Adolescent Mental Health
Sally I. Powers University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Stuart T. Hauser
Linda A. Kilner
ABSTRACT." Definitions and descriptions of adolescent
mental health are beginning to be grounded in psychol-
ogists" empirical studies of a wide variety of patterns of
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
adaptation to adolescence. Three major themes guiding
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
current research relevant to mental health in adolescence
are discussed in this article." (a) a focus on analysis of
interindividual differences to describe variety in adapta-
tion; (b) the integration of biological, psychological, social,
and cultural variables in models of adolescence; and (c)
an emphasis on the developmental aspects of adolescent
mental health. Empirical investigations of adolescent
mental health and development within the social context
of the family are reviewed.
Adolescent psychology is in the midst of writing a new
definition of adolescent mental health--a definition based
on the description of a wide variety of patterns of adap-
tation to the biological, psychological, and social chal-
lenges of adolescence. Psychologists' current understand-
ing of the range and variety of these developmental paths,
strengths, and profiles of adaptation is central to this ar-
ticle.
An earlier, and still popular, understanding of ado-
lescent mental health viewed adolescence as a time of
profound inner turmoil and outward conflictua time of
"storm and stress." We briefly discuss this previous un-
derstanding of adolescent mental health in an effort to
place psychologists' present understanding in context. We
then review three major themes guiding current research
relevant to mental health in adolescence: (a) a focus on
analysis of interindividual differences to describe variety
in adaptation; (b) the integration of biological, psycho-
logical, social, and cultural variables in models of ado-
lescence; and (c) an emphasis on the developmental as-
pects of adolescent mental health. Research examining
reciprocal effects between adolescent development and
family relationships is then reviewed.
Prior Definition: Adolescent Mental Health
as Turmoil
To be normal during the adolescentperiod is by itselfabnormal.
--A. Freud, 1958, p. 275
One understanding of adolescent mental health, of-
ten perpetuated by the media and assumed by the public,
200
and Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School and
Massachusetts Mental Health Center
Harvard University and
McLean Hospital
I I
is that a healthy adolescent should appear to have a mild
case of mental illness. In other words, many of the symp-
toms or serious diff culfies that would signal mental illness
in adulthood or childhood are understood to be a normal
part of adolescence. Adolescents may be expected to be
extremely moody and depressed one day and excitedly
"high" the next. Explosive conflict with family, friends,
and authorities is thought of as commonplace. This pop-
ular view is, to a great extent, based on the theoretical
work of the psychiatric clinical community in the 1950s
and early 1960s (Blos, 1962; Erikson, 1959, 1966, 1968;
Freud, 1946, 1958). Largely on the basis of their expe-
rience with adolescent psychiatric patients, these clini-
cians and theorists described adolescence as necessarily
a time of extreme psychic and interpersonal stress. Emo-
tional crisis and upheaval were viewed as appropriate re-
sponses by the adolescent to major psychological and so-
cietal tasks required during this phase of life: dramatically
reducing psychological dependency on parents, separating
from the family, and forming an adult identity. Adolescent
turmoil was not only inevitable but necessary for sub-
sequent normal personality integration.
Toward a New Understanding of Adolescent
Mental Health
The storm and stress theory of adolescent mental health
brought attention to the considerable number of physical,
social, and psychological changes experienced by adoles-
cents in this culture. The theory emphasized the stress-
fulness of managing these concurrent changes, and the
adolescent's attempts to cope with these changes were
accorded dignity. In addition, the storm and stress per-
spective of adolescent mental health invigorated the
scholarly community in the mid-1960s and prompted
important new research. This research was stimulated by
the idea that adolescence is necessarily and typically a
time of emotional disequilibrium and unpredictable be-
havior (Bandura, 1964; Douvan & Adelson, 1966; Offer,
1969; Offer & Offer, 1975). Data from study after study
were analyzed to determine whether the majority of ad-
olescents exhibited serious psychological turmoil. These
empirical analyses led to a radical revision in the psy-
chological community's understanding of adolescent de-
velopment and mental health.
