Parents and Adult Children: Special Features of Relationships (following foreign sources)

Abstract

Traditionally scientific literature presents many investigations on relationship between parents and children of age from a newborn child to a teenager. This paper presents an overview of foreign literature on the relationship between parents and children in the period of their transition into adulthood. First, attention is paid to the importance of these relations and to some peculiarities of the period of children becoming adults and separating from parents. Some approaches and models used to describe the relationship of parents and adult children are considered; the factors that determine the differences in relations between children and their parents at the period indicated, as well as various typologies of these relationships, are analized. Some patterns of child-parent relationships during this period of family development are described. The methodological features of conducting research on child-parent interactions are indicated. The conclusions made on the ground of this literature review may be helpful when carrying out scientific investigation or during family counseling practice.

Keywords

• parent-adult child relationship
• emerging adulthood
• separation
• control
• parenting style