Parent–Child Relationships in the Puberty Years: Insights From Developmental Neuroscience

• Date: 01 July 2019
• Author: Ahna Ballonoff Suleiman,Ronald Dahl
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12360

A B S  R D University of California, Berkeley

Parent–Child Relationships in the Puberty Years:

Insights From Developmental Neuroscience

Pubertal maturation creates dynamic changes

in parent–child relationships. For many parents,

transitioning from parentinga child to parenting

an adolescent can create stress, uncertainty,

and vulnerability. In this article, we use a devel-

opmental science lens to examine the unique

opportunities created by this period of dynamic

growth, development, and change. We provide

a brief overview of emerging research in social

and affective neuroscience that examines how

pubertal maturation initiates a cascade of adap-

tive and transformative neurodevelopmental

transitions. We consider both challenges and

opportunities in the parent–child relationship

created by these transitions, highlight how effec-

tive parenting during this key developmental

window can help establish positive trajectories

throughout adolescence, and offer recommen-

dations for both further understanding this

transition and improving the precision and

scope of resources intended to enhance parents’

skills in the context of this transition.

Kids don’t stay with you if you do it right. It’s the

one job where, the better you are, the more surely

you won’t be needed in the long run.

—Barbara Kingsolver, Pigs in Heaven

Each stage of active parenting—infancy, tod-

dlerhood, childhood, and adolescence—can

Institute of Human Development, 2121 Berkeley Way

West, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

94720-3230 (asuleiman@berkeley.edu)

Key Words: adolescent, neurodevelopment, parenting,

puberty.

entail what feels like a demanding level of work

and responsibility. It is not surprising that in

describing parenting, many people co-opt the

motto of the U.S. Peace Corps: “The tough-

est job you’ll ever love.” Empirical evidence

documents the substantial costs associated with

parenting, with several reviews concluding

that the costs outweigh the perceived rewards,

although more nuanced analysis suggests an

overall net benet (Nomaguchi & Milkie,

2003). Regardless of the magnitude of immense

effort required for successful parenting, a

long-standing and well-established body of

literature in child development has documented

the importance of the parent–child relationship

throughout childhood and adolescence. The

parent–child relationship undergoes substantial

transitions at various stages of the life course,

and parenting different age and stage children

requires different skills and strategies and offers

varying levels of strife and reward. Manyinec-

tion points in the developmental trajectory of a

child’s life present new challenges and opportu-

nities for successful parenting. Here we explore

the shifts in the parent–child relationship during

early adolescence (10–14 years old).

A: C  O

There are several reasons to scrutinize the tran-

sition from childhood into adolescence as a

window of vulnerability and opportunity.

Pubertal maturation can be a period of rapid

changes physically,emotionally, and socially for

early adolescents and their families. Moreover,

the transitions in parent–child dynamics can

create new challenges in the child–parent

Family Relations 68 (July 2019): 279–287 279

DOI:10.1111/fare.12360