Savannah Boele

Chapter 2 70 and measurement-timescale fit). The studies utilized various timescales, from seconds to years, although most studies focused on macro- longitudinal parenting processes. Carefully designing studies with micro and macro timescales would open up possibilities to assess how real-time and every-day processes between parents and children result in divergent patterns of developmental change in adaptation and ultimately stable differences between individuals (Back et al., 2011). However, which timescale can and needs to be included in the research design is a conceptual and methodological question, the answer to which may vary according to different parenting practices. For example, the extent to which a parent exerts behavioral control may not vary from moment- to-moment but could fluctuate over a longer time, such as from month-to-month. Currently, many parenting theories do not specify the timescale(s) at which processes unfold, let alone how the timescales mutually affect each other through bottom-up and top-down causality (but see Granic & Patterson, 2006). Therefore, the first challenge is to extend parenting theories to derive explicit notions regarding the critical time window in which dynamic parenting processes can be observed. Moreover, the amount of fluctuation within families and the variance that can be observed within families can depend on the fit of the measurement with the timescale. For example, when examining moment-to-moment fluctuations, items tapping into concrete behaviors that can appear in momentary states (e.g., my parent listened care- fully to me) might be most appropriate, whereas measures tapping into aggregates of behavior (e.g., my parent was supportive the last 3 months) might be most appropriate at larger timescales. Thus, in addition to extending theoretical ideas, the first methodological challenge is to think carefully about whether measures are sensitive (enough) to pick up the dynamic processes at the timescale of observation. The second conceptual-methodological factor that warrants more attention is the reciprocity between children and their parents. Despite the fact that developmental psychologists acknowledge that parenting is not a one-directional process (Pardini, 2008) and that children play an active role in determining parenting practices (Stattin & Kerr, 2000), the current systematic review indicated that, to date, only a limited number of studies have examined reciprocal processes of parenting and adolescent adaptation. To obtain a more accurate understanding of parenting processes within families, it is crucial to study reciprocal effects that can establish whether it is the parent affecting the child or whether the adolescent triggers changes in parenting or both. Third, despite the possibility of heterogeneity in how parenting affects adolescent adaptation and vice versa, it is not yet a common practice to explore and explain heterogeneity in within-family parenting processes. Through modeling random multivariate slopes,

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