Autonomy and control

Adolescence is characterised by hormonal changes related to puberty. For the same reason, adolescent children tend to aim for freedom and liberty and to become independent.

Generally, this prevents the development of a healthy and mature relationship between them and their parents and leads to conflicts in parent-child relationships.

Parental responsibilities are misunderstood often as parental interventions and parental decisions.

How can a vertical relationship of socially powerful parents with knowledge and teenagers with lower status be converted into a horizontal relationship of understanding and closeness?

Reasons for conflicts between parents and adolescent children

Studies say that difference in expectations regarding appropriate behaviour is the primary reason for such frequently reported conflicts.  

Self-regulation is a behaviour learned and acquired gradually. Adolescents strive for autonomy before they achieve this quality to regulate their attitudes and behaviour, and expects parents to transfer the decision making power to them. On the contrary, parents wish for a stronger balance in teenagers of autonomy and self-regulation. These result in less affiliation and understanding among parents and children of this age.

Interestingly, it is also established that the aforesaid struggles and clashes favour in renegotiating parents’ authority and adolescents’ increasing need for autonomy.

(Indebted to many sources)