Although more attention has been given in recent years to adolescents' influences on family dynamics after divorce, little is still known about the forms such agency takes, the rationales and structures that shape it, or its consequences. This study is an examination of adolescents' reports of the ways in which they manage negative aspects of their relationships with their parents. In-depth interviews with fifty adolescents from divorced or separated households are examined for emergent themes related to adolescent agency. The findings suggest that adolescents utilize a variety of relationship management strategies that both shape and are shaped by household structure. These strategies and their possible consequences are described, along with rationales that adolescents use for employing them.
Amato, P.1993. Children's adjustment to divorce: Theories, hypotheses, and empirical support. Journal of Marriage and the Family55:23-38.
2.
---. 2000. The consequences of divorce for adults and children. Journal of Marriage and the Family62:1269-87.
3.
Amato, P.R., and J.G. Gilbreth.1999. Nonresident fathers and children's well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family61:557-73.
4.
Anderson, E.R., M.S. Lindner, and L.D. Bennion.1992. The effect of family relationships on adolescent development during family reorganization. In Coping with marital transitions: A family systems perspective, edited by E. M. Hetherington and W. G. Clingempeel, 178-99. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
5.
Baydar, N., and J. Brooks-Gunn.1994. The dynamics of child support and its consequences for children. In Child support and child well-being , edited by I. Garfinkel, S. S. McLanahan, and P. K. Robins, 257-84. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
6.
Blos, P.1979. The adolescent passage: Developmental issues. New York: International Universities Press.
7.
Bogenschneider, K., M. Wu, M. Raffaelli, and J.C. Tsay.1998. "Other teens drink, but not my kid": Does parental awareness of adolescent alcohol use protect adolescents from risky consequences?Journal of Marriage and the Family60:356-73.
8.
Braver, S., and W.A. Griffin.2000. Engaging fathers in the post-divorce family. Marriage and Family Review29:247-67.
9.
Braver, S., S. Wolchik, I.N. Sandler, V.L. Sheets, B. Fogas, and R.C. Bay.1993. A longitudinal study of noncustodial parents: Parents without children. Journal of Family Psychology7:9-23.
10.
Brittain, C.V.1963. Adolescent choices and parent-peer cross pressures. American Sociological Review28:385-91.
11.
Buchanan, C.M., E.E. Maccoby, and S.M. Dornbusch.1996. Adolescents after divorce. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12.
Burke, R.J., and T. Weir.1979. Helping responses of parents and peers and adolescent well-being. Journal of Psychology102:49-62.
13.
Chen, Z.-Y., and S.M. Dornbusch.1998. Relating aspects of adolescent emotional autonomy to academic achievement and deviant behavior. Journal of Adolescent Research13:293-319.
14.
Collins, W.A., and D.J. Repinski.1994. Relationships during adolescence: Continuity and change in interpersonal perspective. In Personal relationships during adolescence, edited by R. Montemayor , G. R. Adams, and T. P. Gullotta, 7-36. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
15.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., and R. Larson.1984. Being adolescent. New York: Basic Books.
16.
de Man, A.F.2000. Predictors of adolescent running away behavior. Social Behavior and Personality28:261-68.
17.
DeGarmo, D.S., and G.C. Kitson.1999. Contexts as predictors of changing maternal parenting practices in diverse family structures. In Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage: A risk and resiliency perspective , edited by E. M. Hetherington, 227-52. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
18.
DeVault, M.L.1991. Feeding the family. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
19.
Di Leonardo, M.1987. The female world of cards and holidays: Women, families, and the work of kinship. Signs12:440-53.
20.
Doise, W.1985. Social regulations in cognitive development. In Social relationships in cognitive development, edited by R. A. Hinde, 294-306. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
21.
Dunn, J., and K. Deater-Deckard .2001. Children's views of their changing families. York, UK: York Publishing Services.
22.
Emmerich, H.J.1978. The influence of parents and peers on choices made by adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence7:175-80.
23.
Flowerdew, J., and B. Neale.2003. Trying to stay apace: Children with multiple challenges in their post-divorce family lives. Childhood10:147-61.
24.
Freud, A.1958. Adolescence. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child13:255-78.
25.
Furstenberg, F.F.2000. Sociology of adolescence in the 90s: A critical commentary . Journal of Marriage and the Family62:896-910.
26.
Furstenberg, F.F., and A.J. Cherlin.1991. Divided families: What happens to children when parents part. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
27.
Gardner, R.A.1987. The parental alienation syndrome and the differentiation between fabricated and genuine child sex abuse. Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics.
Giddens, A.1979. Central problems in social theory. London: Macmillan.
30.
Glaser, B.G., and A.L. Strauss.1964. Awareness contexts and social interaction . American Sociological Review29:669-79.
31.
Goffman, E.1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor.
32.
Hetherington, E.M.1992. Summary and discussion. In Coping with marital transitions: A family systems perspective, edited by E. M. Hetherington and W. G. Clingempeel, 200-06. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
Hetherington, E. M., and J. D. Arasteh, eds. 1988. Impact of divorce, single parenting, and stepparenting on children. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
34.
