Parenting the adolescent.

Adolescence marks the period in which a young person attains adult stature and sexual maturity, and begins abstract thinking. These changes present both the adolescent and his parents with new challenges, new problems, and new circumstances that have not been encountered in any previous childhood developmental stage. The primary goal of parenting during this stage is to have the child develop into a functioning, independent adult. In order to achieve this goal, probably the most critical aspect to the successful parenting of the adolescent is developing an awareness of the changes the child is undergoing and dealing with and the ambivalence that the adolescent often has toward these changes. There is a multiplicity of factors interacting on the adolescent (Fig 1). There are three primary interactions: