Elsevier

Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Volume 23, October 2016, Pages 24-26
Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Short communication
Adolescent-parent conflict in the age of social media: Case reports from India

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2016.07.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Parent-adolescent conflict exists around child’s growing assertion of independence.

  • Social media use and dating concerns are major sources of conflict.

  • Conflict and its resolution occur in the context of culture.

  • Two cases from India highlighting the same are presented.

Abstract

Social media activities have gained popularity amongst children and adolescents as a means of communication; giving them the opportunity for independence and social development as well as rendering them vulnerable to negative influences. In traditionally collectivistic societies like India, moving rapidly towards modernisation, not only is there a divide between parents and adolescents over the endorsement of these sites, but also regarding value systems related to autonomy and dating that are facilitated by such activities. We present cases of two adolescent girls to highlight adolescent parent conflict that arises in the age of social media in a cultural context. Further, the cases underscore that value systems and culture play an important role in resolution of such conflict.

Introduction

In the present times, most children and adolescents are engaged in social media activities, which bring opportunities for social development as well as make them vulnerable to negative influences (O’Keeffe and Pearson, 2011). In traditional societies rapidly moving towards modernisation, such as India, there is a divide between the endorsement of these sites between adolescents and their parents. Further, handling of the adolescent-parent conflict is also different and influenced by the culture and values held by parents; and society in general (Kim and Markus, 1999). We present two cases of adolescent girls brought to us by their parents for “counselling”, to highlight the role of cultural factors in conflict generation and resolution.

Section snippets

Case 1

Ms A was an only child of her parents living in a small town of northern India. Her father worked as a pharmacist; mother a homemaker. She attended a co-educational private school. Ms A was close to both her parents, particularly to her father. Being a brilliant student, she was highly appreciated by parents, teachers and relatives. Her father was “very proud” of her, wanted her to study medicine. He had “complete faith” in her that she would never go wayward. Ms A also took pride in her

Discussion

During adolescence, there is often a significant increase in parent-adolescent conflict usually around issues that reflect the child’s growing assertion of her independence (Bandura, 1994). This conflict does not exist in isolation, but in the context of culture (Kim and Markus, 1999). Some believe that child-parent conflict is lower with lesser psychological and behavioural problems in collectivistic societies (Arnett, 1999) while others assert that it is more intense in traditional societies

References (10)

  • M.D. Griffiths et al.

    The evolution of Internet addiction: a global perspective

    Addict. Behav.

    (2016)
  • J.J. Arnett

    Adolescent storm and stress, reconsidered

    Am. Psychol.

    (1999)
  • A. Bandura

    Self-efficacy

  • C.R. Blease

    Too many ‘Friends,’ too few ‘Likes’? Evolutionary psychology and ‘Facebook depression

    Rev. Gen. Psychol.

    (2015)
  • L.A. Jensen et al.

    Adolescent–parent relations in asian indian and salvadoran immigrant families: a cultural–developmental analysis of autonomy, authority, conflict, and cohesion

    J. Res. Adolesc.

    (2015)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (10)

  • Parent–child relationships and mobile phone addiction tendency among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction and the moderating role of peer relationships

    2020, Children and Youth Services Review
    Citation Excerpt :

    As adolescents’ mobile phone addiction tendency has become a serious social problem, especially in China, it is necessary to identify its trigger factors and underlying mechanisms, as this may help in the development of effective prevention and intervention programs. Previous studies on mobile phone addiction tendency suggest that parent–child relationships may be an important trigger factor for adolescents’ mobile phone addiction tendency (Badenes-Ribera, Fabris, Gastaldi, Prino, & Longobardi, 2019; Shah, Chauhan, Gupta, & Sen, 2016). The term “parent–child relationships” refers to the quality of the connections between parents and their children (Anderson, Riesch, Pridham, Lutz, & Becker, 2010).

  • Parent–child relationship and smartphone use disorder among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of quality of life and the moderating role of educational level

    2020, Addictive Behaviors
    Citation Excerpt :

    Despite the evidence associating parent–child relationship with IUD, the relationship between parental factors and SUD is rarely studied. For example, child neglect, psychological abuse, parent–adolescent conflict and parenting style could contribute to SUD (Lian, You, Huang, & Yang, 2016; Shah, Chauhan, Gupta, & Sen, 2016; Sun, Liu, & Yu, 2019). Despite the differences between SUD and IUD, they are both technology disorders, characterized by the impulse to use technology devices (Jun, 2016).

  • Sexual Violence in the Indian Diaspora: How Culture Impacts Coping and Support-Seeking

    2021, International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling
View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text