Adolescent Process and Family Organization: A Model of Development as a Function of Family Paradigm

Adolescent behavior and development are generally recognized as mediated, in part, by family process. Based on research and clinical experience, a framework has been developed that organizes the diversity of family styles and structures into fundamental themes, or family paradigms, around which family process can be organized. Following work of Kantor, Reiss, Olson, and Constantine, these paradigmatic themes are characterized as closed/traditional, random/individualistic, open/collaborative, and synchronous/harmonious. This framework has been elaborated to systematically link individuation in adolescent development to enduring features of family style and world view. Whereas support for differentiation from the family and separation or autonomous functioning varies with paradigm, adolescents raised under different child-rearing regimes may face quite different developmental tasks. Issues that are salient for adolescents from close/traditional families with strong parental authority, for example, may not be as important developmentally for those raised in the more permissive style of a random/individualistic paradigm. Normal development and clinical issues are both argued to be systematically related to family paradigm.

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