ABSTRACT
What do we know about middle and late adolescence? We know that youths spend more time with their friends than their parents, and that they develop their own, independent identities that include philosophies of life, values, and so forth. In short, they become more and more autonomous and independent as they move closer to adulthood. All of this suggests that parents’ direct influence should decrease as youths move through adolescence. But, for the most part, research on parenting of adolescents does not reflect this knowledge. In most of the literature, assumptions about the roles parents play in the adjustment of adolescents are essentially similar to assumptions about their roles in the adjustment of younger children. The adolescent’s development is not taken into account. This reveals the unidirectional theoretical stance that most parenting research takes. Parenting is generally considered something that parents do to children and adolescents.
