Contemporary Parenting: The Construction of Autonomy in the Parent-Child Relationship

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the process of construction of autonomy in parent-child practices, trying to understand the roles played by parents and their children in this process. We conducted a qualitative research study based on 132 interviews with parents, children (7-12 years), and adolescents (13-18 years), who were members of middle class families of different configurations living in the city of Rio de Janeiro. During the analysis of construction of autonomy, the following categories emerged from the narratives of respondents: Parenting exercise and gender; flexibility; emotional democracy; transgressions and ruptures; and anxiety of parents towards their child-ren's autonomy process. We found that individuals participate in an interplay and act reciprocally, influencing one another at different levels. We concluded that the construction of autonomy is an interindividual process involving all family members. This process includes a corpus of experiences of everyday parenting practices.