Adolescent Perspectives on Rules and Resistance Within the Parent-Child Relationship

Thirty-two adolescents between the ages of 13 and 19 participated in a semi-structured interview regarding their perspectives on parental expectations and their strategies for expressing resistance. Thematic analyses indicated that adolescents perceive parental expectations as flexible and coconstruct-ed rather than as firm, explicit, standing rules. Adolescents described their strategies for expressing resistance as multifaceted, consisting of overt be-havioral strategies and covert cognitive strategies that reflect autonomous and relational motives. The implications of the findings were discussed with regard to conflict, socialization theory, and clinical models of noncompliance. Keyword