Family System Dynamics, Gender, and Psychosocial Maturity in Late Adolescence

Abstract

The tolerance for individuality, intimacy, and interpersonal differences within the family's relational system were assessed as indicators of family system differentiation. These indicators of differentiation within the parent/adolescent and marital relationships were examined, through adolescent reports, aspredictors ofpsychosocial maturity in a sample of late adolescents. The research also examined gender of adolescent and gender ofparent as independent and interactive moderators of developmental maturity. The hypothesis, that adolescents who perceived high levels of differentiation within the parent/adolescent and marital relationships would report higher levels ofpsychosocial maturity than would adolescents who perceive those relationships as less differentiated, was confirmed. In addition, interactions of gender and family system were found in which, most notably, the lowestpsychosocial maturity scores were reportedformalesfromfamilies characterized by less differentiated manrital subsystems and a problematic mother/son relationship.