Gender differences in family interactions, developmental changes in interactional patterns, and the relationship between interactional patterns and academic performance are explored longitudinally over the course of middle to late adolescence in a sample of 72 high school students and their parents. Parent and adolescent interactions are evaluated each year in a semi-structured revealed differences discussion. Each speech from the discussion is coded using a micro-analytic coding scheme to assess separateness and connectedness based on the individuation model of adolescent-family development. Analyses reveal gender and family structure differences in family interactions. In two-parent families, the mother-daughter dyad stands apart by displaying fewer separating behaviors than any other dyad. In single-parent families, the mother-son dyad stands apart in demonstrating more connecting behaviors. The developmental pattern of behaviors over the course of middle to late adolescence does not support previously held notions about the inevitability or desirability of increased separation and decreased connection between parents and adolescents as adolescents approach adulthood. Predictive analyses reveal more striking gender differences than descriptive analyses. In two-parent families with daughters, mothers' and daughters' communications predict daughters' grades, generally supporting predictions based on the individuation model. Connecting behaviors are most important during periods of transition, while separating communications are most positively predictive of academic performance during the more stable mid-high school period. Fathers' behaviors do not show utility in predicting daughters' grades, but are important in predicting their daughters' academic improvement over the course of high school. The relationship between family interaction and academic competence is less strong in families with sons and results are not consistent with predictions based on the individuation model. In contrast to families with daughters, separateness and connectedness are inversely associated with academic achievement in boys. In single-parent families, less mother-daughter separateness is associated with daughters' academic success, while more separating behaviors and fewer connecting behaviors are associated with academic success in single-parent families with sons. The importance of examining individual characteristics as mediating variables in understanding the impact of family process is highlighted and implications for developmental theory are considered.

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Intimacy is an important aspect of human life. Little is known, however, about cultural differences of concepts of intimacy from a developmental perspective. Individuals' capacities for concepts of intimacy are manifested by their Social Cognitive Development stages. The main purpose of this dissertation is to examine cultural differences of concepts of intimacy and Social Cognitive Developmental stages in American and Chinese young adults. The first chapter reviews relevant literature; cross-cultural methodological considerations and suggestions for future intimacy research are also addressed. The second chapter describes an empirical study to test the cultural differences of concepts of intimacy and perspective taking abilities in American and Chinese female university students; it also examines whether the results of the relationship between concepts of relationships and perspective taking abilities support Selman's (1980) assumptions. Twelve white Americans from the U.S. and twelve Taiwan Chinese participated. Based on the structure of Selman's (1980, p. 322-323) "friends dilemma" (adolescent and adult version), four dilemmas (same-sex, opposite-sex, boyfriend-girlfriend and mother-daughter) were developed in English and then translated into Chinese. Selman's (1980) model was applicable but not all data were described in his model; traditional concepts of relations stages and perspective taking levels were found. The quantitative results found significant differences in American and Chinese subjects' concepts of relations stages but not in perspective taking levels. Significant differences were found on the lowest CR scores on general questions and across domains and on the frequency distributions of concepts of relations stages. American subjects gave a higher percentage of CR 2 and CR 2/3 stages scores than their Chinese counterparts. The qualitative data analysis found similarities and differences in American and Chinese subjects' concepts of intimacy; some differences were related to cultural norms. The results of this study do not support Selman's assumption that perspective taking levels are a "necessary but not sufficient" condition for the same parallel concepts of relations stages. Perspective taking levels and concepts of relations stages could be two ways of measuring the same constructs. Implications, suggestions for future studies, limitations, and applications for interventions are also addressed.

Interviews were conducted with twenty-one adults who were between the ages of 18 and 25 when their parents divorced. In depth interviews, which included discussion about past family life, took place an average of seven and up to eighteen years after the divorce occurred. The psychoanalytic concept of adolescence as a second individuation was used to conceptualize how the sense of self that offspring have established prior to the divorce is an important mediator of their experience. Most offspring appeared to experience parents ending their relationship as ending the family and declaring it a failure. That divorce was often interpreted as an act of parental will was seen to compromise offsprings' ability to mourn the loss of their families. Most offspring conveyed an unarticulated discontinuity between the past and the present which was conceptualized as the "family ghost." Renegotiating relationships with parents was the only universal experience of all participants. Changes in relationships with fathers usually involved distance and closeness; changing relationships with mothers included renegotiating dynamics of triangulation and boundaries, and for daughters, sharing with mothers as now single women. It was observed that complications in parental relationships after the divorce compounded the internal work of individuation. At the same time, unresolved narcissistic or dependency needs complicated renegotiating current parental relationships. Divorce was seen to potentially complicate recovery for offspring from problematic families. These offspring still seemed occupied with dyadic relationships with parents and with an uncertain sense of self. In contrast, offspring from more harmonious backgrounds appeared to have achieved greater emotional independence but still missed the lost family. Finally, the impact of divorce on the renegotiation of oedipal issues and the consolidation of a triadic level of relatedness is discussed. It is suggested that there is a gap between object relations and systemic theory in terms of how the family is internally represented.

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