Adolescent-parent conflict in middle-class African American families

Everyday conflicts between adolescents and parents were examined in 95 middle-class African American families, 44 with preadolescents and 51 with early adolescents, who were further divided into two groups based on family income. The incidence, frequency, and intensity of conflicts were assessed using the Issues Checklist, and content, justifications, and resolutions were coded from individual interviews. Conflicts were relatively frequent, low in intensity, and occurred over issues such as the adolescent's room, chores, choice of activities, and homework. Early adolescents rated conflicts as more intense than did preadolescents, but mothers' ratings of conflict intensity and families' ratings of conflict frequency differed by family income. African American adolescents primarily reasoned about conflicts as issues of personal jurisdiction, whereas their mothers primarily appealed to social conventions. Nearly all conflicts were resolved by adolescents giving in to parents, but adolescent concession declined with age, whereas unresolved conflicts and use of punishment increased. Number and intensity of conflicts and adolescent concession were predicted by both parenting practices and sociodemographic background; conflict frequency and joint resolution were predicted only by parents' educational attainment. Although conflict may reflect normative developmental processes of individuation, the cultural and ecological context of middle-class African American families influences its expression and resolution.     

Domain-specific antecedents of parental psychological control and monitoring: the role of parenting beliefs and practices

This research examined the effects of domain-differentiated beliefs about legitimate parental authority and ratings of restrictive parental control on adolescent- and mother-reported psychological and behavioral control. The influence of parenting beliefs and practices regarding socially regulated (moral and conventional) and ambiguously personal (multifaceted and personal) issues was examined in 93 middle-class African American early adolescents (M = 13.11 years, SD = 1.29) and their mothers, who were followed longitudinally for 2 years. Domain-specific parenting beliefs and ratings predicted adolescent-reported maternal psychological control and parental monitoring, but the nature and direction of the relations differed. Adolescents who rated parents as more restrictive in their control of personal issues and who believed that parents should have less legitimate authority over these issues rated their mothers as higher in psychological control. In contrast, more adolescent-reported parental monitoring was associated with gender (being female) and adolescents' beliefs that parents have more legitimate authority to regulate personal issues. As expected, adolescent age and gender influenced mother-reported monitoring and psychological control; in addition, the effects of mothers' ratings of restrictive control on both psychological control and monitoring were moderated by gender. The results indicate that psychological control and monitoring can be understood in terms of the particular behaviors that are controlled, as well as the style in which control is exercised.     

A Contextual-Moderator Analysis of Emotional Autonomy and Adjustment in Adolescence

This study investigated the relation between emotional autonomy, as measured by Steinberg and Silverberg's Emotional Autonomy Scale (EA), and adolescent adjustment as moderated by several individual, familial, and cultural contexts. Subjects were 96 adolescents (10–18 years old) and their mothers and teachers. Results indicate that when the affective nature of the parent-adolescent relationship is positive (e.g., maternal warmth is high or intensity of parent-adolescent conflict is low), positive adolescent adjustment is more likely when adolescents report less emotional autonomy. On the other hand, when the family environment is more stressful, emotional autonomy is positively associated with adolescent adjustment. Findings suggest that higher scores on the EA scale index emotional detachment from parents and that such detachment is detrimental in supportive familial environments but adaptive in less supportive familial environments. That emotional detachment from parents appears to serve a protective function in certain stressful situations is viewed as analogous to the adoption of an avoidant attachment strategy during infancy.     

Predictors of Behavior Problems in Preschool Children of Inner-City Afro-American and Puerto Rican Adolescent Mothers

Maternal reports on the Child Behavior Checklist/2-3 (CBCL/2-3) were used to evaluate child, maternal, and environmental predictors of behavior problems in 83 preschool children of disadvantaged adolescent mothers. CBCL/2-3 scores correlated modestly with independent ratings of child difficult behaviors observed in videotaped mother-child play interactions. 13% of children had scores in the clinical range. Significant correlations were consistently found between CBCL/2-3 ratings and maternal depressive symptoms, social supports, and life stress—assessed 3 times during the first year postpartum. In hierarchical regression analyses, maternal depressive symptoms, residence with the adolescent's mother, and perceived emotional support from friends contributed most to the explained variance. A significant ethnicity and child gender interaction term also suggested that African American mothers of male children reported more behavioral problems. Findings evidence the heterogeneity of outcomes for children of disadvantaged adolescent mothers but also demonstrate how correlates of poverty negatively affect their socioemotional development.     

