(9783110402490 - Family Life in Adolescence) 3 Family Environment and Adolescent Development

3 Family Environment and Adolescent Development
Communication is also a crucial aspect of the family environment, particularly

the micro-environment of parent/s and offspring. Relationships are established
and maintained through communication, both verbal and nonverbal, and the
family environment is, at least in part, a function of that communication. Where
communication is generally positive and constructive, conflicts are resolved and
decisions worked through appropriately, family members are likely to do well. We will
explore the issue of communication in families with adolescents in the next chapter.
The family environment is actually quite a complex phenomenon. For example,
as Family Systems Theory reminds us (see Chapter 2), all the members of the family
make a unique contribution to the family environment: each of the parents and each
of the siblings. In addition, not all family members experience the family in the same
way, but experience it in their own unique way. It is also important to remember that
family environments are embedded in communities and in the larger society.
3.1 Family Structure
One important aspect of the family environment is the structure of the family. In
Chapter 1, we listed many of the different types of families that exist at the present
time. These families may vary in terms of whether there are one or two parents in the
family, whether the parents are married or not, whether the children in the family are
the biological children of the parent or parents or are adopted, step or foster children.
Given the medical treatments available through fertility clinics, the children may even
be formed from the egg and/or sperm of strangers.
Do each of these different types of family provide equally good environments for
children’s growth and development? It seems to us that the research indicates that
overall well-functioning nuclear families in which the children are cared for by both
their biological parents provide the best environment for children (e.g., Blackwell,
2010; Sroufe et al., 2005). In making this claim we are not suggesting that all families
that are not traditional nuclear families provide poor environments for the children.
Many single parents are successful at bringing up their children on their own, a very
difficult and demanding task. Nevertheless, the data seem to show that compared
with children in nuclear families, there is a greater risk of ongoing problems for
children in single-parent families as well as in other types of nonnuclear families.
For example, in their longitudinal (3-decade) study of development in children
born into poverty, Sroufe et al. (2005) found that if a mother was single at the time
of a child’s birth, the child was more likely to have behaviour problems than was
true for those whose parents were married (Aguilar, Sroufe, Egeland & Carlson, 2000;
Carlson, Jacobvitz & Sroufe, 1995). These children were more likely to have attention/
hyperactivity problems when they were in elementary school, and to be involved
© 2014 Patricia Noller, Sharon Atkin

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Family Structure 35
in drug and alcohol problems as adolescents, as well as engaging in risky sexual

behaviours at that stage of their lives.
Of course, it is important to acknowledge that the fact that these children were
born into families in poverty may well have implications for their futures, irrespective
of their family structure. We will return to the issue of the implications of financial
status later in this section. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
in the USA carry out regular surveys of the physical and mental health of families
and children and these surveys are known as the National Interview Health Surveys.
Children who participate in these surveys are randomly selected, one child per family,
to engage in a face-to-face interview along with a supporting adult familiar with the
child’s health issues. Thus this study does not focus only on those children born into
poverty, but focuses on the broad range of families, coming from a range of different
communities and ethnic groups. In a recent paper (Blackwell, 2010), reports were
provided on the links between family structure and children’s physical and emotional
health in the USA, using the surveys from 2001 to 2007.
Children in nuclear families were more likely than children in nonnuclear
families to enjoy optimal health and less likely to have a physical disability, a learning
disability or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), to behave badly at home
and/or school and to have displayed emotional or behavioural difficulties during
the six months preceding the interviews. It is important to note that the findings for
single-parent families were very similar to those for other nonnuclear families. Thus
nuclear families are more likely than all other types of families to provide optimal
family environments for their children. These findings do not mean that all children
in stable nuclear families grow up in optimal environments, nor do they mean that
all children in nonnuclear families struggle. These findings mean that, on average,
children in nuclear families have a better chance than children in other forms of
family of doing well on a range of physical and emotional variables.
This study covered a large number of families across a 7-year period, so these
findings are well based. We are not arguing that all adolescents in nonnuclear
families have problems and nor are we arguing that all children who grow up in
traditional families have problem-free lives. There is strong evidence, however, that
children brought up by their two biological parents have a better chance of doing well
for a range of reasons.
3.1.1 The Role of Financial Difficulties
It is important to note that part of the problem for nonnuclear families concerns the
fact that these families are more likely to be struggling financially in ways that affect
the health of the children. Blackwell (2010) reported that parents in nonnuclear
families were more likely to lack health insurance (a very important issue in the USA),
more likely to have to delay having a prescription dispensed for their child or children,
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and more likely to forego dental care for themselves and their children because of the
costs. These findings fit with data showing that married people tend to be better off
financially than those who are not married (Waite & Gallagher, 2000).
Hao (1996) was interested in how family structure affects net financial worth,
studying households in the process of raising children, a stage when most families
have minimal savings and few assets. The participant families included Caucasian,
Hispanic and African American families residing in the USA. She found that married
families were marginally better off financially than remarried families and single-
father families, but single mothers and cohabiting couples had minimal wealth and
single-mother families had no assets at all. Of course, a number of these single mothers
would have been unmarried adolescents who were poorly educated, struggling to
pay their bills and with little possibility of accumulating wealth (Demo & Cox, 2000;
Magnusson & Berger. 2009; Osborrne & McLanahan; 2007). These are not isolated
findings.
It is important to comment, however, that a lack of financial resources, per se
is unlikely to account for some of the differences in child behaviour reported in the
Blackwell (2010) study. Having a physical disability, a learning disability, ADHD
or behaving badly at home or school are unlikely to be caused by low levels of
financial resources. On the other hand, having few resources may make it much more
difficult for parents to deal with these problems. In addition, there is evidence, as
we will explore more fully in the section on social class and economics, that poorer
neighbourhoods tend to be inhabited by single-parent and other nonnuclear families
and the adolescents in these families are more likely to be involved in delinquent
behaviour, at least partly because of the environments in which they live (Hoffman,
2006; Weijters, Scheepers & Gerris, 2006).
Thompson, Hanson and McLanahan (1994) noted that academic performance
was particularly affected by the lack of financial resources in single-mother families
and in families where the mother of the children lived with a male partner unrelated
to the children. They point out that the effects of financial pressures on academic
performance were stronger than the effects of these pressures on problem behaviours
and temperaments. They argue that the differences in problem behaviour and
temperament between the adolescents who lived with both of their biological parents
and those who lived only with their mothers while the fathers resided elsewhere were
generally related to the level of support from both of their parents experienced by the
young people in nuclear families.
3.1.2 Financial Difficulties or Problems with Parenting?
As Turunen (2013) notes, there are two popular explanations about the differences
between the offspring of nuclear families and those single-parent and stepfamily
households. These are differences in financial resources just discussed and differences
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Family Structure 37
in parenting (Sweeney, 2010). Turunen points out that Sweden, where his study was
carried out has been a fore-runner in terms of alternative family forms and also has
a government that provides generous support to families and has measures in place
to support post divorce families. In his study, Turunen focuses on two hypotheses: the
economic deprivation hypothesis and the socialization hypothesis.
Turunen (2013) compared five different types of families; original 2-parent
families, single-mother families, single-father families, mother-stepfather families
and father-stepmother families. He found little support for the economic deprivation
hypothesis, but found that the important mediator of the link between emotional
well being in adolescents from both single-parent families and stepfamilies was the
relationship between the adolescent and his or her biological parent. This finding
is different from that of Sweeney (2007) using an American sample. Sweeney found
that financial conditions were the main mediator for single-parent families whereas
for stepfamilies it was the relationship with the parent. Sweeney also showed that
comparing single-parent families with stepfamilies entered into following a divorce
ameliorated some of the negative effects, both because of higher levels of contact with
parents and increased income for stepfamilies.
3.1.3 Presence or Absence of Fathers
There is some evidence, that fathers’ involvement with their children is as important
for adult functioning as is the involvement of mothers (Lewis & Lamb, 2003), but
in most families, mothers tend to be more involved with their adolescents than are
fathers. Division of labour tends to involve mothers having particular responsibility
for adolescents’ discipline, daily care and recreational activities, even when these
mothers are working fulltime. In one study, however, mothers tended to be more
satisfied when fathers were prepared to take more responsibility for adolescents’
leisure activities (Phares, Fields & Kamboukos, 2009).
Adolescents whose fathers are involved in their lives tend to have fewer problems
than those with uninvolved fathers. Where fathers were involved, adolescents were
less likely to be hyperactive, had fewer difficulties and engaged in more prosocial
behaviour (Flouri, 2007). Father involvement was not related to children’s problems
with their peers, behaviour problems or emotional problems. Stepfathers were
more likely than resident biological fathers to report problems in their adolescents’
behaviour in this British study. Conflict between parents had the most consistent
impact on adolescents’ behaviour. This finding is in line with the findings of Amato
and Keith (1991) who showed that across many studies, conflict between parents was
more important than father absence in predicting adjustment problems in children
and adolescents. (See also Chapter 5 on divorce and families).
In a study of a large sample of US adolescents with non-resident fathers, Mitchell,
Booth and King (2009) found that, overall, sons and daughters tended to report
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being equally involved with their non-resident fathers. Sons reported feeling closer to
their fathers than daughters did, but this may be because of common interests. Sons
were more likely to report sharing activities with their fathers such as movies and
sport and were even more likely than daughters to spend the night with their fathers.
Nevertheless, girls who reported feeling closer to their fathers also reported lower
levels of internalizing problems such as depression, anxiety and lack of self-esteem.
In a US study comparing adolescent boys living with both biological parents with
another group of boys who lived with their mothers while the father resided elsewhere
(Jones, Kramer, Armitage & Williams, 2003), the focus was on the separation/
individuation (see Chapter 2) of the adolescents. There were no differences on this
variable between the two groups of adolescents, but the quality of the mother-son
relationship was very important. In addition, where contact with non-resident fathers
was frequent, adolescents experienced a more healthy level of individuation.
In another US study of adolescents’ relationships with resident stepfathers and
non-resident biological fathers, adolescents varied greatly in terms of whether they
had close relationships with these different types of fathers (King, 2006). Those
adolescents who had close relationships with both types of fathers tended to have
better mental health outcomes. In addition, relations with stepfathers had a stronger
impact on adolescents than relationships with non-resident fathers, presumably
because the young people actually lived with their stepfathers. (See Chapter 5 for
more information about stepfamilies)
Overall, these studies point to the importance of children having a relationship
with a father or father figure. While children tended to do better when their biological
father was involved in their lives, especially when he actually lived with them, non-
resident fathers and stepfathers also tended to provide a positive influence. Of course,
when fathers were violent or abusive, or in constant conflict with the mother their
involvement could be detrimental to the children.
3.1.4 Instability of Family Structure
An important question concerns not only family structure but also whether that
structure is stable or unstable. To explore this question, Fomby and Cherlin (2007),
used another US database (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth NLSY79, Bureau of
Labour Statistics et al., 2002) that provided data from surveys conducted from 1979
through 2000. They also used the 2000 mother-child supplement, Children of the
NLSY from the same bureau. Because of their two-generation design, these databases
provided information about the mother’s background before the child was born, that
could be used in conjunction with data about the children in 2000.
Based on these data, it seems that not just family structure but instability in family
structure does have an impact on children (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007). Fomby and Cherlin
assessed whether cognitive achievement and emotional and behavioural problems
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Family Structure 39
in young people were affected by the number of times the structure of their family
changed when they were growing up (e.g., a parent moving out of the family or the
mother’s new partner moving in) for both African-American and white children. They
found that for white children, the number of transitions was significantly associated
with self-reported delinquent behaviour for those young people aged between 10 and
14. The significance of the association remained when characteristics of the mother
before the child was born were controlled for. We will discuss the findings for African-
American children later in this section.
Earlier research had shown emotional and behavioural problems in children who
experienced changes in family structure. For example, research involving children
in elementary school indicates that compared with children who have experienced
no or one change in family structure, children whose families have been involved in
two or more transitions (e.g., a family changing from a 2-parent family to a single-
parent family and then to a 2-parent family with a step-parent) are more likely to
be disruptive in school and struggle academically (Kurdek, Fine & Sinclair, 1995;
Martinez & Forgatch, 2002).
In addition, Najman et al., (1997) in Australia, found that children who
experienced even one change in family structure when they were very young tended
to engage in more problematic behaviour than other children by the time they were
five. In a study of American adolescents, Pong and Ju (2000) showed that young
people who had experienced more than one change in the structure of their family
were more likely than those in stable families to drop out of school. Thus studies
in both America and Australia support the proposition that instability in family
structure is disruptive for children and is associated with a range of adjustment and
behaviour problems.
Fomby and Cherlin (2007) wanted to move beyond these earlier findings and be
able to test the alternative hypothesis that the problems were caused, not necessarily
by changes in family structure, but by characteristics of the mother before the child
was born. In other words, they wanted to directly test the instability hypothesis
against the selection hypothesis. They argue that although there is evidence that
measures of family instability and of children’s well being are correlated, one or both
may be affected by a third set of variables such as the parents’ cognitive abilities and
their personality characteristics. This study focused just on transitions in the marital
status of the mother.
Fomby and Cherlin (2007) found different effects depending on whether the child
being assessed was white or African-American. For white children, the association
between number of family structure changes and a child’s externalizing behaviour was
lower than for the African American children, but still significant, when attributes of
the mother were included in the model. In other words, both the characteristics of the
mother and the amount of instability are associated with the outcome for the child.
The characteristics of the mother found to be associated with her child’s externalizing
behaviour included having sex before she was 16, having a baby while still a teenager,
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the number of relationship transitions she experienced before the birth of the child,
her education level and her self-esteem.
For African-American children, there was generally no significant association
between changes in family structure and child behaviour problems even when
attributes of the mother were included in the model. This difference may be related
to the more open family structure of African-American families, with grandparents
and other relatives tending to play a more important role and this involvement may
provide a level of stability for the children, regardless of changing structure in the
immediate family (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007).
On the other hand, in a study of Mexican-American families, children were
assessed at Grade 5 and again at Grade 7 in terms of both mental health and academic
performance (Vargas, Root, Knight and O’Donnell, 2013). These researchers found
that in those families that had experienced instability between Grades 5 and 7,
there were higher levels of mother-adolescent conflict in Grade 7 that was related
to lower levels of attachment to school and higher levels of both internalizing and
externalizing problems. In addition, the higher level of mother-adolescent conflict
mediated the association between family instability, lower academic performance
and mental health.
3.2 What Makes a Positive Family Environment?
According to a small interview study of Finnish adolescents by Joronen and Astedt-

