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- Feb 22, 2018
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R. Kelly Corgi
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human ServicesAs children grow, parenting shifts from making decisions for the younger child to helping older children and adolescents make decisions on their own, while minimizing the chance that they engage in high-risk behavior. Parents can provide needed support and affection and help adolescents understand how their choices can affect their health and well-being. In fact, research shows that parents continue to have more influence than peers on many important outcomes, including whether adolescents smoke, use alcohol or other drugs, or have sex.
Developing and maintaining a positive and strong parent-adolescent relationship has real consequences. Positive parent-child relationships are associated with higher levels of adolescent self-esteem, happiness, and life satisfaction, and lower levels of emotional and physical distress. Close parent-child relationships also have been linked to safer sex behaviors among adolescents and lower use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.