What Role Do Relationships Play In The Development Of Adolescence

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Relationships play a primary role in the development of adolescents in both cognitive and social competence. The relationships formed enable psychosocial growth as well as provide the opportunity to learn and understand the dynamics of relationships. Over the course of the relationships formed, adolescents experience extensive and rapid maturation and equally dramatic changes in sociocultural expectations. Adolescence allows relationships to be examined through a variation of social networks, spending an increased amount of time to extra- familial interactions, increasing their interactions with casual friendships and expanding those peer interactions to include romantic relationships. These distinct characteristics of adolescent relationships and their experiences are vital to normative development. There are several key developmental themes in relationships, one theme is that relationships display continuity and change over time. Significant continuities in adolescent relationships and their relationships earlier in life poses changes in pattern of interaction, emotion and cognition which is altered over the period of time from …show more content…

During adolescents changes occur in the perception of their relationships as they begin to transform and take on new meaning. There are several functions within those relationships, research has shown that different relationships (e.g with parents, friends, romantic partners) serve an overlapping but important function within these relationships. For example less distance- greater intimacy in those peer relationships may provide satisfaction and functions of socialization. The intimacy with parents may provide the adolescent with support and nurturance but may be needed less and less as they get

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