Kurki (2005), the essential features of the family environment that contribute to the
sense of well being of family members include an emotionally warm atmosphere, open
communication, parent/s being involved in their young people’s lives through fun
activities, and parent/s encouraging them and providing supervision when needed.
Other factors mentioned were having a sense of being important in the family and the
possibility of relationships outside the family.
The factors that these Finnish adolescents saw as contributing most to their lack
of well-being were hostility in the family, death or chronic illness of a family member,
and a sense of being excessively dependent on parents for financial or other help.
This finding may help to explain why so many young people these days take on work
as soon as they are old enough, and continue to work throughout the period of their
education, often to the detriment of their studies.
As Sroufe et al. (2005) note, an important question concerning adolescence is
“why some young people thrive and others seriously falter during this challenging
period” (p. 175). These researchers see the answer as related to the extent to which
the young person has developed a healthy self-esteem and has experienced close
connections with others who support them and are available to help them when
needed. On the other hand, behavioural problems in the Sroufe et al. study were
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What Makes a Positive Family Environment? 41
associated with a family climate “of violence, chaos and disruption in the home”
(p. 197).
Sroufe et al., (2005) see the capacity for intimacy that is so vital to successful
personal relationships as stemming from the early care and ongoing support that the
young people receive from their parents, as well as their history of relationships with
peers. How well parents in particular are able to provide this ongoing support for their
children depends on a range of factors such as their own personal characteristics and
their relationship with one another, as well as the wider social environment in which
they parent their children. The important point here is that, as we noted earlier,
relationships in adolescence build upon the quality of relationships in childhood
(Collins & Laursen, 2004).
3.2.1 Characteristics of Parent/s
While we acknowledge that in this 21st Century, and perhaps particularly in Western
countries, not all families include both biological parents of the children, and some
parents will not be married, we still believe that it is important to discuss the role
of parents, including married parents, in creating a healthy environment for their
children. Parents and the quality of their relationship are central to the functioning of
the family. In fact, as Erel and Burman (1995) note, “the marital relationship is regarded
by many as the core of family solidarity and the key element in determining the quality
of family life” (p.108). In this section, we will explore individual characteristics of the
parent/s such as personality, attachment security and mental health that may have
an impact on the family environment. In a later section, we will explore the issue of
the quality of the relationship between parents and implications of that relationship
for the healthy functioning of the family and the well being of family members. We
also explore various factors that have an impact on the parenting style of the parent/s
and the consequences of that style for adolescent family members.
Rather than just assessing one family risk factor for adolescents such as instability,
Buehler and Gerard (2013) focused on the implications of cumulative risk for early
adolescents across four domains: socioeconomic, parents’ psychological distress,
marital problems and parenting issues. Effects were assessed both concurrently and
across time. For the 6th grade adolescents, cumulative family risk was associated
with higher levels of internalizing problems for daughters that tended to increase in
early adolescence, as well as an increase in externalizing problems over time. For
sons, cumulative family risk was associated only with higher levels of externalizing
problems. For both sons and daughters, family risk was related to lower grades
concurrently and to declining levels of achievement over time. It is important to note
that these were two-parent families but could include long-term cohabitants who
were not married.
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3.2.2 Parent Personality
There is evidence that parents who are high in neuroticism or emotional instability
and low in extraversion are more rejecting and less warm towards their offspring than
other parents (Arrindell et al., 1999). Parents who are stable, responsible and friendly
tend to relate better to their children and tend to be high in warmth and acceptance
and low in rejection (Aluja, Del Barrio & Garcia, 2007). All these characteristics are
important for adolescent adjustment.
Conscientiousness is another personality factor relevant to parenting. For example,
in an Australian study, Heaven and Newbury (2004) found that if parents were high in
conscientiousness, adolescents were likely to do well at school. Characteristics such
as persistence, dutifulness and being organized may be modelled by these parents for
their children.
There is also evidence that fathers who are high in anxiety and low in
conscientiousness are more likely to have sons involved in delinquent activities
(Heaven, Newbury & Mak, 2004), suggesting that fathers’ anxiety and the chaotic
nature of the family contribute to the young people feeling unsafe and more likely
to seek safety elsewhere such as in gangs. In this same study, Australian adolescents
whose fathers were low in warmth were more likely to be depressed than those whose
fathers were high in warmth, and this was particularly true for daughters. This finding
illustrates the importance of father warmth for young people’s self-esteem and further
supports the importance of fathers.
3.2.3 Attachment Security
We often think about how important it is for babies to be securely attached to their
parent/s, but rarely think about the secure attachment of adolescents or their parents.
Individuals who are secure in attachment tend to have confidence that their loved
ones will be available to them when needed and they tend to be comfortable with
being close to others. They are also happy to depend on others and to have others
depend on them (Hazan & Shaver, 1987). Secure people also tend to report warmer,
more stable and more satisfying romantic relationships than insecure people and
report high levels of trust, self-disclosure, caregiving and social support (Collins,
1996; Feeney & Noller, 1991; Kunce & Shaver, 1994). According to these researchers,
those who are avoidant in terms of their attachment tend to prefer distance from
others more than closeness and are not sure about the likely availability of loved ones
when they themselves need help. Those who are anxiously attached, on the other
hand, have a strong need for intimacy (often want to be closer to other people than
those people are comfortable with), and a high fear of rejection or abandonment.
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What Makes a Positive Family Environment? 43
3.2.3.1 Correspondence Between Attachment Styles of Parents And Offspring

