Changes in adolescents' and mothers' autonomy and connectedness in conflict discussions: an observation study

Behaviour in conflicts in 76 dyads of mothers and their 11-16-year-old adolescents was observed twice in a 2-year interval. In concordance with individuation theory (Youniss and Smollar, 1985, Adolescent relations with mothers, fathers and friends. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press), we found an increase across assessments in adolescents' autonomy. In accordance with Steinberg's (1990, At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent, Feldman, S. and Elliott, G. (Eds). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 255-276) developmental theory, we observed a decrease of connectedness with their mothers in younger adolescents and an increase of connectedness in older adolescents. Changes in mothers' connectedness with their children paralleled the changes in adolescents, but only the increase of connectedness of mothers of older adolescents was statistically significant. Higher levels of connectedness were observed in mother-daughter than in mother-son dyads. In addition, female adolescents were more successful in changing their mothers' position than their male age-peers. As decreases in connectedness were moderate, it is still true that some connectedness between adolescents and parents is maintained across adolescence, as suggested by individuation theory.