Effects of the Parental Coalition on Adolescent Emancipation From the Family

This study examined the relationship between late adolescents' perception of their parents' marital coalition and academic success as a college freshman. The hypothesis was tested that late adolescents from families with a primary cross‐generational bond (e.g., mother‐son) have more difficulty emancipating from the family than offspring from families in which mother and father are the primary dyadic alliance in the family. Academic success as a college freshman was utilized as one measure of the late adolescents' success in separating from the family. The subjects were 36 18–year‐old freshman males placed on academic probation and 36 passing males matched on ethnicity and SAT scores. The principal results were that subjects reporting a primary marital alliance were more likely to succeed academically and were more internal on the Rotter I‐E scale than subjects who reported a nonmarital alliance as primary. The findings provide support for the theory of structural family relations, and clarify familial processes that affect late adolescent emancipation from the family.