The majority of this research of the past 20 years
clearly refutes the notion that most adolescents undergo
February 1989 • American Psychologist
Copyright 1989 by the American PsychologicalAssociation, Inc. 00034)66X/89/$00.75
VOl. 44, No. 2, 200-208
 severe emotional stress during this period of life. Although
experts concur that adolescence is a period of development
that requires multiple changes (in fact, signifiCant pro-
grams of research have been focused on each major area
of changembiological, social, and psychological) the cur-
rent consensus is that adolescence is not ordinarily a time
of great psychological turmoil. Epidemiological studies
reveal that only about 10-20% of adolescents exhibit some
type of severe emotional disturbance--approximately the
same percentage as in the adult population (Offer, Ostrov,
& Howard, 1981; Petersen, 1988))
Much effort was devoted to clarifying the extent to
which adolescence was a severely stressful time for all
youth. When this global, and perhaps romantic, concept
was finally set aside, researchers and clinicians were left
with little coherent conception of positive mental health
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
in adolescence. The psychological community was ill in-
formed about the different ways in which well-functioning
adolescents cope with the unusually high number oftran,
sitions required of them. A new understanding of mental
health in adolescence was needed.
Current perspectives on adolescence are no longer
grounded exclusively in theoretical formulations of what
should occur in adolescence, but rather are based on em-
pirically derived profiles of adolescent adaptation and
growth. Most important, the present understanding of
adolescence no longer derives from a single picture of
mental health. Instead, a wide variation in adolescent
behaviors, attitudes, social relations, and developmental
paths is considered relevant to conceptualizing adolescent
mental health. Three themes, discussed below, are sig-
nificant when one adopts this multidimensional and plu-
ralistic view of adolescent mental health.
Interlndividual Differences in Adolescence
A focus on interindividual differences is particularly
helpful in describing the entire range of adolescent be-
haviors and developmental patterns that may be char-
acterized as healthy. Psychologists' attempts to more ac-
curately describe these patterns of mental health in ad-
olescence are problematic, however. In large part, this is
because the concept of health can be defined in several
ways. Offer and Sabshin (1984) discussed four primary
definitions of mental health: 2 (a) mental health as the
empirical profile of the statistically average adolescent or
the majority of adolescents, (b) mental health as optimal
functioning of the "ideal" adolescent, (c) mental health
as the absence of clinically diagnosed disorders or symp-
toms, and (d) mental health as a result of a changing
system of time and culture. We need not adopt only one
definition; each represents meaningful facets of mental
health. It is important, however, to clarify the definition
of mental health that one uses because data will be an-
alyzed and interpreted differently depending on the def-
inition. Some definitions more easily accommodate the
study of interindividual differences than others and thus
encourage the discovery of the range and variety o f healthy
adaptation in adolescence.
The definition of mental health as what is statistically
February 1989 ° American Psychologist
average for adolescents or true for the majority of ado-
lescents has been a useful one for studying the storm and
stress perspective. An empirical examination of that per-
spective required determination of whether turmoil was
a necessary phenomenon for most adolescents. The av-
erage/majority definition is less useful, however, for iden-
tifying and describing the range of behavioral and devel-
opmental patterns that indicate adaptive functioning in
adolescence.
The definition of mental health as an ideal of optimal
development and adaptive functioning is clearly an im-
portant and needed aspect of the study of adolescent
mental health. Some investigators (e.g., Irwin, 1987) rec-
ommend that health should be defined as optimal func-
tioning because, in the past, our attention has been con-
fined almost exclusively to studying indicators of abnor-
mal functioning. Irwin pointed out how little is known
about factors that contribute to positive growth and
health-enhancing behaviors. A better understanding of
"optimal functioning" in adolescence would balance our
knowledge of adolescent maladaptive functioning. How-
ever, exclusive reliance on this "ideal" or optimal defi-
nition of mental health could lead to an ignorance of
interindividual differences in adaptation and a limited
(though positive) picture of what adolescent mental health
should be. The ideal/optimal definition implies a single,
best profile of mental health. If designation of such a
profile is possible, it can be achieved only after a thorough
understanding of the varieties and individual differences
of mental health profiles.
The third definition of mental health--health as the
absence of clinically diagnosed psychopathologymmay
be, at present, the definition most conducive to the study
ofinterindividual differences in mental health. In the past,
this definition has essentially been a negative one: Health
was viewed merely as the absence of pathology. Offer and
Sabshin (1984) correctly pointed out that a primary re-
liance on this definition has caused us to focus on the
study of pathology, rather than on health. This need not
be the inevitable result of this definition. A conception
of mental health as the absence of psychopathology can
be used simply to define the limits of the range of func-
National Institutesof Health BiomedicalResearchSupportGrant 9878
to SallyI. Powerssupportedpreparationof this articleby SallyI. Powers
and Linda A. Kiiner.National Institute of Mental Health Grant K-05-
MH70178-5 ResearchScientistAwardto StuartT. Hauseralsosupported
preparation of this article.
