Family Structure and Parent-Adolescent Relationships: Does Family Structure Really Make a Difference?

Abstract

Data from a large sample of older adolescent respondents was used to examine the effects of family size, birth order, sibling gender, and sibling spacing upon perceptions of parentadolescent relationships. Using the analysis of techniques of past studies, significant associations were found for family size, birth order, and spacing, although the effect sizes were quite small. When the data were analyzed in afactorial design with multivariate tests of the criterion variables, there was little evidence that family structure has a significant impact upon adolescents' views of their relationships with their parents.