Mother Child and Father Child Relationsh

DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 11, 99-136 (1991)
Mother-Child and Father-Child Relationships in Middle

Childhood and Adolescence: A Developmental Analysis
W. ANDREW COLLINS
University of Minnesotu
AND
GRAEMERUSSELL
Macquarie University
Bases for a developmental approach to the nature and functions of mother-child
and father-child relationships are considered in connection with research findings
from studies of middle-childhood and adolescent subjects and their parents. The
framework for the review was derived from two sources: (I) recent conceptual-
izations of close relationships and (2) implications in general theories of social-
ization regarding different contributions of mothers and fathers to development
during middle childhood and adolescence. Relationships between offspring and
their mothers were found to contrast with father-offspring relationships in both
middle childhood and adolescence, and differences appear to become more pro-
nounced in some areas as a function of maturational changes associated with the
transition to adolescence. The analysis points to the inadvisability of considering
relationships with parents to be monolithic and a-developmental. In addition, it
makes clear the need for a developmental theory of relationships to serve as a
guide to further research on the linkages between ontogenetic change in individ-
uals and the relationships of which they are a part. XC 1991 Academic Press. Inc.
This review is concerned with mother-child and father-child relation-

ships during middle childhood and adolescence. It addresses two related
questions: (1) What is known about the nature of these relationships in
each of the two age periods? (2) What is known, and what additional
information is needed, about continuity and change from middle child-
hood to adolescence, its nature, sources, and outcomes?
These questions are motivated by three largely distinct, but potentially
convergent, lines of theory and research. One is the growing recognition
Preparation of this paper began when the first author was a Visiting Scholar at Macquarie
University. Support from the National Institute Mental Health to W. Andrew Collins and
from the Australian Research Grant Scheme to Graeme Russell is gratefully acknowledged.
The authors thank Gerald Adams, Ailsa Burns, Megan R. Gunnar, Willard W. Hartup, Ray
Montemayor, and Judy A. Ungerer for helpful comments on the manuscript. Special ap-
preciation is due to Jacqueline J. Goodnow for extensive discussion and suggestions on
earlier versions of the paper. Requests for reprints may be addressed to W. Andrew Collins,
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, 51 E. River Road. Minneapolis,
MN 55455-0345.
99
0273-2297191 $3.00
Copyright 0 1991 by Academic Press. Inc
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
100 COLLINS AND RUSSELL
that relationships with salient others are central influences upon chil-
dren’s development. Researchers have increasingly turned their attention
to conjoint patterns of action and affect between parents and children to
provide a foundation for examining the significance of relationships in
individual ontogeny (e.g., Hartup & Rubin, 1986; Hinde & Stevenson-
Hinde, 1987, 1988). A second is the extensive theoretical emphasis on
differences in mother-child and father-child relationships as primary
sources of differential socialization for females and males. These empha-
ses are apparent in diverse perspectives, from psychoanalytic formula-
tions (e.g., Chodorow, 1978; Siegal, 1987) to role theories (e.g., Johnson,
1963, 1975; Lynn, 1969; Parsons, 1955) and social-learning views (e.g.,
Mischel, 1970). To date, little attention has been given to examining
whether these different relationships are consistent with theoretically in-
spired hypotheses and, thus, whether the socialization processes implied
by the theories are valid. Consideration of the nature of mother-child and
father-child relationships is an essential step toward testing their func-
tional significance in socialization.
A third line of inquiry, which overlaps with both an interest in relation-
ships and an interest in socialization, is the nature and degree of changes
in parent-child relationships as children mature. Extensive theoretical
speculation exists about the dimensions of difference from one age period
to another; most research to date, however, has emphasized the nature
and the outcomes of parent-child relationships at particular ages, with far
less attention paid to cross-time patterns (see reviews by Hill & Holm-
beck, 1986; Maccoby, 1984a; Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Steinberg, in
press). To build a developmental theory, an account is needed that en-
compasses changes over time in relationships, in terms of specific link-
ages to individual developmental changes in offspring.
In this review we consider empirical findings on mother-child and fa-
ther-child relationships in terms of several common hypotheses implied
by the theoretical literature on differential roles of mothers and fathers in
socialization and changes in these roles as a function of developmental
changes in offspring. We focus particularly on findings from two age
periods, middle childhood and adolescence, in which children undergo
pronounced physical, behavioral, and social changes (Collins, 1984; Hill,
1988b) and, thus, in which differences in the nature, sources, and conse-
quences of relationships are thought to be especially apparent (e.g.,
Maccoby, 1984a). Our general goal is to help to build a framework for
formulating and testing hypotheses about relationship differences, their
antecedents, consequences, changes over time, and developmental
significance.
The review is in four sections. The first provides an overview of several
general hypotheses pertinent to change in parent-child relationships dur-
MOTHER-CHILD AND FATHER-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS 101
ing middle childhood and adolescence. The second outlines several cur-
rent views of relationships that underlie the organization of findings in
terms of three components: interactions, affect, and cognitions. The third
considers each of these components in turn, analyzing first material from
studies within middle-childhood or within adolescence and then material
from studies that focus on change across the two age periods. The fourth
and final section considers what elements are needed, both methodolog-
ically and theoretically, to formulate a developmental account of parent-
child relationships.
HYPOTHESES ABOUT DIFFERENCES IN
PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS
Few existing formulations include well-articulated frameworks for for-
mulating and testing hypotheses about relationship differences or changes
in relationships as a function of developmental changes in children. Sev-
eral general predictions are implicit, however, in the literature on gender
socialization and gender differences in the transition from middle child-
hood to adolescence. We describe briefly the most salient of these hy-
potheses as a basis for the review of empirical findings.
One hypothesis is that the complementarity of parental roles in the
socialization of gender-marked behaviors (Johnson, 1963, 1975; Lynn,
1969) becomes more pronounced during middle childhood and adoles-
cence. Chodorow (1978), for instance, presents a psychodynamic account
of the effect of the asymmetric organization of parenting in which the
mother is the primary parent and the father typically is remote. She ar-
gues that this asymmetry produces different “relational potentials” in fe-
males as against males, with paternal remoteness being especially impor-
tant for the development of masculinity in sons. A common corollary of
views emphasizing the distinctive role of fathers in gender socialization is
that pressures on the unique contributions of fathers intensify around
puberty. Similarly, other aspects of socialization to which fathers’ con-
tribution is thought to be complementary to mothers (e.g., teaching prac-
tical skills, critical aspects of control, achievement and competition, and
the modulation of dependency) are generally more salient in middle child-
hood and adolescence than in earlier periods (e.g., Block, 1978).
A different set of hypotheses proposes that middle-childhood and ad-
olescent relationships are marked by an intensification of difficulties in
same-sex more than in opposite-sex dyads. This type of proposal is con-
tained, for instance, in Oedipal and Electra accounts of development
within psychoanalytic theory. In this view, for example, fathers should
spend relatively more time with and manifest more interest in sons in an
effort to consolidate their roles as guides and mentors for same-sex off-
spring in both middle childhood and adolescence. Differences between
father-son and father-daughter relationships should become intensified

