Examines the development of, and interrelations among, three types of autonomy during the transition from childhood into adolescence: emotional autonomy in relationships with parents, resistance to peer pressure, and the subjective sense of self-reliance. (HOD)

Compared adjustment scores among adolescents who differ in both emotional autonomy and perceptions of parental support. Found that, although adolescents who scored high in both emotional autonomy and relationship support reported more internal distress and behavior problems than less autonomous adolescents, they had higher levels of psychological…

This study examines whether parents' reports of well-being are related to the level of parent-adolescent conflict in the family and their youngsters' level of emotional autonomy. Findings indicate the parents' experience of midlife identity concerns is positively related to the level of emotional autonomy reported by same-sex children. (Author/LMO)

Examines the independent and joint contributions of three core dimensions of authoritative parenting - acceptance-involvement, strictness-supervision, and psychological autonomy granting - to adolescent adjustment. Findings are discussed with regard to behavior problems, psychosocial development, and academic achievement. Provides evidence that…

Examines the reciprocal relation between parent-child distance and pubertal maturation. Analyses indicate that (1) puberty increases adolescent autonomy and parent-child conflict and diminishes parent-child closeness; and (2) parent-child distance may accelerate pubertal maturation among girls. (PCB)

Examines the impact of pubertal status and timing, independent of chronological age, on the family relationships of adolescents in 204 families with a firstborn child between the ages of 10 and 15. Measures included adolescent and parental reports of closeness, confict, and autonomy and assessments of adolesents' pubertal status and pubertal…

This study examined a model of the simultaneous and interactive influence of social context, psychosocial attitudes, and individual maturity on the prediction of urban adolescent drug dealing. Five factors were found to significantly increase adolescents' opportunity for drug selling: low parental monitoring, poor neighborhood conditions, low…

This study examined the relation between part-time employment and adolescent behavior and development in a multi-ethnic, multi-class sample of approximately 4,000 15- through 18-year-olds. The results indicated that long work hours during the school year were associated with diminished investment in schooling and lowered school performance,…

As adolescents progress from elementary to secondary school, their academic success increasingly depends on their ability to manage their own time and behavior. Because the family plays such an important role in the development of responsible autonomy, this study examined authoritative parenting and the hypothesis that authoritative parents…

Understanding the nature of brain development in adolescence helps explain why adolescents can vacillate so often between mature and immature behavior. Early and middle adolescence, in particular, are times of heightened vulnerability to risky and reckless behavior because the brain's reward center is easily aroused, but the systems that control…