Dyadic Resistance in Parent-Adolescent Interactions During the Transition to High School

Although prior research has examined adolescents' resistance to parental control, the dyadic level of analysis has been overlooked. This study attended to how a Canadian sample of parents and adolescents engaged in resisting one another by observing moment-to-moment actions as they discussed the upcoming transition to high school.

A secondary analysis of data collected from 2010 to 2012 using the Action-Project Method was conducted. The sample of 27 parent-adolescent dyads (23 mothers; 4 fathers); 13 boys, 14 girls (Mean youth age = 13.3) was recruited from two urban centers. Videorecorded self-directed conversations were immediately followed by open-ended video recall interviews. A novel way of analyzing data at the dyadic level of analysis was developed based on critical reflexive thematic analysis guided by social constructionist theory.

Resistance was observed at least once in 23 of the 27 conversations (total = 97, range = 0-9, Mean = 3.63, SD = 2.69). Four distinct themes were developed: Reminding of and then defending the "constant battle" lines, Cautious avoidance, the Nudging match, and No point anymore and minimal responses. Dyads varied in frequency and number of themes in their conversations with 78.56% engaging in more than one theme. Most differences came to a trickling of resistance wherein members did not agree but continued to interact without extending the resistance further.

A dyad-centric approach to analysis was useful for observing how parents and adolescents engaged in resistance together. Our findings suggest that resistance can be seen as a dyadic concept that reflects a personalized relationship history that has implications for parent and youth identity development.