ABSTRACT
Social support provided to individuals by their close relationships serves as a buffer against the negative effects of stress (Caplan, 1974). Research has shown that parent-adolescent relationships contribute to an individual's ability to cope with various sources of stress such as stressful life events (Dean & Lin, 1977) and life transitions (Cauce, Feiner, & Primavera, 1982). Adolescents' interpersonal resources, combined with intrapersonal factors such as age, gender, intelligence, and temperament, are perceived as crucial predictors of coping and adaptation (Rutter, 1985a; Werner & Smith, 1982). The interpersonal resources emphasized in adolescence are close relationships including the nuclear and extended family, peers, teachers, social groups, and the social context. According to Skinner and Wellborn (1993 ), in relationships where adolescents sense that support is available and their psychological needs are being met, they cope with stress in more active, flexible, and positive ways. In contrast, when relationships are coercive and adolescents' needs are ignored, adolescents react to challenges in passive and rigid ways. Certainly, the level of perceived stress is also linked to parent-adolescent relationships. In the past, adolescent development was viewed in terms of transformations in the reciprocal nature of parent-child relationships. Even more important with respect to coping was the evidence found in several studies showing that the quality of family relations was linked to the degree of adolescent competence in problem solving.
