Understanding parental influences and parent-adolescent relationships is difficult because individuals are involved in many activities and have varied goals. The chapters in this volume help address the complexities by focusing on variations in parental practices and domains of activities.

Although the constructs of individualism and collectivism appear to bring explanatory power to analyses of culture and psychology, they fail to adequately account for the complexities of social interactions and the multiplicity of people's social judgments. The research considered in the chapters in this volume offers evidence for the need to go…

Cultures include a combination of shared and contested understandings. Although individuals may identify with their culture, they are also critical of practices judged unfair. Cultural practices that privilege one group and restrict the practices of another are sources of conflict and change. (Author)