptable friendships. Empowerment involves the process of increasing personal, interpersonal, or political power so that individuals, families and communities can take action to improve their situations. The Strengths perspective subscribes to the notion that people have a reserve of abilities that can be expressed. When this reserve of inner power is enhanced, individuals, families or communities develop their potential, mastery and self-actualization. To empower the parents with adolescent children it is necessary for a practitioner helping the family to understand how to focus on the present and to incorporate a vision of the future in the guideline developed for parents with adolescent children. The integration of empowerment mandates parents with adolescent children, to move towards emphasizing strengths and to create solutions that incorporate elements of social action to improve their situations. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

No description available.

This study sought to explore how adolescents' relationships with both of their parents changed over the course of parental military deployment. Participants were 9 adolescents, 12-13 years old, that participated in a focus group. Family systems theory was the guiding lens for qualitative data analysis, which included constant comparative and open and axial coding. Two dominant patterns emerged: 1) process that promoted relationship closeness and 2) process that promoted relationship distance. Processes that promoted relationship closeness included clear communication, connectedness with the at-home parent, togetherness, and flexibility of roles. Processes that promoted relationship distance included restricted communication, at-home parent disengagement, deployed parent disconnectedness and lack of role shifting. Findings suggest processes evident in adolescent relationships with their parents during deployment indicative of adjustment outcomes. Clinical implications and future research are discussed. / Master of Science

Little research has examined the content of parent-adolescent communication about substance use and variables that may influence it. Using a grounded theory approach for secondary data analysis, qualitative data were drawn from a longitudinal study of coping and substance use in a sample of urban African American adolescents (N=132; M= 13.77 years) and their mothers in Richmond, VA. Transcripts of interviews with participants’ mothers regarding their conversations with their adolescent about alcohol, tobacco or other drugs were microanalyzed by two coders in three sets according to the youth participant’s maternal and familial history of substance abuse. Findings revealed considerable similarity in themes across groups, particularly in providing information, warning about the harms of use, and offering strategies to resist use. Differences in messages were most obvious in the expectations and attitudes conveyed. Future research should further address variables that influence message content and make links from these messages to later youth substance use or abstinence.

