Young Adolescents' Experiences with Parents and Friends: Exploring the Connections*

• Author: Lara J. Sales,Kimberly A. Updegraff,Stacie A. Leonard,Debra A. Madden‐Derdich,Ana Ulloa Estrada
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2002.00072.x
• Published date: 01 January 2002
• Date: 01 January 2002

72 Family Relations

Young Adolescents’ Experiences with Parents and Friends:

Exploring the Connections*

Kimberly A. Updegraff,** Debra A. Madden-Derdich, Ana Ulloa Estrada, Lara J. Sales, and Stacie A. Leonard

Drawing on social learning and structural family theories, we examined the connections between young adolescents’ experiences with

their mothers and fathers and their best friends. Young adolescents (N

5

143) from Latino and European American families were

recruited from a local school district in a rural southwestern community. Adolescents described the emotional qualities of their

relationship with each parent, the nature of the parent-adolescent hierarchy, and their experiences with their best friend. Findings

revealed links between European American boys’ experiences with their fathers and their best friends and between the nature of the

parent-adolescent hierarchy and both boys’ and girls’ intimacy with their best friends. The discussion highlights implications for

intervention in early adolescence.

The transition to adolescence is marked by an expansion

in adolescents’ social networks as girls and boys increas-

ingly turn to peers for intimacy, emotional support, and

companionship (Savin-Williams & Berndt, 1990). The ability to

develop close and supportive relationships with other youth is

thought to depend primarily on the skills, behaviors, and knowl-

edge acquired through interactions with family members (for a

review, see Parke & Buriel, 1998). Most research on family-peer

linkages has explored the connections between young children’s

(i.e., 3–6 year olds) interactions with their parents and their com-

petence and acceptance with peers (e.g., Isley, O’Neil, & Parke,

1996; MacDonald & Parke, 1984). Considerably less is known

about the links between parent and peer experiences in early

adolescence, a time when the emphasis shifts from children’s

peer group status to their capacity to develop close (same-sex)

friendships as a marker of healthy psychosocial development

(Erikson, 1968; Sullivan, 1953).

This study examined the links between Latino and European

American youths’ perceptions of their relationships with both

their mothers and fathers and their (same-sex) best friends. In

exploring these issues, we studied the experiences of girls and

boys making the transition to adolescence (i.e., 9–12 year olds)

for three reasons. Historically, parents and peers have been treat-

ed as separate, and often competing, socialization influences

once girls and boys reach adolescence, discouraging research on

parent-peer linkages during this developmental period (Cooper

& Cooper, 1992). Despite the paucity of information, it is be-

lieved that ‘‘the benefits of peer relationships, perhaps more so

in adolescence than in earlier development, are most accessible

to those with family experiences that equip them to establishand

maintain friendships’’ (Cooper & Cooper, p. 136). Second, be-

cause supportive friendships can be a protective factor for youth

negotiating the transition to adolescence (e.g., Berndt, 1989), it

is important to learn how experiences with parents may be linked

to the development of positive friendships. Finally, this infor-

*We are grateful to the young adolescents who participated in this project andto the

cooperating school district. We thank Julie Holmes, Heidi Wyman, Shannon Moreno, and

Cathy Bellanger and a number of undergraduates for their assistance in conducting this

investigation, and Scott Christopher for his comments on an earlier draft. Funding was

provided in part by a grant from the Faculty Grant-In-Aid Program,Arizona State University.

**Department of Family and Human Development, Arizona State University,Tempe,

AZ 872502. Telephone: (480) 965-6669, Fax: (480) 965-6779 (kimberly.updegraff@asu.

edu).

Key Words: parents, peers, relationship linkages.

(Family Relations, 2002, 51, 72–80)

mation will be valuable for identifying dimensions of the parent-

adolescent relationship that could be targeted in prevention and

intervention programs designed to promote girls and boys peer

relationships in early adolescence.

Theoretical Perspectives on Parent-Peer Linkages

Most research on the connections between parent-child and

child-peer relationships is grounded in the assumptions of either

attachment or social learning theory. At the most general level,

these theories propose that parents influence their children’speer

interactions indirectly through the impact of parent-child rela-

tionship experiences on children’s social development and peer

competence. However, the underlying processes differ for each

perspective. According to attachment theory, children who form

secure attachments to their primary caregivers (usually mothers)

develop an ‘‘internal working model’’ and a sense of self that

leads to positive experiences in their relationships with others

(Elicker, Englund, & Sroufe, 1992). There is substantial support

for positive associations between a secure mother-child attach-

ment and young children’s peer competence (Elicker et al.),and

recent work shows that attachment security in late childhood and

early adolescence predicts perceptions of friendship closeness

and conflict (Lieberman, Doyle, & Markiewicz, 1999).

A social learning perspective suggests that, through mod-

eling and observational learning, children acquire skills and be-

haviors during interactions with family members that carryover

to their peer relationships (Mischel, 1966). Supporting this per-

spective, there is evidence that parents who are warm and re-

sponsive tend to have children who are more competent with

peers (e.g., MacDonald & Parke, 1984) and that parents’ disci-

pline style and approach to handling conflict is linked to chil-

dren’s peer status and relationship skills (Hart, Ladd, & Burle-

son, 1990). Recent work further suggests that girls’ and boys’

experiences with their same-sex parent may be particularly im-

portant in providing opportunities to develop skills that carryover

to their behaviors with peers (e.g., Isley et al., 1996). Although

these studies document the association between affect and be-

havior in the parent-child dyad and young children’s peer com-

petence, fewer insights are available about the connections be-

tween girls’ and boys’ relationships with parents, especially with

fathers, and friendship qualities in late childhood and early ad-

olescence.

Our first goal was to examine Latino and European Amer-

ican girls’ and boys’ perceptions of open communication,

warmth/acceptance, and conflict with each parent as predictors

of friendship experiences in early adolescence. On the basis of