Changing patterns of family time in adolescence: Parents’ and teens’ reflections

Abstract

Drawing on 20 qualitative family interviews with mothers, fathers, and adolescents (aged 16 to 19 years), we explore the experiences of time in parent–adolescent relationships. Changing time patterns comprised of a range of times including time spent together and apart, and more ambiguous times which incorporate elements of both being together and apart are described by participants. These descriptions highlight not only the amount of time and individual subjective experience of these times, but also the meaning that family members collectively make of these times, and how these elements of time contribute to the emergent relationship between parents and adolescents.