Parental Efficacy: Predictor of Parenting Behavior and Adolescent Outcomes

Objective. This research study tested a social cognitive model in which family socioeconomic status (SES) and neighborhood quality predicted parental efficacy, which then predicted the academic and social-emotional adjustment of adolescents through 3 parental behaviors (monitoring, parental involvement, and parent-adolescent communication). Design. The study investigated parental efficacy among a stratified random sample of 929 parents and their adolescent children in the United States. Parents and adolescents provided reports through telephone interviews. Structural equation modeling tested the model fit for the overall sample and for European American (n = 387), African American (n = 259), and Latin American (n = 283) subsamples. Results. The model fit for the overall sample and for each racial or ethnic group. Paths within each model also were examined. For the overall sample, neighborhood quality predicted parental efficacy, parental efficacy predicted reported parental involvement and monitoring, both of which predicted academic and social-emotional adjustment of adolescents, and parent-adolescent communication predicted social-emotional adjustment. Some racial or ethnic differences in paths emerged. Conclusions. Overall, the study supported predictions made by social cognitive theory. Given the link between parental efficacy, parenting behaviors, and adolescent outcomes, 1 important goal of programs for parents of adolescents might be to bolster parental efficacy.     

Unemployment and Work Interruption among African American Single Mothers: Effects on Parenting and Adolescent Socioemotional Functioning

Using interview data from a sample of 241 single African American mothers and their seventh- and eighth-grade children, this study tests a model of how 2 economic stressors, maternal unemployment and work interruption, influence adolescent socioemotional functioning. In general, these economic stressors affected adolescent socioemotional functioning indirectly, rather than directly, through their impact on mothers' psychological functioning and, in turn, parenting behavior and mother-child relations. Current unemployment, but not past work interruption, had a direct effect on depressive symptomatology in mothers. As expected, depressive symptomatology in mothers predicted more frequent maternal punishment of adolescents, and this relation was fully mediated by mothers' negative perceptions of the maternal role. More frequent maternal punishment was associated with increased cognitive distress and depressive symptoms in adolescents, and consistent with predictions, these relations were partially mediated by adolescents' perceptions of the quality of relations with their mothers. Increased availability of instrumental support, as perceived by mothers, predicted fewer depressive symptoms in mothers, less punishment of adolescents, and less negativity about the maternal role. Both economic stressors were associated with higher levels of perceived financial strain in mothers, which in turn predicted adolescents' perceptions of economic hardship. Adolescents who perceived their families as experiencing more severe economic hardship reported higher anxiety, more cognitive distress, and lower self-esteem.     

Longitudinal Links Between Fathers’ and Mothers’ Harsh Verbal Discipline and Adolescents’ Conduct Problems and Depressive Symptoms

This study used cross‐lagged modeling to examine reciprocal relations between maternal and paternal harsh verbal discipline and adolescents’ conduct problems and depressive symptoms. Data were from a sample of 976 two‐parent families and their children (51% males; 54% European American, 40% African American). Mothers’ and fathers’ harsh verbal discipline at age 13 predicted an increase in adolescent conduct problems and depressive symptoms between ages 13 and 14. A child effect was also present, with adolescent misconduct at age 13 predicting increases in mothers’ and fathers’ harsh verbal discipline between ages 13 and 14. Furthermore, maternal and paternal warmth did not moderate the longitudinal associations between mothers’ and fathers’ use of harsh verbal discipline and adolescent conduct problems and depressive symptoms.     

Discrimination Concerns and Expectations as Explanations for Gendered Socialization in African American Families

Discrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11‐ to 14‐year‐olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future, whereas mothers of daughters had more gender discrimination concerns. Racial discrimination concerns, but not gender discrimination concerns, were related to lower maternal academic and behavioral expectations. Maternal expectations were related to mothers' responsiveness, rule enforcement, monitoring, and parent–adolescent conflict. The relations between gender and parenting practices were partially explained through mothers' racial discrimination concerns and expectations. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextual factors on African American family processes.     

