title: Adolescents' and parents' evaluations of helping versus fulfilling personal desires in family situations.
abstract: A sample of 118 predominantly European American families with early and middle adolescents (M(ages)= 12.32 and 15.18 years) and 1 parent evaluated hypothetical conflicts between adolescents' and parents' requests for assistance versus the other's personal desires. Evaluations differed by level of need, but in low-need situations, adolescents viewed teens as more obligated to help parents than did parents, whereas parents rated it as more permissible for teens to satisfy personal desires than did teenagers. Justifications for helping focused on concern for others, role responsibilities, and among parents, psychological reasons. Middle adolescents reasoned about role responsibilities more and viewed satisfying personal desires as less selfish than did early adolescents, but satisfying personal desires was seen as more selfish by parents of middle than early adolescents. Implications for adolescent-parent relationships are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. smetana@psych.rochester.edu
authors.forename: Judith G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Smetana
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tasopoulos-Chan
authors.forename: Denise C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Gettman
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Villalobos
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Campione-Barr
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Metzger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035863:Moral Development; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010552:Personality Assessment; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012737:Sex Factors; D012941:Social Responsibility