Young,middle, and late adolescents' comparisons of the functional importance of five significant relationships

The present study investigated how young (11–13-year-old), middle (14–16-year-old), and late (17–19-year-old) adolescents compared the relative functional importance of their relationships with their mother, their father, their most important sibling, their best same-sex friend, and their most important teacher. Mothers and fathers were perceived as highly important sources of affection, instrumental aid, and reliable alliance by all adolescents; however, the parent-adolescent child relationship was also ranked high on the conflict dimension. Best same-sex friends were ranked highest in all three adolescent groups for intimacy and companionship. Siblings, too, were perceived as important sources of intimacy and companionship; they were also ranked high for the nurturance and conflict dimensions. Relationships with teachers received very low ratings in general.This study was made possible by a grant to the authors by the National Institute of Mental Health, grant 1 RO1 MH42858-01A1, and by funding through the Home Economics Research Institute of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station, Iowa State University.The first author received his Ph.D. degree in 1976 from the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota. His area of specialization is developmental psychology. He is a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011. The second author received her Ph.D degree in 1987 from Iowa State University; her area of specialization is educational measuremenl and statistics. She is the teacher specialist for research, testing and evaluation for the Ames Community Schools system, and a research associate at Iowa State University. Both authors share an interest in studying the effects of stress factors on adolescent development and educational achievement.