Development of Parent-Adolescent Relationships: Conflict Interactions as a Mechanism of Change

Adolescence is a period of rapid biological and psychosocial changes, which have a salient impact on parent-child relationships. Parents and adolescents have to reorganize responsibilities and move toward a more egalitarian relationship. Although conflicts between parents and children become more frequent and more intense during adolescence, these conflicts are also thought to be a means to negotiate relational changes. The short-term dyadic processes that occur during conflict interactions are important in the development of parent-adolescent relationships. Parent-adolescent dyads with more emotional variability during conflict interactions tend to adapt effectively and reorganize their relationships in response to the developmental needs of adolescents. Thus, parent-adolescent conflicts are adaptive for relational development when parents and adolescents can switch flexibly between a range of positive and negative emotions.