Correspondenceconcerningthis articleshouldbe addressedto Sally
I. Powers, Department of Psychology,Tobin Hall, Universityof Mas-
sachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003.
' An important di~culty with the storm and stress viewof adoles-
cence is that it blurs the boundaries between normality and pathology
during adolescence.Reviewingthe research consensusthat only a mi-
nority of adolescents experiencesevere emotional disturbance, Offer
(1987)warnedthat a viewof adolescenceas inherentlytumultuous mis-
takenly causes us to normalize serious emotional and behavioral dis-
turbance in adolescence,running the danger of neglectingto identify
and help those adolescentsin true difficulty.
2 Offer and Sabshin (1984) used the terms "mental health" and
"normality" interchangeably(p. ix).
201
 tioning that is adaptive in adolescence. At that point, in-
terindividual differences in patterns of development and
behavior within that ranse may be clarified by research
and clinical observations.~ For example, different patterns
of adaptive functioning may be described by determining
consistent relations among mental health variables found
for subsets of subjects (Block, 1971).
Thus far, however, studies that describe multiple
pathways of development and adaptive functioning in ad-
olescence are rare (notable exceptions are Block, 1971,
and Offer & Offer, 1975). One focus of our own work
(Hauser, Houlihan, et al., 1987; Hauser, Powers, Noam,
& Bowlds, 1987; Hauser, Jacobson, et. al., in press; Pow-
ers, Hauser, & Jacobson, 1985; Powers, 1988, in press) is
the description of multiple types of longitudinal trajec-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
tories or profiles of adolescent ego and moral development
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throughout the high school years. Within a sample of
adolescents with no known psychiatric diagnoses, a va-
riety of types of developmental trajectories are found.
Each trajectory type identifies the base levels of ego and
moral development for subjects in early adolescence and
characterizes their rate of progression, regression, or sta-
bility in development throughout high school. We are
currently investigating how these varieties of develop-
mental patterns are related to adolescent adaptive func-
tioning and family interactions.
Interaction of Biological, Psychological, Social, and
Cultural Aspects of Adolescence
Investigators of adolescence are increasingly turning to a
multivariate and systemic approach to understand ado-
lescent development, adaptation, and mental health
(Brooks-Gunn & Petersen, 1983; Hill, 1987; Petersen,
1988). This approach integrates biological, psychological,
social, and cultural variables into the examination of var-
ious patterns of adolescent psychological growth and the
processes influencing the formation of these patterns.
Analysis of the reciprocal effects of these additional factors
with psychological development is especially critical for
the study of adolescence because of the significant and
rapid changes that occur in each of these arenas during
this life phase. This approach demands a greater collab-
oration and communication between psychologists and
investigators of adolescence from the disciplines of soci-
ology, biology, medicine, psychiatry, and anthropology.
One example of an extensive research program that
exemplifies this integrative approach is the work of so-
ciologists Simmons, Blyth, and their colleagues (Blyth,
Simmons, & Carlton-Ford, 1983; Simmons, 1987; Sim-
mons & Blyth, 1987) investigating the influence of social
variables (e.g., school structure) and biological variables
(e.g., rate of pubertal development) on self-esteem. Their
inclusion of these dimensions in studies describing ado-
lescent adaptation has allowed them to highlight the in-
3Though this definition supportsthe discoveryof a varietyof pat-
terns of mental health, werecognizethat, as withany definitionof mental
health, cultural values strongly influence our descriptions of what is
healthy and what is pathological.
202
teracting influences of social institutions, social roles, and
pubertal growth trajectories in an adolescent's life. Their
integrative analyses show that if adolescents are com-
fortable in some of their environments, life arenas, and
role relationships, then discomfort in other arenas can be
tolerated and mastered.
Anthropological studies investigating the interaction
of biological, psychological, and cultural features of ad-
olescence are also beginning to inform our characteriza-
tions of adolescent mental health. For example, the cross-
cultural and interdisciplinary work of John and Beatrice
Whiting and their colleagues (Burbank, 1988; Whiting,
Burbank, &Ratner, 1986; Worthman, 1986) examines
biological variables (e.g., rate of pubertal development),
psychological variables (e.g., cognitive and moral devel-
opment), and sociocultural variables (e.g., the transmis-
sion of skills, proper social behavior and values necessary
for adulthood, and initiation rites) in seven cultures. These
studies emphasize that the social structuring of the ad-
olescent experience partly determines the consequences
and meaning of changes in adolescence.