Pilot randomized controlled trial of Tuning Relationships with Music: Intervention for parents with a trauma history and their adolescent

For parents who have experienced childhood interpersonal trauma, the challenges of parenting an adolescent may trigger memories of abuse, intensifying conflict, resulting in negative cycles of relating and poorer responsiveness to emotions when parenting. This study examined whether Tuning Relationships with Music, a dyadic therapy for parents and adolescents, increased responsive parent-adolescent interactions and parent emotion coaching whilst reducing conflict and adolescent mental health difficulties. Twenty-six parent-adolescent dyads were recruited if parents had a trauma history and the dyad were currently having high levels of conflict. Dyads were randomly allocated into intervention or wait-list control and completed questionnaires and observation assessments at baseline and 4-month post-baseline follow-up. Those allocated to the intervention condition participated in 8 sessions of Tuning Relationships with Music. Trial registration: ANZCTR: 12615000814572. Parents and adolescents reported significant reductions in conflict. Parents in the intervention condition were observed to significantly improve their nonverbal communication, emotional responsiveness and non-reactivity toward their adolescent. Although parents reported they were less dismissive and punitive, and more encouraging of their adolescent’s emotions, and both parents and adolescents reported improvements in the adolescent’s mental health, these were not statistically significant. Findings suggest Tuning Relationships with Music may assist parents with a history of childhood interpersonal trauma and their adolescent to reduce conflict and increase responsive ways of relating that may positively impact the young person’s mental health. Future trials with a larger sample are warranted.     

Change in Family Work Status: Effects on Parent-Adolescent Decision Making

The interactions of parental work status, family integration, and sex of child on parent-adolescent decision making were examined in a 4-wave study of 504 adolescents and their mothers. 3 work status groups were compared. Deprived families reported a layoff or demotion at Time 1 and no recovery by Time 4. Recovery families reported similar work status losses at Time 1 and reemployment by Time 4. Nondeprived families reported stable employment at both times. Adolescents in deprived households, especially boys, reported the highest conflict with parents. Adolescents in recovery families reported high conflict when parents were unemployed, but levels declined when parents were reemployed. According to mothers, daughters in deprived households enjoyed the highest level of autonomy of any adolescent group.     

Mothers’ Knowledge of What Reduces Distress in Their Adolescents: Impact on the Development of Adolescent Approach Coping

Objective. This longitudinal study assessed the role of mothers’ knowledge of what is comforting to their adolescents when they are distressed. The authors proposed that the adolescents of mothers who were knowledgeable but dissatisfied with their adolescent would have adolescents who coped better than those whose mothers were less dissatisfied; dissatisfied mothers would be more likely to draw on their knowledge to engage in “not-too-nice” parenting, thereby allowing their adolescents to find their own means of self-comfort. Design. Participants were 111 early adolescents and their mothers. At the first time-point adolescents were assessed for approach coping and asked to rate what they would find comforting when they were upset; mothers were asked to predict those ratings and assessed for the extent of their dissatisfaction with their adolescent’s behavior. Adolescents were assessed again for approach coping 2 years later. Results. Mothers’ knowledge positively predicted adolescent approach coping, but only when mothers were high in dissatisfaction. Conclusions. The findings underscore the importance of parents’ knowledge of their adolescents in promoting coping, as well as the role that maternal dissatisfaction plays in adolescents’ ability to cope on their own.     

Racial identity,maternal support,and psychological distress among African American adolescents

This study investigated the role of racial identity and maternal support in reducing psychological distress among African American adolescents. Both direct and indirect influences of multiple dimensions of racial identity (i.e., centrality, private regard) and maternal support on perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety were examined among 521 African American twelfth graders. Findings indicated that maternal support was positively related to both centrality and private regard. Results provided little support for a direct association between racial identity or maternal support and depressive symptoms and anxiety within a multivariate context. Rather, the influences of racial identity attitudes and maternal support on these mental health outcomes were mediated by perceived stress. Further, the two racial identity attitudes were associated with perceived stress in different ways. Study findings suggest that the significance and meaning that African American adolescents attribute to being Black may be critical to their psychological well-being, and that maternal support and perceived stress are important considerations.     

