Ferris plays truant from school and his goal is to avoid detection from his parents and his teacher. In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Parents are often unseen, distant and emotionally disconnected. Parents are often seen to be absent and obsessed with getting rich and embracing the middleclass lifestyle of the Reagan era, most notably in the Hughes' romantic comedies. Instead of setting the moral code, teachers behave just as badly as the teens. They were revealed to be arrogant and incompetent bullies, behaving at times in a negligent manner towards their students, all the while demanding that the teens behave in a moralistic and responsible way. Teachers were not portrayed as role models or educators but more as comic figures or antagonists.

In The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, adults were often portrayed in a negative light in both humorous and serious ways. Like in reality, this movies in this era portray strained relationship of adolescents with their parents and other adults. In the 1980s, teenagers were spending less time with their parents and not seeking their advice, but instead confided in their peers or siblings. The concept of the traditional family in the post-war years became fragmented, and young people were more independent and less reliant on their parents with regards to decision making and emotional support. The dramatization of the generational gap in the films reflected what was happening in modern society.

Generational divide is another topic which surfaces again and again during the 1980s teen films about teens rebelling against adult authority.

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