Worthman (1986) examines the psychological costs
to adolescents of particular cultural environments and
social expectations regarding puberty. Whether or not
physiological changes in the pubertal process are cultur-
ally recognized depends on the society. She notes that
unlike Western societies, the Kikuyu in Kenya mark onset
of puberty with circumcision rites for females. According
to Worthman, the Kikuyu structuring of meaningful
maturational experiences, such as an initiation rite, helps
to deflect anxiety in adolescence. Pubertal changes are
thereby normalized and integrated with broader social
processes.
More research with an explicit focus on the social
context of adolescent mental health and development is
needed, even within our own society. The majority of
empirical studies of adolescent mental health in the
United States recognize the potential of contextual vari-
ables for influencing the course of adolescent growth and
adaptation. Contextual variables in these studies are sta-
tistically or methodologically controlled so that they do
not obscure the effect of psychological variables of interest.
As a result, the vast majority of empirical research on
adolescent mental health is based on purposefully re-
stricted, homogeneous samples (e.g., White, middle-class
adolescents from nuclear families). Our knowledge of the
variety of patterns of adaptation in adolescents from lower
socioeconomic statuses, of different ethnic backgrounds,
or from alternate family structures is, therefore, severely
limited. An important task for future research will be to
study the context of adolescents' lives in greater depth
and diversity.
Developmental Features of Adolescent Mental Health
The study of adolescence is fundamentally the study of
change. Depending on the variable of interest, change or
development in adolescence is usually conceptualized ei-
ther as a series of qualitative reorganizations of capacities
(e.g., stages of cognitive and moral development) and be-
February 1989 • American Psychologist
 haviors or as a more continuous series of incremental
changes (e.g., evolving renegotiations of power within the
family). Regardless of differences in conceptualization of
the process of development, there is an increasing rec-
ognition of the importance of temporal analyses in studies
of adolescence. These temporal analyses focus on tWO
aspects of development. Most basic is the developmental
status or level of an individual at a particular point in
adolescence. The level of an adolescent's maturity on a
number of developmental indices, both psychological (e.g.,
level of ego development) and physical (e.g., pubertal ma-
turity), has been shown to be empirically related to adap-
tive functioning and emotional well-being (Brooks-Gunn
& Petersen, 1983; Noam et al., 1984). A second temporal
feature is the timing of development with respect to peers.
Developmental "timing" refers to whether a particular
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adolescent is "on time," late, or precocious in specific
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areas of development. Brooks-Gunn and Ruble (1983)
and Klein and Litt (1983) have shown that the sociocul-
rural meaning attributed to being "on time" or not with
regard to aspects of pubertal development can have a sig-
nificant impact on adolescents' self-images. In addition,
cross-cultural studies show that timing of pubertal de-
velopment may vary not only by individuals but by coun-
try. For example, the age of menarche may vary both
within a society and between societies. In the United
States the median age ofmenarche is 12.8 years for White
Americans and 12.5 for Black Americans, and the range
for 95% of girls is 9.8 to 15.8 years (Eveleth, 1986). The
median age of menarche is 14.2 years in Czechoslovakia
(Whiting, Burbank, &Ratner, 1986), 15.9 years among
the Kikuyu of Kenya (Worthman, 1986) and 18.0 years
among the Bindi of New Guinea (Eveleth, 1986).
Thus, current approaches to the study of adolescent
mental health and development no longer try to describe
a unitary picture. Empirical descriptions of adaptation
are now seen as a function of an adolescent's particular
point in a trajectory of development. This developmental
"point" is less often designated exclusively by age (early,
middle, or late adolescence) but more and more often is
precisely delineated by each adolescent's developmental
level and timing with respect to a variety of biological
and psychological variables and institutional settings. The
importance of accurately describing an adolescent's
placement on several interacting developmental trajec-
tories underscores the critical nature of longitudinal data
in adolescent research. Archives of longitudinal social
science data, such as the Henry A. Murray Research
Center of Radcliffe College and the Institute of Human
Development at Berkeley, greatly facilitate the study of
adolescent mental health by providing for reanalysis of
data on a variety of aspects of growth and adaptation
collected over several decades. 4
4Reflectingthe importance of effortsto investigate the develop-
mental courseof mental health, the National Instituteof MentalHealth
has recently funded the establishment of a national archive for longi-
tudinal mental health data at the Murray ResearchCenter of Radcliffe
College.