There is evidence of a strong correspondence between mothers’ security of
attachment and the security of attachment of their infants (Benoit & Parker, 1994)
even across three generations (that is, mothers, children and grandmothers).
In addition, in a sample of young Israeli adults, Mikulincer and Florian (1999a)
found strong correspondence between the attachment of these young people
and the attachment style of their same-sex parent. In a different study, these
researchers also showed that young parents tended to have differing views of
the way their families functioned, depending on their own attachment style
(Mikulincer & Florian, 1999b). Those who reported being secure in attachment
saw their families as high in both closeness and flexibility; those who reported
being anxious in attachment saw their families as high in closeness but low in
flexibility; and those who reported being avoidant in terms of their attachment
saw their families as low in both closeness and flexibility. These findings point to
the problems with self-report studies where a single participant reports on both
their own attachment and the state of the family.
On the other hand, these findings make sense in terms of adolescents attempting
to maximise their experience in their families. For example, adolescents who are
both confident in the ongoing nature of their close relationship with their parents
and are free to explore would feel secure in their place within the family. Adolescents
who experience their parents as close to them but controlling may become anxious
about their relationships as they attempt to follow the rigid rules laid down by those
parents whilst trying to maintain a comfortable level of closeness. Also, adolescents
who perceive their relationships with their parents as distant and experience control
rather than flexibility may be avoidant in their relationships as they do not feel
connected to the family. Those who are secure in attachment seem to have positive
views of their family that reflect their own security, whereas those individuals who are
insecure in terms of their attachment see their family in a more negative light. What
is hard to work out from this study is the extent to which their perceptions reflect the
true state of their families.
Research on attachment security in adolescents and their parents has shown
a positive correlation between secure attachment in parents and self-esteem in
their adolescents (Arbona & Power, 2003; Leondari & Kiosseoglou, 2002; Rubin,
Dwyer, Booth-LaForce, Kim, Burgess & Rose-Krasnor (2004). There is also evidence
of a negative correlation between secure attachment in parents and aggression in
their adolescents (Arbona & Power, 2003; Fergusson & Lynskey, 1998; Laible et al.,
2000). Thus attachment security in parents seems critical to the mental health of their
adolescents.
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3.2.3.2 Impact of Attachment on Parenting Style

As well as these links between parents’ attachment security and the psychological
adjustment of their adolescents, there is also evidence that how individuals parent
is affected by attachment style (Cohn, Cowan, Cowan, & Pearson, 1992). Across
several studies, secure individuals (adolescents and adults) described their parents
as caring, accepting and responsive, whereas insecure individuals tended to describe
their parents as lacking in care, responsiveness and acceptance (Feeney & Noller,
1990; Mikulincer & Nachshon, 1991). Although these data tend to again raise the
issue of whether it is just the perceptions of families that are affected by attachment
insecurity, Cohn et al. showed that parents classified as insecure were actually less
warm in their interactions with their children than those classified as secure, and
that children of insecure parents were less warm towards their parents than were
children of secure parents. These researchers were also able to show that the risk of
inadequate or ineffective parenting was even greater when both parents were insecure
in attachment. In addition, children of insecure parents were less warm towards their
parents than children of secure parents, suggesting a way by which attachment style
could be passed through the generations (see Table 3.1).
Table 3.1: Attachment Style and Parenting
Attachment Style of Parent
Secure See families as high in both closeness and flexibility

Insecure Less warm in interactions with family members
Lacking in responsiveness and acceptance
If anxious, see families as high in closeness and low in
flexibility
Attachment Style of Adolescent
Secure See parents as caring, accepting and responsive
Insecure Less warm towards their parents than children of secure
parents
3.3 Mental Health of Parents
Mental health issues of parents that are associated with the mental health of
adolescents include depression, alcoholism, drug abuse and violence. Van Loon,
Van Ven, Van Doesum et al. (2013) claim that in the Netherlands, approximately 17
percent of adolescents live with a mentally-ill parent. According to Van Santvoort
(2012) around 50 percent of these adolescents are at risk of developing mental health
problems themselves. Van Loon et al. compared adolescents from families with
a mentally-ill parent with those whose parents were healthy. They compared these
adolescents in terms of their self-reports of their externalizing and internalizing
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Mental Health of Parents 45
behaviours. Parents completed questionnaires about their mental health and about
their monitoring of their adolescents and the level of support they provided for them.
Findings indicated higher levels of negativity in the interactions between mentally-
ill parents and their offspring and less monitoring of their adolescents. This lack of
monitoring was associated with more externalizing behaviour on the part of their
adolescents.
3.3.1 Parent Depression
Maternal depression is an important predictor of adolescent depression, but only for

girls (Sroufe et al., 2005). Sroufe and colleagues found that the only real difference
between adolescents with serious depression and those who were not depressed was
whether the mother was depressed. For boys, having a depressed mother was more
strongly associated with depression in childhood than with depression in adolescence.
Having depressed parents tends to put children at risk for a range of adjustment
problems, including clinical depression (Downey & Coyne, 1990). These children
also experience higher levels of psychiatric disturbance, and they also tend to have
deficits in social and academic performance that are not related to their intellectual
ability. These young people also tend to have poorer physical health than other
young people, and are likely to have a negative self-concept and negative ideas about
relationships (see Table 3.2).
Table 3.2: Parent Mental Health and Adolescent Outcomes
Mental Health Problem Possible Outcome for Adolescents
Depression Maternal depression leads to depression in adolescence for girls

Range of psychiatric disturbances
Poor physical health
Negative self-concept
Negative ideas about relationships
Alcohol and drug abuse High levels of disruptive behaviour problems for boys
Issues around consumption of alcohol
Personality problems
Other mental health issues
Struggle with education
Difficulties with social relationships
Violence Negative impact on well-being

Becoming victim of violence from parent
Conduct disorder
Risk of perpetrating violence against peer or romantic partner
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In a longitudinal study using an Australian sample (Tartter, Hammen & Brennan,
2013), data on depression and externalizing problems in the adolescents were
collected before age 15, and the presence of substance use disorders was assessed
between the ages of 16 and 20. These researchers were focused on whether depression
and externalizing disorders in early adolescence mediate the association between
maternal depression and the likelihood of developing a substance use disorder in
late adolescence. Tartter et al. found that externalizing disorders in the adolescents
directly predicted all diagnoses of substance abuse in late adolescence. These
disorders also mediated the relationship between maternal depression and drug
abuse but only for alcohol and cannabis.
3.3.2 Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
Adolescent sons of alcoholic fathers tend to display higher levels of disruptive

