Previous research has focused on developmental trends in parent-adolescent conflict without extensively describing individual differences in conflict. The current study tested child factors, parent factors, contextual factors, and adolescence-specific factors as concurrent correlates and longitudinal predictors of parent-adolescent conflict. Participants include 218 mother-child dyads, adolescents’ mean age (11years, 11months). Parent and adolescent data was collected during the summers following the adolescents’ 5th and 6th grade years. All four groups of variables were associated with parent-adolescent conflict. The child group of factors emerged as the most consistent group of variables concurrently and longitudinally.

Chinese-American adolescents were compared with the major group in the United States (European-American adolescents) in negotiating self-concepts related with autonomy and connectedness. Senses of autonomy and connectedness were evaluated by examining adolescents' cultural value orientations (individualism and collectivism), parent-adolescent relationships (decision-making styles and power perception), and relations between the two constructs. Participants included 56 first- or second-generation Chinese-American adolescents (18.5% of first-generation and 81.5% of secondgeneration) and 45 European-American adolescents, accompanied with their mothers (47 Chinese-American mothers and 42 European-American mothers). In terms of cultural value orientations, Chinese- and European-Americans' selfconcepts were consistently oriented towards collectivism more than individualism in adolescents and mothers. With regard to parent-adolescent relationships, Chinese- American adolescents have identified with the dominant culture to show similar desires of being autonomous as European-American adolescents. However, Chinese-American mothers adopted more authoritarian, conservative, and inflexible parenting styles than European-American mothers. With regard to the relations between variables of cultural value orientations and variables of parent-adolescent relationships, the pattern of findings was consistent with the notion that Chinese-American adolescents who internalize highly collectivistic cultural values displayed more collectivistic communication styles in parent-adolescent relationships than European-American adolescents.

The purpose of this thesis was to examine parent-adolescent relationships during the transition to high school. Fourteen parent-adolescent dyads from two Canadian cities completed the study. At pre-transition (Time 1) and post-transition (Time 2) to high school, each dyad was video-recorded engaging in a conversation together about various topics related to the school transition. Content analysis was conducted to explore parents’ and adolescents’ pre-transition anticipations of how their relationship would be in high school. State space grid analysis was used to investigate whether there were changes in the structure or emotional content of parent-adolescent dyadic interactions between pre-transition and post-transition to high school. Results showed that parents and adolescents expressed relationship anticipations of stability, change, or uncertainty. Additionally, no statistically significant differences were found in the structure or emotional content of parent-adolescent interactions, suggesting that the high school transition does not appear to disrupt how parents and adolescents interact together. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)

The purpose of the study was twofold, first to create an example of a parent training for parents of adolescents and second to explore the effects of a parent training on different dimensions of parent-adolescent relationships and communication skills of parents of adolescents. The participants of this study were the parents of 9th and 10th grade adolescents from two different lycees in Ankara / METU Foundation School and Deneme Lycee. 10 volunteer parents (mothers or fathers) from METU Foundation School and 11 parents from Deneme Lycee participated in that study as the members of the experimental group. In this study, an experimental design with treatment and control groups and 3 measurements (pre, post and follow up) was used. The 5-session training for parents generally consisted of activities aimed at developing their communication skills and their relationships with their children. The program mainly focused on social skills for parents to develop better communication and improve the satisfaction of parents and also to help parents improve their parenting skills. Data were collected through qualitative and quantitative methods. In order to assess the effects of training on parents, instruments called Parent Success Indicator and Communication Skills Evaluation Scale were used in the study. Moreover, an openended evaluation form was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. In order to explore the differences between experimental and control groups, two way repeated measures of analysis of variance was used. The results revealed no significant differences between groups, however, the qualitative findings indicated that the parent training in this study helped parents to develop positive interaction with their children.

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Family Studies and Social Work, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 27-30).