February 1989 • American Psychologist
Adolescent Mental Health in Family Context
The remaining portion of this article reviews research
that investigates adolescent mental health and develop-
ment within the social context of the family, l~ychologists'
changing views of conflict in families of adolescents are
noted, as well as the impact of adolescent individual
change and development on family relationships. Finally,
the influence of family behaviors, parental development,
and family relationships on adolescents' healthy devel-
opment of autonomy and intimacy are discussed.
Research on the familial context of adolescent de-
velopment is flourishing and is characterized by increasing
conceptual clarity and empirical rigor (e.g., see Barber &
Rollins, 1987). Although legitimate differences among
competing theoretical perspectives continue, there is
growing agreement on the significance of family ties, pa-
rental models, and reciprocal influences between adoles-
cents and their families. Not only do families affect ad-
olescent development, but aspects of adolescent devel-
opment (e.g., puberty and cognitive changes) affect the
life of the family.
Changing Views of Adolescent-Family Conflict
A pervasive belief, stemming from the storm and
stress theory of adolescence discussed earlier, is that
severe ongoing family conflict should be expected during
the adolescent years. We now know, from a variety of
studies using such diverse methods as epidemiological
surveys (Rutter, Graham, Chadwick, & Yule, 1976),
phone interviews (Monetemayor, 1983), and time sam-
piing with electronic beepers (Csikszentmihalyi & Larson,
1984), that for most families with adolescent members,
serious conflict and disorganization are not characteristic
states (Hill, 1987). Conflicts do occur during the various
phases of adolescence, and they arise over mundane
issues, such as the family chores, curfews, eating practices,
dating, and personal appearance. However, the current
evidence, drawn from various kinds of self-reports offered
by nonpatient adolescents and their parents, provides no
support for a picture of dramatic increase in family con-
flict from childhood to adolescence. In general, despite
the past dire predictions, the family is not "at risk" for
turmoil or disorganization during the adolescent years.
Indeed, detailed accounts of daily family life temper the
more dramatic view of adolescent and family turmoil.
Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that conflicts
between adolescents and their parents are insignificant
and rare except when there is family or individual
psychopathology.
Although there may not be striking quantitative
shifts in amount, the loci of the conflicts do change. And
these very loci illuminate significant aspects of family life
during adolescence. By more clearly identifying the
sources of conflicts and how they shape, and are shaped
by, individual and family functioning, we can enhance
our knowledge of adolescent development within the
family, especially the range of individual and family di-
versity. In addition, such investigations can lead us closer
203
 to distinguishing between functional and dysfunctional
conflict within the family (Cooper, 1988).
Impacts of the Adolescent's Biological and Cognitive
Development on Family Relationships
Although there are theoretical and intuitive reasons to
believe that aspects of adolescent development influence
family relationships, it is a biological aspect of adoles-
cence, puberty, that has been most intensively investigated
from this perspective. Paralleling an increasing interest
in biological determinants of social relations in adoles-
cence (e.g., Brooks-Gunn, Petersen, & Eichorn, 1985;
Brooks-Gunn & Warren, in press; Inhoff-Germain et al.,
1988), recent reports delineate impacts of pubertal mat-
uration on parent-adolescent relationships (Steinberg &
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Hill, 1978; Steinberg, 1988; Hill, Holmbeck, Marlow,
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
Green, & Lynch, 1985a, 1985b; Holmbeck & Hill, 1988).
A number of general conclusions can be drawn. Pubertal
maturation differentially influences parent-adolescent
relationships, independent of effects that might be con-
nected with the adolescent's chronological age. In the early
and middle phases of the pubertal cycle, there is tran-
siently increasing conflict, distance, and dissatisfaction in
parent-child relations, an effect particularly apparent with
mothers. Although many of these findings are based on
adolescents' reports of family relations (Steinberg, 1988),
analyses of observed family interaction sequences provide
similar findings (Holmbeck & Hill, 1988; Steinberg &
Hill, 1978). In addition, a recent short-term longitudinal
study offers the intriguing suggestion that girls' maturation
may be accelerated by conflict and distance with their
parents, particularly with mothers (Steinberg, 1988).
