PARENT-CHILD COMMUNICATION: ADAPTATION AND SELF-ESTEEM IN ADOLESCENTS

The object of this work is to analyse family communication from the perspective of the children and their relationship with child psychological and emotional adjustment. The Patterns of Child Communication and Resolution of Conflict Questionnaire (CPC- RC-Children) was used, which evaluates the communicative performance of each parent as perceived by the child. The sample consisted of 150 teenagers of both sexes, aged between 14 and 18 years (M =16.34, DT = 1.02). A differential effect was collected in favour of fathers, compared to mothers. The teenagers and their parents showed higher positive relations for adaptation to the family, school and emotional environment. In general, no significant differences were found by sex in the five patterns of communication evaluated when communicating with their parents. Only in the "Implicative/Integrative Communication" pattern did the girls, rather than the boys, perceive that they told their mothers more about the issues and problems that worried them. It was the boys, however, rather than the girls, who perceived that they were more easily able to reach agreement with their parents. The variables that best predicted "Family Adaptation" in ADAPTA (criteria) were: "Resolutive/Reasoned Communication" (with the mother), "Takes into account the child's opinion and decision" (with the mother), "Resolutive/Reasoned Communication" (with the father), and Adaptation to "Friends" and "School". The variables that best predicted the tendency to show "Social Desirability" in ATRAMIC (criteria) were: "Acceptance and Appreciation of Others" and "Feelings of Incapacity or Inferiority" (with a minus sign) of the CAE self-esteem questionnaire.