The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between family problem solving and the adolescent's individual problem solving ability. Thirty volunteer families and their adolescents played a problem solving game and completed an instrument to identify family type. Parents also completed a measure of attitudes toward child rearing practices and their adolescents completed three Piagetian problem solving tasks as well as measures of self-esteem and locus of control. Effective and ineffective problem solving families were identified based upon scores of a laboratory problem solving situation. Results of the data analysis indicated no significant differences in family type, adolescent problem solving ability, or adolescent self-esteem between the two family groups. However, adolescents from effective problem solving families were significantly more internally directed than were those from ineffective problem solving families. Authoritarian child rearing practices showed a significant negative correlation with the adolescents' problem solving scores. / Adolescents from effective problem solving families showed significant positive association between internal locus of control and problem solving ability; this correlation was positive, but not significant for adolescents from the ineffective group. There was a trend toward higher scores on the self-esteem measure and family problem solving ability for adolescents in the effective group, but an opposite trend was evident for adolescents from ineffective problem solving families, as these adolescents tended to score lower on self-esteem as family problem solving scores increased. Self-esteem and individual problem solving ability were positively correlated for the adolescents in the effective group, but this relationship was negative and nonsignificant for adolescents in the ineffective group. Trends also indicate that adolescents from effective problem solving families solve concrete, practical problems which are most often learned within the family context more effectively than those adolescents from ineffective problem solving families. Both groups did less well on tasks involving more abstract, science-related content. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-08, Section: A, page: 2664. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75353 |
| Contributors | ALLEN, KAY LORD., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 153 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.0021 seconds