Browsing by Subject "Youth -- Family relationships"
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Item Effects of marital and cross generational alliances on the adjustment and separation of late adolescents(Texas Tech University, 1986-05) Garner, Holly DeniseSeveral hypotheses about healthy family functioning have been proposed by various family theorists. One widely held belief is that the marital relationship should be the strongest, most important one in the family, and the relationship between parent and child should be less intense and separate from the marital relationship if the family is to function effectively. Parent-child coalitions are believed especially harmful when late adolescents attempt to separate from their families and form separate identities. The Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems proposes several hypotheses regarding healthy family functioning. Healthy families are believed to have central (balanced) levels of cohesion and adaptability, while dysfunctional families have low or high extremes of these two dimensions. The Model also proposes that strong marital alliances are characteristic of families with balanced levels of cohesion, and parent-child coalitions occur in families with extremely high levels of cohesion. The present study tested three hypotheses using a sample of late adolescents who are just beginning the separation process (i.e., freshmen college students). The first hypothesis predicted that students whose parents form the primary relationship in the family would be better adjusted and more psychologically separated from their parents than students involved in a cross-generational alliance with a parent. No significant differences between groups were found; the hypothesis was not supported. The second hypothesis predicted that students whose families are balanced on cohesion and adaptability would score higher on adjustment and psychological separation than students whose families are extreme on the two dimensions. Significant differences were found between groups, but were not in the predicted direction. Students from families with high extremes of cohesion and adaptability scored highest on adjustment and psychological separation, with students from families with low extremes of the two dimensions scoring lowest. The third hypothesis predicted that more students whose parents form the primary relationship would have families with balanced levels of cohesion, and more students from parent-child coalition families would score extremely high on cohesion. No significant differences between groups were found. Discussion of these results included possible explanations for the findings and suggestions for further research.Item Family relationships and social competence during late adolescence: a longitudinal study(Texas Tech University, 1988-12) Sun, Sheh-weiThis study examined the associations between family relationships and social competence at two different points of time during late adolescence. Three hypotheses were formulated: (1) the association between family relationships and social competence is stronger at time 1 than at time 2; (2) family relationships at time 1 are positively related to social competence at time 2; (3) family relationship variables are more important than family structure variables in predicting social competence at both times of measurement. Gender differences in changes in family relationships and social competence over time were also explored. Questionnaires were first completed by 1,437 freshman students at the University of Arizona during summer preregistration or during fall semester, 1980. A total of 225 students (86 males, 139 females) at the University of Arizona were recontacted during spring semester, 1984. The family relationship measures included closeness to father, closeness to mother, low parental intrusiveness, and contentment at home. The social competence measures included social self-esteem/social competence, masculinity, femininity, shyness, satisfaction and importance of opposite-sex relationships, and satisfaction and importance of same-sex relationships. A series of canonical correlation analyses were performed to test the three hypotheses for males and females separately. A series of correlated sample t-tests and one-way analyses of variance were performed to examine gender differences in changes in family relationships and social competence over time. Overall, the results supported the first hypothesis for males, the second hypothesis for females, and the third hypothesis for both. There were also notable gender differences in family relationships and social competence over time. Taken together, these results suggest that males and females have different experiences in separating from the family. For males, after leaving home, family ties gradually diminish, for females, family ties are more strongly maintained. However, for all students, there were positive correlations between family relationships and social competence during both time periods. Recommendations for future research include developmental studies which examine the sequence and characteristics of the parent-adolescent separation process for males and females, studies which examine the parent-adolescent separation process with a more diverse late adolescent population, and studies which explore additional qualitative aspects of the parent-adolescent relationships in association with adolescent developmental characteristics.