African American late adolescents' relationships with parents: developmental transitions and longitudinal patterns

Five-year longitudinal patterns and the influence of developmental transitions on 76 middle-class African American late adolescents' (M=18.43 years) relationships with parents were examined. Late adolescents were closer to mothers than to fathers. Controlling for age, late adolescent females who had left home reported less negative relationships with mothers than did adolescents living at home or in transition to leaving home, and late adolescent females living at home reported more intense conflicts with parents 3 years earlier than did boys living at home and girls living away. Earlier attachment led to more attached and supportive relationships with both parents and less negative interactions with mothers in late adolescence. Stable father presence also influenced more positive relationships with fathers.     

Maternal socialization of positive affect: the impact of invalidation on adolescent emotion regulation and depressive symptomatology

This study examined the relations among maternal socialization of positive affect (PA), adolescent emotion regulation (ER), and adolescent depressive symptoms. Two hundred early adolescents, 11-13 years old, provided self-reports of ER strategies and depressive symptomatology; their mothers provided self-reports of socialization responses to adolescent PA. One hundred and sixty-three mother-adolescent dyads participated in 2 interaction tasks. Adolescents whose mothers responded in an invalidating or "dampening" manner toward their PA displayed more emotionally dysregulated behaviors and reported using maladaptive ER strategies more frequently. Adolescents whose mothers dampened their PA more frequently during mother-adolescent interactions, and girls whose mothers reported invalidating their PA, reported more depressive symptoms. Adolescent use of maladaptive ER strategies mediated the association between maternal invalidation of PA and early adolescents' concurrent depressive symptoms.     

Adolescents' and Parents' Conceptions of Parental Authority and Personal Autonomy

Conceptions of parental authority and ratings of adolescent-parent conflict were assessed in 68 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their parents. Boundaries of adolescent personal jurisdiction and conflict over these boundaries were examined. Participants judged the legitimacy of parental authority and rated the frequency and intensity of conflict regarding 24 hypothetical moral, conventional, personal, multifaceted (e.g., containing conventional and personal components), prudential, and friendship issues. Adolescents and parents agreed that parents should retain authority regarding moral and conventional issues. Parents treated multifaceted, friendship, prudential, and personal issues as more contingent on parental authority than did adolescents, based on conventional, prudential, and psychological reasons, whereas adolescents treated these issues as under personal jurisdiction, based on personal concerns. Personal reasoning and judgments increased with age. Multifaceted issues were discussed more than all other issues, but moral and conventional conflicts were more intense than all other conflicts. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research on parental authority and adolescent-parent conflict during adolescence.     

Conflict Between Mothers and Adolescents in Single-Mother,Blended, and Two-Biological- Parent Families

Objective. This investigation was designed to shed light on household structure differences in mother - adolescent conflict. Design. A total of 453 early, mid, and late adolescents from 3 ethnic groups completed questionnaires describing the rate and affective intensity of daily conflicts with mothers and fathers in single-mother (divorced or never married), 2-biological-parent, and blended (remarried) families. Results. Compared to sons, daughters reported more disagreements with mothers and more negative affect in disagreements with mothers and fathers. Adolescents reported more total disagreements and more angry disagreements with single mothers than with mothers in 2-biological-parent families; adolescents in blended families fell in between. Reports of conflict with fathers did not differ across 2-biological-parent families and blended families. There were no household structure differences in conflict with parents (mothers and residential fathers combined), indicating that levels of conflict with single mothers are elevated by approximately the same number of disagreements that otherwise fall to fathers in 2-parent households. Potential moderators (adolescent age, ethnicity, and gender, maternal employment, prior marital status of single-mothers, socioeconomic status, and levels of social interaction) did not alter the results. Conclusions. For adolescents, single parenthood restricts the number of partners available for disagreement but has little bearing on the number or affective tenor of daily disagreements with mothers. In contrast, single parenthood is associated with elevated levels of family discord for mothers.     

