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What Causes Conflict Between Adolescents and Their Parents

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What Causes Conflict Between Adolescents and Their Parents
Introduction
Conflicts in the family are usually considered as an undesirable symptom of a problem that need to be solved by family members. 1 In the family relationships, the parent-adolescent relationship represents an involuntary association, an imbalance of power and resources, and an obligation for the parent to function as caregiver.
2

While the presenting

problem with most families is obviously parent-adolescent conflict. Adolescence is a period of increasing parent-child conflict and conflicts are thought to be rife and common during this development phase. 3 In the puberty, Parents have the totally different interpretations of the conflicts against adolescents. Parents notice the disagreements caused from morality, personal safety and conformity concerns while adolescents consider them as personal choice.4 This piece of work deals with the question what causes conflict adolescents and their parents. In the first part various issues causing the conflicts in families are introduced. Building upon this, the next chapter concentrates on the analysing the reasons. And a final conclusion of the piece of work is given in the third part.

1. Cf. Samuel Vuchinich (1999) : p.79 2. Daniel J. Canary,William R. Cupach,Susan J. Messman (1995) : p.52 3. Cf. Lynn H. Turner,Richard L. West (2006) : quoted according to Riesch, Jackson, & Chanchong, (2003) : p.150. 4. Cf. Lynn H. Turner,Richard L. West (2006) : quoted according to Smetana (1989) : p.150.

2

Occurrence and Issues of Conflict
Owing to that family members share the communal resources and so much time, conflicts are normative and inevitable.5 As the expressive form, usually family conflicts between parents and adolescents will behaved in a variety of ways like whining, complaining, yelling, crying to arguing, screaming and swearing, which ranged from giving up halfway during the chores to quarrelling and even fighting.6 Those activities are undesirable in family harmony, everyone wants to live



Bibliography: Samuel Vuchinich (1999) : Problem solving in families: research and practice Daniel J.Canary, William R. Cupach, Susan J. Messman (1995): Relationship conflict Lynn H. Turner,Richard L. West (2006) : The family communication sourcebook Chris Segrin,Jeanne Flora (2005) : Family communication Russell A. Barkley, Christine M. Benton (1998) : Your defiant child: 8 steps to better behavior Arthur L. Robin, Sharon L. Foster (2003) : Negotiating Parent-Adolescent Conflict: A Behavioral-Family Systems Approach Megan R. Gunnar,W.Andrew Collins(1988): Development during the transition to adolescence Patricia Noller,Victor J. Callan (1991) : The adolescent in the family Clarence J. Mann,Klaus Götz (2006) : Borderless business: managing the far-flung enterprise Raymond Montemayor (1983): Parents and Adolescents in Conflict: All Families Some of the Time and Some Families Most of the Time Peter M. Kellett,Diana G. Dalton : Managing conflict in a negotiated world Anita L. Vangelisti (2004) : Handbook of family communication 7 Appendix Table1 :Definition of ten main content categories leading to conflicts Table2 :percent frequency of ten main content categories leading to conflicts Table 1 8 Table two 9

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