Important cognitive changes are also occurring dur-
ing adolescence:
For the first time in their lives, some adolescents are able to
employ formal operational thought.., take the role of others
• .think in terms of possibilities, alternatives, and principles,
.
and they may have the cognitiveequipment to think about family
issues and situations independent of their own immersion in
them. (Hill & Holmbeck, 1986, p. 176)
Such cognitive and social-cognitive developments have
been studied extensively. Yet it is only recently that they
have been linked to transformations in family relation-
ships. In her studies of family conflicts, Smetana (1985,
1988a, 1988b) has shown that an increasing "gap" be-
tween parent and child reasoning and social judgment
emerges in adolescence. Children are more likely to reason
about personal items (e.g., friendships, content of cor-
respondence, and recreational activities) in terms of per-
sonal choice, but parents of children at these ages do not
demonstrate parallel changes. Smetana's results suggest
that
in studying adolescent-parent relationships it is important to
examine the coordination of adolescents' and parents' perspee-
fives. . . . Children viewthemselvesas increasinglyemancipated
from their parents' conventionalperspectivesduring adolescence.
Torn between the necessity of maintaining the family social sys-
tem and allowing the child increasing personal jurisdiction over
204
her own behavior,.., parents' conventional perspectives...
may become increasingly maladaptive or inappropriate as ad-
olescents move into young adulthood. (Smetana, 1987, p. 7)
Parents of adolescents
must shift from viewing multi-faceted and personal issues as
conventional and legitimately subject to their authority, to
granting the adolescent (or young adult) increasing personal ju-
risdiction over these issues. (Smetana, 1988a, p. 333)
Through such cognitive changes, adolescent devel-
opment may lead to transformations in family relation-
ships. On the surface are mundane, often ubiquitous,
conflicts over the use of the car, choice of friends, or eve-
ning activities. But beneath these seemingly concrete dif-
ferences may be deeper ones: the adolescent's increasingly
varied conceptions of roles, authority, expectations, and
responsibilities. Basic realignments in family relationships
and new views of parental authority and of family roles
and rules may be necessary to permit continued growth
of the adolescent and family, rather than an impasse re-
suiting from sustained opposition by the adolescent or
parents' reluctance or inability to appreciate new per-
spectives from their changing son or daughter. There re-
main important questions about how family relationships
specifically change during such realignments of perspec-
tives. These questions are being pursued in ongoing lon-
gitudinal family studies based on direct observation of
families and using scoring systems sensitive to the extent
of constraining and enabling (Hauser et al., 1984; Sme-
tana, 1987) and cognitive and alfective support and con-
flict (Powers et al., 1983; Powers, 1988) expressed by par-
ents and adolescents toward one another.
Family Contributions to the Adolescent's Development
of Autonomy and Intimacy
A third group of studies delineates family influences on
aspects of adolescent development. Two aspects of ado-
lescent psychosocial development are especially impor-
tant: autonomy and intimacy. Earlier formulations
equated autonomy with detachment from parents, with
freedom from parental attachments and influence (Hill
& Holmbeck, 1986; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). But
there is now strong theoretical and empirical support for
an alternative view, one that does not assume major psy-
chological or behavioral disruption in family relations as
underlying or reflecting adolescent autonomy. Instead,
current studies address the interplay between transfor-
mations in autonomy and transformations in family re-
lationships. One direction of work considers how varied
advances and deflections in autonomous development are
influenced by family relationships.
Baumrind (1968, 1987) has pointed to potential
connections between parenting style and adolescent au-
tonomy through her conceptualizations of prototypes of
parental authority. Traditional parents "value a sense of
continuity and order more than innovation and risk-tak-
ing. They accept the pattern of understanding and value
judgements that has been worked out over time by pre-
February 1989 • American Psychologist
 vious generations" (Baumrind, 1987, p. 111). Adolescents
from such families have been described as more attached
to their parents, more conforming, and more achievement
oriented (Baumrind, 1987). Adolescents from these set-
tings may bypass major conflicts in their teenage years.
Authoritarian-restrictive parents, according to
Baumrind, press toward the shaping, controlling, and
evaluating of their adolescent in line with usually fixed
standards, derived from religious or higher secular au-
thorities. Obedience is a virtue. "They do not willingly
share power and responsibility evenly with their adoles-
cents, and in this sense violate the implicit contract in
which parental authority is exercised to benefit primarily
the child rather than the parent" (Baumrind, 1987, p.
111). Related to the authoritarian orientation is the more
punitive one, in which harsh discipline is favored to curb
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willfulness (autonomy strivings). This last pattern is as-
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
sociated with major deflections in autonomous develop-
ment and problematic adolescent behaviors (Baumrind,
1987).
