CHANGES IN PARENTAL ADJUSTMENT AND COMMUNICATION DURING THE LEAVING-HOME TRANSITION

Self-report measures of personal adjustment, parent-adolescent communication and marital communication were administered, before and after college entrance, to a group of parents whose adolescents left home to reside at college and to a group of parents whose adolescents commuted to college from home. The family-stress model's hypothesis of increasing distress and changing communication patterns for parents of departing adolescents relative to parents of commuting adolescents was partially supported. Stress-model hypotheses concerning the birth position of the adolescent and the pile-up of other stressors during the launching/college entrance transition also were partially supported. Significant findings with regard to adolescents' gender suggested the need for refinements in existing family-stress models. © 1990, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.