Adolescent Crisis and Familial Tension: From Patterns of Vertical Identification to Transformations of Horizontal Identification

Abstract

This study explores adolescence as a vital developmental stage through its investigation of identity development which starts with vertical identification of family values and continues to horizontal identification of peer group and digital media cultural influences. The process of becoming an independent adult requires reaching this stage of psychosocial development yet it creates major problems for family relationships. The adolescent wants to find themselves while gaining emotional and behavioral independence yet the family members want to keep their family united through their traditional caregiving roles. The two people express their divergent viewpoints through their different beliefs about relationship rules and their opposing approaches to managing time and personal boundaries.
Modern societies create cultural conflicts because they handle new cultural changes which stem from technological progress and worldwide growth which produces fresh distinctions between different age groups. The parental model loses its symbolic power as adolescents face multiple conflicting models which results in emotional turmoil for them.
This paper reaches the conclusion that family adjustment needs to support transformation processes instead of attempting to stop them. The development of emotional intelligence requires three essential components which include steady parental examples of balanced discipline and affection and secure spaces for emotional sharing and autonomy and active listening to adolescent viewpoints and social changes. Young people develop their identity during the transition from adolescence to adulthood through uniting their familial bonds with their expanding curiosity about the world outside their home.