behaviour problems than their peers whose fathers are not alcoholic (Loukas, Zucker,
Fitzgerald & Krull, 2003). Young adult children with an alcoholic father tend to
experience serious issues around their drinking of alcohol and other mental health
issues (Van Loon et al, 2013). Kendler et al. (2012) also found evidence of genetic and
family environment effects on the risk of drug abuse. In this Swedish study involving
adopted and natural family members, young adult children with an alcoholic father
were also likely to struggle in terms of coping with their education and their social
lives. In contrast, Yule and Prince (2012) found that exposure to the drug dependence
of their mothers increased the likelihood that female adolescents and their siblings
would develop problems with drugs. There was also an overall effect of parental
substance use on increased drug use in offspring. (See Chapter 6 for further discussion
of the impact of parents’ drinking behaviour on the drinking of their adolescents.)
In a study of risk and protective factors for adolescents in Central America,
family problems with drugs and alcohol were again shown to be risk factors for the
adolescents, increasing the chances that they would also be involved in various kinds
of drug abuse (Kliewer & Murrelle, 2007). It is interesting to note that religious factors
such as parent religiosity and a personal belief in God decreased the chances that
an adolescent exposed to risk factors would have problems with drugs.
3.4 Marital Or Relationship Satisfaction, Conflict And Violence
3.4.1 Marital Satisfaction
While acknowledging that families can take different forms, as we have noted earlier
in this chapter, there is a lot of research about marital relationships and their impact
on families and adolescents that is important to our understanding of adolescent
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Marital Or Relationship Satisfaction, Conflict And Violence 47
development. Because it does not seem appropriate to ignore the fact that marital
relationships were being studied, we have chosen to continue to use the word
“marital” when discussing these studies.
Marital satisfaction has an impact on the parenting styles used by parents
in raising their children (Aluja et al., 2007). Parenting styles are associated with
personality factors, satisfaction with the marriage and social values. Further, parents
who are emotionally stable and responsible are more likely to have satisfying
marriages and hence are more likely to be warm and accepting in their relationships
with their children, and less likely to be rejecting.
Partners in distressed relationships tend to model interactions that are hostile
or lacking in warmth and caring, whereas those in harmonious relationships tend to
model interactions that are warm and caring rather than hostile (Noller et al., 1995).
There is a strong positive association between the quality of the marital relationship
and the quality of the parent-child relationship (Erel & Burman, 1995). In other words,
the positive feelings engendered by a satisfying marriage will spill over to the parent-
child relationship, and the negative feelings experienced in a distressed relationship
are also likely to spill over to the parent-child relationship. For example, there is
specific evidence for fathers, in particular, with their perceptions of their children
being more negative if they see their relationship with their wife as coercive and
lacking in goodwill (Noller et al., 2000).
3.4.2 Marital or Relationship Conflict
There is a lot of evidence for the detrimental effects of marital or relationship conflict
on parent-child relationships and adolescent well-being. Marital conflict has been
shown to have a direct effect on adolescent internalizing problems such as depression
and anxiety, and also to affect the emotional tone of the parent-child relationship
adversely (Davies & Cummings, 1994; Harold, Fincham, Osborn & Conger, 1997). An
important issue is how the adolescents perceive the conflict, given that seeing the
conflict as negative, irrespective of whether others would see it that way, increases
adolescents’ psychological distress (Erel & Burman, 1995). In an Australian study
where adolescents listened to audiotapes of a couple arguing and then made ratings
of their reactions, adolescents saw coercive interactions as more typical of their
parents than the parents did, but were also more optimistic than their parents that the
conflict would be resolved (Noller et al., 2006). Presumably these adolescents have
seen many conflicts resolved by their parents over their lifetimes and were confident
that such issues would continue to be resolved. (See Chapter 4 on Communication in
families with adolescents.)
In another Australian study comparing separated/divorcing couples and
continuously married couples, the lowest levels of psychological adjustment in
the adolescents (low self-esteem, high anxiety and depression) were found in the
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families that were both separated/divorcing and high in conflict (Noller et al.,
2008). In addition, these adolescents tended to see their parents’ conflict in very
negative terms, describing their conflicts as stupid and trivial and their parents’
behaviour as immature. Of course, the adolescents may not have understood
the underlying issues of power and control and fear of abandonment that were
often at the heart of these conflicts. For example, they may not have realised that
an argument about where to spend holidays may really be about who has the
power to make such a decision, rather than about desirable holiday destinations
(see also Chapter 5).
Although some conflict is inevitable in marriage and other close relationships,
intense conflict that is chronic has detrimental effects on young people. Given
that high conflict couples are likely to behave towards their children in ways that
are unresponsive and even cold and angry, the young people are likely to be angry
and noncompliant and behave in this way with both their parents and friends
(Katz & Gottman, 1996). On the other hand, when marital conflict leads to a couple
withdrawing from each other, couples tend to become more power-assertive and less
playful with their children, the family environment is likely to be less close and warm
and children are more likely to have behaviour problems (Katz & Woodin, 2002; see
Table 3.3).
Table 3.3: Marital Satisfaction, Conflict and Adolescent outcomes
Quality of Parental Relationship Adolescent Outcomes
MARITAL SATISFACTION
High Warm and accepting in relationships with adolescents

Less likely to be rejecting
High quality relationships with adolescents
Positive feelings from marriage spill over to parent-child
relationships
Low Model interactions for adolescents that are hostile or lacking

in warmth
Negative feelings from marriage spill- over to parent-child
relationship especially for fathers
MARITAL CONFLICT
High Increased risk of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem

Family environment less close and warm
Parents more power-assertive
Adolescents become angry and noncompliant with parents
and peers
More behaviour problems in adolescents
Low Mild conflict inevitable in families – few negative effects
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Relationships with Extended Family and Community 49
3.4.2.1 Violence
As would be expected, violence in the marital relationship also has a negative
impact on adolescent well-being. In addition, exposure to violence between parents
increases the risk of young people themselves receiving violence from a parent,
and child physical abuse and conduct disorder in adolescence increase the risk of
perpetrating violence against a partner later on (Ehrensaft, Cohen, Brown, Smailes,
Chen & Johnson (2003). In a large sample of Canadian adults who reported on both
marital and parent-child violence in their families, all forms of violence in the family
of origin were associated with all forms of relationship violence in later relationships
(Kwong, Bartholomew, Henderson & Trinke, 2003). There were no differences
related to gender or family role. The authors interpret these findings in terms of the
general models for violent behaviour that young people experience in their families.
Other studies have also shown that marital violence experienced by adolescents is
associated with violence in their later relationships (Kassis et al; 2010; Kassis et al.,
2011; Sousa et al., 2011).
3.5 Relationships with Extended Family and Community
It is important to remember that families are embedded within a variety of other social
systems. Families may operate within a particular cultural or sub cultural group and
within a larger community and are also affected by the social conditions and values
of the time in which they exist. Families are also embedded in a network of social
relationships including extended family members and friends (Parke, 2004a), and
these networks can have important influences on family members.
There is some evidence that having a number of unrelated adults involved in
one’s network is important for adolescents (Fletcher, Darling, Steinberg & Dornbusch,
1995). For example, adolescents who reported a high level of contact with their
parents’ friends and their own friends’ parents tended to perform better academically
and behave in more socially acceptable ways than adolescents who did not have this
type of contact.
Adolescents across four countries (Canada, France, Belgium and Italy) when
asked about their relationships with adults identified few non-related adults but
identified a number of members of their extended families that they considered had
a significant influence on their lives (Claes, Lacourse, Bouchard & Luckow, 2001).
Most of these extended family members played emotional roles such as listening to
the adolescents’ issues and providing advice and support. Contacts with extended
family members in the European countries, particularly in Italy, were more frequent
than in Canada.
Probably the most important members of the extended families of adolescents are
grandparents (Bengtson, 2001). Grandparents are seen as influencing adolescents both
directly and indirectly and can be family stabilizers, affecting the family environment
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in ways that help soften the impact of the harshness of modern life (Botcheva
& Feldman, 2004; Hagestad, 1985). Grandparents generally play a supportive role in
the lives of their adolescent grandchildren, especially when the family is under stress,
although they themselves can also be a source of stress and distress, especially if
parents see the grandparents as interfering in their relationships with their children.
Grandparent relationships tend to be stronger in cultures like China where living
arrangements often involve three generations living under one roof, and in non
Caucasian groups like African-Americans, Mexican-Americans or American-Indians
that emphasize family bonds (Botcheva & Feldman, 2004).
Botcheva and Feldman (2004) found that in Bulgarian families with high
levels of economic stress, the presence of a supportive grandparent decreased the
effect of economic pressure on the harshness of parenting behaviours, particularly
in the case of mothers. Having support from a grandparent also resulted in less
depression in adolescents, even when they were experiencing harsh parenting that
so often results when a family is having financial difficulties (e.g., Conger & Elder,
1994; Noack, Hofer & Kracke, 1994). Based on the qualitative responses obtained in
the Botcheva and Feldman study, girls tended to emphasize the emotional support
provided by grandparents who were seen as understanding them better than their
parents, whereas boys were more likely to mention support such as providing them
with an allowance from their meagre pensions. Overall, grandparents were seen as
playing a softening and important role in the family.
3.5.1 Social Class/Economics
Social class and the economic circumstances of families are also likely to affect the
family environments of adolescents. In one study, researchers found that economic
circumstances affect the parents in terms of their general mood and that financial
stress can lead to more marital and relationship conflict and less effective parenting
(Conger, Conger, Elder, Lorenz, Simons & Whitbeck, 1993). These researchers showed
that hostility and lack of warmth and involvement as well as a lack of discipline all
contributed to adverse consequences for this sample of American girls.
3.5.2 Neighbourhoods and Communities
Adolescents may be affected by the neighbourhoods in which they live, and the quality
of the neighbourhood can be determined by the socio-economic circumstances
of the family. In other words, adolescents with poor or unemployed parents are
likely to live in the poorest suburbs with the most problematic schools and can be
led into delinquency by their peers. There is evidence that young people in highly
disadvantaged communities have an increased risk of becoming violent because of
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Relationships with Extended Family and Community 51
family problems, as well as an increased risk of being exposed to people involved in

criminal activities (De Coster, Heimer, & Wittrock, 2006). Another study of the links
between poverty and juvenile delinquency was based on a national sample of US
adolescents (Carter, Fortson, Hollist, Altheimer, & Schaible, 2007). Carter et al. found
that family poverty particularly increased the risk of delinquency in families living in
poor communities.
Hoffman (2006) explored adolescent problem behaviours at the level of the family
and at the level of the community. Adolescents from families with a recently divorced
mother, a mother and stepfather, or a single parent (mother or father) tended to
engage in more problem behaviour than those who lived with their biological parents,
regardless of the type of community they lived in. In addition, adolescents living in
communities that involved a large number of impoverished households, female-
headed households or unemployed males were more likely to engage in problem
behaviours, regardless of family structure. Thus both family structure and the nature
of the community can have independent effects on adolescent problem behaviour.
(see Chapter 6 for more information about adolescent problem behaviours)
In a Dutch study focused on the city or neighbourhood determinants of youth
delinquency, the percentage of single-parent families in the community had the most
significant effect on rates of youth delinquency (Weijters, Scheepers & Gerris, 2009).
In addition, social class was associated with the type of work that parents did, which
in turn may have had an impact on how these parents behaved towards their children
as we shall see in the next section.
Type of neighbourhood can also affect how parents monitor and control their
adolescents (Shor, 2000). In this Israeli study, perceptions of situations of abuse and
neglect involved comparing parents living in a low-income deprived neighbourhood
and parents living in a middle-income neighbourhood. Parents in the deprived
neighbourhood emphasized the need to control and monitor their children’s
behaviour because of the extra risks to their children’s safety in that environment.
Parents in the middle-income neighbourhood, on the other hand, believed that they
could use less restrictive monitoring of their children because their neighbourhood
was a lot safer.
Cuellar, Jones and Sterrett (2013) produced an integrative review of the research
on the impact of neighbourhood characteristics on parenting behaviour. They
explored three particular neighbourhood characteristics: danger, disadvantage
and disengagement. Danger included crime levels and concerns about safety,
disadvantage referred to the absence of financial and institutional resources and
disengagement referred to a lack of opportunities for positive involvement available in
the neighbourhood. Although these researchers found evidence of the neighbourhood
in which children and parents live affecting parenting practices, there were not a lot
of consistent findings, likely due to inconsistencies in how parenting and other
relevant variables were measured. Disadvantage and disengagement seem to have
the strongest impact on parenting and fostering social support among families in
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disadvantaged communities can be very helpful in producing more positive parenting

