| During adolescence, both parent-child and friendship relationships develop towards increasing equality and reciprocity. Although these changes have been often described, research up to date has not captured the intraindividual processes in the development of parent-adolescent relationships and friendship, that is, how these changes unfold in individual parent-child and friendship dyads over time. A Dynamic Systems perspective can address this deficiency and suggests that developmental changes are marked by a substantial temporary increase in intraindividual variability in behavior (i.e., flexibility or fluctuations in behavior). In the present project we will examine normative changes in parent-child and friendship relationships during adolescence. We will not only examine longitudinal mean changes in support, conflict and power, but also examine the underlying developmental processes by using a micro genetic design with intensive longitudinal internet assessments of parent-child and friendship relationships. We will examine (1) developmental changes in parent-child and friendship relationships across adolescence; (2) the developmental order in which changes in relationships with parents and peers occur; (3) the hypothesis that intraindividual variability in relationships will be highest during developmental transitions in parent-child and friendship relationships and lower both before and after this period; and (4) the hypothesis that negative emotionality may constrain the developmental process and lead to decreased flexibility in relationships. |
