Between parent and child
Researchers explore how parenting changes as children undergo adolescence

The relationship between a parent and a child undergoes a series of changes as the child progresses through adolescence. This transition does not always result in good communication and strong positive relationships between family members. But why is it that some families seem to pass through the process fairly easily and others experience tumultuous relationships? How do parents know how much freedom to give their children without negative results? Relationships between parents and children in this stage not only affect the well-being of the family, but also the ways in which these children will function as adults.

Funded by a $336,000 National Science Foundation grant, LSU professor of human ecology Robert Laird has begun a three-year study of relationships between parents and their children as the children transition through adolescence. Although many studies have been done about parent-child relationship during adolescence focusing on specific age groups, such as 9-year-olds and 16-year-olds, little research has been done about the way communication changes as the transformation through adolescence occurs. This study will follow a group of children as they progress from the summer after their fifth-grade year through the next three years of their lives. To gather information, Laird and his team will go to the homes of participating families to orally administer a questionnaire. One child and one parent from each family participate.

According to Laird, it is commonly thought by researchers that a higher parental awareness of the child’s behavior, activities, friends, and whereabouts when the child is not at home is helpful in preventing a variety of problem behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, violence, and delinquency, among others. There is often an underlying assumption that this is because of something the parent is doing actively. Some researchers, like Laird, believe that this might not always be the case. There has been some evidence to suggest that the child’s cooperation and willingness to keep their parents informed is more important than has been thought previously.

“Where does the parenting come from? Parents parent the way they do not only because they want to but also because the kids are letting them. It requires cooperation, especially as the children get older,” says Laird.

It is possible that some parents are able to acquire a greater amount of information about their children’s lives away from home not only because of their own parenting techniques, but because of the willingness of some children to provide information to their parents about their activities. Without this kind of cooperation, despite whether parents enforce rules and ask questions, parents may remain uninformed.

One-hundred-thirty families from East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parishes have already been recruited for the study. Laird hopes to recruit about 100 more families, optimally studying 240 in total. So far, all students recruited attend public schools, but researchers hope to recruit children from private and parochial schools as well.

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LSU School of Human Ecology

from Fall 2006 Issue