ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we review theory and research on parent-child relationships in adolescence, emphasizing the role that parents play to enhance adolescents’ well-being and to decrease their likelihood of engaging in risk behaviors. Given the extensive literature on parent-teen relationships, we focus mostly on work during the past decade. Compared with childhood, adolescence involves distinct challenges. Parents’ challenges include keeping the lines of communication open, providing support, and managing their children’s behavior-all practices that ease the transition to adolescence. Adolescents must deal with issues surrounding identity exploration, peer pressure, bullying, dating, sexual activity, and substance abuse, to name a few core concerns (Zaff & Moore, 2002 ). How parents and adolescents handle these years is critical because this period is a ‘launching’ point with long-lasting consequences for the next stage of development-emerging adulthood (Arnett, 1996 , 2010 ; Heard, Gorman, & Kapinus, 2008 ; Oesterle, Hawkins, Hill, & Bailey, 2010 ).
