Introduction

In relationships between parents and children all the components can be found that normally characterize interpersonal relationships. However, these components retreat into the background when a closer look is taken at the special features of this relationship. The parent–child relationship displays a number of characteristics that make it fundamentally different from other social relationships. The following contribution sketches out interaction and communication between parents and children during two different age phases that are generally regarded as crucial for the further development of the child: childhood and adolescence. These two age phases can also be taken as examples of how research into early childhood first concentrated solely on the isolated dyadic relationship between mother and child, or in the case of adolescence, how investigations, before interest grew in the parent–child relationship, focused on the individual child and the developmental process of its autonomy, its self, and its orientation toward peers. Finally, the question of how the parent–child relationship is embedded within the whole family is covered, that is, the overall framework that modifies the particular mother–child and father–child relationships.

Special features of the parent–child relationship

How do parent–child relationships differ in comparison to other relationships such as friendship, marriage, and teacher–student relationships? Relationships between children in particular are often highlighted as a counterpart to the parent–child relationship (Youniss, 1980) and are viewed as particularly important for development.