Family Structure and Communication in Adolescence:

“Examination with Family Stress”

Abstract

　　Family structure was investigated with cohesion, power, interest relation, and openness for three dyadic relationships (marital, father-adolescent, mother-adolescent). The author examined family structure with communication between each subsystem and family stress perceived by adolescent. Participants were 283 adolescents (104 men and 179 women). Given the results that showed difference on variables for child gender, cluster analyses were conducted separately for men and women to type family structure. The most frequent open communication between each family members and positive mother-mediated communication by and the lowest family stress perceived by child were found in families with male adolescent where high cohesion and low interest, balanced power among family members exist and in families with female adolescent where low interest and balanced power among family members with high cohesive marital relationship exist. We also confirmed the association between family structure and communication for the most part. Implications for the relation between family structure and family communication in adolescence are discussed.