with the “resexualization” that occurs at puberty, causing fathers to
maintain greater distance from children’s bodies, particularly those of
female offspring. The psychiatric literature contains extensive references
to fathers being overcritical, jealous, interfering in daughters’ relation-
ships, and overcompetitive and critical of sons (Machtlinger, 1981). Re-
lated hypotheses emphasize the relative decline in parents’ sexuality rel-
ative to offspring of the same gender as a source of tension and compet-
itiveness in mother-daughter and in father-son dyads (Benedek, 1970;
Kaplan, 1984). In addition, several feminist theorists (e.g., Chodorow,
1978; Kaplan, 1984) have proposed that mother-daughter relationships are
likely be more “fused” than relationships in other dyads, making adoles-
cents’ individuation from mothers more conflictful.
A third type of hypothesis emphasizes changes in parent-child relation-
ships generally, which are prompted by pressures on both parents and
children to adapt to pronounced physical, behavioral, and social changes
in offspring (e.g., Collins, 1984, 1988; Hill, 1988b). In particular, parent-
adolescent relationship difficulties have been attributed to the disruptive
effects of pubertal changes. Some formulations emphasize the effect of
puberty on adolescents’ psychosocial functioning (e.g., Blos, 1979; A.
Freud, 1958) as the source of new tensions between parents and child.
Steinberg (1987a, 1988) has recently proposed that puberty is naturally
associated with increased distance between parents and children, a phe-
nomenon he considers parallel to distancing effects of puberty in nonhu-
man primates. Other views (e.g., Brooks-Gunn & Zahaykevich, 1989;
Lerner, 1985; Petersen, 1988) propose a multiply determined, transac-
tional process, in which relationship transitions are intensified by the
interplay of pubertal changes with changes in expectancies associated
with social age-grading and presumed cognitive changes that alter per-
ceptions of parent-child relationships. Implicit in these views are the pos-
itive functions of change processes both for individual psychosocial de-
velopment and for age-appropriate adaptations in parent-child relation-
ships (Collins, 1990; Hill, 1988b; Steinberg, in press).
In short, individual changes in middle childhood and adolescence have
provided several conceptual arguments about the nature, sources, and
consequences of changes in parent-child relationships. We now consider
how information about relationships can be used to examine these argu-
ments further.
DESCRIBING RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATIONSHIP CHANGE
The general hypotheses outlined in the previous section refer to
changes in specific aspects of conjoint actions, feelings, and perceptions
between children and their mothers and fathers. In empirical work, a
focus on dyads rather than individuals has been somewhat sporadic; but
two sources have increased the conceptual impetus for concentrating on
conjoint patterns.
One source is the extensive body of work on the quality of primary
relationships in early life. Influenced by attachment theory, researchers
have given particular attention to the possibility of overlapping and com-
plementary patterns between children and their mothers and fathers in
frequency of interaction, caretaking, social interactions, and the affective
quality of relationships (Lamb, Pleck, Charnov, & Levine, 1987). Obser-
vational studies of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers (for reviews, see
Lamb, 1981, 1986) have shown that in most ways fathers are as significant
to their children and as competent in caregiving as mothers. At the same
time, in comparison to mothers, fathers have been found to interact with
their children less frequently (Belsky, 1979; Belsky, Gilstrap, & Rovine,
1984; Clarke-Stewart, 1978; Lytton, 1980), to initiate different types of
interactions and to be less involved in caregiving (Belsky, 1979; Belsky et
al., 1984; Clarke-Stewart, 1978; Lamb, 1976, 1977; Lytton, 1980), to in-
teract more frequently in play, especially physical and idiosyncratic play
(see Lamb, 1981), and to display less positive (Belsky et al., 1984) and less
negative affect (Clarke-Stewart, 1978; Lytton, 1980).
Young children’s responses to mothers and fathers also show differen-
tiation of relationships. Under stressful conditions in a laboratory, 18- to
24-month-olds displayed a preference for mothers over fathers in their
attachment behaviors (Lamb, 1976), whereas in the less constrained con-
text of the home, infants and toddlers preferred fathers as partners in
social and play interactions (Belsky, 1979; Clarke-Stewart, 1978). Con-
trary to earlier ideas about the primacy of the mother-infant relationships,
however, within-family analyses have shown that the security of infants’
attachments to fathers is independent of attachment security to mothers
(Lamb, 1978; Main & Weston, 1981). Finally, consistent with neopsycho-
analytic views, boys have been found to display a strong preference for
fathers from about the second year of life, a preference that appears to be
associated with fathers being more interested in sons (Lamb, 1981).
The empirical bases for these differences in early relationships are ob-
servations of behavior either in the Strange Situation or in home settings.
In both cases, the primary indicators are typically interactive behaviors
(both frequency and content; e.g., caregiving versus social interactions),
emotional/affective responses, and the interrelations between them (Cam-
pos, Barrett, Lamb, Goldsmith, & Stenberg, 1983). Cognitive dimen-
sions, as manifested in Bowlby’s (1969, 1973, 1980) concept of internal
working models, are also interrelated with affective and behavioral as-
pects of dyadic interactions (Bretherton, in press; Main, 1985; Main,
Kaplan, & Cassidy, 1985).
A second source of interest in relational analyses is the general study of

close relationships among either children or adults, without specific ref-
erence to parent-child relationships (e.g., Hinde, 1979; Hinde & Steven-
son-Hinde, 1987; Kelley, 1979; Kelley, Berscheid, Christensen, Harvey,
Huston, Levinger, McClintock, Peplau, & Peterson, 1983). In these
views, relationships are defined as recurrent dyadic interactions that vary
from each other in terms of frequency, diversity, intensity, and longevity.
Hinde and Stevenson-Hinde (1987) have argued that a relationship exists
“(w)hen two individuals interact on successive occasions over time”
such that “each interaction may affect subsequent ones . . . ” (p. 2). In
addition to these attributes of interactions, close relationships include the
affective and cognitive states associated with the interactions (Kelley et
al., 1983): “. . . the perceptions, fears, expectations, and so on that each
has about the other and about the future course of the relationship . . ,”
(Hinde & Stevenson-Hinde, 1987, p. 2). Thus, current social-psychologi-
cal approaches also emphasize the interrelations of interactive behaviors
and affective and cognitive states as essential criteria for describing rela-
tionships.
Taking a cue from these converging sources, we propose that three
components of relationships provide a useful organizing framework for
research findings on parent-child relationships in middle childhood and
adolescence: interactions (e.g., frequency, content, and structure); affect
associated with interactions (e.g., degree of positive affect during ex-
changes and feelings of closeness and cohesion; emotional concomitants
of relationships); and cognitive states pertinent to the relationship (e.g.,
degree of discrepancy between perceptions of the other member of the
dyad and conception of the ideal parent/child or between perceptions of
the relationships and conceptions of the ideal relationship, etc.).
STUDIES OF MOTHER-CHILD AND FATHER-CHILD DYADS IN

MIDDLE CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE
In the following sections the goal is to identify aspects of relationships

that have been considered relevant for gender differences in parent-child
relationships and that may be especially sensitive to the transition from
middle childhood to adolescence. We will review studies of two types:
within-period studies, or studies in which the target offspring are either in
the middle-childhood age period (roughly ages 6 through 12; cf. Collins,
1984) or are adolescents (roughly ages 13 through 18); and across-age
studies of samples that span the two periods. To date, research in the
latter category consists mostly of cross-sectional studies: consequently,
findings will be considered as indications that temporal change may oc-
cur, pending replication in longitudinal research.
Several general points are in order regarding the nature of the research
literature included in the review:
First, the review is limited to comparisons of mother-child and father-
child dyads. No studies have been included that are based on data from
only one parent or from analog studies of adult-child pairs in which the
two parties are not actually parent and child (e.g., Bugental & Shennum,
1984). Because virtually all of the studies that meet this criterion involve
dual-parent families, the implications of these studies for parent-child
relationships in single-parent families are limited.
Second, the available studies include samples that are, for the most
part, too small to permit reliable inferences about interaction terms in the
analyses. Consequently, most tindings discussed here are overall differ-
ences between mother-child and father-child dyads. In a few cases, reli-
able conclusions can be drawn from interactions of parent gender and
child gender; but no studies permitted comparisons of mother-child and
father-child differences within different social-structural or family-
difference categories (e.g., Olson, McCubbin, Barnes, Larsen, Muxen, &
Wilson, 1983; Reiss, Oliveri, & Curd, 1983). Further data on variations
within and between families is a high priority for further research.
Third, to date virtually all studies of differences between mother-child
and father-child relationship have focused on direct comparisons of the
two dyads. Despite the general recognition that the behavior of one dyad
may be affected by the presence and/or activity of the third person, only
a very small number of studies (e.g., Gjerde, 1986; Vuchinich, Emery, &
Cassidy, 1988) have explicitly analyzed triadic effects in these age peri-
ods. Unlike research on infancy (e.g., Dunn, 1988; Tinsley & Parke,
1987), no studies of middle-childhood and adolescent parent-child rela-
tionships now exist in which sibling interactions and effects or the pos-
sible moderating roles of extended family members have been considered
(see Gehring, Wentzel, Feldman, & Munson, in press, for an exception,
albeit one in which no gender differences were found). The need for such
studies is another priority for future research.
Finally, most research has been conducted on white, middle-class sam-
ples in the United States. The few instances of findings from other na-
tional, cultural, and socioeconomic samples are specifically noted in the
review. Generalizations from the conclusions of available studies to dif-
ferences in mother-child and father-child relationships in other groups
must be held in abeyance pending archival-quality reports of research
with diverse samples.
Interactions
Theoretical views of the role of gender in relationships and socialization
recognize that parent-child relationships vary in the frequency and con-
tent of interactions and in the degree to which interactions manifest rec-

