内容简介：
The articles in this volume underscore the importance of the family during the adolescent period. Consistent with a developmental systems perspective, the articles emphasize that the relations between the developing person and this key feature of his or her context are critical for understanding development. This volume is divided into four major sections. The first section speaks to the family as an important context for development, and focuses on the influence of family processes such as parenting style and practices and parent-child interaction. For example, Bronfenbrenner (1986) and Harrison and colleagues (1990) highlight the development of children as it occurs within particular family ecologies. In turn, Baumrind (1991) and Steinberg and his colleagues (1991) address the influence of parenting styles on adolescent adjustment. Section Two focuses on variations in family structure and function. Lerner and Galambos (1995) discuss child temperament and its relation to the quality of mother-child relationships. Smetana (1993) and Buchanan and her colleagues (1991) discuss the impact of divorce on adolescents. Articles in the third section by McLoyd (1989), Taylor and Roberts (1995), and Ge and colleagues (1992) address the influence of economic hardship on adolescent adjustment and well-being. In particular, these articles point to both the risks associated with economic stress, and the ways in which individual and contextual factors can enable adolescents to overcome economic hardships. In the last section, the issue of teenage parenting is discussed in articles by Furstenberg and his colleagues (1990) and by Elster, Lamb, and Kimmerly (1989). These articles focus on theintergenerational bases of teenage parenting and on the meaning of parenting among adolescent fathers. Taken together, the articles in this volume represent the current range of scholarship pertinent to families and adolescent development. While each article concentrates on a particular aspect of the family ecology and its relation to adolescent adjustment, a common theme in the articles is that there is a continued salience of the family across the adolescent period. As an illustration, then, of the significance of the social system within which the adolescent is embedded, this volume highlights the importance of focusing on the relations between adolescents, their families, and the broader ecological context in order to understand development across this period of life.