In contrast, authoritative parents, according to
Baumrind, do not regard their standards or themselves
as divinely inspired or infallible. They are supportive,
committed, and show differentiated responsiveness. Con-
text and individual differences guide their support for au-
tonomous expression and emphasis on "disciplined con-
formity" (Baumrind, in press). They are affectively re-
sponsive (loving, supportive, and committed) and
cognitively responsive (providing a stimulating and chal-
lenging environment; Baumrind, 1987). In short, "'the
authoritative parent combines limit-setting with negoti-
ation, thus encouraging the child's contribution to the
discipline process" (Grotevant & Cooper, 1986, p. 84).
Although Baumrind's published findings to date involve
familial antecedents of competent early and middle
childhood functioning, results from other studies support
the conclusion that authoritative parenting also predicts
greater autonomy in adolescents (Hill, 1980, 1987). De-
spite this clear association between a particular kind of
parenting and adolescent development, there is an im-
portant qualification that must be kept in mind. In the
absence of longitudinal studies that deal with parenting
in the preadolescent years, we cannot know whether these
connections represent parental contributions to auton-
o m y or parents' responsiveness to their more autonomous
adolescents. W h e n we have access to data from Baum-
rind's wave of adolescent observations, we will be in a
better position to understand the extent to which these
parenting practices function as antecedents of autono-
mous development.
Other pertinent findings about possible parent con-
tributions to development of autonomy describe the im-
portance of parent ego development (Hauser et al., 1984;
Hauser, Houlihan, ctal., in press). Parents at higher levels
of ego development (with greater awareness of self and
increasing appreciation of individual differences among
people, Loevinger 1976) express more explaining, cu-
riosity, and problem solving in family discussions with
their adolescents and spouses. This observation is of in-
February 1989 • American Psychologist
terest for at least two reasons. First, it suggests that au-
thoritative parents may be functioning at higher levels of
ego development. In addition, we begin to see cues about
the specific behaviors shown by these parents in ongoing
family interactions.
Results from Grotevant and Cooper's work (1986;
Cooper, Grotevant, & Condon, 1983), also based on ob-
served family interactions, underscore how individuality
and connectedness in family relationships are linked with
adolescent identity exploration and perspective taking.
Adolescents expressing high levels of identity exploration
had fathers who expressed mutuality and separateness
and mothers who were aware of clear boundaries between
them and their teenagers. These adolescents were mem-
bers of families that flourished when their differences were
examined within the context of connectedness. In con-
trast~ adolescents with minimal levels of identity forma-
tion and perspective taking were found in families that
blurred boundaries between members and avoided dis-
agreements.
In our research (Hauser et al., 1984; Powers et al.,
1983), we also find strong ties between parents' affective
responsiveness (acceptance, empathy, and support) and
adolescent ego development. The meaning of these cross-
sectional findings is illuminated by recent longitudinal
analyses suggesting links between these family interactions
at age 14 and subsequent ego development trajectories
(Hanser, Powers, et al., 1987). Both mothers and fathers
were least enabling toward those adolescents who sub-
sequently showed arrested ego development. On the other
hand, parents expressed more cognitive and affective en-
abling toward adolescents who later showed trajectories
of progressive development. Thus, family discussions oc-
curling in middle adolescence already show indications
regarding which adolescents will exhibit arrested or un-
stable development in their subsequent years.
These sets of observations highlight the significance
of specific kinds of family relationships in the unfolding
of adolescent autonomous development (identity explo-
ration, perspective taking, and ego development). We
cannot yet, however, draw holistic pictures of adolescent
families, be they "individuated," "enabling" or "sup-
portive" characterizations. Differentiated relationships
between dyads of family members are characteristic of
these findings. Each of these dyads contributes in different
ways to the development of adolescent autonomy. This
caveat is not meant to rule out the eventual distinguishing
of "family types" that may be most effective in promoting
varying paths of autonomy development. However, right
now more is to be gained from understanding the fine
texture of family relations than from "smoothing" this
texture in order to arrive at a readily comprehensible
account of the role of this complex social system in shap-
ing these paths.