Teen dating violence (TDV) affects nearly one third of adolescents in the United States and is increasingly one of the largest public health concerns of health researchers and practitioners. Parent involvement, and specifically messages communicated to children about healthy and unhealthy relationships, has potential to be a vital element of TDV prevention and intervention. Researchers have demonstrated that parent-adolescent communication has significant effects on adolescent risky behavior, but the effect of parent-adolescent communication on TDV has not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between mother-daughter communication quality, mothers' and daughters' beliefs about unhealthy relationships, and the dating violence experienced by adolescents. The sample was 58 adolescent daughters recruited from three rural Oregon high schools and their mothers. Self-report and observational data were collected from daughters and their mothers. It was hypothesized that (1) daughters' dating beliefs mediate the relationship between mothers' dating beliefs and daughters' experienced TDV, (2) mother-daughter communication quality mediates the relationship between mothers' dating beliefs and daughter's dating beliefs, and (3) mother-daughter communication quality mediates the relationship between mothers' dating beliefs and daughter's TDV. Structural equation modeling was used to test three path models where mother-daughter communication was represented by three different measures: daughters' report of having a quality conversation with their mother about dating in the past year, daughters' disagreement during observed mother-daughter communication, and daughters' disagreement during observed mother-daughter communication about dating. All three models were a good fit with the data, and significant associations were found between measures of mother-daughter communication, daughters' beliefs about dating, and daughters' experienced dating violence. Implications of this study include mother-daughter communication, perhaps a representation of a larger construct of mother-daughter relationship quality, as a point of intervention for adolescent girls' experiences of dating violence. Future research and clinical studies are required to further examine the relationships between parent-adolescent communication and TDV and the potential affect that parents may have on rates and experiences of TDV.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / This is a review of the body of literature about teenage sexuality, pregnancy, abortion, parent-adolescent communication, and parental involvement laws. The literature review focused on current United State's policies on teenage abortion and the effects of parental involvement laws and judicial bypass. A review of other nations' policies regarding teenage sexuality, pregnancy, and abortion and the outcomes of these policies is given and compared to the policies of the United States. Proponents' reasons for parental involvement laws are explored. Current research on the effects that parental involvement laws have on adolescents and their families, adolescents' abilities to make informed decisions about abortion, and characteristics of teenage girls who choose abortion is reviewed. The need for more research on teenage sexuality, parent-adolescent communication, and the effectiveness of parental involvement laws are identified. Implications for family life educators for the prevention of teenage pregnancy as well as interventions for family life educators in the event of adolescent pregnancy and abortion are provided. Implications for the need to review current parental involvement policies and the need to apply research to these policies are also recommended.

The present study is designed to address the problem of risk behaviors among adolescents, in an effort to promote positive developmental trajectories. Previous studies have resulted in divergent findings pertaining to the predictors of adolescent engagement in risk behaviors. In addition to considering this divergence, the focus of the study is the nature of bidirectional individual ó contextual relationships and their influence on adolescent engagement in risk behaviors. The study tested two models that considered whether parent-adolescent relationship or peer relationship mediated the relation between theory and research-based predictors and the endogenous variable, co-occurring substance use and sexual activity. Participants were 396 demographically diverse multi-problem adolescents from an archived dataset derived from an HIV risk reduction outpatient treatment program for alcohol and other drug use. Participants responded to questions that measured family structure, parent-adolescent relationship quality and communication, religiosity, school connectedness, peer relationship, and engagement in substance use and sexual activity. The study found that the model with peer relationship as the mediator fit the data better than the model with the parent-adolescent relationship mediator, and that the mediated model provided a better fit to the data than direct relations between the exogenous and endogenous variables. The results suggested also that primary caregiver was not a significant predictor of adolescent participation in co-occurring substance use and sexual activity. The present study provides a holistic theoretical and conceptual framework that highlights a constellation of factors determined to contribute significantly to co-occurring substance use and sexual activity, and thereby reshape existing models of risk behavior among adolescents.

The research question was whether there are differences in parentadolescentconflict across the domains of governance transfer betweenCanada and Sweden. Participants were students in classes 7 – 9, aged 13 –16 years old. Results show that the amount of conflict differed acrosscultures, across domains, and across genders. Parent-adolescent conflict isnot universal, but instead rather dependent on context. The Swedishadolescents´ reported significantly more conflict-level discussions than theCanadian adolescents´. Regarding the same issue that the Swedishadolescents reported having a lower conflict resolution, suggesting thathaving a conflict-level discussion makes it harder to reach a conflictresolution. The results of this research suggests that conflict among parentand adolescents is uncommon. What was more common was discussionsabout issues across the domains of governance transfer. / Forskningsfrågan var om det fanns skillnader i konflikt mellan föräldrar ochungdomar över domänerna i governance transfer i Kanada och Sverige.Deltagare var studenter i klasserna sju till nio, som var 13 till 16 år gamla.Resultat visade att mängden konflikt varierade över kulturer, över domäner,och mellan könen. Konflikt mellan förälder och ungdom är inte universell,utan istället beroende på kontext. De svenska ungdomarna rapporteradesignifikant fler diskussioner på konfliktnivå än de kanadensiskaungdomarna. Rörande samma fråga som de svenska ungdomarnarapporterade färre diskussioner med en konfliktlösning, vilket tyder på att haen konflikt gör det svårare att nå en konfliktlösning. Resultaten visar attkonflikt är ovanligt. Vad som är vanligare är diskussioner om frågor idomänerna av governance transfer.

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