Changing Family Relationships
Learning Objectives
- Identify the three key components of good parenting
- Describe the impact of different parenting styles on children’s development
- Examine changes in family relationships during middle childhood and adolescence
- Explore non-traditional family structures and changes of family structure over time.
As older children work to form their identities, they pull away from their parents, and the peer group becomes very important (Shanahan, McHale, Osgood, & Crouter, 2007). Despite spending less time with their parents, most teens report positive feelings toward them (Moore, Guzman, Hair, Lippman, & Garrett, 2004). Warm and healthy parent-child relationships have been associated with positive child outcomes, such as better grades and fewer school behavior problems, in the United States as well as in other countries (Hair et al., 2005).
Although peers take on greater importance during adolescence, family relationships remain essential too. One of the fundamental changes during adolescence involves a renegotiation of parent-child relationships. As adolescents strive for more independence and autonomy during this time, different aspects of parenting become more salient.
In this chapter, we will explore the changing relationship between older and their families. We will consider the key components of effective parenting, the impact of family on children’s development, and we will also discuss how the family structures have evolved over the past several decades.