iprocity or mutuality, including openness to questioning, acceptance of
conflicting viewpoints, and facilitation rather than directiveness and con-
straint (Maccoby, 1984a; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Two hypotheses
about mother-child and father-child differences on these dimensions are
particularly common. One, implied by theories of parental complemen-
tarity in socialization, is that father-child interactions are less likely than
mother-child interactions to be concerned with caregiving and intimate
exchanges and more likely to emphasize achievement, mastery, and skill
development issues in both middle childhood and adolescence. The sec-
ond is that mother-child interactions during the transition to adolescence
are characterized by greater perturbations than are father-child interac-
tions. This latter hypothesis has emerged from several different theoret-
ical and empirical contentions, including the lower status of the mother
compared to the father (Weisfeld & Berger, 1983), the stronger need of
adolescents to individuate from the mother than from the father (e.g.,
BIOS, 1962; Kaplan, 1984) and mothers’ greater attempt to maintain chil-
dren’s dependency (e.g., Chodorow, 1978), and the greater amount of
interaction of both children and adolescents with mothers than with fa-
thers (e.g., Collins, 1990; Montemayor, 1983).
Frequency and Content of Interactions
Children and parents spend less time together in both middle childhood
and adolescence than in the preschool period (Csikszentmihalyi & Lar-
son, 1984; Hill & Stafford, 1980; Montemayor & Brownlee, 1987). Be-
cause studies of frequency and content of interaction either have concen-
trated on narrow age ranges or have reported findings on the basis of data
collapsed across ages, no empirical findings on the relative amount and
distribution of interactions in the two periods are available at present.
Within both middle childhood and adolescence, however, research to
date has examined relative differences between mother-child and father-
child dyads in three areas: (1) the relative amount of general interaction
time; (2) the relative time spent in caregiving versus play or recreational
activities; and (3) the relative amount of time spent in instrumental and
achievement-oriented activities.
Shared time. In general, mothers and their offspring spend more time
together than do fathers and children. In the most extensive study of
middle-childhood interactions (Russell & Russell, 1987), Australian moth-
ers of 6- to 7-year-olds reported that they were available to children 54.7
h/week, compared to 34.6 h/week for fathers; mothers and children also
spent more time alone together than did fathers and children (22.6 vs. 2.4
h/week). When both parents and child were together, however, as is the
case in observational studies, mothers and fathers were found to initiate
interar.tinn~ with rhildren with P~IIRI freollencv (Nnller- 1980: Rl~ssell &.
Russell, 1987); and children’s initiations toward each parent were similar
(Russell & Russell, 1987). Similarly, in one adolescent sample (Mon-
temayor, 1982) 15 to 16-year-olds reported that more than twice as much
time was spent with mother alone than with father alone each day. In a
different sample (Montemayor & Brownlee, 1987), both boys and girls
ages 14 through 18 reported a larger differential, favoring mothers, than
12- to 13-year-olds did.
Caregiving vs. play. Interactions with mothers also take place in con-
nection with somewhat different activities and settings than those with
fathers. As in early life, the joint activity in which differences are most
marked is that of physical play. Fathers of 6- to 7-year-olds were more
involved in physical/outdoor play interactions; observations of these
same families revealed that children more often initiated shared activities
(mostly play) with fathers than with mothers. Mothers reported more
frequent interactions involving caregiving and household tasks than fa-
thers did, but in observational studies with both parents present, fathers’
performance of caretaking tasks was not significantly different from
mothers’. Both parents reported that they “have a cuddle” with their
child and were likely to “go over their child’s day” and “sit and have a
talk” almost every day, but these exchanges were more frequent in
mother-child than in father-child dyads (Russell & Russell, 1987). Data
from time-use studies (Montemayor & Brownlee, 1987) showed that
mothers were equally likely to be involved with adolescents in household
work and leisure activities, whereas time with fathers more often con-
sisted of leisure than work.
fnstrumentaf emphasis. Although fathers are commonly assumed to be
more often involved than mothers in cognitive- and achievement-oriented
interactions, available findings do not yield a clear picture of mother-child
and father-child differences in middle childhood. Russell and Russell
(1987) reported no difference in Australian parents’ initiations of compet-
itiveness nor their positive reactions to children’s competitiveness, au-
tonomous achievement, or competence in cognitive/play activities;
whereas Bronstein (1984) found that Mexican middle-class fathers di-
rected more attention and cognitive involvement toward sons than moth-
ers did, with no differences among parents of daughters. The inconsis-
tency in these findings could either reflect cultural differences between
the three samples studied, differences in the sampling of behaviors, or
differences in the ages of children (e.g., Bronstein studied 7- to 12-
year-olds, whereas Russell & Russell studied 6- to 7-year-olds). In the
narrower area of help with school tasks, Roberts, Block, and Block (1984)
found that both mothers and fathers reported increased attention to
school achievement and homework during middle childhood. Russell and
Russell’s (1987) data showed mothers appear to be more involved in these
:-r----r:--- AL-- c-&l--^
In adolescence, interactions with fathers tend to be limited to a rela-

tively narrow range of topics associated with instrumental goals (e.g.,
school and athletic achievement, future plans) or objective social matters
(e.g., political beliefs), whereas mother-adolescent interactions involve
more varied topics. School performance and future career plans are re-
ported to be frequent topics of conversation with both mothers and fa-
thers (Youniss & Smollar, 1985), but mother-child interactions, particu-
larly those with daughters, are more likely than father-child interactions
to include conversations about personal issues and practical matters, such
as handling money and achieving school or athletic goals (Youniss &
Smollar, 1985). It may be that fathers are no more involved, in absolute
terms, in these activities than are mothers. Because mothers also tend to
interact with their children on a wider variety of other topics than fathers,
instrumental and achievement-oriented interactions may be more distinc-
tively identified with father-child than with mother-child dyads. In any
case, the hypothesis of clear-cut differences between mothers and fathers
with respect to involvement in instrumental or mastery activities does not
accord well with existing findings.
More pronounced differences between mothers and fathers have
emerged for actions that have been linked in socialization research to
strong mastery and achievement-oriented behaviors in offspring (see re-
view by Huston, 1983). Fathers have generally been found to be less
directive than mothers in naturalistic observations. Australian mothers of
6- to 7-year-olds were more likely than fathers to be “dominant/asser-
tive” in family management tasks, such as directing the child to have a
bath, eat their meal, or take responsibility for their own things (e.g., to put
toys away). Mothers also consulted their 6- to 7-year-old children more
than fathers did (Russell & Russell, 1987). The degree of attentiveness
and directiveness shown by fathers in middle-childhood studies may de-
pend on whether the interaction involves sons or daughters. For instance,
father-daughter interactions appear to involve more sociable behavior
than do father-son interactions (Bronstein, 1984), whereas mother-son
and mother-daughter interactions do not appear to be different on these
dimensions (Bronstein, 1984; Margolin & Patterson, 1975; Russell & Rus-
sell, 1987).
In interview studies with adolescents, however, both daughters and
sons reported that their interactions with fathers consisted largely of the
father’s exercise of authority and the giving or seeking of information or
advice. It should be noted that adolescent sons, but not daughters, also
perceived a relatively higher incidence of symmetrical discussions on
topics of practical matters and objective issues (e.g., financial problems,
political topics) (Hunter, 1985; Youniss & Smollar, 1985). At the same
time, laboratory problem-solving tasks with adolescents and parents in-
dicate that fathers are more likely to exhibit behavior that purportedly
fosters autonomy and interpersonal competence. Father-child exchanges
involved relatively more facilitative communications about the task than
mother-child exchanges. Mother-child interactions more often appeared
either as directive (and, therefore, constraining) or as distracting with
respect to the task. Differences in interaction patterns between the two
parents and sons versus daughters have been nonsignificant (Grotevant &
Cooper, 1985; Hauser, Powers, Noam, Jacobson, Weiss, & Follansbee,
1984; Steinberg, 1981).
Summary comment. In both middle childhood and adolescence,
mother-child relationships, in contrast to father-child relationships, are
characterized by more frequent interaction and more involvement in care-
giving and mundane tasks, whereas father-child relationships, especially
father-son relationships, are characterized more by play and other recre-
ational activities and with interactions associated with instrumental goals.
Although fathers’ interactions with offspring are typically more exclu-
sively associated with specific tasks and relatively objective social issues,
issues of achievement or performance are no more likely to be dealt with
in father-child than in mother-child interactions overall. It is the case,
however, that fathers’ behavior in problem-solving interactions more of-
ten seems to facilitate instrumental action by offspring than mothers’
more directive, intrusive interactions and to elicit different responses
from sons than daughters.
Differences in mother-child and father-child interactions, nevertheless,
do not appear to be as marked as most theories imply. Observation stud-
ies in middle childhood show that many fathers were highly nurturant
(e.g., by demonstrating affection) and typically participated in caregiving
as frequently as mothers did, when both parents were present. Further,
self-report studies in adolescence show that mothers are equally as likely
as fathers to discuss school performance and future career goals, and they
are more likely than fathers to discuss achievement goals with their
daughters. Longitudinal data or cross-sectional comparisons spanning the
two periods are needed to determine whether there are changes in the
relative incidence or controlling conditions of interaction content and
frequency in the transition to adolescence. Attention is also needed to
possible parent-gender by child-gender interactions that have appeared in
some previous studies.
Perturbations in Interactions
A pervasive emphasis in theoretical formulations about adolescence is
that of disjunction and perturbations in early adolescent relationships
with parents (e.g., Steinberg, 1987a, 1988; see Hill, 1988b, for a review).
A frequent speculation is that perturbations occur more often in mother-
child than in father-child relationships. In research to date, this general