(Akers & Mince, 2008; DePanfilis & Dubowitz, 2005).
Families and communities can also have positive effects on developmental
outcomes for adolescents (Morrissey & Werner-Wilson, 2005). This study particularly
focused on participation in out-of-school leisure activities as being associated
with positive developmental outcomes for adolescents. Where such activities were
available, those young people with positive attitudes towards their families and their
communities were more likely to be involved in these leisure activities and more
likely to engage in positive social behaviour rather than become involved in problem
behaviour and delinquent activities.
Stevick (2007) reports a study of the Amish community, showing how their strong
and distinct identity is fostered by the entire Amish community: parents, teachers,
neighbours and ministers. He also shows how this strong and distinctive identity
keeps most young people from identifying with the outside community, with the
result that almost 90 percent of those who grow up in an Amish community choose
to remain in that traditional way of life. Of course, it may not only be the strength of
their group identity that protects Amish young people. Their traditional way of life
means that they are not continually bombarded with the negative influences that are
prevalent at least in modern western society.
3.6 Work and Family
Social class can also be associated with the parenting practices of men and women
through their occupations (Kohn, 1995). For example, men who work in jobs where
they have a lot of autonomy and have to deal with a lot of complexity tend to value
independence in their children, and they tend to take their children’s intentions
into account when deciding whether and how to punish them (Grimm-Thomas
& Perry-Jenkins, 1994). These fathers tended to respond to their children with
more warmth and were more likely to try to explain things to them (Greenberger,
O’Neil & Nagel, 1994). Children also had fewer behaviour problems when their
mothers worked in jobs involving autonomy, such as working with people and
providing opportunities for problem-solving (Cooksey, Menaghan & Jekielek,
1997). Kohn also found that men in jobs where they were highly supervised tended
to value conformity and obedience in their children and were also more likely to
use physical punishment.
Apart from the kinds of work parents do, their work pressures are likely to be
associated with the well being of adolescents, especially in dual-earner families
(Ransford, Crouter & McHale, 2008). These researchers found that when either parent
was in a high-pressure job where little support was provided to workers, both parents
reported higher levels of role overload than was true for other families. They reported
that the consequent stress affected their families in terms of more conflict and less
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Work and Family 53
intimacy in their relationships with their children. In addition, their children were
more likely than other children to report symptoms of depression.
In another sample of dual-earner families (Bumpus, Crouter & McHale, 2006), the
researchers explored associations between negative work-to-family spill over (when
parents’ work has negative consequences for the family) and parents’ knowledge
of the daily activities of their young adolescents. Although mothers and fathers in
this sample were likely to experience similar levels of negative spill over from work
to family, spill over from mothers’ work did not affect mothers’ knowledge of her
adolescents’ activities. On the other hand, fathers who reported high levels of spill
over tended to know less about their adolescents’ daily activities. These researchers
suggest that fathers’ involvement with their adolescents may be seen by them as more
voluntary or optional than that of mothers, with mothers believing that knowing
about adolescents’ daily activities was part of their role. Another possibility is that
the quality of the father-adolescent relationship may depend on the levels of stress
experienced by the father at work that day. Adolescents may be more prepared to
discuss their activities with their fathers when the fathers are in the right mood
(Larson & Richards, 1994).
Where parents work shifts involving nonstandard work schedules (that is, not
between 8 am, and 5 pm) there is also likely to be an impact on relationships with
adolescents (Davis, Crouter & McHale, 2006). Whereas mothers’ relationships with
their adolescents were not negatively affected by shift work, fathers’ relationships
with their adolescents were. In fact, adolescents with shift-working mothers reported
more intimacy with their mothers than those whose mothers worked standard
daytime hours, and these mothers were more knowledgeable about their adolescents’
activities.
Because adolescents whose mothers worked nonstandard shifts reported more
intimacy with their mothers than those whose mothers worked daytime shifts, these
researchers discuss the possibility that mothers who work shifts may put in a lot of
effort to compensate their adolescents for work-related absences. On the other hand,
when fathers worked shifts, adolescents reported less intimacy with both parents,
especially if there was also conflict in the marriage. Crouter and Goodman (2006)
suggest that because mothers’ family responsibilities are more specific, they are likely
to make sure their responsibilities are fulfilled whatever their work hours. Again, the
implication is that mothers in dual-earner families are more likely than fathers to
make sure that they keep in touch with what their adolescents are doing.
Marchena (2005) had adolescents report on the impact on them of parents’ work-
family conflict. Although adolescents generally accepted their parents’ work roles,
they were sometimes critical of the effects of that work on family life. For example,
they did not like the way that mothers who worked from home often ignored them
(presumably so that they could get the required amount of work finished). They
also were negative about parents’ work keeping them away from home longer than
expected, or parents being called to work unexpectedly to fill-in for a colleague. They
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were also unhappy when parents’ work activities resulted in those parents missing
out on important activities in their adolescents’ lives, such as school performances,
parent-teacher nights and sporting events. These kinds of incidents were not tolerated
more for fathers than for mothers. Both parents were expected to be involved in their
adolescent’s lives, irrespective of work commitments. Another interesting aspect of
this study was that these adolescents expected that they, too, would work when their
own children were adolescents, but presumably would still make more effort to be
involved in their children’s lives.
In another study of working mothers (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2006), young adults
were asked to report on the parenting practices of their mothers and fathers while
they were growing up, in order to explore whether these differed by whether their
mothers worked or not. Those young adults whose mothers worked during most of
their childhood tended to report both less discipline and less support from each of
their parents than was true for those whose mothers stayed at home. In addition, sons
in dual-earner families reported more verbal assaults and more physical assaults from
both of their parents than did those sons whose mothers did not work outside the
home. Presumably these attacks from parents were related to the stress and pressures
that they experienced in their work situations. It is also possible that these young
males were not sympathetic to those pressures but selfishly expected parents to
spend more time focused on them and their needs.
3.7 Family Functioning and Discipline
3.7.1 Parenting Style
Parenting styles are integral to the development of the family environment or the
climate in which families function. Studies of parenting styles used with adolescents
tend to show a clear link between parenting styles and the well being of adolescents
(Milevsky, Schlechter, Netter & Keehn, 2007). The most commonly used typology of
parenting style is that of Baumrind (1971) who focused on three styles: authoritarian,
authoritative and permissive, with the authoritative style seen as more beneficial for
young people because it involves high warmth or responsiveness and firm control or
high demandingness (Baumrind & Black, 1967; Baumrind, 1971, 1983).
Later researchers such as Steinberg (Darling & Steinberg, 1993; Lamborn, Mounts,
Steinberg & Dornbusch, 1991; Steinberg, Lamborn, Dornbusch & Darling, 1992)
have developed a measure based on two underlying dimensions of parenting style:
parental support or responsiveness and strict control. Using these two dimensions
parents can be categorized as authoritarian (high control and low support), indulgent
(high support and low control), authoritative (high support and high control) and
uninvolved (low on both support and control).
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Family Functioning and Discipline 55
Baumrind (1991) was able to show that authoritative parents tended to be very
successful at producing competent children who did not get involved in the use of
illegal drugs. Baumrind (1983) argues that authoritative parents also promote self-
efficacy or a sense of competency that gives young people the motivation to try
new and even difficult tasks. In addition, parents who use an authoritative style
tend to have children who are higher in self-esteem and life-satisfaction and lower
in depression (Milevsky et al., 2007), although the effect tends to be clearer for the
parenting of mothers than fathers.
It also seems that the impact of an authoritarian parenting style, which tends
to be negative in the West, may not be so harmful in other cultures (Rudy & Grusec,
2001). Rudy and Grusec (2001) were interested in the transmission of values in
families. They compared a sample of Anglo-Canadians with a sample of Egyptian-
Canadians in terms of a range of parenting variables. The age range of those studied
was 18 to 62 years. The Egyptian-Canadians were higher than the Anglo-Canadians
on authoritarianism, collectivism and anger. For both groups, collectivism was the
best predictor of authoritarianism but for the Anglo-Canadian group, lack of warmth
was also a predictor. The researchers note that high levels of authoritarianism are not
necessarily related to low levels of warmth, more negative attributions about children
or rigid information-processing because authoritarianism tends to mean different
things depending on whether a culture is collectivist or individualist. It is possible
that because collectivist cultures focus on the greater good of the community rather
than on the good of the individual, parents feel a stronger need to get this message
across to their offspring.
A group of Arab researchers (Dwairy, Mustafa, Abouserie & Farah, 2006) studied
a large sample of adolescents coming from eight different Arab societies such as Saudi
Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. They found that adolescents who experienced inconsistent
parenting scored lower in terms of their sense of connectedness in the family and
their mental health than those who experienced either controlling parenting or more
flexible parenting. It is interesting to note that even in this very different culture,
authoritative parenting was associated with better connectedness within the family
and better mental health.
Using the measure designed by Steinberg and colleagues, a group of Dutch
researchers assessed the relations between parent personality and parenting styles
(Huver, Otten, de Vries & Engels, 2009). These researchers were able to show that
parents’ levels of extraversion and agreeableness were associated with providing
high support for their adolescents, and that parents who were high in emotional
stability were more likely to exert strict control. They found that authoritative parents
were more likely to be extraverted, agreeable and less emotionally stable than other
parents. In fact, emotionally stable parents were more likely to engage in indulgent or
uninvolved parenting. Perhaps emotionally stable parents maintain that stability by
not becoming over involved in trying to control their children.
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Although differences in parenting style between mothers and fathers has not
received a lot of research attention, McKinney and Renk (2008) explored the association
between late adolescents’ perceptions of the parenting styles of their parents and
those same adolescents’ emotional adjustment. These researchers found that those
adolescents who had at least one parent who used an authoritative parenting style
showed higher levels of emotional adjustment than those who had no authoritative
parent. McKinney and Renk suggest that having at least one authoritative parent
increases the chances of adolescents having healthy psychological adjustment. For
example, adolescents with healthy psychological adjustment would tend to have
relatively high self-esteem and low levels of anxiety and depression.
A coercive or authoritarian style of parenting, on the other hand, tends to produce
withdrawn, passive behaviour in girls and stereotyped behaviour in boys (Baumrind,
1983), at least in western cultures such as the US. Firm consistent discipline provided
in a context of loving responsiveness tends to produce likable, independent and
assertive behaviour in boys and affiliative, responsible and stable behaviour in girls.
A Dutch study of the development of delinquency in adolescents also identified three
styles of parenting: authoritative, authoritarian and neglectful or punishing (Hoeve,
Blokland, Dubas, Loeber, Gerris, & van der Laan, 2008). They found that serious
delinquents were generally experiencing neglectful parenting.
3.7.1.1 Encouragement of Autonomy

