Most people recognize that babies and
young children need and love their parents. But what about
teens? Even an adolescent's own parents can despair and wonder
how their loving child has apparently become so rejecting.
But "apparently" is the crucial word.
Results from a recent nationally representative survey of U.S.
teens about the nature of their relationships with their
parents, and the results of recent studies on
parent-adolescent bonding, indicates otherwise.
The national survey shows that, in
general, adolescents respect, admire and like their parents
and enjoy spending time with them. These results dovetail and
support the link between the quality of parent-child
relationships and a wide range of positive outcomes for teens
found in the studies on bonding. Moreover, the results mirror
similar findings in industrial countires elsewhere in the
world.
More specifically, the bonding
research indicates that:
- Children and teens who have
positive relationships with their parents tend to have
better academic outcomes.
- Good relations between parents and
adolescents lessen the likelihood that teens will exhibit
problem behaviors.
- High quality parent-adolescent
relationships have been linked repeatedly to mental, social
and emotional well-being in adolescents and youth.
- Growing evidence shows that the
apparently strong influence of the parent-child relationship
on child and adolescent outcomes extend into adulthood.
The survey and bonding research
results appear in an excellent review article entitled,
Parent-Teen Relationships and Interactions: Far More Positive
Than Not, by Drs. Kristen A. Moore, Lina Guzman, Elizabeth
Hair and Laura Lippman and Sara Garrett.