hypothesis has been addressed in connection with a number of specific
measures that might be considered indicators of relative harmony or dis-
harmony in relationships. These include (1) parents’ perceptions of
child’s engagement with the family; (2) child’s perceived acceptance by
parents; (3) perceived reciprocity, as indicated by children’s perceptions
of parental dominance, power, and control, parents’ and child’s percep-
tions of communicativeness, and observational measures of interruptions
and yielding; and (4) parents’ and child’s reports of conflicts, or disagree-
ments and contentiousness between them.
Perceived engagement. Parents’ reports regarding adolescents’ in-
volvement in family activities are correlated with pubertal status, al-
though the patterns of relation are different for mothers and fathers (Hill,
Holmbeck, Mat-low, Green, & Lynch, 1985a, 1985b). Comparing across
pubertal status groups within a sample of seventh-grade girls, Hill (1988a;
Hill et al., 1985a) found that both mothers and fathers reported lower
involvement by daughters who had begun to menstruate within the past 6
months than by those who were premenarcheal. Fathers, but not moth-
ers, also perceived lower involvement for daughters for whom menarche
occurred 6 to 12 months previously. Both parents perceived low levels of
participation for early-maturing girls who had been menstruating for more
than I year. In a parallel study with seventh-grade boys (Hill et al.,
1985b), mothers’ perceptions were a curvilinear function of pubertal sta-
tus, with lowest levels of perceived involvement at the apex of pubertal
change; whereas fathers’ perceptions of family involvement were unaf-
fected by variation in pubertal status.
Perceived acceptance. Several studies also indicate an association be-
tween pubertal status and reports of perceived acceptance in mother-
daughter relationships. In Hill’s (1988a) cross-sectional comparison of
seventh-grade girls, both mothers and daughters reported lower percep-
tions of acceptance of each other and more disagreement within 6 months
after menarche, as compared to girls who were premenarcheal and those
more than 6 months postmenarcheal. In the father-daughter dyad, per-
ception of acceptance was lower for post- than for premenarcheal daugh-
ters, regardless of length of time since menarche. These patterns raise the
possibility that perturbations in relationships may be more transitory for
mothers and daughters than for fathers and daughters. An exception is
that both mother-daughter and father-daughter relationships were seen as
negative if daughter had experienced menarche very early (i.e., began
menstruating more than 1 year before being studied in seventh grade). Hill
has suggested that the apparent decline in emotional involvement of fa-
thers with daughters near the time of puberty reflects an effort on the
fathers’ part to maintain an expressive and deferential role for daughters,
consistent with theories that emphasize a distinctive role for fathers in

gender socialization (Johnson, 1963, 1975; Lynn, 1969).
Perceptions of acceptance vary as a function of age, as well as pubertal
status, during the transition from middle childhood to adolescence. In
several studies (Armentrout & Burger, 1972; Johnson, 1987) mothers
were perceived as more accepting than fathers at all levels for both sons
and daughters. At the same time, children’s perceptions of psychological
control by mothers, but not fathers, was found to increase during adoles-
cence for a middle-class sample (Johnson, 1987). A similar pattern was
reported by Armentrout and Burger (1972) for children in Grades 4
through 8. Collins (1990) also reported that, for their part, mothers of
eighth graders perceived notably less communicativeness and compliance
from their offspring than did mothers of fifth or eleventh graders; fathers’
perceptions were similar at all three grade levels. Thus, both mothers and
adolescents perceive a relative decline in acceptance as a function of age;
whereas fathers’ and adolescents’ perceptions show little age-related vari-
ation. The reasons for fathers’ different perceptions were not examined,
although greater intimacy in mother-child than in father-child dyads is
consistent both with mothers’ greater sensitivity to changes in communi-
cation and with age-related declines in adolescents’ sense of acceptance
by their fathers.
Reciprocity. Degree of asymmetry in interactions with both mothers
and fathers appears to change as a function of maturation during the later
years of middle childhood and adolescence. Recent studies using spatial
placement of figures representing different family members (Feldman &
Gehring, 1988; Gehring & Feldman, 1988; Pipp, Shaver, Jennings, Lam-
born, & Fischer, 1985) revealed lower perceptions of relative power in
both mother-adolescent and father-adolescent dyads in adolescence than
in earlier life periods. Pipp et al. (1985) report that mothers are perceived
as decreasing in dominance, relative to adolescents; whereas Feldman
and Gehring (1988) found that, in comparison to 12-year-olds, 15 and
18-year-olds perceived similar power differentials for mothers, but lower
relative power for fathers. These discrepant findings may reflect the dif-
ference between retrospective reports and concurrent perceptions in dif-
ferent age groups.
Pubertal status has been the most frequently studied correlate of dif-
ferences in perceptions of dominance and control. Hill et al. (1985a) found
that seventh-grade daughters perceived higher levels of control from both
mothers and fathers if menarche had occurred within the previous 6
months, compared to pre- and postmenarcheal daughters. Similarly,
daughters’ perceptions of the degree of mothers’ and fathers’ influence
upon them was lowest for the menarcheal groups. There was no correla-
tion between pubertal status and perceptions of influence for seventh-
grade boys (Hill et al., 1985b). Steinberg (1987a) found that adolescents’
perceptions of authoritarian behavior by parents declined as a function of
age in early adolescence, but was unrelated to pubertal status for either
sons or daughters.
In laboratory problem-solving tasks, pubertal variations in degree of
reciprocity are manifested differently in mother-child and father-child dy-
ads. For example, both Steinberg (1981; Steinberg & Hill, 1978) and Hill
(1988a) found that mothers’ interruptions of both sons and daughters and
the children’s interruptions of mothers increased as a function of pubertal
maturation. In father-child interactions, degree and kind of reciprocity
varied with sex of offspring. Fathers interrupted sons more often as a
function of pubertal status, and sons typically yielded. Postmenarcheal
seventh-grade daughters, however, yielded less often to fathers’ interrup-
tions, although they did not interrupt fathers more frequently (Hill,
1988a). Hill has noted that, whereas sons react to fathers’ assertiveness
submissively, more physically mature daughters respond with “passive
assertiveness.” Whether these indicate a general difference in reciprocity
or are specific to problem-solving tasks is not known.
Conjlict. Frequency of contentious exchanges increases generally in
early adolescence (for a review, see Montemayor, 1983). Most often, the
topics of these contentious episodes are everyday matters of child behav-
ior and household routine, such as whether children have performed
chores on time or inadequately, or whether they are dressed appropriately
for inclement weather.
Mothers are involved with offspring in contentious exchanges more
often than fathers are (Montemayor & Hanson, 1985; Richardson, Galam-
bos, Schulenberg, & Petersen, 1984; Savin-Williams & Small, 1986; Smith
& Forehand, 1986; Steinberg, 1987a, 1988). Pubertal maturation is corre-
lated with the incidence of conflictful interactions, particularly in mother-
daughter dyads (Savin-Williams & Small, 1986; Steinberg, 1987a, 1988).
Hill and Holmbeck (1987) found that although mothers of seventh graders
reported having similar levels of disagreements about rules with their
offspring as fathers did, rule-related disagreements between mothers and
daughters were more frequent when menarche had occurred within the
previous 6 months than when daughters were pre- or postmenarcheal (Hill
et al., 1985a). Timing of maturation also affects incidence of conflict. Both
early-maturing daughters and their mothers reported more conflict than
later-maturing daughters and mothers did, and early-maturing sons re-
ported more intense, although not more frequent conflict, with mothers
than later-maturing sons (Steinberg, 1987a). The intensity, but not the
frequency of father-daughter conflict increases with pubertal-maturation
status, and both frequency and intensity of conflicts between fathers and
sons increase up to the apex of pubertal maturation, although there is a

decline thereafter (Steinberg, 1988).
Summary comment. In general, these findings are consistent with
Steinberg’s (1987a, 1988) hypothesis of increased distance between par-
ents and offspring at puberty. Pubertal maturation and age differences are
associated with intensification of differences in perceived parental accep-
tance and child compliance and communicativeness and in actual and
perceived reciprocity and contentiousness in both mother-child and fa-
ther-child interactions. To the extent that greater distance occurs, how-
ever, it takes a somewhat different form for mothers than for fathers.
Although father-child interactions are characterized by less overt conten-
tiousness than mother-child interactions, it is also the case that offspring
generally perceive that interactions with fathers provide less reciprocity
and fewer opportunities for intimacy than interactions with mothers
(Barnes & Olson, 1985; Caplow, Bahr, Chadwick, Hill, & Williamson,
1982; Olson et al., 1983) and report greater feelings of responsibility for
reciprocating caring and emotional support with mothers than with fa-
thers (Youniss & Smollar, 1985). Adolescents appear to view mothers as
knowing them better than fathers, a perception that increases with age
(Richardson et al., 1984; Youniss & Ketterlinus, 1987). Eleventh graders
felt fathers knew them less well than did ninth graders (Youniss & Ket-
terlinus, 1987). The simultaneous increase in perturbations in ordinary
modes of interaction in conjunction with continuing positive perceptions
of the potential for intimacy and mutuality is a potentially significant
aspect of change in mother-child relationships during the transition to
adolescence. Whether the narrower perception of fathers as interaction
partners is functionally complementary to the pattern for mothers remains
an unanswered question in research to date.
Affect
Degree of positive or negative affect expressed or experienced in in-
teractions is one distinguishing indicator of the quality of relationships
between parents and child (e.g., Alexander, 1973; for a review, see
Doane, 1978). The division of material in this section reflects two domi-
nant hypotheses about affective differences pertaining to mother-child
and father-child relationships in research on middle childhood and ado-
lescence. One is that mother-child interactions are characterized by rel-
atively more warmth and responsiveness than father-child interactions,
whereas the latter are likely to be marked by father’s relatively greater
punitive, firm, and restrictive behavior toward children. A corollary pre-
diction is that these differences should be especially apparent in the later
years of childhood and adolescence when parental regulation is a more
salient issue than in early periods (Bronstein, 1984; Maccoby, 1984a). A