More Than Meets the Eye: Parental and Infant Contributors to Maternal and Paternal Reports of Early Infant Difficultness

Objectives. This study examined correspondences among maternal and paternal ratings of infant temperament, parental psychological functioning, and infant behavior. Design. Participants included 120 families. When infants were 6 weeks old, mothers and fathers completed the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ); reported on their own levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and parenting stress; and completed a 3-day diary of their infants' behavior. Infant irritability was assessed in a laboratory situation. Results. Fathers rated their infants' temperament somewhat more negatively, but there was significant correspondence between maternal and paternal ratings on the temperament factors of fussiness, unadaptability, dullness, and a difficultness composite. Higher infant difficultness was consistently associated with parenting stress. Infant behavioral fussiness, as measured by 3-day diaries, was significantly correlated with temperament ratings by both parents and with irritability observed in the laboratory setting. Maternal psychological distress was weakly predictive of ratings of infant difficultness; infant behaviors (diary and laboratory-based irritability) accounted for 15 to 17% of the variance. Paternal psychological distress and infant behaviors contributed equally to difficultness ratings. Conclusions. Mothers and fathers are influenced by somewhat different factors in perceiving their babies' temperament, but both maternal and paternal reports have a basis in laboratory- and diary-based behaviors. Results indicate the strong contributing influence of infant irritability to the perception of difficult temperament and support the validity of parental reports of infant irritability in the first 6 weeks of life.     

Reporter discrepancies among parents, adolescents, and peers: adolescent attachment and informant depressive symptoms as explanatory factors

The issue of informant discrepancies about child and adolescent functioning is an important concern for clinicians, developmental psychologists, and others who must consider ways of handling discrepant reports of information, but reasons for discrepancies in reports have been poorly understood. Adolescent attachment and informant depressive symptoms were examined as 2 explanations for absolute and directional discrepancies about adolescent symptoms, relationships, and social behavior in a sample of 189 eleventh-grade students (mean age=16.5 years). Adolescent attachment predicted absolute discrepancies, with greater attachment coherence associated with fewer discrepancies in reports of adolescent depressive symptoms, parent-adolescent conflict, and adolescent externalizing behavior. Parents' but not adolescents' depressive symptoms sometimes predicted absolute discrepancies. Mothers' depressive symptoms and adolescent attachment predicted the direction of discrepancies for mother-peer reports only.     

Effects of a prenatal care intervention for adolescent mothers on birth weight, repeat pregnancy, and educational outcomes at one year postpartum

About one-third of adolescent mothers receive inadequate prenatal care, and babies born to young mothers are more likely to be of low birth weight. The objective of this study is to evaluate a peer-centered prenatal care program for adolescent mothers. Pregnant adolescents were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group in a mastery modeling peer-support intervention designed to improve long- and short-term perinatal outcomes. A sample of 282 urban pregnant adolescents (94% African American, 4% Caucasian, 2% other) participated in the study. Participants were recruited from five clinics located mainly in Detroit, Michigan. Participants in the experimental group received care in a small group setting and learned to perform critical measurements with a peer partner during prenatal visits. Participants in the control group received individual prenatal care in the same clinics. Outcome measures included birth weight, years of schooling completed at one year postpartum, planned and unplanned pregnancy at one year postpartum, and employment and school attendance at one year postpartum. Mothers in the experimental group had a lower rate of low birth weight (6.6% vs. 12.5%, p=0.08). The rate of unplanned pregnancy was also lower for adolescents in the experimental group (13.4% vs. 15.9%), although this difference was not statistically significant. Adolescents who participated in the intervention were more likely to have continued their education during the pregnancy and the postpartum year. The mastery modeling, peer-centered, prenatal care program produced some positive pregnancy outcomes for adolescent mothers.     

Maternal Interactions and Self-Reports Related to Attachment Classifications at 4.5 Years

Building on attachment theory and infancy research, this study examines relations between maternal style and attachment patterns in early childhood. Mothers of children classified as Secure at 4.5 years were rated higher than mothers of Insecure children on positive mood, meshing, enjoyment of child, and providing a relaxed home atmosphere. In a laboratory joint task, they had a higher frequency of monitoring, planning, and affirming and also received higher ratings for providing a sensitive framework. Compared with all other mothers, mothers of Avoidant children monitored less and planned less but reported themselves in a better light on 3 temperament scales as well as a depression scale. Mothers of Ambivalent children rated themselves as the most depressed and anxious and the least satisfied with their marriages. Their interactions at home were characterized by friction. Mothers of Controlling children rated themselves as least irritable and anxious, but in the laboratory they affirmed less, enjoyed the task less, and provided a less sensitive framework than all other mothers.