Virtual Family Adolescence

Adolescence is a time of growth and development. It is during this period of life that influences and decisions will alter an individual’s future. This results in disequilibrium of the family system and family processes due to changes over the course of adolescence. The family systems approach dissects the details of family life from the perspective that families are composed of dyadic subsystems which greatly influences one another. Additionally, this approach states that when an individual family member undergoes a dramatic life-changing event, or when a dyadic relationships altered, the entire family system enters a state of disequilibrium until an adjustment is made. Throughout my virtual teen’s life, there was many ways in which the family

In response to new stressors, the virtual mother’s parenting style was impacted; she become stricter but maintained her compassion. Finally, Ember’s developing identity in terms of gender-classification changed the interpersonal relationship between her and her mother. Altogether, changes throughout Ember’s early and adolescent life had drastic impacts on the family processes.

Divorce is linked to many negative outcomes in the family system and the psychological outcome of the children. The divorce of the parents in this virtual simulation was not amicable. This couple fought for years before officially divorcing; which is the most detrimental aspect of parental splitting for children (Arnett, 2013). This is attributed to a lack of warmth, and general hostility in the home environment. Furthermore, arguments between parents has been correlated with greater discrepancy of parenting styles, which also has a negative impact on the upbringing of

As a result, their parenting style can change which is defined as the bidirectional relationship in which a parent conveys discipline and warmth towards a child; it is bidirectional since it is dependent upon characteristics of the child and the parent. Therefore, a parent can have a variance in their style between siblings. The mother in this virtual reality was highly disciplinary, but also extremely affectionate. In a psychologist’s report conducted when Ember was eight years old, the mother fell into the top 15% for disciplinary, but also ranked highly in warmth. Furthermore, in adolescence, Ember confessed to her mother that although her mother gave her more rules to follow, she was more affectionate compared to other parents as well. Since Ember was young, the mother required Ember to contribute to household care; this was encouraged through an allowance. When the child’s academic performance began to falter, the mother offered encouragement through special dinners and trips in exchange for good grades, thus demonstrating a warm but firm approach to acquiring a certain level of scholarly effort. Through this additional guidance, the negative academic affects experienced from the trauma of her parents’ divorce were minimized. Parenting style impacts the development and socialization of the child; in Westernized society, the most