second hypothesis is that mothers display more negative emotional states
in connection with their children’s adolescence than do fathers, because
of their history of closer affectional ties to the child (e.g., Rossi, 1987;
Silverberg, 1989; Silverberg & Steinberg, 1987).
Affective Qualities of Relationships
The hypothesis that positive affect is more characteristic of mother-
child than father-child relationships has been addressed in two groups of
studies, reflecting differences in measures of affect in relationships. These
are: (1) incidence of positive or negative emotional expressions during
interactions or reports of emotional responses by one member of the dyad
with respect to the other; and (2) self-reports of feelings of closeness and
cohesion. In both cases findings come from studies both within and across
the middle-childhood and adolescent periods.
Incidence ofpositive and negative emotions. In middle childhood Rus-
sell and Russell (1987) found that, overall, mother-child interactions were
characterized by more positive and fewer neutral parental reactions than
father-child interactions. Although fathers more often responded nega-
tively to dependent child behaviors, particularly from sons, father-child
dyads showed more physical affection, more friendly affect, and more
warmth and playful or joking behavior than mother-child dyads. Bron-
stein’s (1984) sample of Mexican families with 7- to 12-year-old children
also yielded evidence that father-child, more than mother-child, interac-
tions were warmly egalitarian, involving more mutual agreeing, comply-
ing, showing of affection, encouraging, participating with, explaining, giv-
ing opinions, and suggesting. Differences in children’s affective responses
toward mothers and fathers have generally been nonsignificant (Bron-
stein, 1984; Russell & Russell, 1987).
There is some indication that interactions with sons are more affec-
tively marked than those with daughters in middle childhood. In Margolin
and Patterson’s (1975) research with 5- to 12-year-olds, both mothers’ and
fathers’ relationships with sons contained more parental positive re-
sponses than did relationships with girls. Noller’s (1980) observations of
5- to 8-year-olds and their parents showed more negative statements in
father-son than in father-daughter dyads. Russell and Russell (1987) found
that both parents responded more negatively to sons, especially when
they misbehaved or were dominant or assertive toward their parents. In
Bronstein’s (1984) Mexican sample, fathers were found to be more puni-
tive to sons than to daughters. Whether this is an accurate reflection of
gender differences in relationships or an artifact of a restricted set of
coding categories is unclear.
Few studies have addressed differences in incidence of positive and
negative emotional expressions in adolescence. In one of the few studies

spanning middle childhood and adolescence, however, Papini and Datan
(1983) found that parents’ and adolescents’ expressions vary as a function
of pubertal status. This cross-sectional comparison of adolescents at dif-
ferent levels of pubertal maturation showed the incidence of positive
expressions to be lower in adolescents near the apex of pubertal matura-
tion, although the incidence of negativity per se was not greater in this
group than in earlier or later pubertal groups. Overall, families whose
adolescent offspring were in the midst of pubertal changes showed a
higher incidence of emotional expression than did pre- or postpubertal
families. Mother-father differences in positive expressions from fathers
and from mothers are not reported. Cowan, Drinkard, and MacGavin
(1984) found, however, that mothers received more negative affect in
negotiations with their adolescents than fathers did.
A number of findings indicate that pubertal changes are linked to eval-
uations of family relationships and functioning. Negative emotions re-
garding relationships are correlated with pubertal status (Hill, 1988a;
Steinberg, 1981, 1988). Papini and Sebby (1987) reported that both moth-
ers and fathers of 13- and ICyear-olds expressed more negative emotions
about their children’s behavior as a function of pubertal status. Adoles-
cents who were at the apex of pubertal changes viewed family decision-
making processes more negatively than pre- and postpubertal groups.
Closrness. Closeness and cohesion have rarely been assessed in middle
childhood, but are more commonly included in studies of parent-
adolescent relationships. The most common measures are parents’ and
children’s verbal reports and evaluative ratings. Findings from these mea-
sures indicate pronounced differences between mothers’ and fathers’ re-
lationships with adolescent offspring. Both daughters and sons reported a
larger proportion of enjoyable activities with mother than with father,
although the difference was greater for daughters (Richardson et al., 1984;
Youniss & Smollar, 1985). Young adults retrospectively described their
relationships with mothers during adolescence as closer than relation-
ships with fathers (Pipp et al., 1985). Atkinson and Bell (1986) assessed
eighth and ninth graders’ responses on a series of items derived from
attachment theory (e.g., desire for proximity in times of stress, comfort in
the presence of the parent and discomfort when not present, and security
and trust in the relationship). Male and female adolescents alike rated
attachment to mothers higher than attachment to fathers. In the case of
fathers, there was some indication that sons were more attached than
daughters.
Steinberg’s (1987a, 1988) hypothesis of increased distance between par-
ents and children at puberty is especially consistent with findings of per-
ceived changes in a sense of closeness to parents. He reports data show-
ing both an inverse correlation between pubertal maturation self-reported

closeness to both mothers and fathers and a positive correlation between
pubertal maturation and scores on a measure of emotional autonomy
(Steinberg, 1987a). The latter measure has recently been demonstrated to
be an indication of detachment from parents, rather than of child auton-
omy (Ryan & Lynch, 1989). Pipp et al. (1985) have also reported retro-
spective accounts of increased distance from parents in adolescence,
compared to childhood or young adulthood. Feldman and Gehring (1988),
however, have recently reported cross-sectional evidence of lower per-
ceived cohesion between 18-year-olds and their parents than between
15year-olds and their parents; there was little difference between the
perceptions of 12- and 15year-olds, ages between which adolescents in
the United States undergo marked pubertal changes. Thus, it is unclear
whether it is pubertal maturation or another aspect of social and behav-
ioral changes that precipitates emotional distancing in adolescence.
Summary comment. Contrary to several theoretical formulations, ob-
servational studies in middle childhood indicate that children respond to
mothers and fathers in much the same way, displaying generally positive
affect toward both, despite differences in frequency and content of inter-
actions. Also, fathers have been found to display warm, egalitarian re-
sponsiveness in the context of play, especially toward sons. At the same
time, relationships with mothers are marked by greater feelings of close-
ness in adolescence, with some variation as a function of pubertal status.
Although the association between pubertal status and degree of pertur-
bations in interactions is stronger in the short run in mother-adolescent
dyads than in father-adolescent pairs, the relative incidence of positive
vs. negative emotional expression in the different dyads has not been
observed directly. Consequently, it is not clear whether these interac-
tional perturbations represent greater differential emotional distancing as
well.
Correlative Emotional States
The hypothesis that mothers are more strongly affected by changes in
relationships requires an analysis of emotional states experienced by par-
ents and children concomitant with their relationships. The most common
indicators refer to contemporaneous psychosocial states, such as satis-
faction, sense of well-being, and mood, which may fluctuate with the
qualities of interactions between parent and child. To date, studies of the
emotional concomitants of relationships have been concerned almost ex-
clusively with adolescents and their parents.
Emotional states of parents. A number of recent findings indicate a
negative correlation between parenthood and adults’ psychological well-
being, with especially strong effects for women (see McLanahan & Ad-
ams, 1987, for a review), but this research addresses well-being as a

function of parenthood versus nonparenthood, rather than the nature of
parent-child relationships. In terms of the emotional correlates of rela-
tionships with adolescents, several studies support the prediction of
greater emotional ramifications for mothers. Savin-Williams and Small
(1986) found higher levels of stress for mothers of early-maturing adoles-
cents, especially daughters, whereas fathers’ reported stress levels were
unrelated to maturational status. A recent study by Silverberg and Stein-
berg (1987) indicates that parents’ perceptions of well-being were corre-
lated with reported characteristics of parent-adolescent relationships. For
example, both mothers’ and fathers’ midlife identity concerns were
greater when their adolescent children reported a high degree of detach-
ment from parents. This latter association was especially strong for blue-
collar fathers. In addition, mothers’ well-being was negatively correlated
with the reported intensity of parent-adolescent conflict.
Silverberg (1989) has subsequently reported analyses of 2-year longitu-
dinal data indicating stronger predictive effects of parent-adolescent de-
tachment on subsequent decreases in parental life satisfaction, increased
psychological symptoms, and increases in identity appraisal. This relation
was most apparent in father-son and mother-daughter dyads. In the case
of mothers and daughters, a bidirectional effect occurred, in which ma-
ternal identity issues and life dissatisfaction both contributed to and were
affected by conflicts with daughters.
Emotional states of adolescents. Data for offspring come from longi-
tudinal research by Sarigiani (1987), who examined correlations between
perceived closeness in mother-child and father-child relationships and
measures of adjustment, depressive mood, anxious mood, and body im-
age. At both eighth and twelfth grades perceived closeness in father-
daughter relationships was positively correlated with general adjustment
and body image, but negatively associated with self-reports of depressive
and anxious moods. Mother-daughter closeness was associated with psy-
chosocial indicators for daughters at both grades, but the associations are
less reliable than those involving fathers and daughters. The father-son
relationship was related to depressive mood at eighth grade only, with no
associations with other individual adjustment measures at Grade 12.
Mother-son closeness was correlated with general adjustment at twelfth
grade.
Summary comment. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis
that pubertal changes entail lessened satisfaction and well-being and in-
tensified identity issues for mothers. At the same time, the several find-
ings that fathers’ well-being is affected by increased emotional distance of
adolescents, particularly sons, suggest that the implications of parent-
child relationships for emotional states in both parents is a topic that
deserves further study in research on parent-adolescent relationships.

