Hanging out and growing strong: A qualitative study of relationships with adults that foster resilience in adolescence.

摘要

This study is a qualitative investigation of the often cited but poorly understood finding that a supportive relationship with an adult, not necessarily a parent, is associated with greater psychological health in adolescence. Although many researchers have noted the need for the study of the underlying processes through which relationships with adults foster resilience in adolescence, we know little about these relationships beyond a few distinguishing features.; In this study, I listened to pairs of adolescents and adults involved in such relationships to learn about the nature of their emotional connections---how these connections formed, what they were comprised of, and what was happening within these relationships that supported and strengthened the adolescents' psychological well-being. I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 24 matched pairs who were participants in the Big Brother and Big Sister programs and had been successfully matched for at least 1 year (a predominantly White group of adults and a racially and ethnically diverse group of adolescents). Selecting an analytic group of 8 of these interviews (4 female and 4 male pairs), I used the Listening Guide method (Brown et al., 1989) to conduct an interpretive analysis guided by relational theories drawn from several different lines of psychological inquiry (Gilligan, 1982; Miller & Stiver, 1997; Mitchell & Aron, 1999; Tronick, 1989).; This thesis is comprised of detailed interpretive accounts of these 8 matches drawn from the adolescents' and the adults' reflections on their relationships with one another. Building on the study of developmental processes in infancy, joined with relational theories derived from the study of adolescents and adults, two sets of relational processes which fostered these adolescents' psychological well-being are described. The concept of collaboration (Tronick, 2001) captures the complex, highly interactive, and two-way nature of these relationships, while Trevarthen's (2001) theory of companionship sheds light on the interconnectedness between these on-going relationships and the adolescents' confidence in, and capacity to care about, themselves. This study draws attention to the need for further focused study of relationships and relational processes to produce more nuanced understandings of psychological well-being and development in adolescence. Methodological, theoretical, and practice implications are discussed.