This is a picture of a girl having conflict with her mom. The adolescence is getting ready to graduate and go off to college and her mom is treating her as if she is a baby and won't allow her to grow up. Margaret Mahler is the theorist behind Separation/Individuation Theory. This theory explains how the teen is trying to separate from the parent and be dependent at the same time.
Autonomy from parents is the ability to regulate one’s own behavior and to select and guide one’s own decisions and actions without undue control from or dependence on one’s parents. Autonomy isn’t simply a teens need to behave without parental restrictions, it is about “feeling independently and thinking independently. The teenage years are hard on everyone, but especially the child themselves. They are aware that they will become a contributor to society (industry) and the search for who they are drives their actions and thoughts. The desire to know what it is they want and believe, separate from what they’ve adopted from their parents, is crucial to their self confidence. The Systems Theory emphasizes the multidimensional sources of influence on individuals and the simultaneous influence on individuals on the systems of which they are apart. Changes in one family member are accompanied by changes in the others. When a child graduates and goes off to college, everyone else in the family has to adjust to the change.