A second significant strand of adolescent develop-
ment involves intimate and close relationships. Adoles-
cents experience distinctive dilemmas around maintain-
ing meaningful family and peer attachments in the midst
of rapid pubertal, cognitive, and environmental change
205
 (Selman, in press). Although adolescents are discovering
new and divergent perspectives from family members and,
at times, peers, continuing meaningful supportive rela-
tionships with these very same people can be profoundly
valuable for developing adolescents. Detailed under-
standing of transformations in adolescent relationships,
and the influences of family life on these bonds, is in its
very beginnings. Gilligan (1987) pointed out
problems of disconnection in adolescence: As the balance of
power between child and parent shifts with the child's coming
of age, so too the experienceand meaningof connectionchanges.
What constitutes attachment in early childhood does not con-
stitute attachment in adolescence, given the sexual changes of
puberty and the growth of subjective and reflexive thought.
(p. 80)
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
She articulated two penetrating questions: "What are the
analogues in adolescence to the responsive engagement
psychologists find so striking in infancy and early child-
hood? What constitutes genuine connection in the ado-
lescent years?" (Gilligan, 1987, p. 80).
Once we focus on significant adolescent attachments,
we can see several possible links to family influences. First,
there is the issue, raised by White and her colleagues
(White, Speisman, & Costos, 1983), of transformations
in family relationships. Investigators of pubertal change
have also attended to this issue, pointing out how family
relationships change with the onset of puberty and how
family relationships themselves may contribute to pu-
bertal change (Steinberg, 1988). But there is a further
question, taken up by Smetana: How do parent-child
relations change in light of the often rapid advances oc-
curring in the adolescent's self-reflective capacities, lead-
ing to new-found questions, challenges, and doubts? More
specifically, what family features facilitate adolescent
growth, promoting greater differentiation while not jeop-
ardizing, or rupturing, enduring family ties? Preliminary
responses to this fundamental question cite the impor-
tance of interactions that permit conflict between mem-
bers in a context of support (Baumrind, 1987; Powers,
1988; Powers et al., 1983), acceptance, and active under-
standing from parents (Hauser et al., 1984; Hauser, Hou-
lihan, et al., 1987) and parental expressions of individ-
uality and connectedness (Grotevant & Cooper, 1986).
These are qualities of family life that provide maximal
responsiveness during a challenging and potentially vul-
nerable time in the life of the adolescent member. Certain
parenting styles (e.g., authoritative) may be exquisitely
well matched for adolescent challenge, while others, such
as authoritarian and punitive, may dismally fail during
this period. What we do not know yet is whether and
how these parenting styles may evolve during adolescence
and whether unique parenting forms emerge in the teen-
age years.
A second family influence on relationship develop-
ment involves "carry over" from the family environment
to the peer group. Children and adolescents differ in their
skills at negotiating peer relationships---in initiating, di-
versifying, sustaining, and deepening such ties. In two
206
pioneering papers, Cooper and her colleagues (Cooper &
Ayers-Lopez, 1985; Cooper & Grotevant, 1987) mapped
links between family and peer relationships. One relevant
finding is that adolescents who experience individuated
relationships (involving qualities of separateness and mu-
tuality) within their families are also more likely to engage
in more perspective taking, a valuable competence in ac-
tual social relationships. Longitudinal observations, to-
gether with more intensive observations of friendships in
field settings (such as Gottman's 1983 study of children),
are likely to provide us with fuller understanding of how
family relationships may shape adolescent peer relation-
ships in their strength, depth, and breadth.
Conclusion
At present, psychologists are not in a position to precisely
define "normal" or "'healthy" adolescence. We are in the
midst of determining a variety of profiles of healthy de-
velopment during these years. Individual differences with
respect to adolescents' behavior and inner states may vary
dramatically. Adolescents at the same age can be at strik-
ingiy different developmental levels in a variety of
sphereswphysical, social, and psychological. One key to
assessing adolescent mental health may rest on evaluating
an adolescent's performance and experience in each of
these particular spheres, rather than trying to gauge his
or her health through comparison with a unitary idea of
adolescent development.
The issues raised in this article underscore the need
for longitudinal research as the "royal road" for identi-
fying individual differences in rate and sequence of de-
velopment and the impact of these differing paths of de-
velopment on adolescent mental health. It is recognized
that future research programs must include more variety
in the adolescents and families studledmnot enough is
known about varieties of adaptive functioning in Black,
Hispanic, Native American, and other groups of adoles-
cents in our culture. Finally, we have emphasized the
importance of including social contexts in assessing in-
dividual adolescent adaptation and growth through our
discussion of the family context of adolescent develop-
ment.
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