Psychological changes and midlife issues of parents may thus be an ele-
ment in a strongly transactional pattern with the changes being experi-
enced by their adolescent offspring (e.g., Aldous, 1978; Hill, 1988b). Pa-
rental developmental issues may contribute to perturbation in the char-
acteristic interactions with offspring; in turn, relationship perturbations
may exacerbate parental psychosocial struggles (Silverberg, 1989). From
the perspective of offspring, changes in family circumstances that inter-
fere with harmonious relations appear to be linked to a variety of negative
emotional repercussions for adolescents (e.g., Simmons & Blyth, 1987),
but differences in the impact of perturbations in mother-child vs. father-
child relationships have not been addressed directly in middle-childhood
or adolescent samples. These findings point to the need for studies of
emotional states as significant epiphenomena of relationships for both
parents and offspring.
Cognition
A final dimension of relationships concerns the perceptions that mem-
bers of dyads hold about each other and about issues of mutual relevance.
Hinde (1979, pp. 119-130) notes that, in marital dyads, one spouse’s
perception that the other matches his/her ideal spouse or spousal role
expectations correlates with indicators of satisfaction and happiness in
the relationship. Although cognitions in parent-child relationships have
not been extensively studied, two aspects of perceptual congruency have
been frequently invoked in connection with middle childhood and ado-
lescence. One is the common view that the degree of discrepancy be-
tween parents’ and children’s perceptions of each other is likely to in-
crease in the transition to adolescence and, further, that discrepancies are
likely to be greater for father-child than mother-child dyads (e.g., Collins,
1990). The second is the idea that parents’ and adolescents’ views about
issues and circumstances that pertain to their interactions with each other
are likely to become increasingly discrepant in adolescence (e.g., Sme-
tana, 1988). The few studies that have addressed these possibilities have
involved adolescents or cross-sectional comparisons of middle-childhood
and adolescent subjects.
Interpersonal perceptions. Most studies show signiticant discrepancies
in interpersonal perceptions between parents and adolescent offspring,
but few differences between mother-adolescent and father-adolescent dy-
ads in the relative degree of discrepancy. With regard to perceptions of
personal characteristics, both parents and adolescents view the other
generation as generally more deprecating of themselves and as holding
more positive self-views than is actually the case (Hell & Goldblatt, 1957;
Thurnher, Spence, & Lowenthal, 1974). However, parents’ awareness of
adolescents’ self-perceived personal problems has been found to be rea-

sonably high, particularly in same-sex dyads (Collins, Cassel, & Harper,
1975).
Although no longitudinal research on the degree of congruency be-
tween parents’ and children’s perceptions of the other generation has
been reported, several cross-sectional studies have revealed age-related
patterns of cognitions in the sense that Hinde (1979) intended. Collins
(1990) has recently reported that patterns of discrepancies between par-
ents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of each other and their expectancies
regarding ideal behavior were greater in early adolescence than in other
periods. This age-related pattern held for adolescents’ perceptions of both
parents and for mothers’, but not fathers’, perceptions of adolescents.
Collins has suggested that the heightened discrepancy between percep-
tions and expectancies may be functional in the process of adaptation to
early-adolescent changes. Evidence that appears to support this view
comes from findings (Alessandri & Wozniak, 1987) that middle adoles-
cents (ages 15 to 16) perceive their parents’ beliefs about them more
accurately than preadolescents (ages 10 to 11) did. Although mothers’
perceptions matched their children’s self-perceptions equally well in both
age groups, fathers’ perceptions were more congruent with adolescents’
views in the older than in the younger group. Findings from a 2-year
followup study (Alessandri and Wozniak, 1989) imply that early adoles-
cence may be a time of particularly pronounced change in cognitive mark-
ers of relationships. These longitudinal results indicated that the congru-
ency of perceptions between the younger group, who were now early
adolescents (ages 12 to 13), and their parents had increased, whereas the
perceptions of members of the older age group (ages 17 to 18) and their
parents’ had not become significantly more congruent.
Perceptions of mutual relevance. A number of early studies of parents’
and adolescents’ perceptions of political and social issues indicate differ-
ences in extremity of beliefs, but relative congruence in valence of beliefs
(e.g., Jennings & Niemi, 1968; see review by Paikoff & Collins, 1989). In
general, few differences in degree of agreement in mother-child and fa-
ther-child dyads have been reported (e.g., Cashmore & Goodnow, 1985).
Generational discrepancies, however, are apparent in studies of per-
ceived family functioning. Olson et al. (1983) found extensive differences
between middle-class parents’ and adolescents’ perceptions of family co-
hesiveness and adaptability, openness of communication, and causes of
family stresses. These discrepancies appear to be due to adolescents’
focusing on conflicts with parents as the source of difficulties, while par-
ents emphasize tensions from extra-family pressures, such as economic
stringency, work-related stresses, and so forth.
Both generational differences and contrasts between mother-child and
father-child patterns across age groups come in a recent study of adoles-

cents’ and parents’ concepts regarding jurisdiction over adolescents’ be-
havior. Smetana (1988) reported parent-child incongruencies across ages
10 to 18 in the tendency to view issues with moral and conventional
ramifications as under personal jurisdiction. The pattern of mother-child
and father-child incongruencies were somewhat different across these age
groups. Mothers’ perceptions were typically discrepant from their off-
spring’s view in early (ages 13 to 14), middle (ages 15 to 16), and late
adolescence (ages 17 to 18); whereas the father-adolescent discrepancies
were significant only in the early adolescent group.
Summary comment. Although the degree and kind of discrepancies in
perceptions between adolescents and parents have been studied less ex-
tensively than other dimensions of relationships, such discrepancies are a
predictable concomitant of cognitive and social changes during this pe-
riod. The majority of studies to date have documented significant gener-
ational differences. Discrepancies between mother-child and father-child
perceptions are apparent, however, from a small number of cross-
sectional comparisons. These findings imply that fathers may lag behind
mothers in becoming aware of adolescent changes and inferring adoles-
cents’ self-views. Deviations of adolescents’ and mothers’ perceptions
from expected behavior are greater in adolescence than in the preadoles-
cent period, whereas fathers’ perception of the gap between actual and
expected behavior is no more pronounced in adolescence than at younger
ages. Also, mothers’ perceptions of adolescents converge with adoles-
cents’ self-beliefs both in early and middle childhood, but father-
adolescent convergence is significantly greater in middle than in early
adolescence. Evidence of more persistent disparities in mothers’ and ad-
olescents’ concepts of jurisdiction over adolescents’ behavior, compared
to father-adolescent discrepancies, may reflect mothers’ more acute
sense of adolescents’ capabilities or may indicate fathers’ relatively
greater orientation to encouraging mastery and instrumentality in adoles-
cents. Research models from relational analyses in other age periods
(e.g., Main et al., 1985; Shaver & Hazan, 1987) should be extended to
future studies of the role of cognitive functioning in the relationships and
relationship differences in childhood and adolescence.
METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL ISSUES
The juxtaposition of findings from two age groups highlights several

specific directions for future developmental studies of mother-child and
father-child relationships in middle childhood and adolescence. In this
final section, we first discuss several methodological issues for research
on change in relationships. We then turn to a consideration of the con-
ceptual elements needed in a possible framework for further developmen-

tal research on parent-child relationships and relationship change.
Methodological Issues
The juxtaposition of tindings across two age groups calls attention to
the need for procedures that are sensitive to both stability and change in
the multiple relationships in which children participate. Three issues of
particular importance are (1) comparability of measures, (2) comparability
procedures, and (3) reactivity to measurement procedures.
Comparability of Measures
Despite theoretical implications that substantial differences exist, most
studies have simply described group differences at one point in time,
using only one of a variety of methods. Furthermore, notably different
configurations of measures have been characteristic of research to date,
even within the relatively narrow age range comprising middle childhood
and adolescence. As an example, research on adolescents’ relationships
with mothers and with fathers has emphasized self-reports of closeness
and cohesion, with particular attention to the incidence of contentious
exchanges; consequently, in contrast to middle childhood, little descrip-
tive information is available about interactions. On the other hand, find-
ings from middle childhood provide little information about dimensions
such as closeness and cohesion or relational constructs, such as reciproc-
ity and mutuality of interactions or degree of discrepancy in interpersonal
perceptions. This extensive confounding of method with age group makes
it difficult to determine whether mother-child and father-child patterns are
significant aspects of the differences between age periods or are simply
artifacts of differences in the content and conceptual basis of coding
categories. In the future diverse measurement strategies should be used to
improve comparability of data across age periods. These strategies should
be applied across dimensions of interactions, affect, and cognition to
avoid confounding of measurement methods and the multiple aspects of
relationships.
Effects of’ Measurement Contexts
Dyadic comparisons have been made under widely varying conditions,
and several findings indicate that results may be very different when data
are collected in different contexts. Russell and Russell (1987) attribute
some of the differences they found between mother-child and father-child
dyads to the fact that observations were conducted at dinner time, when
mothers may feel especially heavy demands regarding family manage-
ment and caretaking and when fathers have just returned from their jobs
and, hence, are likely to show more physical affection. Similarly, Baum-
rind (D. Baumrind, personal communication, April, 1987) has observed

