Teenagers and adults

This study examined early adolescent perceptions of daily disagreements and negative interactions in relationships with mothers and fathers and their association with adolescent reports of self-esteem, self- and mother reports of behavior problems, and school grades. An I-States as Objects Analysis (ISOA: Bergman, 1998) identified seven distinct conflict patterns in parent-adolescent relationships: amiable, squabbling, discordant, hostile, labile, tranquil, and avoidant. These groups exhibited structural and interindividual stability, with groups characterized by constructive conflict processes demonstrating more stability than adolescents in groups characterized by non-constructive conflict processes. ISOA procedures failed to identify coherent adolescent adjustment groups. Person-oriented analyses indicated adolescents in the amiable, labile, and tranquil groups tended to have the best adjustment outcomes, followed by adolescents in the discordant and avoidant groups, with the worst adjustment outcomes reserved for adolescents in the squabbling and hostile groups. Variable-oriented analyses indicated that conflict rate and relationship negativity predicted concurrent and subsequent adolescent adjustment; behavior problems predicted concurrent and subsequent characteristics of parent-adolescent conflict. Person-oriented failed to reveal statistically significant associations involving change in parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent adjustment aver time. Variable-oriented analyses indicated adolescent adjustment predicted changes in parent-adolescent conflict variables more consistently than parent-adolescent conflict predicted changes in adolescent adjustment variables.

The current study examined changes in mother-child and father-child relationships of 210 participants in a 3-year longitudinal study during the 6th through the 8th grade. In each relationship, latent growth curve models found that negativity had a gradual increase over the course of early adolescence, while the change in positivity during this period depended on the initial levels of positivity during the 6th grade. For those high in positivity during the 6th grade, positivity remained stable from 6th to 8th grade, while for those low in positivity during the 6th grade, positivity decreased substantially during this period. In addition, an examination of the links between the relationship features and adjustment measures, such as internalizing and externalizing problems, found that models with initial rates of the relationships predicting changes in adjustment were ideal in comparison to models with both initial rates of and changes in relationships linked to changes in adjustment.