Abstract
The present study examines whether parents' reports of well-being are related to the level of parent-adolescent conflict in the family and their youngsters' level of emotional autonomy. The sample is composed of 129 intact families with a first-born child between the ages of 10 and 15. Measures included parents' reports of midlife identity concerns, self-esteem, life satisfaction, psychological symptoms, and parent-adolescent conflict, as well as youngsters' reports of emotional autonomy vis-à-vis parents. Findings indicate that (1) parents' experience of midlife identity concerns is positively related to the level of emotional autonomy reported by same-sex children; (2) mothers', but not fathers', well-being is negatively related to the intensity of parent-adolescent conflict; and (3) socioeconomic status moderates the relation between parental well-being and parent-adolescent relations. These results are discussed in terms of psychoanalytic and parental stress perspectives on parental well-being during the adolescent years.
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The work described herein has been conducted during the second author's tenure as a Faculty Scholar under the William T. Grant Foundation's Program in the Mental Health of Children and is supported as well by a grant to the second author from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin.
Received Ph. D. in Child and Family Studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Major research interests are in the psychological well-being of parents with adolescent children.
Received Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University. Major research interests are in social relations during adolescence.
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Silverberg, S.B., Steinberg, L. Adolescent autonomy, parent-adolescent conflict, and parental well-being. J Youth Adolescence 16, 293–312 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02139096
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02139096