Dimensions of the Ideal Family as Perceived by Adolescents
type: CreativeWork
description: Problem The purpose of this study was to Identify the types of family concept held by different groups of adolescents in thirteen selected high schools in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Could the adoles­cents' concepts of the ideal family be described in terms of a number of factors? If there were basic factors, how would they compare with those previously identified by van der Veen in his study of disturbed adolescents? Were there differences in the ideal family concept when the adolescents were compared according to grade in school, church mem­bership, sex, race, residential location, and number of parents? With the answers to these questions, various helping organizations in the community can formulate realistic family life curricula as well as lay the groundwork and foundation for strong families in the future. Method This study employed the descriptive method involving factor analysis, the t-test of significance between means, one-way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance, and discriminant analysis. Seven hypotheses were advanced for testing. A panel of experts helped determine the descriptors for the dimensions identi­fied by factor analysis. The data came from 123 randomly selected ninth and twelfth graders from seven Seventh-day Adventist academies and six public senior high schools. There were 66 males and 57 females. Eighty-seven of the subjects were white and 35 were non-whites. Rural, urban, and suburban residential locations were represented in the study. The majority of the subjects lived with both parents. The Family Concept Test developed by van der Veen was used to measure the adolescents' viewpoints on different aspects of the ideal family. The responses were indicated by rating how much each of the 80 statements were like what they wanted their ideal family to be on a scale of 0 to 8. The data were entered, processed, and analyzed. Findings Twelve independent but psychologically meaningful factors were identified after a varima…
abstract: Problem The purpose of this study was to Identify the types of family concept held by different groups of adolescents in thirteen selected high schools in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Could the adoles­cents' concepts of the ideal family be described in terms of a number of factors? If there were basic factors, how would they compare with those previously identified by van der Veen in his study of disturbed adolescents? Were there differences in the ideal family concept when the adolescents were compared according to grade in school, church mem­bership, sex, race, residential location, and number of parents? With the answers to these questions, various helping organizations in the community can formulate realistic family life curricula as well as lay the groundwork and foundation for strong families in the future. Method This study employed the descriptive method involving factor analysis, the t-test of significance between means, one-way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance, and discriminant analysis. Seven hypotheses were advanced for testing. A panel of experts helped determine the descriptors for the dimensions identi­fied by factor analysis. The data came from 123 randomly selected ninth and twelfth graders from seven Seventh-day Adventist academies and six public senior high schools. There were 66 males and 57 females. Eighty-seven of the subjects were white and 35 were non-whites. Rural, urban, and suburban residential locations were represented in the study. The majority of the subjects lived with both parents. The Family Concept Test developed by van der Veen was used to measure the adolescents' viewpoints on different aspects of the ideal family. The responses were indicated by rating how much each of the 80 statements were like what they wanted their ideal family to be on a scale of 0 to 8. The data were entered, processed, and analyzed. Findings Twelve independent but psychologically meaningful factors were identified after a varima…
author: Wong, Lily Hok-Neo
keywords: Family, Ideal, Perceptions, Adolescents, Family, Life Course, and Society, Social and Behavioral Sciences
date published: 1976-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:53:07Z
provider: Andrews University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Andrews University