Adolescents' perception of the ideal mate: Its relationship to parental characteristics in intact and nonintact families

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Abstract

The relation of adolescents' experiencing parental divorce, their perception of parents' characteristics, and their perception of the ideal mate's characteristics was investigated. One hundred adolescents from intact families and 79 from nonintact families were asked to rank both the degree to which each of 40 personality traits characterized their parents and the degree to which each characterized an ideal partner. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between adolescents from intact and nonintact families in the independence of their characterizations of their ideal mate and of their parents. However, differences were found on some of the personality dimensions that were investigated. These and other findings are discussed within the framework of psychoanalytic theory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)389-396
Number of pages8
JournalAdolescence
Volume39
Issue number154
StatePublished - Jun 2004

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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