Hetherington, E. M., and W. G. Clingempeel, eds. 1992. Coping with marital transitions: A family systems perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
35.
Hogan, D.M., A.M. Halpenny, and S. Greene.2003. Change and continuity after parental separation: Children's experiences of family transitions in Ireland. Childhood10:163-80.
36.
Johnston, J.R.1993. Children of divorce who refuse visitation. In Nonresidential parenting: New vistas in family living, edited by C. E. Depner and J. H. Bray, 109-35. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
37.
Jourard, S.M., and P. Richman.1963. Factors in the self-disclosure outputs of college students. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly9:141-48.
38.
Kandel, D.B., and G.S. Lesser.1972. Youth in two worlds: U. S. and Denmark . San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass .
39.
Kelly, J.B., and J.R. Johnston.2001. The alienated child: A reformulation of parental alienation syndrome. Family Court Review39:249-66.
40.
King, V.1994. Nonresident father involvement and child well-being: Can dads make a difference? Journal of Family Issues15:78-96.
41.
King, V., and H. Heard.1999. Nonresident father visitation, parental conflict, and mother's satisfaction: What's best for child well-being?Journal of Marriage and the Family61:385-96.
42.
Kliewer, W., and I.N. Sandler.1993. Social competence and coping among children of divorce. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry63:432-40.
43.
Lamb, M.E.1999. Noncustodial fathers and their impact on the children of divorce. In The postdivorce family: Children, parenting and society, edited by R. A. Thompson and P. Amato, 105-23. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
44.
Lareau, A.2002. Invisible inequality: Social class and childrearing in Black families and White families. American Sociological Review67:747-76.
45.
Lofland, J.1976. Doing social life. New York: Wiley.
46.
Maccoby, E.E.1992. Commentary. In Coping with marital transitions: A family systems perspective, edited by E. M. Hetherington and W. G. Clingempeel, 230-38. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
47.
Maccoby, E.E., and C.E. Depner.1990. Coparenting in the second year after divorce. Journal of Marriage and the Family51:141-56.
48.
McLanahan, S., and G. Sandefur.1994. Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
49.
Miller, P.A., W. Kliewer, J.T. Hepworth, and I.N. Sandler.1994. Maternal socialization of children's post-divorce coping: Development of a measurement model. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology15:457-87.
50.
Moxnes, K.2003. Children coping with parental divorce. In Children and the changing family: Between transformation and negotiation, edited by A.-M. Jensen and L. McKee, 90-104. New York: Routledge Falmer.
51.
Powell, B., and D.B. Downey.1997. Living in single-parent households: An investigation of the same-sex hypothesis. American Sociological Review62:521-39.
52.
Rivenbark, W.H., III.1971. Self-disclosure patterns among adolescents . Psychological Reports28:35-42.
53.
Ryan, R.M., and J.H. Lynch.1989. Emotional autonomy versus detachment: Revisiting the vicissitudes of adolescence and young adulthood. Child Development60:340-56.
54.
Sandler, I.N., J.-Y. Tein, and S.G. West.1994. Coping, stress, and the psychological symptoms of children of divorce: A cross-sectional and longitudinal study . Child Development65:1744-63.
55.
Seltzer, J.A.1991. Relationships between fathers and children who live apart: The father's role after separation. Journal of Marriage and the Family53:79-101.
56.
Seltzer, J.A., and S.M. Bianchi.1988. Children's contact with absent parents . Journal of Marriage and the Family50:663-77.
57.
Smart, C., B. Neale, and A. Wade.2001. The changing experience of childhood: Families and divorce. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
58.
Smith, A.B., N.J. Taylor, and P. Tapp.2003. Rethinking children's involvement in decision making after parental separation. Childhood10:201-16.
59.
Smollar-Volpe, J.1980. The development of concepts of parent-child and friend relations and of the self within these relations. Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.
60.
Spradley, J.P.1979. The ethnographic interview. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
61.
Stack, C.B. and L.M. Burton.1993. Kinscripts. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 24, 157-70.
62.
Steinberg, L.1999. Adolescence5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
63.
Strauss, A., and J. Corbin.1990. Basics of qualitative research: Grounded Theory procedures and techniques. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
64.
Tesson, G., J. Lewko, and B. Bigelow.1987. The social rules that children use in their interpersonal relations. In Interpersonal relations: Family, peers and friends, edited by J. Meacham , 36-58. New York: Karger.
65.
Tesson, G., and J. Youniss.1995. Micro-sociology and psychological development: A sociological interpretation of Piaget's theory. Sociological Studies of Children7:101-26.
66.
Wallerstein, J.S., and J.B. Kelly.1980. Surviving the breakup: How children and parents cope with divorce. New York: Basic Books.
67.
Weiss, R.S.1979. Growing up a little faster: The experience of growing up in a single-parent household. Journal of Social Issues35:97-111.
68.
Yoder, K.A., L.B. Whitbeck, and D.R. Hoyt.2001. Event history analysis of antecedents to running away from home and being on the street. American Behavioral Scientist45:51-65.
69.
Youniss, J., and J. Smollar.1985. Adolescent relations with mothers, fathers, and friends. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
