Negativity in parent-child relationship

Is increasing negativity in the parent-child relationship inevitable in adolescence?

Adolescence is often seen as a period wherein parents and adolescents experience increasing negativity in the relationship with one another. However, Stefan Mastrotheodoros and colleagues used data from RADAR to show that this is only perceived by adolescents, and not by their parents.

The researchers found that adolescents and parents have divergent perceptions of negativity. Increased negativity was only reported by adolescents, especially between ages 13 and 16. Parents reported no change in negativity during the same period. Furthermore, adolescents perceived relatively high and stable negativity between ages 16 and 18, whereas parents perceived a decrease of negativity in this period. These divergent perceptions of parents and children led the differences in perception of negativity to increase during adolescence.

Furthermore, the researchers showed that mothers, fathers, and adolescents with a resilient personality reported less negativity than people with less resilient personalities.

Mastrotheodoros, S., Van der Graaff, J., Deković, M., Meeus, W. H. J., & Branje, S. (2020). Parent–Adolescent Conflict across Adolescence: Trajectories of Informant Discrepancies and Associations with Personality Types. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(1), 119–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01054-7