Abstract:

The aim of the current study is to examine the experiences and thoughts of adolescents’ about their relationships with parents. In accordance with the purpose of the study, six focus group discussions were conducted in six high schools in Istanbul. The participants were 22 girls and 25 boys, totally 47 adolescents. The participants’ ages were between 15 and 17. The participants were determined by typical case sampling of purposeful sampling. A semi structured interview schedule was used to gather the data in the all focus group discussions. The data was analyzed by way of qualitative content analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that adolescent-parent relationships can be classified in two categories namely, positive relationships with parents and conflicting relationships with parents. Positive relationship with parents emphasizes the indulgent and supportive aspects of parents while conflicting relationships with parents indicates high intrusiveness of parents and establishment of rules by parents. Besides, adolescents evaluated their relationships with parents with an empathic perspective in both categories. The findings are discussed within theoretical background about adolescence and results of the previous studies

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