Adolescent-Parent Interactions in Relation to Adolescents' Gender and Ego Development Pathway: A Longitudinal Study

Family communication patterns were examined in relation to adolescents' gender and ego development pathways using sequential analysis techniques. Thirty-two adolescents from a suburban Boston high school participated in a discussion of moral dilemmas with both their mothers and fathers. The family discussions were scored with the Constraining and Enabling Coding System. During the following 4 years, the adolescents' levels of ego development were assessed with the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test. Sequential and nonsequential analyses revealed variations in family communication patterns associated with adolescent gender, parent gender, and adolescent ego development pathway. Family communication patterns that suggest separation occurred more often with conformist pathway sons and post conformist pathway daughters, while communication patterns that suggest closeness occurred more often with conformist pathway daughters and post conformist pathway sons. The results are discussed in terms of recent work on gender-role socialization and adolescent psychosocial development.