Psychology

Conflict between Parents and adolescents is a phenomenon common throughout the world, present in almost every functioning family and occurs primarily due to a variety of fundamental reasons, based on prior research that shall be mentioned in the subsequent paragraphs of this brief report.
On a very basic level, conflict can arise from a multitude of reasons such as limited time and resources. In principle, every parent desires to provide support and shelter to their children up to a certain point in time whereas children wish to receive that support for as long as they deem necessary. However, in practical terms, there comes a point when the child must learn to accomplish things on his or her own and if that decision does not align itself with the wishes of the child, conflicts might arise. In some cases, parents unknowingly submit a large amount of time and investment upon the first and last born child thereby isolating the middle children who consequently have to work harder and feel neglected.

Secondly, intergenerational conflict can also be established along the lines of the evolutionary differences that exist between generations in the sense that parents, normally, have undergone their initial development in a completely different age whereas children have to cope with inherently different problems in accordance with the time period that they were born in. Hence, variations in terms of the age gap that exists between parents and children can lead to conflicts arising from issues such as difference of opinions as well as the inherent rationale of changing cultural and social norms. For example, Facebook to a teenager would seem as the most normal thing in the world whereas parents would view it with distrust in regards to the exposure that it provides. Thus, when teenagers rebel, it is not to the quality of the support that the parents are providing, in fact it has more to do with the values that are being imposed upon them.

Gender is also a determining factor in regards to conflicts in the sense that boys are preferred in some family structures in various cultures because they have a better chance at making appropriate use of the time and resources invested in them. However, such discriminatory relationships are established at psychological levels that are difficult to comprehend, let alone identify.

Intergenerational conflict can best be resolved initially by the effort that parents can put in. Primarily, the development of children is inherently dependent on the way that they are brought up, hence, if parents play an active and a positive role during the initial stages of development can lead to lesser conflicts in the future. The most pressing issue that needs to be identified and addressed by parents is to reduce the evolutionary gap that exists between them and their offsprings. It is this gap that is the fundamental source of conflicts and can result in dysfunctional families.

However, issues like gender discrimination that subsists within various cultures as previously mentioned exists at a psychological level which is primarily unidentifiable and therefore cannot be addressed with proper psychotherapy methodology. This leads me towards establishing the point that therapy is also an excellent means of reducing the tension that exists between parents and children. Usually, therapy is looked down upon in a lot of cultures because it reflects the parents as well as the overall familys inability to overcome their own personal problems. However, research has proven that proper therapy can help reduce dysfunctionality within a family thereby decreasing major issues such as adolescent suicide attempts.