Thirteen Movie Psychology

Human Development Writing Project
In the movie “Thirteen” (2003), we are introduced to a character played by Evan Rachel Wood (Tracy) who comes from what appears as a broken, but loving home. Theorizing, it appears Tracy’s mom Melanie (played by Holly Hunter) has custody of Tracy and her brother Mason (played by Brady Corbet), and that the father remarried and has only visitation rights with his children. Tracy starts off as a normal thirteen-year-old girl who is good in school, has nice friends, and a loving family. The first day of school a girl by the name of Evie (played by Nikki Reed) has apparently matured over summer vacation and is looking and acting beyond her thirteen years of age. This eventually draws Tracy to Evie, as she discovers
The parent-teenager conflict is what Ashraf and Najam talk about in their article “Age and Gender Differences in Parent-Adolescent Conflict”. The authors state that the parent-adolescent conflict is indeed present during the adolescence, and it is more elevated during the beginning of adolescence. As the teenager moves toward middle and late adolescence the family conflict decreases. It is also thought that the adolescent (son or daughter) gets more often in conflict with the father, while the mother is seen as more kind and supportive by the daughter. Also conclusions reveal that the parent and adolescent gender, as well as the teenager’s age are significant factors that determine the quality of the relationship or bond that exist between parent and adolescent. A weak relationship leads to conflict and may have negative results on adolescent’s physical or psychological health, or on his/her academic performance (Ashraf & Najam,
Evie’s mother looks like a loving mom, but she is very busy with financial and romantic problems. She is responsive to her daughter needs, but she is too busy to show control or to sets direct guidelines for her children. Therefore Eve takes advantage of her mom’s lack of supervision and engages in stealing, smoking, and social drinking. In what concerns the father, he is never there (he has another family), and he only does his duty of financial “sponsor” being absent from his daughter