As we noted earlier, one of the tasks of adolescence is for the young person to develop
a sense of autonomy or independence so that they can stand on their own feet and
make decisions about what they want for the future (see Chapter 2), all with the
support of their parents, but without inappropriate intrusiveness on the parents’
parts. Grotevant and Cooper (1986) for example, argued that a supportive parent-child
relationship is essential for the optimal development of autonomy in adolescents.
It is also important that adolescents are not overly independent of their parents
(Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Lens, Luyckx, Goosens, Beyers & Ryan, 2007). These
European authors suggest that, rather than promoting independence, parents
should encourage their adolescents to act in line with their own values and interests.
This approach is best nurtured in an environment where parents understand and
appreciate their children’s perspectives, provide appropriate choices for them, and
minimise their own use of control and power assertion (Grolnick, 2003; Ryan, Deci
& Grolnick, 1995).
Kagitcibasi (2013), a Turkish researcher, discusses the issues of autonomy and
relatedness in adolescence and argues that models based on Western psychology
tend to focus on autonomy rather than relatedness, although both Western and
Eastern researchers recognise that both are basic needs. She argues for a more
inclusive model where both autonomy (or independence) and relatedness
(or interdependence) are seen as important. She emphasizes the need for
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interdependence in the psychological realm but not the material realm. She argues
for a focus on the autonomous-related self, with a balance between autonomy and
relatedness even in adolescence.
3.7.1.2 Cohesion, Flexibility and Communication

Cohesion and flexibility are two key aspects of Olson’s (2000) Circumplex Model of
Family Functioning. Cohesion concerns the level of closeness and affection in the
family, and levels vary from enmeshed (or so close that family members can struggle
to see themselves as separate persons) to disengaged (or so distant that there is no real
connection between family members). Flexibility (previously labelled adaptability)
varies from rigid (not at all flexible and limited by too many rules) to chaotic (or so
flexible that there is no structure or organization). Balanced families are considered
most appropriate, particularly for parenting adolescents, and tend to be moderate in
terms of both cohesion and flexibility.
This finding has been supported across more than 250 questionnaire studies as
well as studies where families were observed interacting with one another and then
rated in terms of their closeness and flexibility. Families that were too close tended
to include children who were more likely to become depressed (Jacobvitz, Hazen,
Curran & Hitchens, 2004), and families that were too rigid or controlling tended
to include children who were anxious or depressed, presumably because they are
constantly afraid of making a mistake or breaking a rule. In addition, families that
were disengaged or too distant tended to include children who were more likely to
become anxious and depressed because of a lack of warmth or sense of security,
that can lead to their feeling all alone. Parental factors also seem important to how
well children perform at school. Children in warm, cohesive families are likely to
perform better at school than children from families that are less supportive at least
in Australia (Heaven & Newbury, 2004).
The third aspect of the Circumplex Model is communication, which is considered
critical to the expression of cohesion (e.g., support and affection) and flexibility (e.g.,
discipline and organization). Families with communication problems are likely to
also have problems in the areas of expressing cohesion and taking a flexible approach
to decision-making and problem solving (see Chapter 4).
3.7.1.3 Parental Rejection

As a number of researchers have noted, adolescents who see themselves as rejected
by their parents run the risk of developing a range of psychological problems (Akse,
Hale, Engels, Raaijmakers & Meeus, 2004; Buehler & Gerard, 2002; Chang, Schwartz,
Dodge & McBride-Chang, 2003; Khaleque & Rohner, 2002). Adolescents who perceive
their parents as rejecting are likely to have low self-esteem and see their futures
negatively, and this can make them vulnerable to depression and even suicide. These
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findings were particularly strong for girls in the study of Dutch children (Akse et al.).
Boys, on the other hand are likely to react to parental rejection by engaging in socially
unacceptable behaviour such as aggression.
3.7.1.4 Level of Control and Monitoring

