2.  Then I gave a short lecture on families as an important context for adolescent development.

     There are several things to think about in considering the impact that family has upon the adolescent's development:

                    1.  "Family' is a socially defined institution that changes over time and between cultures. In the Middle Ages in Europe, 'family' was all the people who lived in a household, regardless of whether they were related or not. In many cultures, the 'family' consists of several generations who live together. While in the recent past, families seemed to mostly be made up of two parents and their children, there have been a number of trends redefining the family's membership; grandparents are sometimes raising children, divorce and remarriage are extending the composition of family, and same-sex couples or single parents are further stretching our conceptions of what a 'family' is.
        How the family functions is also shaped by the larger society. In some cultures, the oldest female rules the household, while in other societies, the males get all the privileges and decision-making power.
        The makeup and structure of the family and the position of the family in the larger society have an enormous impact on the development of the adolescent. For instance, a sixteen year old in some middle eastern cultures is of marriageable age and may be living with her new husband and her in-laws, where her mother-in-law has complete power over her day-to-day life. In our society, the serious illness of the mother of one family might force a sixteen year old to have to take on the care of younger brothers and sisters; a sixteen year old in a similar situation but where the grandmother lives in the house might not have to take on that role, and neither would a sixteen-year old whose family has a lot of money and can afford to hire live-in help.

                   2.  A family can be looked at as a system, which has finite resources and specific needs and inn which all the members have interdependent roles. What happens to any one member affects every other member, and changes in the structure and functioning of the family as a system cause periods of instability and stress until the needs and resources and roles are again in balance. Thus, the changes caused by an event such as a mother going to work for the first time after a baby is born, or a child coming down with a serious illness that is a drain on the family's resources affects all the members, from the infant who has to be taken to a baby sitter to the twelve year old who is not getting the attention and assistance needed from the parents because they are so focused on the sick younger child. Events in the outside world such as the loss of a parent's job as the result of a downturn in the economy, and events within the family, such as the sixteen year old finally getting his license and being able to help with the shopping and taking younger kids to activities, affect the family system.
        The stability of the family system is challenged by the changes and challenges of adolescent development. When these challenges occur in a basically sound and flexible system, they are not problematic, but the more unstable or inflexible family systems or family systems that are stressed by too many other factors are much more likely to find adolescence a difficult time. For instance, to a mother who is newly divorced and both financially and emotionally stressed, her adolescent daughter's normal moody responses to hormonal changes may be intolerable, causing  conflicts and fights rather than providing the girl with the loving support and understanding she needs at that time.

                    3. Families are made up of unique individuals.  The particular personalities, strengths, and needs of all the  individuals  contributes to the stability of the family system as a whole. In addition, each member is involved in  his or her own individual process of development in which his/her strengths and needs change over time. The match or mismatch of all the  individuals' cycles can be a source of support and strength, or conflict and stress for both the individual family members and for the family system as a whole.
       For example, some parents may be better suited to parenting children at one age than another. Some people don't have the patience to deal with small children, but do well in supporting their increasingly independent adolescent, while others may have thrived on being the center of their young children's world and be unwilling to give up that position, despite their adolescents' growing need to gain independence and autonomy.

                    4.  Families have life cycles as well as the individuals within them. A family with young children has particular needs and responsibilities that have changed dramatically by the time the children are in their adolescence, and even more once the children are grown. Each stage in family development has its particular demands and delights and it may be difficult to provide the necessary accommodations, supports, and resources needed for each part of the cycle.
            One obvious change in the needs of the family with adolescents is the increased financial demands. Obviously the rapidly changing size and shape of the growing adolescent makes it a challenge to keep enough food in the house and to keep him/her in clothes that fit. On top of that, our society makes material demands for conformity: not just any shoes that fit those big feet will do..... And, beyond the food. clothing and housing, there is the rise in insurance costs for the car, the cost of further education and other considerations that don't apply to the family with small children.

Parenting styles
 One aspect of the family environment that has an enormous impact on the development of competence, independence and self-esteem of the adolescent is how the parents set and enforce expectations as well as limits for the growing child. These aspirations, expectations, limitations and restrictions may be presented rigidly or flexibly, responding to the child's strengths and needs, or imposed without regard for that individual's unique characteristics and situation.

The dimensions of parenting styles can be broken down into specific dimensions of supportiveness and demandingness.

• Supportiveness is the degree of responsiveness of the parent to the child's unique needs/strengths.
• Demandingness is the level of expectations for the child's behavior and achievements.