ADOLESCENTS IN POSTDIVORCE AND ALWAYS-MARRIED FAMILIES - SELF-ESTEEM AND PERCEPTIONS OF FATHERS INTEREST

Relationships between adolescents' reports of their fathers' interest in them, fathers' interest in the adolescent relative to a sibling (differential interest), and adolescent self-esteem were explored in postdivorce, mother-headed families and in two-parent, always-married families. Analyses of variance revealed lower self-esteem among adolescents in two-parent/low-interest families than among adolescents in other family contexts. Adolescents in two-parent families who perceived their fathers as more interested in their siblings had lower self-esteem than adolescents who said that their fathers were as interested in them as in their siblings; this pattern did not appear in postdivorce families. No difference in self-esteem by family structure was found.