Rapporto con la famiglia e sviluppo del concetto di sé in adolescenza [family relationship and self concept development in adolescence]

The aim of this study was to investigate associations between family relationships and self-concept in adolescence. Specifically, we investigated how adolescent attachment (expressed by levels of trust, communication, and alienation; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987) to both parents is associated with self-concept clarity (Campbell, 1990), that indicates the extent to which self beliefs are clear, internally consistent and stable. Participants were 2113 Italian adolescents (979 boys and 1134 girls), with ages ranging between 11 and 18 years (1023 were attending junior high schools and 1090 were attending high schools). Participants filled out the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Nada-Raja, McGee, & Stanton, 1992) and the Self-Concept Clarity Scale (Campbell, Trapnell, Heine, Katz, Lavalle, & Lehman, 1996). Main findings of the multivariate analyses of variance indicated that quality of paternal and maternal relationships worsened during adolescence: trust in both parents and quality of communication with them was lower among older adolescents, that reported also higher levels of alienation. Second, self-concept clarity varied as a function of both gender and age (i.e., self-concept clarity increased over time for male adolescents, whereas it decreased for female adolescents). Results of regression analyses pointed out that paternal and maternal trust were positively related to self-concept clarity, whereas paternal and maternal alienation and maternal communication were negatively linked to it. A further exploration of these associations within gender and age adolescent groups highlighted that within the younger adolescent category paternal and maternal relationships were related to self-concept clarity in both male and female groups. On the contrary, within the older adolescent category only paternal attachment was related to boys’ self-concept clarity and only maternal attachment was linked to girls’ self-concept clarity.