Parental monitoring is a widely researched hypothetical construct. Patterson and colleagues (Capaldi & Patterson, 1989; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992) originally developed the construct in their seminal work with the Oregon Youth Study. Adopting a broad theoretical framework, monitoring was defined as parental awareness of adolescent activities, and communication to the child that the parent is concerned about and aware of adolescent free-time (Dishion & McMahon, 1998). Recent research (Kerr & Stattin, 2000; Kerr, Stattin, & Trost, 1999; Stattin & Kerr, 2000) has proposed a narrower definition, where monitoring is perceived to be parental knowledge of adolescent free-time, which is acquired primarily through adolescent disclosure of their activities. Recent debates have been present in the literature proposing either the multi-dimensional view of monitoring, or the latter uni-dimensional view. A model of monitoring interactions was developed that is based on social learning and behavioural principles. The process-monitoring model contends that monitoring is an interactive process between parents, their adolescents, and the ecology of the family. In the model it is proposed that monitoring occurs in discrete episodes that change over the course of adolescent development. To explain monitoring interactions, it is essential to consider the sequence of behaviours that occur within a monitoring interaction at two stages, before the adolescent goes out, and also when they return home. Using the process-monitoring model as a framework, this research examined monitoring across four studies. Study 1 was a qualitative study that explored adolescent perceptions of monitoring interactions. Forty-nine adolescents aged from 12 through to 16 years (M = 13.2) were interviewed about their monitoring interactions with parents. This study found correspondence between the constructs in the process-monitoring model and adolescent perceptions of monitoring interactions. Two new themes that emerged in this study were parental trust and adolescent deceit. For typically developing adolescents there were marked differences in how adolescents perceive parental monitoring across adolescent development. Study 2 involved the analysis of data collected as part of a population based self-report survey of 1285 adolescents aged 14 to 15 years. The hypothesised relationship between monitoring behaviours was examined using structured equation modelling. A model with the constructs of rules, supervision, conflict, and adolescent problem behaviour was found to be an adequate fit of the data, accounting for 40% of the variance in problem behaviour. Specifically, lax rules predicted poor supervision and high conflict. High conflict and low supervision were predictors of the adolescent problem behaviour construct, which encompassed conduct problems, rebelliousness, and sensation seeking. Adequate rules appear to form the foundation for better supervision and less conflict, and hence, lower levels of adolescent problem behaviours. Study 3 involved data collected for the purpose of further testing the process-monitoring model. The associations between parent-adolescent relationship quality, rules, solicitation, disclosure, and tracking were tested using linear path modelling on self-report data from a sample of 210 parents and 202 adolescents aged 11 to 18 years (M = 15.29). Separate statistical models were required for the parent and adolescent data. For the adolescent data the model was an adequate fit, accounting for 27% of the variance in tracking behaviours. In the adolescent model, high rule-setting predicted higher solicitation and tracking, while poor relationship quality predicted lower disclosure and lower tracking. For the parent data, the model was an adequate fit accounting for 34% of the variance in tracking behaviours. In the parent model, high rule-setting predicted higher solicitation, disclosure, and tracking, while poor relationship quality predicted lower disclosure, lower solicitation, and poorer tracking scores. T he tracking construct was found to adequately predict adolescent deviant behaviours including alcohol use, smoking, and deviant peer associations. Study 4 was an exploratory study. In this study the monitoring scale constructed in Study 3 was examined alongside behavioural observations made whilst conducting an intervention with two families who were experiencing parent-adolescent conflict. Some correspondence was found between parent and adolescent measures of monitoring and conflict and the behaviour seen between parent-adolescent dyads; however, the self-report monitoring measures were only able to reveal substantial problems in monitoring. Problem Solving and Communication Training (Robin & Foster, 1989) showed some improvement in parent-adolescent relationships, as measured by the Issues Checklist (Robin & Foster, 1989) and Conflict Behaviour Questionnaire (Prinz, Foster, Kent, & O'Leary, 1979), but there was no impact on monitoring interactions. This series of studies supported the claims that monitoring is a multi-dimensional construct, and that it has bi-directional effects. There was support for the existing research, which has shown that poor parental monitoring is consistently associated with adolescent problem behaviour. The process model was found to provide an adequate framework for examining the temporal sequence in monitoring interactions and the evolution of monitoring across the adolescent developmental cycle. At this stage there is little experimental or intervention research showing how families might improve their monitoring. It is argued that behavioural observations and functional analyses of monitoring episodes are needed to provide an understanding of the action-reaction sequence across monitoring episodes.

<p>This study investigates if a divorce affects the attitudes and trust between parents and adolescents. Participants were 986 adolescents and their parents, taken from a Swedish longitudinal study, the “10 to 18” study. This study used 28 measures of parent-adolescent relationships, which created three areas: warmth, closeness and conflicts between parents and adolescents. The adolescents were divided into three groups, and one-way ANOVAs were made to test differences. The results showed that a divorce affects the father-adolescent relationship more than the mother-adolescent relationship. They also showed that the attitudes and the trust between parents and adolescents were affected by a divorce.</p> / <p>Den här studien undersökte om en skilsmässa kan påverka attityderna och tilliten mellan föräldrar och ungdomar. Deltagarna bestod av 986 ungdomar och deras föräldrar, från en svensk longitudinell studie, ”10 till 18” studien. Den här studien använde 28 mått som mätte relationen mellan föräldrarna och ungdomarna, dessa skapade tre områden: värme, närhet och konflikter mellan föräldrarna och ungdomarna. Ungdomarna delades in i tre grupper och envägs ANOVA genomfördes för att testa skillnaderna. Resultaten visade att relationen mellan papporna och ungdomarna påverkades mer än relationen mellan mammorna och ungdomarna. Resultaten visade också att attityderna och tilliten mellan föräldrarna och ungdomarna påverkades av skilsmässan.</p>