ABSTRACT
Social scientists have long debated the extent to which adolescence is a period of development uniquely characterized by increased emotional volatility, or conflict, between parents and children (Gecas & Seff, 1990). Biological, cognitive, and social changes that occur during adolescence have led a number of theorists to contend that increases in parent-adolescent conflict are normal and expected (e.g., Blos, 1979; Steinberg, 1981). This developmental perspective proposes that parent-adolescent conflict increases from early to middle adolescence and declines during late adolescence because adolescent maturational changes lead to a restructuring of the parent-adolescent relationship (Smetana, 1988).
