Abstract:

The body of research in the area parent-adolescent relationships has excluded certain variables and concentrated on the issue of conflict, with some consideration to time spent together and the affect in the relationship. This study included these variables and several others in an examination of 64 adolescents and their daily interactions with their parents and how these interactions relate to the overall quality of the relationship. The principal questions of this research were regarding the ability of time with parents, frequency of interactions, quality of interactions, parental affect during the interactions, importance of the relationship, and adolescent gender, to predict the overall quality of relationships between adolescents and their parents. The regression analysis found that parental affect and the frequency of interactions were capable of significant contributions to relationships with both parents. Bivariate analyses reveal many significant relationships between the research variables. The study suggests that these variables, particularly parental affect and the frequency of interactions, merit further attention in the analysis of parent-adolescent relationships. Comparisons between male (N = 25) and female (N = 39) adolescents' relationships were also made. Males spent significantly more time with their fathers and experienced significantly higher ratios of both positive parental affect and positive interactions with their fathers. On average, the adolescents report that the relationships with their parents were important and that overall quality was good. They also reported that 80 to 90% of their interactions were positive.