Adolescents' relations with parents and friends in the second individuation process

The purposes of the present study included designing a scale to ask adolescents in the second individuation process (Blos, 1985) the images of four target persons (mother, father, and the closest same-sex and other-sex friends), and using the resulting scale to investigate the relations between adolescents and their parents, and between adolescents and their friends. The questionnaire was completed by 821 junior and senior high school students in the early or middle stages of adolescence. From an iterated principal factor analysis, 4 factors were extracted about images of their parents : Idealization, Non-Dependence, Understanding, and Conflict, and 4 factors about images of their closest same-sex and other-sex friends : Reliability, Intimacy, Individuality, and Rivalry. The image of the adolescents' parents and of their same-sex and other-sex friends changed as the youth matured; relations between a female adolescent and her mother or closest friend were much closer than those between a male youth and his mother or closest friend. Non-Dependence on parents, and Understanding of the Mother. both accelerate Reliability and Intimacy with the same-sex friend.