ABSTRACT
Adolescents face the developmental challenge to establish a sense of identity and autonomy while at the same time remaining connected to and engaged with their family—the original source of safety. Not only do teens strive to establish a healthy balance with their families, but they also are learning to navigate more autonomous relationships with peers, and later with romantic partners. Failure to form healthy close relationships in adolescence has been linked to poor psychological, social, and physical health into adulthood, highlighting the importance of these early relationships. We review the extensive research on adolescent autonomy from our longitudinal study of adolescent development. Overall, research on parental influence on adolescent development is largely informed by research on the mother–child relationship. Less research has considered the unique role that fathers may play in adolescent development. We will report on new research findings that father–child relationships with high levels of both autonomy and relatedness are linked to better quality of teen romantic relationships, both concurrently and longitudinally. This recent work is discussed and future directions proposed to consider the distinct role of fathers for the developmental task of establishing autonomy yet remaining connected to others in adolescence.
