Adolescence is an important period of development for adolescents because of the adaptations to which they are forced to conform, including physical, emotional, cognitive changes and social. Adolescents are given various developmental tasks that are often difficult to complete when faced with stressors such as these changes. A task is to find yourself or your identity. Adolescent identity is a construction of drives, abilities, beliefs and individual history (Marcia, 1980). In addition to the search for a personal identity, it is important for adolescents to establish their autonomy in their social context. As their interactions with peers change, so do their family relationships. However, the family context is very important with regard to adolescent development. The quality of relationships between adolescents and their families greatly influences their self-esteem, their ability to adapt and their relationships with others. Conversely, the quality of relationships between adolescents and their families is often influenced by the number, birth order, and age spacing of siblings within the family. It is essential that families understand this developmental period to help adolescents adapt to these various changes. This raises the question: what role does family play in adolescent development? It is important to consider the environment in which a teenager is raised. Parenting styles help explain adolescent behavior. If an adolescent is raised in a safe and secure environment with parents who exhibit authoritarian characteristics that promote an open and warm atmosphere, adolescents are more mature and psychosocially competent (Yeh, 2003). These types of parents balance two very important tasks: They help p...... middle of paper ...... respondents, there is the potential for bias that could significantly skew the data I collected. Finally, it would have been more advantageous to interview a brother or sister of the teenager. I could then have explored the perspectives of the three roles within the family: the parent, the sibling and the adolescent. From my research and interviews, I concluded that parents act as the most influential force during adolescent development. More research is needed on the role of siblings in adolescent development. Adolescents exhibit behaviors based on influences that emerge from the family context. This environment incorporates many different factors, including the number, age spacing, and birth order of siblings within the family. These factors, along with parental models, constitute a bidirectional relationship in adolescent development..