that in the laboratory, fathers were demanding and directive and mothers
were responsive toward children, whereas in the home mothers were
children’s primary interaction partners and fathers tended to withdraw.
Some researchers contend that different contexts are appropriate for
assessing the qualities of relationships with the two parents. As Pedersen,
Yarrow, Anderson, and Cain (1979) have noted: “ . . . it may be difficult
to identify a single slice of time in which to conduct observations of
mothers and fathers that represents a psychologically equivalent experi-
ence for both parents” (p. 52). Studies of multiple relationships are likely
to be strengthened, however, by sampling contexts in which variations
between mother-child and father-child dyads might be more or less likely.
Data from different contexts should also be analyzed separately to assess
the generality of differences and to clarify the possible functional signif-
icance of observed contrasts between dyads. Procedures in which affec-
tively salient contexts are sampled, parallel to the Strange Situation in
studies of early relationships, are needed in research with older samples,
as well.
Two corollaries should be noted. One is the effect on measures of
mother-father differences when relationships are assessed in triads or
larger groupings, rather than dyads. Maccoby and Jacklin (1987) have
contended that observing triads makes the gender of the parents more
salient, relative to dyadic observation, and the gender of the child less so.
Gjerde (1986) has noted, however, that the effect on triadic interaction
depends on the sex of the child. They found that mother-son interactions
were smoother when father was present, compared to exchanges in the
mother-son dyad alone; but father-son interactions were of lower quality
in the triad than in the dyad. Differences in relationships with sons and
with daughters were also affected by the triadic setting, with mother-son
and mother-daughter relationships being more clearly different when the
father was present than when he was not; whereas father-son and father-
daughter relationships were more different in dyadic, rather than triadic,
arrangements. Thus, it is important to question why the configuration of
interactors should make such a difference and to attempt to understand
what information this carries regarding the nature of relationships and the
bases on which they are different from one another. Consistent with the
sampling of contexts, interrelations between dyadic and polyadic inter-
actions should be examined to address the effect of multiple interpersonal
relationships on the focal parent-child dyads.
A second corollary is that contextual variations in relationship differ-
ences raise again the issue of the appropriate unit of analysis in research
on parent-child relationships. A number of suggestions have been made
for attempting to assess relationships at the level of the family, rather than
the dyad (e.g., Ball, McKenry, & Price-Bonham, 1983; Fisher, Kokes,
Ransom, Phillips, & Rudd, 1985). An implication of family-level aggrega-
tion, however, is that the striking differences in relationships that appear
in the middle-childhood and adolescent years would become less central
to research on the significance of relationships in development. The use-
fulness of either family-level or dyadic analyses must ultimately be de-
cided in light of the questions guiding a given research effort. In the case
of questions bearing on the different socialization impact of mothers and
fathers, approaches that emphasize the nature of the child’s relationships
with each will obviously have more utility than family-level measures.
One possibility is that dyadic relationship measures should be used more
effectively in combination with measures of triads and family-level func-
tioning.
Reactivity to Measurement Procedures
A third issue regarding comparability of data comes from the possibility
that differences in mother-child and father-child pairs may reflect differ-
ent reactions to common research procedures. A number of studies (e.g.,
Belsky, 1979; Belsky et al., 1984; Lytton, 1980; Patterson, 1982; Russell
& Russell, 1987) have indicated that father-child interactions are more
influenced by the observer’s presence than are mother-child exchanges.
For example, in Russell and Russell’s (1987) study of 6- to 7-year-olds,
fathers showed higher levels of neutral affect with children than mothers
did. These relational patterns may indicate that fathers felt more inhibited
during observation, or they may reflect a genera1 gender difference in the
display of affect. Other researchers have noted fathers’ lesser tolerance
for extensive questionnaires (Hill, 1988a). The problem of differential
reactivity may require greater use of multiple methods and observational
contexts than has been typical of previous studies.
Theoretical Implications
Despite the limitations of existing methods, current findings provide a
basis for further theoretical and empirical work on the nature, signifi-
cance, and development of parent-child relationships. In this section we
first evaluate the status of existing knowledge with respect to the hypoth-
eses that have dominated research to this point. Second, we consider
some points from previous findings that should be carried forward as a
basis for further research on mother-child and father-child relationships in
developmental perspective.
Evaluation of Findings
The hypotheses that have motivated most research on relationships and
relationship change in middle childhood and adolescence are conceptually
diverse and cannot easily be tied to specific theoretical systems. The

groupings of hypotheses outlined in the introduction, however, provide a
basis for assessing the current status of knowledge on three points: (1)
heightened complementarity between mothers and fathers as a function of
different socialization responsibilities in middle childhood and adoles-
cence; (2) differential incidence of difficulties in same-sex as opposed to
opposite-sex parent-child relationships; and (3) intensification of these
and other features of parent-child relationships as a result of adaptational
pressures in the transition to adolescence.
The hypothesis that relationship differences result from parental com-
plementarity in socialization responsibilities is consistent with some, but
not all, findings in studies to date. As an example, fathers and mothers are
both extensively involved in interactions associated with mastery and
achievement issues, although fathers tend to interact with both sons and
daughters about topics with instrumental implications more exclusively
than do mothers. Consistent with the hypothesis, however, are findings
that fathers’ behaviors toward children in problem-solving tasks appear to
be more conducive to instrumentality than mothers’ behaviors. It may be
that a considerable overlap exists in both parents’ involvement with most
aspects of children’s socialization, but differential modes of interaction in
mother-child and father-child relationships may have different implica-
tions for socialization, particularly in areas of behavior marked by gender.
Up to now, this more subtle implication of differential maternal and pa-
ternal roles in socialization has been tested only with regard to laboratory
problem-solving tasks.
The need for more extensive and explicit tests of the relationship im-
plications of complementarity hypotheses is underscored by mother-
father differences in frequency and content of interaction and affect. Pre-
dictions of Chodorow (1978) and others (e.g., Johnson, 1963, 1975; Lynn,
1969) that fathers are likely to display distance and remoteness toward
sons to facilitate socialization to masculinity, with less remoteness shown
toward daughters, do not accord well with a number of findings. For
example, father-son relationships are generally characterized by warmth,
involvement, and positive regard; whereas self-report studies of adoles-
cence indicate that emotional distance increases in father-daughter rela-
tionships as a function of puberty and that this distance persists longer
than similar disruptions in mother-daughter relationships. Whether the
apparently greater persistence of changes in father-daughter relationships
implies a qualitatively different affective disruption than occurs in
mother-daughter interactions remains to be determined. It is possible, for
example, that the pattern may be consistent with fathers’ efforts, inten-
sified at puberty, to maintain a deferential stance toward daughters in
order to facilitate socialization to gender-appropriate behavior (Hill &

Lynch, 1983), but the fragmentary data now available do not address the
more extensive pattern of relationship changes implied in this account.
The question remains, then, as to what constraints accrue to relation-
ships as a result of putatively different socialization responsibilities for
daughters than sons. A focus on the conjoint effects of parent gender and
child gender is needed to clarify the relevance of gender roles as a basis
for differences in parent-child relationships. It is particularly important
that research on normative change in individuals and their relationships
be guided by theoretically based hypotheses about the significance of
different relationships to specific developmental outcomes.
Gaps in the evidence on parental complementarity leave open for the
present the possibility that same-sex dyads, as opposed to opposite-sex
dyads, encounter more relationship difficulties in middle childhood and
adolescence. Findings that mother-daughter dyads are generally more
conflictful than other dyads are consistent with this hypothesis, but the
frequently reported patterns of perturbations in mother-son and both fa-
ther-child dyads are not. Of particular note is the finding that, although
tensions apparently increase in the father-son relationship during the first
phases of pubertal maturation, equilibrium is quickly restored, whereas
father-daughter tensions either increase or persist into later phases. The
emergent picture of mother as the parent most involved in and most
affected by relationship perturbations with both sons and daughters fur-
ther discredits the same-sex emphasis. As with complementarity hypoth-
eses, further data are needed to determine which of several possible
accounts best fits differences among dyads in interactions, emotional ex-
pressions, perceptions of closeness, and mutual intimacy and interper-
sonal understanding.
The group of hypotheses most extensively supported in the data are
those predicting intensification of change in relationships with both moth-
ers and fathers in the transition from middle childhood to adolescence.
Cross-sectional comparisons at different stages of pubertal maturation in
early adolescence have revealed interactional and affective differences at
later, as compared to earlier, stages of maturation; and age-group differ-
ences have been reported in perceptions of acceptance, parental control,
and interpersonal understanding across the middle-childhood and early-
adolescent periods. At this point, the influences of pubertal changes in the
transformation of parent-child relationships have not been satisfactorily
disentangled from the contributions of other age-related changes (see
Steinberg, 1987a, 1988, for an attempt in this direction). Nevertheless, the
evidence of pronounced transitions in relationships provides further in-
centive to understand specific processes, including those implied by the
hypotheses discussed above, that may underlie differences in the nature,

