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During adolescence, relationships with other teens become increasingly important as their “emotional centers” move away from the immediate family (Arnett 223).

Adolescents tend to choose those friends who share a common educational orientation or attitude toward school; have similar tendencies toward risky behavior; have similar tastes in music, dress, and leisure activities; and who are of similar ethnicity (Arnett 231).

FRIENDS AND FAMILY

• Friends provide a bridge between the close attachments adolescents have with their families and the close attachments that they will one day have with a romantic partner.

• During adolescence, teens spend considerably less time with their parents than they did in childhood and considerably more time with friends.

• Adolescents report feeling closer to their friends when it comes to personal issues and feel that their friends can relate to them better than their parents can.

• Nonetheless, those who have closer attachments to their parents also are more likely to form close attachments with their friends.

• Adolescents say that they enjoy their time with their friends more than with their parents because:

  1. Close friends have similar emotions, opinions, and feelings, and

  2. They are able to be free and open with their friends. Friends accept you for who you are (Arnett 225-31).

• The adolescent needs to establish emotional and psychological independence from his or her parents. During this time, adolescents may waver between their desire for dependence and their need to be independent. While this period of instability is occurring, adolescents may respond with what appears to be hostility and lack of cooperation (School of Education).

• During adolescence, there is a marked increase in parent-child conflicts. The key to keeping that under control is respect. Self-respect and mutual respect will help parents and adolescents to see disagreements as differences of opinion rather than blaming the other person for causing the problem (McCave 101).

“Adolescence is that period in a youngster’s life when his parents become difficult.”
 
(Esar)