Discrepancia entre padres e hijos en la percepción del funcionamiento familiar y desarrollo de la autonomía adolescente.

Abstract

This study is a conceptual approach to the change that adolescence, family and autonomy have suffered lately, from the Contextual Dialectic paradigm. From an evolutive-educative point of view, autonomy in adolescence is understood in this study as an stage in the process of definition of the earliest identity (Eriksons Epigenetic Theory). It looks like the parents-children conflict, that has its base in the emotional proximity that takes place in these relationships, is identified as a requirement for the development of the autonomy. The purpose of this research is to analyse the relations between several dimensions of the familiar way of functioning and two aspects of adolescents autonomy: the emotional and the conductual. Emotional autonomy requires to have owns affective center of gravity set in oneself, while conductual autonomy implies that the adolescent is able to take decisitions by himself. To analyse these relations, the opinion of 567 adolescents are contrasted with the opinion of their parents, taking in account variables of familiar way of functioning and of conductual autonomy, using the methodology of the survey. The scores of the adolescents in the survey has been related to the variables of identity, self-esteem and emotional autonomy. Conclusions can be summerized in these points: First, the increment of autonomy appears as one of the evolutive tasks of the adolescent; second, emotional and conductual aspects of autonomy do not overlap, since they affect differently personal development. It is useful in this sense to study the increment of autonomy combining in typological profiles the emotional and conductual dimensions, since it makes clear the significance of autonomy along different stages of adolescence. Third, the negative character of having excesive autonomy at the beginning of the adolescence is proved. It is also verified the connection between autonomy and other areas of development in adolescence, as it happens with identity. It is observed a relation between autonomy and variables of familiar way of functioning, namely dissent among parents and children, cohesion, adaptability or quality in communication. The results support the existence of a tight connection between intrapersonal aspects, like autonomy and identity, that have a high importance in the evolution of the adolescent, and interpersonal aspects that are linked with familiar interaction.