This learning guide is designed to connect personal, family, and job responsibilities for adults and out-of-school youth in economically depressed areas of the state (including transitional ex-offenders and corrections populations) so that these individuals learn to manage and balance these aspects of their lives in order to prepare for or continue successful employment. This learning guide contains five competency units that provide information on parenting skills for parents of teenagers. The competency units cover the following topics: (1) expectations for the physical, mental, emotional, and social development of adolescents; (2) ways to assist adolescents in their development; (3) differences in family situations that affect parenting; (4) appropriate methods of coping with stress; and (5) supportive services available to parents. Each competency unit consists of learner outcomes, key ideas, definitions, teaching strategies and methods, and suggested learning activities. Thirteen supplements include information and activity sheets on the following: adolescent development; minute dramas illustrating typical problems; case studies; parent reactions to typical situations with teenagers; children in one-parent families; single parents; and stress and stress reduction. A bibliography lists 19 references. The Illinois goals for world-class education for the 21st century also are included. (KC)