As Baumrind (1991) points out, finding the appropriate level of control and
monitoring for adolescents is not always easy. Adolescents need to become self-
regulated, autonomous and competent individuals. In order to achieve such a goal,
they need freedom to explore and experiment, but they also need to be protected from
experiences that are definitely dangerous. Baumrind argues that adolescents can give
up their childhood dependencies on parents, but still maintain positive relationships
with them and even keep their parents’ values.
Pettit and Laird (2002) draw a clear distinction between monitoring and control.
According to these authors, “monitoring reflects parents’ efforts to adapt and regulate
children’s behaviour through guidance and supervision” (p. 100) and is generally
positive. Psychological control, on the other hand is about parents wanting to limit
the child’s developing psychological autonomy or independence, to keep the child
dependent on the parent, and to maintain power in the relationship. This type of
control is associated with both internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression
as well as with externalizing problems such as delinquency. Monitoring, on the other
hand, is associated with low levels of externalizing problems such as delinquency
and other forms of acting-out (Barber, 1996). Barber argues that where adolescents are
highly anxious or depressed or engaging in delinquent behaviours, parents are more
likely to use psychological control, and where delinquency and other externalizing
problems are at low levels, parents are more likely to rely on monitoring.
In a study of psychological control by both mothers and fathers (Luebbe,
Bump, Fussner & Rulon, 2013) researchers assessed early adolescents’ perceptions
of psychological control by both mothers and fathers, as well as any discrepancies
between them in their levels of control. They were interested in whether perceptions
of control were associated with the adolescents’ regulation of negative emotion and
the extent to which they experience anxiety. Perception of psychological control
by both mothers and fathers was related to adolescent anxiety, but in multivariate
analyses only the discrepancy between the parents in their psychological control was
related to anxiety. In addition, this effect was partially explained by the adolescents’
problems in regulating negative emotions.
Parental monitoring is generally assessed in term of three variables: parental
solicitation, child disclosure and parental involvement (Criss et al., 2013; Laird et al.,
2012) and tends to involve knowledge about adolescents’ whereabouts and activities.
“Do you know where your children are?” as an Australian government advertisement
asked at one time when concern about adolescents being out late at night and involved
in problem activities was at a high level. Parental monitoring tends to be linked with
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fewer problem behaviours and better school performance (Kerr & Stattin, 2000; Laird
et al., 2012; Padilla-Walker, Harper & Bean, 2011)) so is clearly important. In these
studies, what parents knew about their adolescents’ activities tended to come from
adolescents’ voluntary disclosure rather than from any actual tracking by the parents.
Thus the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship is critical as adolescents will be
more likely to disclose their activities to parents with whom they have a positive bond.
In fact, child disclosure was more strongly linked to adolescent adjustment than
was parental tracking or surveillance. Those who willingly disclosed information
about their activities were less depressed, had better relationships with their parents
and better self-esteem, all of which underlines the importance of having good
relationships with one’s adolescents. Of course, as we have suggested earlier, it is
possible that good relationships with parents increased the willingness of young
people to disclose their activities to their parents. From our perspective, good parent-
child relationships increase the likelihood that adolescents will cooperate with
parents and generally comply with their wishes. Feeling controlled, on the other
hand, was associated in Kerr and Stattin’s (2000) study with every measure of poor
psychological adjustment, a topic discussed further below.
In another study (Waizenhofer, Buchanan & Jackson-Newman, 2004), mothers’
knowledge of adolescent activities was related to lower levels of deviant behaviour
among adolescents, but did not predict psychological adjustment. Overall, mothers
knew more than fathers about the activities of their adolescents. Mothers were
also more likely than fathers to get information through direct disclosure from the
adolescent, or through their own supervision of the adolescent’s activities. Active
supervision was associated with more knowledge of adolescents’ activities by both
mothers and fathers from dual-earner families.
Parents who are psychologically controlling tend to be critical of their
adolescents, very achievement-oriented in their dealings with their adolescents,
and highly demanding and strict (Barber & Harmon, 2002; Soenens, Vansteenkiste,
Duriez & Goossens, 2006). They also tend to be over-involved with their own personal
needs to the exclusion of the needs of their adolescents, and to lack understanding or
empathy with regard to the perspectives and goals of their children and adolescents.
One problem is that their approach to their adolescents tends to hinder autonomy
development as well as identity formation, both of which are important aspects of
growing up (Barber & Harmon, 2002). (see also Chapter 2) In addition, these parents
tend to intrude on their adolescents’ sense of self and not allow them to make
decisions for themselves (Soenens et al., 2006). These adolescents are also likely to
have lower self-esteem and to be more vulnerable to depression and anxiety than
other adolescents. These problems tend to be associated with children’s delinquent
behaviours (Pettit, Laird, Dodge, Bates & Criss, 2001) and with inter-parental
hostility and conflict (see Chapter 6 for more detailed discussion of delinquency in
adolescence). Parenting that encourages adolescents to explore their own thoughts
and values facilitates autonomy development and high self-esteem.
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Soenens et al. (2006) carried out a study to test the links among parental
separation anxiety with regard to their adolescents (that is, fear that their adolescents
would distance from them), their demand for exceptionally high standards from their
adolescents and the extent to which they used psychological control. They found
that both separation anxiety and exceptionally high standards (or perfectionism)
were associated with increased psychological control in their dealings with their
adolescents. These authors suggest that there may be two types of psychological
control, one associated with separation anxiety and the other associated with extreme
perfectionism or high demands.
Those parents who experience separation anxiety are likely to feel anxious about
their adolescent’s increasing autonomy and independence and to use control to keep
them in a close and dependent relationship. These adolescents are also likely to
develop a dependent, clinging attitude towards others as happens for the child with
preoccupied attachment (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). Perfectionistic parents,
on the other hand, are likely to communicate to the child that they can love them
only if they meet the very high standards demanded by the parents. Either of these
types of control is likely to make the adolescent vulnerable to depression and anxiety.
Therefore, parenting that incorporates realistic expectations and unconditional
positive regard is likely to produce well-adjusted adolescents.
3.7.1.5 Discipline
Although it is important that adolescents are disciplined by their parents, the nature
of that discipline needs to be considered carefully. Power assertive punishment has
a negative effect on young people and physical abuse increases the risk that a young
person will abuse a partner later on and even inflict injury (Ehrensaft et al., 2003). It
is interesting to note that physical punishment seems to have different effects on boys
and girls, at least with regard to their involvement in delinquent behaviours (Heaven
et al., 2004). These authors found that the delinquent behaviour of boys increased
with increases in father’s physical punishment, whereas the delinquent behaviour of
girls decreased. (See Chapter 4 for more on discipline)
3.8 Sibling Relationships
Sibling relationships are an important aspect of the family environment. For most
people, the sibling relationship is the longest relationship they will ever have. Even
with the decline in family size, most people have at least one sibling, and they are
likely to spend more time with their sibling than with anyone else according to time-
use data (McHale, Kim, Whiteman & Crouter, 2007). Some recent research suggests
that children from European/American backgrounds in the USA are more likely to
live with a sibling than a father (McHale et al., 2007). Siblings are in competition with
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Sibling Relationships 61
each other for the love and attention of their parents and need to maintain a lifelong
relationship with one another (Noller, 2005b).
Some sibling researchers (e.g., Dunn & Plomin, 1990) talk about shared and non-
shared family environments. The shared family environment is what all the siblings
are likely to experience similarly, including parental values, parental health issues,
marital discord, family rules, family climate and the family’s financial situation.
The non-shared family environment is unique to each individual and includes
relationship with mother, relationship with father, relationships with each sibling,
differential treatment by parent/s, own health issues, peer group and involvement
in outside activities. Of course, personality differences are also likely to contribute
to family members’ reacting in different ways to what happens in the family. For
example, an anxious insecure child is likely to react differently to minor arguments
between parents than one who is more secure.
Thus it is important to remember that each sibling has a different experience in
the family (Dunn, 2000; Dunn & Plomin, 1990). As Dunn (2000) notes parents need to
understand the experiences that are specific to each child in the family. For example,
a child with a chronic illness is likely to have a very different experience of the family
than his or her well sibling. Siblings can also play different roles with each other.
They can be “attachment figures, antagonists, playmates, protectors and socialisers”
(Davies, 2002, p.94).
An important aspect of relationships between siblings is the tendency for others
to make comparisons between them, and for them to compete with one another.
Comparisons may be made by parents, teachers or friends and can be about a range
of characteristics such as physical appearance (height, weight, attractiveness,
physique), personality characteristics (outgoingness, friendliness, conscientiousness,
helpfulness, stubbornness) or skills and abilities (athleticism, intelligence, artistic or
musical ability). Comparisons tend to begin in infancy (Dunn, 1988, 2000) and to
continue throughout their lives (Cicirelli, 1996).
Siblings are likely to have strong emotional reactions to comparisons made about
them and to being in competition with each other, although where the relationships
between siblings are high in support and low in conflict, reactions are likely to be
less intense (Noller, Conway & Blakeley-Smith, 2008). Birth order also tends to affect
siblings’ reactions to being outperformed by their sibling. In this study of Australian
siblings, older siblings reacted more negatively to being outperformed by a younger
sibling than did younger siblings to being outperformed by an older sibling, and that
was also true for twins even though the age difference might be only a few minutes.
When younger siblings are outperformed by an older sibling, they can attribute their
defeat to age, but older siblings would generally expect to outperform their younger
siblings.
Buist, Paalman, Branje, Dekovic, et al. (2013) carried out a study of Dutch and
Moroccan adolescents in which they compared ethnic differences but also the
association between the quality of the sibling relationship and adolescents’ problem
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behaviour. Although there were differences between the ethnic groups in terms of
sibling quality (support and control) and problem behaviour (externalizing disorders
and depression), they found no significant differences in the link between sibling
relationships and adolescent behaviour between the two different ethnic groups. In
addition, the association between sibling relationship quality and problem behaviour
was similar irrespective of cultural group.
3.8.1 Differential Parenting
Differential parenting is about siblings being treated differently by a parent or parents