course, and developmental significance of mother-child and father-child
relationships.
Toward a Framework for Further Research
Although a number of questions remain to be answered about parent-
child relationships and changes in them as children develop, previous
research has provided some useful guidelines for how future research
might be framed. In this section, we attempt to answer the question, What
should be contained in a useful conceptual framework for developmental
research on mother-child and father-child relationships in middle child-
hood and adolescence?
First, the framework would include an emphasis on organized patterns
of interaction, affect, and cognition. Although common in studies of early
relationships, in middle childhood and adolescence, researchers have fo-
cused mostly on discrete categories of interactive behavior and affective
expression. Consequently, the implications of measures on one dimen-
sion for the meaning and significance of indicators on another dimension
have rarely been explored. Hill (1988a; Hill & Holmbeck, 1986) has noted
the conceptual cost of this fragmentary approach by noting that behav-
ioral indicators such as interruptions cannot be considered to indicate a
lack of closeness in a relationship without corollary evidence, such as the
frequency of interruptions, the context in which they occur, the degree to
which interruptions are mutual, the affect displayed, and the interper-
sonal perceptions associated with the event.
Several findings underscore the need for attention to the organization of
interaction, affect, and cognition in mother-child and father-child dyads.
One case in point is the potential for a multidimensional focus to illumi-
nate the significance of variations in dyadic behaviors. Such an approach
would enable researchers to address, for example, whether father-son
interactions associated with teaching and explaining in the context of
encouraging cognitive competence are characterized by more warmth and
support than are the teaching and explaining behaviors that occur in the
context of encouraging independence. The interpretation of these differ-
ences and their contrasting socialization effects could then be examined.
Extending this point to a second case, Smetana (1988) has suggested that
differences in interactional and affective perturbations in mother-child
and father-child dyads may be partly a function of parental differences in
perceptions of jurisdiction over different aspects of offsprings’ activities.
Such links, if supported by research findings, would enhance understand-
ing of salient differences between mother-child and father-child dyads,
such as the incidence of contentiousness and increases in emotional dis-
tance. Research on normative change in individuals and their relation-
ships should be based on the hypothesized signiticance of different rela-

tionships to specific developmental outcomes.
Second, a useful framework would consider multiple changes that are
occurring in middle childhood and adolescence as possible contributory
factors in relationship changes. To date, pubertal maturation has been the
most extensively investigated indicator of individual change in connection
with relationships. Other potential confounding factors, such as extra-
family stresses resulting from age-graded transitions have rarely been
considered. An especially compelling instance of the latter comes from
longitudinal studies of several preadolescent and early-adolescent sam-
ples with a focus on the age at which children shift from one school to
another (Simmons & Blyth, 1987). These comparisons indicate that ado-
lescents who experience several significant changes simultaneously are at
greater risk for reduced self-esteem, diminished school performance, and
impaired parent-child relationships, compared to adolescents who are
experiencing relatively fewer changes. This is particularly pronounced for
early-adolescent girls. From this viewpoint then, it is the effects of mul-
tiple changes, not merely the occurrence of a single normative change
such as menarche, that should be studied in conjunction with changes in
parent-child relationships. Research is needed in which significant life
events, including pubertal changes, are linked across time with informa-
tion about the interactional, affective, and cognitive characteristics of
parents and their offspring (Collins, 1990).
The impetus for change in parent-child relationships may also reflect
the changing circumstances and issues facing parents in midlife. These
may be different for mothers and fathers. Two common hypotheses are
relevant to differences. One is that social systems traditionally assign
primary responsibility for child-rearing to mothers; conversely, women’s
identities, more than men’s, may be strongly associated with their mater-
nal role. One implication is that concepts of self and psychological well-
being of mothers may be more affected by changes in relationships with
children during major developmental transitions. Silverberg’s (1989; Sil-
verberg & Steinberg, 1987) findings that identity-exploration issues were
more closely associated with adolescent changes for mothers than for
fathers are consistent with this view. It has also been suggested that
mothers have a stronger stake than fathers in their relationships with
offspring in anticipation of being dependent upon them in their old age.
This may be exacerbated by continued differences in life expectancy
between men and women (Rossi, 1987). A better understanding of the
perceived functions of relationships for parents may help to illuminate
differences in relationships during middle childhood and adolescence
(e.g., Goodnow & Collins, in press; Kidwell, Fischer, Dunham, & Bara-
nowski, 1983).
Third, a developmental framework would pay consistent attention to

the functions of relationships and to changes in functions. A useful ex-
ample comes from recent research derived from some aspects of attach-
ment theory (e.g., Sroufe & Fleeson, 1986; Waters, Hay, & Richters,
1986) and family process approaches (e.g., Grotevant & Cooper, 1986;
Wynne, 1984). Observational studies with adolescents and their mothers
and fathers (Cooper, Grotevant, & Condon, 1983; Grotevant & Cooper,
1985; for a review, see Grotevant & Cooper, 1986) reveal parallels to
relationship analyses in early life. This work is based on the premise that
the achievement of identity and the development of interpersonal skills
such as role-taking ability are associated with characteristics of interac-
tion patterns in families that foster both individuation and connectedness
in relationships. The results confirmed these correlations. In addition,
characteristics of interaction with mothers and with fathers in structured
tasks were associated with psychosocial outcomes in strikingly different
ways. In particular, fathers of adolescents who were rated as high in
identity exploration and in role-taking skill characteristically expressed
high levels of sensitivity and respect for others’ views, but also expressed
separateness by being willing to disagree with others. The findings are in
accord with recent studies that document the implications of differences
in parent-adolescent relationships for adaptive functioning (Allison & Sa-
batelli, 1988; Bell, Avery, Jenkins, Feld, & Schoenrock, 1985; Frank,
Avery, & Laman, 1988; Hauser et al., 1984; Kobak & Sceery, 1988;
Quintana & Lapsley, 1987; White, Speisman, & Costos, 1983). An im-
portant next step is to provide a cross-age dimension to work of this type.
A developmental approach to differences in relationships that incorpo-
rates parent gender must also address the possibility that normative dif-
ferences in relationship qualities at different ages have functional signif-
icance. For example, the possibility that the transition to adolescence is
a period during which differences become more marked for relationships
involving girls than for those involving boys (Steinberg, 1987b) remains an
important issue for further research. A growing body of findings indicates
that understanding relationship functions and changes in functions re-
quires distinctions according to gender of offspring, as well as gender of
parents (Hill, 1988a; Steinberg, 1987a, 1987b, 1988).
CONCLUSION
The motivation for analyzing across-time changes in relationships is to
obtain information about the developmental significance of the multiple
relationships in which children participate. Despite growing recognition
that “ . . . it is necessary to treat the child not as an isolated entity but as
a social being, formed by and forming part of a network of relationships
which are crucial to its integrity . . . .” (Hinde & Stevenson-Hinde, 1987,
p. 2), the nature and impact of parent-child relationships after early child-
hood has largely been inferred from correlations between parental per-
sonality traits or childrearing practices and child outcomes, rather than
from research on the qualities of dyadic relationships (see reviews by
Maccoby, 1984a, 1984b; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). The neglect of ques-
tions about the nature and functions of the differences in mother-child and
father-child relationships, which have been consistently considered to be
of central importance in general theories of socialization, is one example
of the current narrowness of knowledge regarding the role of relationships
in development. Two new, related thrusts are now needed to expand
understanding in this area. One is the formulation of testable, theoreti-
cally derived hypotheses about the functions of relationship differences
and their significance in developmental changes. The second is more
extensive research on differences in mother-child and father-child rela-
tionships in connection with the normative variations and the develop-
mental tasks of middle childhood and adolescence. Such research may
not only yield valuable new understanding of middle-childhood and ado-
lescent relationships, but may also provide a basis for examining other
relationships encountered in development and their sequelae.
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RECEIVED: January 2, 1989; REVISED: March 6, 1990

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DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 11, 99-136 (1991)

Mother-Child and Father-Child Relationships in Middle

This review is concerned with mother-child and father-child relation-

father-son and father-daughter relationships should become intensified

A second source of interest in relational analyses is the general study of

STUDIES OF MOTHER-CHILD AND FATHER-CHILD DYADS IN

In the following sections the goal is to identify aspects of relationships

tent of interactions and in the degree to which interactions manifest rec-

In adolescence, interactions with fathers tend to be limited to a rela-

child than in father-child relationships. In research to date, this general

consistent with theories that emphasize a distinctive role for fathers in

sons increase up to the apex of pubertal maturation, although there is a

salient issue than in early periods (Bronstein, 1984; Maccoby, 1984a). A

negative emotional expressions in adolescence. In one of the few studies

ing both an inverse correlation between pubertal maturation self-reported

ams, 1987, for a review), but this research addresses well-being as a

deserves further study in research on parent-adolescent relationships.

adolescents’ self-perceived personal problems has been found to be rea-

father-child patterns across age groups come in a recent study of adoles-

METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL ISSUES

The juxtaposition of findings from two age groups highlights several

ceptual elements needed in a possible framework for further developmen-

rind (D. Baumrind, personal communication, April, 1987) has observed

diverse and cannot easily be tied to specific theoretical systems. The

order to facilitate socialization to gender-appropriate behavior (Hill &

hypotheses discussed above, that may underlie differences in the nature,

ships should be based on the hypothesized signiticance of different rela-

Third, a developmental framework would pay consistent attention to

opment project, I: Stability and change in mother-infant and father-infant interaction in

adolescent development: Vol. 2. The transition from childhood to adolescence (pp.

Montemayor, R. (1982). The relationship between parent-adolescent conflict and the

method und some preliminary findings. In G. Russell (Chair), Some injluences on

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