Parent–Adolescent Collaboration: An Interpersonal Model for Understanding Optimal Interactions

Current parent–adolescent behavioral interaction research highlights the importance of three elements of behavior in defining adaptive interactions: autonomy, control, and warmth vs. hostility. However, this research has largely addressed the developmental needs and psychosocial outcomes of adolescents, as opposed to parents, with a focus on how parent and adolescent behaviors influence adolescent adaptation. This paper utilizes both adolescent and mid-life developmental research, as well as parent–adolescent interaction research, to introduce a model for conceptualizing parent–adolescent interactions as a transactional process in which both parental and adolescent development are considered. Further, ideas are presented describing how adaptive parent–adolescent interactions may change across adolescence. The concept of collaboration is proposed as a conceptual tool for assessing one form of adaptive parent–adolescent interactions. The structural analysis of social behavior (SASB) is presented as a model for studying the complex reciprocal processes that occur in parent–adolescent interpersonal processes.