Late adolescents' conceptualizations of home-leaving

Separation from the family, a key developmental task, has received scant attention from developmentalists. In this study, college students' dissimilarity ratings and ratings on 22 bipolar adjective scales were obtained for a set of 20 definitions of home-leaving. Results of a cluster analysis revealed that conceptualizations of the definitions are organized in terms of eight clusters. Ratings on the 22 adjective scales provided an empirical means for interpreting the typological structure of the home-leaving definitions. Convergence the results of this inductive study of home-leaving and elements of ego development theory was noted.Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1979. Major research interests are moral development, parent-adolescent separation, and attribution theory.Received Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1979. Major research interests are parent-adolescent separation, attitudes/values in adolescence, and evaluation research.