Understanding Parent-Adolescent Communication About Strengths and Weaknesses

Previous research shows that parents report high levels of interest in receiving information from their adolescent's doctor about how to help their teen know his/her own strengths. In addition. adolescents report high levels of interest in receiving information from their doctor about identifying their own strengths, and report their level of interest in doctors giving their parents information about helping to recognize teen strengths is higher than for other topics traditionally covered in clinic visits (e.g. routine issues, sexual health, substance use, emotional health). To begin to understand the potential role that physicians' might play in helping parents and teens identify and nurture teen strengths, we conducted a study to assess parent and teen perceptions of the frequency of parent-teen conversations about teen strengths and weaknesses. As part of a larger pilot RCT on parent-teen communication and adolescent health (clinicaltrials.gov NCT02554682) we analyzed enrollment survey data from 136 adolescents ages 14-16 and their parent/caregiver. Participants were recruited from one general pediatric practice at the time of the adolescents' routine annual clinic visit. Both parents and teens were independently asked questions to measure perceived frequency of parental communication in the previous 4 weeks about teen strengths ("things like teens working hard and making a strong effort, using their skills, and positive aspects of their personality or behaviors") and weaknesses ("like concerns or disappointing aspects of your teen's behavior, personality, or effort"). We conducted analyses to describe perceived frequency of conversations about teen strengths and weaknesses within groups (i.e. all parents; all teens) and within dyads (parent-teen pairs). We explored associations with teens' age, gender, and race. The 136 parent participants were 95% female, 60% African American and 35% Caucasian, with a mean age of 46 years. The 136 teen participants were 50% female, 62% African American and 33% Caucasian with a mean age of 15.4 years. As groups, the majority of parents and teens reported talking about strengths often or on most days in the past 4 weeks (82% and 71% respectively, (p < 0.05); 40% of parents and 54% of teens reported talking about teen weaknesses often or on most days (p = 0.02). Within parent-teen pairs, 11% of parents and 17% of teens reported more frequent conversations about weaknesses than strengths; 33% of parents and 43% of teens r