Single-parent families with adolescents: structure, functioning and relationships

The aim of this research is to examine stucture, functionig and relationships of single-parent families with 12-16 year-old adolescents, after separation or divorce. Dependent variable is adjustment and well-being of single-parent family; indipendent variables are family boundary ambiguity, family communication, parental access and parental conflict and resolution, In particular, the hypotesis is tha adjustment and weel-being are correlated at level of ambiguity of single-families boundaries, at level of communication, at degree of conflict and type of resolution and at how much non-custodial parent is important in the life of this child. The sample is constitued by 100 single-parent families with adolescents selected with the cooperation of the local school. The instrument is a self-report questionnaire in two versions administered to adolescents and parents. This questionnaire is composed of socialdemographics questions, Measurement of Boundary Ambiguity in Families (Boss, Greenberg, Pearce-McCall), Olson's Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale, Rosemberg Self-Esteem Scale, Child Behavior Checklist. Moreover parents completed Disagreement Scale and Prent-Parent Relationship Scale (Charman & Honess). Refering to the work of Scabini (1991) and Fisher (1985), the scheme for data analysis provides individual and relational levels and a multivariate analysis. Data are now being processed.