such that one could be considered favoured and the other disfavoured. A favoured
child would tend to receive more affection and less control than a disfavoured
sibling, whereas the disfavoured sibling would receive less affection and more
control. Differential parenting can have a profound effect on children, particularly
on the disfavoured child and can affect their sense of competence and self-worth,
personality, behavioural problems and mental health (Baker & Daniels, 1990; Dunn,
Stocker & Plomin, 1990; Sheehan & Noller, 2002; Tejerina-Allen, Wagner & Cohen,
1994).
Sheehan and Noller (2002) found that adolescent twins who were disfavoured in
terms of the support and affection they received from their parents were more likely
to be avoidant in terms of their attachment, and more anxious than their favoured
sibling. (See Chapter 2) Adolescent twins who saw their mothers as more controlling
of them than of their co-twin tended to report both lower self-esteem and higher
anxiety than their more favoured twin. Surprisingly, twins who reported more control
from their fathers than their co-twin reported higher personal self-esteem than
their co-twin, suggesting that guidance and monitoring by the father tends to have
a positive effect on adolescents’ psychological adjustment.
In another study, Tucker, McHale and Crouter (2003) explored parents’ differential
treatment of their adolescents in five areas: privileges, chores, affection, discipline
and the amount of time spent with adolescent offspring. They also assessed the extent
to which personal characteristics of the adolescents were associated with differential
treatment. These researchers found that equal treatment was common, particularly in
the domains of discipline and privileges. Firstborns tended to receive more privileges
than others in the family, but that may have been because they were older.
Differential treatment was clearly related to gender, especially with regard to time
spent with adolescents, and treatment by fathers. Mothers tended to spend more time
with girls and fathers spent more time with boys, perhaps because they believed that
they had more in common with their same sex adolescent. Fathers also differentiated
on the basis of birth order, spending more time with their firstborns. Overall, the
findings indicated that parents’ affection, discipline and amount of time spent with
their adolescent were affected by the adolescent’s gender and sex-typed qualities.
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Summary 63
Privileges and chores were more related to birth order and age. Some researchers
suggest that where differential treatment is seen by adolescents as legitimate because
of the different needs of each sibling, adolescents and their sibling relationships
are less likely to be negatively affected (Kowal & Kramer, 1997; McHale, Updegraff,
Jackson-Newsom, Tucker & Crouter, 2000).
3.8.2 Sibling Relationships and Adolescent Adjustment
As Dunn (2000) noted in discussing the sibling relationship, “that emotional intensity
and the intimacy of the relationship, the familiarity of children with each other, and
the significance of sharing parents mean that the relationship has considerable
potential for affecting children’s well being” (p. 244). For example, Patterson and his
colleagues have shown that siblings are trained in aggressive behaviour by the way
they and their siblings react to teasing, conflict and fighting (Bank, Patterson & Reid,
1996).
Comparisons between siblings made by parents and others are likely to have
an impact on adolescent adjustment and well-being (Noller et al., 2008). In this
study, siblings in situations of comparison and competition, felt more positive and
less negative toward their sibling if their overall relationship was high in warmth and
low in conflict. In addition, those siblings who were high in self-esteem were more
likely to react positively in situations of comparison and competition, irrespective of
whether they performed better than their sibling or not, and those who were depressed
were more likely to react negatively, even when they performed better. Clearly these
data underline the importance of the quality of sibling relationships to individuals’
psychological adjustment.
3.9 Summary
An important aspect of the family environment is the structure of the family. There
is considerable evidence that nonnuclear families may be compromised in their
ability to provide as positive an environment for adolescents as traditional nuclear
families involving two married parents and their biological children. One reason for
this difference is that some types of nonnuclear families struggle financially and are
unable to provide good medical care for their children.
Individual family members make their own unique contributions to the family
environment. In addition, some aspects of the family environment such as parental
values, financial resources, family rules and marital or relationship satisfaction/
discord affect all family members although not necessarily in the same way, whereas
other aspects are unique to that particular family member: their own health, their
relationships with each of their parents and their involvement in outside activities.
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Characteristics of the family that are important to the well-being of family members
include an emotionally warm atmosphere, communication that is open, and parents
being involved in the lives of their children through fun activities, encouragement
and supervision. Factors such as chronic health problems in the family, hostility and
conflict, and being too dependent on the parents tend to be seen as having a negative
impact on well-being.
Those adolescents who have healthy self-esteem and who have parents who
support them are more likely to thrive in adolescence than those whose families are
violent or chaotic. Having strong support from parents and positive peer relationships
help adolescents develop skills in intimacy that are important for their future
relationships.
The quality of the parental relationship is a key aspect of family functioning,
with parents’ personality characteristics such as neuroticism and conscientiousness,
warmth, attachment security, and mental health all having an impact on their
adolescents. Parents’ marital or relational satisfaction, chronic and intense conflict,
and violent behaviour also have an impact on the well being of other family members,
through their effects on the quality of their parenting. These problems are also likely
to affect the later relationships of adolescents.
Family members are also affected by the social and economic networks in which
they are embedded. Adolescents generally benefit from contact with extended family
members and with unrelated adults such as friends of their parents and the parents of
their friends. Financial difficulties can increase the likelihood of negative parenting
and social class affects the demands parents make on their children and the types of
punishment they use. Adolescents can also be affected by the communities in which
they live, with those from poor families living in poor neighbourhoods more likely
to be caught up in delinquent behaviour than adolescents who live in more affluent
neighbourhoods.
Parenting styles also affect the well-being of adolescents, with authoritative
parenting generally seen as optimal in Western cultures and as producing the most
competent children, whereas authoritarian parenting tends to be seen as undesirable.
In other cultures, authoritarian parenting does not seem to be so harmful. Adolescents,
particularly those in Western societies also need to be encouraged to develop
autonomy from their parents and work towards being independent of them. Levels
of cohesion and flexibility in the family are also important, with the most effective
families being balanced in terms of cohesion and flexibility.
Adolescents generally need supervision and monitoring that is associated with
low levels of delinquency. Psychological control, on the other hand, is designed to
keep the adolescent dependent on the parent and has a negative impact on them,
being associated with high levels of anxiety and depression as well as delinquency.
Interestingly, those adolescents who had good relationships with their parents
tended to disclose their whereabouts and activities to them voluntarily. Controlling
parents tend to hinder both autonomy development and identity formation in their
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Implications for Practitioners 65
adolescents, although these factors are critical to the adolescents growing up well-
adjusted. Those parents who were highly controlling tended to feel anxious about their
children’s attempts at separation from them, or have very high, even perfectionistic,
standards for them.
Sibling relationships are very important for adolescents and impact their
psychological adjustment, particularly if parents and others make continual
comparisons between them. Being well-adjusted in terms of high self-esteem, low
levels of anxiety and low levels of depression increases the chances that adolescents
will be able to cope well with comparison and competition, even when they don’t
perform as well as their sibling.
3.10 Implications for Practitioners
Practitioners dealing with adolescents engaging in problem behaviours need to

explore issues in the parental relationship, where relevant, because of the negative
impact of parental conflict on adolescent offspring. The tensions and insecurities that
arise in adolescents in response to parental conflict need to be dealt with, perhaps
in family therapy sessions where the whole family has an opportunity to share their
concerns and to talk about the impact of the ongoing conflict on them, in the presence
of their parents.
Involving parents in therapy where all family members are included can also give
the therapist the opportunity to observe the parenting styles used by parents and their
adolescents’ reactions to their parents’ attempts at controlling them. Such a session
would also provide an opportunity for the therapist to model more appropriate ways
of dealing with the adolescents, helping the parents to move toward a more age-
appropriate authoritative style where parents and adolescents are able to negotiate
solutions to the issues facing them.
Other issues such as the impact of parents’ work schedules on adolescents
can also be discussed and hopefully resolved. For example, adolescent firstborns
may believe that being expected to care for younger siblings every afternoon limits
their opportunities to meet with friends and also has implications for completing
homework assignments and preparing for exams.
It may also be important for practitioners to explore sibling relationships,
especially if they suspect that differential treatment is occurring. Because these
kinds of relationships can be so detrimental to the mental health of the disfavoured
sibling and to the quality of the sibling relationship, it is important that these issues
are dealt with. In addition, as Minuchin shows in his videotaped family therapy
session “Anorexia is a Greek Word”, siblings can unknowingly reinforce problematic
behaviours such as refusing to eat by providing a lot of attention to the so-called
“victim”.
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Feinberg et al. (2013) has designed a program to “promote positive and reduce
negative youth outcomes by enhancing sibling relationships” (p.166). The program
is called Siblings are Special (SIBS) and involves primary school children (5th graders
with a younger sibling in 2nd through 4th grades). An extensive test of the program
showed that completing the program had a positive effect on sibling relationships
and child competence and mental health. In addition, it led to improved maternal
mental health, at least in terms of depression.
Relationships with extended family members may also need to be a focus of
therapy. For example, the therapist may be able to support grandparents, aunts etc.
who can make a positive impact on the adolescent and/or the family environment.
In addition, he or she may be able to work with members of the extended family who
are having a negative effect on the family environment, and on the well being of the
adolescent.
The characteristics of the neighbourhoods in which families live and the schools
that children attend relate to broader social issues of poverty and violence, which
need to be addressed by the broader community. For example, the provision of
recreational centres and safe places for families and young people to congregate may
assist to lessen the impacts of a poorer social environment. One role of practitioners
could involve advocating for better facilities for families.
In this chapter we have focused on many aspects of the family environment
from the micro to the macro, and have seen how important relationships between
parents and with parents can be for the adolescent. In the next chapter, we focus on
the communication between adolescents and their parents, as well as other family
members and the implications of that communication for the family environment and
for the well-being of the adolescent.
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3 Family Environment and Adolescent Development

Communication is also a crucial aspect of the family environment, particularly

3.1 Family Structure

© 2014 Patricia Noller, Sharon Atkin

in drug and alcohol problems as adolescents, as well as engaging in risky sexual

3.1.1 The Role of Financial Difficulties

3.1.2 Financial Difficulties or Problems with Parenting?

3.1.3 Presence or Absence of Fathers

3.1.4 Instability of Family Structure

3.2 What Makes a Positive Family Environment?

According to a small interview study of Finnish adolescents by Joronen and Astedt-

3.2.1 Characteristics of Parent/s

3.2.2 Parent Personality

3.2.3 Attachment Security

3.2.3.1 Correspondence Between Attachment Styles of Parents And Offspring

3.2.3.2 Impact of Attachment on Parenting Style

Table 3.1: Attachment Style and Parenting

Attachment Style of Parent

Secure See families as high in both closeness and flexibility

3.3 Mental Health of Parents

3.3.1 Parent Depression

Maternal depression is an important predictor of adolescent depression, but only for

Table 3.2: Parent Mental Health and Adolescent Outcomes

Mental Health Problem Possible Outcome for Adolescents

Depression Maternal depression leads to depression in adolescence for girls

Violence Negative impact on well-being

3.3.2 Alcoholism and Drug Abuse

Adolescent sons of alcoholic fathers tend to display higher levels of disruptive

3.4 Marital Or Relationship Satisfaction, Conflict And Violence

3.4.1 Marital Satisfaction

3.4.2 Marital or Relationship Conflict

Table 3.3: Marital Satisfaction, Conflict and Adolescent outcomes

Quality of Parental Relationship Adolescent Outcomes

High Warm and accepting in relationships with adolescents

Low Model interactions for adolescents that are hostile or lacking

High Increased risk of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem

Low Mild conflict inevitable in families – few negative effects

3.5 Relationships with Extended Family and Community

3.5.1 Social Class/Economics

3.5.2 Neighbourhoods and Communities

family problems, as well as an increased risk of being exposed to people involved in

disadvantaged communities can be very helpful in producing more positive parenting

3.6 Work and Family

3.7 Family Functioning and Discipline

3.7.1 Parenting Style

3.7.1.1 Encouragement of Autonomy

3.7.1.2 Cohesion, Flexibility and Communication

3.7.1.3 Parental Rejection

3.7.1.4 Level of Control and Monitoring

3.8 Sibling Relationships

3.8.1 Differential Parenting

Differential parenting is about siblings being treated differently by a parent or parents

3.8.2 Sibling Relationships and Adolescent Adjustment

3.10 Implications for Practitioners

Practitioners dealing with adolescents engaging in problem behaviours need to

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