Adolescent parental affinity-seeking: age- and gender-mediated strategy use.

The focus of the present study was the use of parental affinity-seeking strategies by adolescents. Both the type of strategies used and the degree to which age and gender factors mediated their use were examined. The results were consistent with Bell and Daly's (1984) constraints dimension of the affinity-seeking process, with adolescents employing a narrower range of strategies with the parent as a familiar target. Additionally, significant differences in the use of strategies were apparent on the basis of adolescent's age and gender and parent's gender.