How Adolescents Navigate through Non-Traditional Family Styles

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Essential Question:  How do adolescents navigate through non-traditional family styles?

Focus Questions:

  •  How do adolescents navigate through the physical loss of a parent(s)?
  •  How do adolescents navigate through absent parents- in the situation that the parent has abandoned their child?
  •  How do adolescents navigate through divorced parents?
  •  How do adolescents navigate and develop understanding of same sex parents?
  •  How do adolescents lose connection with parents due to adolescence?
  •  How should parents encourage connections with their children through the period of adolescence?
  • What are the different parenting styles? Which is deemed as “most” appropriate and why?
  • Who should children rely on, trust, and talk to when navigating through a non-traditional family style?
  • Or, what tends to happen to children navigating through non-traditional family styles? Do they fall into peer pressure easier? Do they do worse in school? Do they adopt unhealthy relationships outside of the family (friend groups for example)?

Overview of what I already know: I know a little bit about parenting styles. I know that an authoritative parent is very strict and does not give the child many opportunities to think and do things for themselves. What I remember learning is that an authoritarian is like a happy medium. An authoritarian parent cares for their child, and will not allow behavior that is inappropriate, but the parent does give the child some responsibilities and trust. I hope that I am getting these terms right, I do not want to do any research before I start, because I want to see just how much I learn. I know that there are two other terms associated on the other end of this spectrum, I want to research these. Ideally, from what I have learned, and authoritarian parenting style is the best, but I want to research this and see why, if this is the case. I also know that many adolescents have to endure non-traditional family styles, for example loss of parents, divorced parents, absent parents, same sex parents, etc. I want to learn the research of this and learn how children cope with this and get through it.

Why I selected this topic: I mainly selected this topic because as I said, many adolescents have to go through this, I was one of them. I lost my father in the year of 2011, I was in the fifth grade and my sister was in 5K. I know how I dealt with this, but I want to research more about how other people deal with it- even my sister. My sister was very young, and she does not remember much about our dad. I know that my research will be focusing on adolescents, and my sister was not in her adolescent stages yet, but maybe my research will give me more insight on how she dealt with this as she came through elementary school and middle school. Not only does this topic hit home- but it relates to many of my friends who have absent parents, or parents who are just beginning to come into their lives as they have gotten older. I want to research the facts behind this issue because it means a lot to me.

Titles of books it relates to:

  •         Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  •         La Linea by Ann Jaramillo
  •         The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  •         Sold by Patricia McCormick

Resources planned to use: I plan to use resources that focus on adolescents and their parents. I want to find out the research behind why children lose connections with their parents and how it is gained back or dealt with. I want to find a resource that talks about the four parenting styles (of it there are more that I am not aware of.) I want to find sources that talk about how adolescents navigate through non-traditional family situation- such as divorce, loss of parents, same-sex parents, absent parents, etc.

Claim/argument: Non-traditional family styles affect adolescents in a different way- being that it is out of the ordinary. Adolescents are already going through bodily changes that heighten their emotions, having a non-traditional family style only adds to the struggle of being an adolescent; adolescents must learn how to cope with this. An authoritarian parenting style is the best.

*I have to figure out how I want to make this into a thesis/claim, but this is what I am working with. If you have any ideas/ suggestions drop them in the comments! *

Challenges/obstacles: I think that this is a hard topic to talk about, and it comes with many different answers. There is not a solid true answer that explains how adolescents navigate through these challenging situations. I think that it will be a struggle navigating through sources and putting them together if they have different thoughts/ideas on the subject. I also think that it will be a challenge figuring out what a “good” parent is; who defines what a “good” parent is, isn’t this an opinion?

Comments

  1. Emily BridgesNovember 12, 2020 at 7:42 PM

    Tori, I love your topic. I think that this is such a crucial thing to begin including in adolescent literature and I really like that you have taken a step to begin including that. These cookie-cutter families that all books seem to display can be unrealistic for a lot of kids and representations of overcoming the setbacks of non-traditonal families while finding the beauty in it can be really great for kids to see. I would suggest narrowing this research to certain family structures that you want to focus on. It may help the research process go a bit more smoothly. I also think making sure you have strong examples of literature that directly display these things would help you as far as your evidence-based claims go.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aniya HallNovember 12, 2020 at 8:45 PM

    Tori! I think this is such an important topic to discuss! I was actually stuck between this topic and LGBTQ representation, I think you have a great proposal outline for your research paper. I can relate to this topic because I have an absent father. My mom is my mother and my father, and I know a lot of adolescents go through these same experiences. I think during your research you'll learn many techniques and form a better understanding on how to handle these situations as an educator in your classrooms! Good luck with your paper!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Olivia BennettNovember 13, 2020 at 5:33 PM

    Hey Tori,
    I think that you picked a really great topic to discuss. The 'normal' family structure is changing. I think it is super important to shed light on the differing family structures there are. Since I know you're an education major, I can say we will defiantly see students with all different kinds of family structures. Some of our students will only have one parent. Some students will have two moms or two dads. I think you have a great proposal. I think this topic encompasses so much more then just the differing parenting styles. Though honestly, what kind of parents an adolescent has shapes them just as much as the family structure. I'm really excited to see what you do with this paper.

    ReplyDelete

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