Spending Quality Time with Their Parents Holds Great Significance to Teens & Parental Support Plays a Crucial Role in Shaping Adolescent Lives: hear from Dr. Ginsburg, Founding Director of the Center for Parent and Teen Communication, CHOP

Newswise — Spending Quality Time with Their Parents Holds Great Significance to Teens and Parental Support Plays a Crucial Role in Shaping Adolescent Lives

Recent reports from The Center for Parent and Teen Communication at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in collaboration with YouGov highlight how important communication and relationships are to young adults

Parents and teens DO enjoy each other’s company! That is what recent reports from The Center for Parent and Teen Communication (CPTC) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in collaboration with YouGov have uncovered. YouGov conducted focus groups and surveyed a national sample of parents and their 13-17 year old teens about how they spend quality time together as well as about their relationship quality and communication.

“While it may be a surprise to some, our data shows that parents and teens wish they could spend more time together because those interactions are meaningful to them,” said Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, Founding Director of the CPTC and Adolescent Medicine Specialist at CHOP. “It is all about quality time, not the quantity of time so engaging in simple activities can be beneficial to bonding parents with their teens. Additionally, we found that parents underestimate how much they matter in the lives of their adolescents. It really comes down to effective and beneficial communication which can improve the outlook and perspective of both parents and their adolescents.”

Dr. Ginsburg can be available for commentary and interviews. 

Key findings from the reports include:

• Spending Quality Time Together
  • 96% of parents and 87% of teens say they enjoy spending quality time together!
    • 87% of parents wish they could spend more quality time with their teen, and 63% of teens wish they could spend more quality time with their parents. 55% of parents and 39% of teens say their other responsibilities get in the way of spending quality time with one another.

• “Simply just spend more time with them. Like I strengthen my relationship with my parents just by living life, right? Like maybe on the weekends we all go grocery shopping together or something. Just running errands together. Maybe the car doesn't have gas, so we go get that together. Just simple tasks together.”

• 5 ways to spend quality time together:

• Watch movies, TV, or play video games or board games together

• Just talk!

• Run errands, make meals, and – yes – do household chores together
• Enjoy sports or nature together
• Learn a new skill or hobby together

• Relationship Quality and Communication
  • Both parents and teens report strong feelings of love, mutual respect, and good communication.
    • 97% of parents and 95% of teens say they love each other. 94% of parents and 93% of teens say they have a good relationship. 96% of parents look forward to hopefully having a strong relationship with their teen as they grow into adulthood. 94% of teens say the same.
  • Parents matter more than they think and they are likely underestimating their influence:
    • Only 50% strongly agree that they matter as much to their teens as they did when their children were young. Part of that perception could be a result of undervaluing their role in their teens’ lives. While 78% of parents say their teens value their guidance, 92% of teens say they want their parents’ support in making good decisions.
  • Teens benefit from hearing about their parents’ experiences growing up, even though the world is much different now.
    • 87% of parents surveyed acknowledged that things were very different when they grew up compared to today, but 72% of teens say they benefitted from hearing about the experiences their parents had when they were a teen. And “sharing their own experiences” was the #1 strategy that parents believe can help open lines of communication with their teen (71%).
  • 5 ways for improving communication
    • Talk while doing something else
    • Share your own experience
    • Create time and space for conversations
    • Minimize distractions
    • Communicate by text