Parental Management of Peer Relationships and Early Adolescents Social Skills

The Research Process This article identified a gap in research of the relationship between adolescent social skills and parental management of the peers. Being a long-term study investigation, the objectives of the article were the examination of several relationships: between the peer parental management as regards to consulting and guidance; the examination of peer social skills ,existing conflicts and skills such as self-control, empathy, cooperation, responsibility and assertion; and the examination of the potential precursors to peer management relationships. The time frame of the investigation was nine months, and the samples were predominantly White, with most of them being in the seventh grade(57% of which were female). Questionnaires were filled by caregivers regarding their relationship with adolescent peers, their beliefs about parental management and their social skills.

Literature Review According to Mounts (2000, 2001, 2004), the interest in the parental management of the relationships of peers during the adolescent stage has been growing. This regulation, however, reduces as the peers grow of age. This has been referred to as mediating, but due to its confusing ideologies, the word “guidance “was appropriate for this research. Literature used in the report supports the relationship between social skills and consulting. According to Laird(1994), there is the appositive relationship that exists between parents and the ‘preschoolers,’ when they engage in conversations about peer relationships and social competence. Peer acceptance and positivity in use of social skills was revealed in circumstances of high-level social coaching. Steinberg (1990) report is used to describe how adolescents develop an autonomy from their parents, as they grow.

The adolescents develop a negative belief about the parental peer management of their relationships and the conflict levels about the peer's rises. Direct conflicts between adolescents and their parent’s acts as an interaction model for the peers. Conflicts may also act as moderators of the parental peer management of social skills. Ryan (2000) theory of determination is used to show how adolescents’ well-being can be achieved by meeting their autonomy needs. The fact that existing studies had shown discrepancies led this investigation to use both caregivers of social skills in adolescents and adolescents. According to the literature reviews, several hypotheses were formulated. The first was that the greater the goals of parents improving their peer relationships, the higher the chances of engaging in peer relationship guidance and consultation.

This was based on the predictors of parental management. The other hypothesis was the based on the beliefs of parental involvement in the management of their peer relationships. The caregiver’s role was to provide information about their goals, beliefs on their authority and control of the management of their peer relationships. The adolescent social skills were given nine months before they were reported. The participants sampling from a middle school in a suburban region is ideal for the objective of the report. The issuing of letters of offers to participate gave the participants free and genuine consent. To prevent bias and enhance transparency of the report, the participants were given free will to fill questionnaires separately at their homes and return them via emails.

Regarding assertion and taking responsibilities, a significant interaction pattern between conflicts and consulting was recorded. Combination of higher levels of conflicts with peers and consultation lead to low assertion levels while lower conflict levels combined with high consulting levels lead to high assertion levels, over a period. When conflict levels with peers were lower, consultation was not related to responsibility, but high consultation and conflicts lead to lower responsibility levels. Discussion The objective of the research was to fill the gap of parental management of peer relationships, especially on the issue of adolescent’s social skills. The researchers, therefore, coined their research on two fronts; parental peer management of relationships as guidance and consultation is concerned, and adolescents’ social skills with several other factors such as the conflict between child-parent, beliefs and authorities over friendships.

Contrary to the stated hypothesis, the higher the level of consulting affected cooperation negatively over time, which means that poor social relationships too affect parental management. This is a reality for the parents who engage themselves too much in their adolescents’ lives, leaving them with chances for personal skill development, regarding social interaction. Consulting has a major effect when combined with other predictor factors such as the peer conflicts about peer relationships. The major limitation of this report is the inability to establish the relationship between guiding, conflict about peers, consulting and the adolescents’ social skills. The information that is found out in the report is minimal, which gives a chance to future researchers to establish a nuanced relationship between the adolescents’ social skills and their parental peer management.

It is a tool that when used over time, affects the social skills of the adolescents. Study analysis The most intruding aspect of this research is the incorporation of social skills into the topic of parental management. For long, the adolescent behavior has been attributed to peer relationships, and yet the development of their social skills has been neglected. Finding out the impact of parenting on social skill development and their impact on the adolescents was well done. The selection of the topic was unique and aimed at solving a problem which seems complicated, now that it has been identified. This means that parental guidance and involvement in the early stages of childhood, determine a certain percentage of her social interaction skills.