Most people recognize that babies and young children need and love their parents. But what about teens? Even an adolescents 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 showed 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 were found to mirror similar findings in industrial countries elsewhere in the world, suggesting a universal phenomena.
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 repeatedly linked to the mental, social and emotional well-being in adolescents and youth.
- Growing evidence shows that the apparently strong influence of the parent-child relationship on positive child and adolescent outcomes extend into adulthood.
This is certainly great news! And it certainly speaks to parents doing everything possible to improve and enhance the quality of their relationships with their teenagers.
There are many excellent books that are available to help parents of teens, and that I recommend are:
Parents and Adolescents Living Together: Part 0ne--The Basics by Drs. Gerald Patterson and Marion Forgatch
Parents and Adolescents Living Together: Part Two--Family Problem Solving by Drs. Patterson and Forgatch
There are also excellent parentng skill-building programs that have specific versions to teach parents of teenagers the best skills and ideas for forming and maintaining solid relationships with teens, including:
Active Parenting Programs: See Active Parenting of Teens
Systematic Training for the Effective Parenting: See version for Parents of Teens
Nurturing: See Program for Parents and Adolescents
The survey and bonding research results which was reported on above appears 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.
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