Review article
Adolescent in family
Mirjana Graovac
; Clinics for psychiatry, CHC Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Abstract
Adolescence ia a developmental phase after which we enter the adulthood. Family
phase where offprings reach adolescence is a specific phase in the life of a family and
places new tasks and goals not only infront of adolescent but also infront of the family as a
whole. Having an adolescent in the family certainly, for every member of that family, includes
being in a physiologically critical, demanding period of developmental processes. To
be a parent to an adolescent is a different position in the parenthood than being a parent in
the earlier phases. There are many things that happend to the child and to the parents for
the first time in their lives. During the process of growing up and separation from parents
new significant others begin to appear. These new object relations and new connections
create a very slippery field between the adolescent and his or her parents. The generational
gap among parents and adolescent is inevitable. However, adolescence does not happen
only to adolescents, it also affects parents in a different, specific way. Developmental tasks
and developmental processes in adolescence require, both from adolescents and their parents,
high capacities for adjustment and maturation of their relationship. Along with the adolescent
growing up, his or her family also experiences changes. Parents of the adolescent,
just like a mother for a little baby, have to be present so that their adolescent could separate
from them and develop, grow up. Emotional climate in which a child or a adolscent enters
adulthood is one of the most important factor of mental health.
Keywords
adjustment; adolescence; developmental tasks; family
Hrčak ID:
59249
URI
Publication date:
13.9.2010.
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