Adolescent relations with mothers, fathers, and friends /

Youniss and Smollar (Center for the Study of Youth Development, Catholic University of America) have written this companion piece to an earlier analysis of parent and friend relations in children's social and personal development (James Youniss's Parents and Peers in Social Development: A Sullivan-Piaget Perspective, CH, Dec '80). The present book focuses on adolescents in these same relations by using the adolescents' own descriptions of interactions with parents and friends and then observing the fit of data to various theoretical frameworks. Preferring a Piaget-Sullivan perspective, the authors show clear differences in the roles of mothers and fathers of these adolescents, demonstrating that peer friendships have more positive influence on teenagers than previous research on adolescence had indicated. Extensive interviews of more than a thousand adolescents over a four-year period reveal some interesting and consistent relational structures that seem to guide the adolescent into adult society. The study questionnaires are contained in four appendixes. Extensive references and a combined author-subject index. Highly recommended for any developmental collection in psychology as well as for undergraduate and graduate students.-B. Biales, The College of St. Catherine