Abstract
In order to provide a fuller and more satisfying description of the significant others in the social world of an adolescent, the Social Relations Questionnaire was developed and then administered to almost 3000 seventh-through tenth-graders in a midwestern suburban school district. The sample was randomly split in half and analyses were run on both halves separately to test for replicability. Results indicated that parents and siblings are almost always listed as significant others by adolescents in all four grade levels. Furthermore, the majority of adolescents listed at least one extended family adult and at least one nonrelated adult as important in their lives. The nonrelated adults lived closer to the adolescents and were seen more frequently and in more contexts than extended family members. Fewer extended family adults were listed in the older grades. Females listed more significant others than males both overall and in terms of both same- and opposite-sex nonrelated young people. As hypothesize, an increasing number of opposite-sex young people was listed as a function of grade level. Most nonrelated young people listed (a loose definition of peers) were from the same grade, same school, and same neighborhood as the respondent. The authors conclude that age-segregation in this community is not extreme (over 40% of the significant others listed were adults) and that the Social Relations Questionnaire provides a useful and holistic description of an adolescent's social world.
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Received Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1977. Current research interests are the impact of school environment and physical development on early adolescents' psychosocial development and interpersonal relationships.
Received Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1964. Current interest is the developmental social psychology of adolescence, especially at and around puberty.
Received Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1980. Current research interest is intimacy in adolescence.
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Blyth, D.A., Hill, J.P. & Thiel, K.S. Early adolescents' significant others: Grade and gender differences in perceived relationships with familial and nonfamilial adults and young people. J Youth Adolescence 11, 425–450 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01538805
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01538805