Perceptions of Communicative Relationships in Families with Adolescents

In this study of perceptions of interactions within the family group, both parents and one adolescent from 54 two-child middle-class families were videotaped while interacting on two set topics. Each pair of parents and their adolescent child then viewed the videotape and made ratings on the dimensions of anxiety, involvement, dominance, andfriendliness of themselves and the other family members. While there were few differences between parents, adolescents rated family members as more anxious, less involved, and less dominant than did other family members, and were rated as less dominant and less involved than other family members. Various interpretations can be made of these findings, among them that their striving for independence may require adolescents to move outside the family and adopt a more objective, outsider's view. At the same time, adolescents judged interactions to be as friendly as did their parents, indicating a desire for closeness with other family members. Otherfindings revealed that perceptions of the levels of anxiety, involvement, dominance, andfriendliness shown by family members also varied according to the sex of the adolescent and the level of marital quality in the family. In families with adolescent daughters, for example, those high in marital quality ratedfamily members as more friendly than did those low in marital quality. In families with sons, those low in marital quality rated family members as more dominant and more involved than did those high in marital quality.