A Comparison of the Relational Bond of Adolescents from the Different Types of Family

Abstract

The contribution deals with the relational bond issues of adolescents who grow up in a complete nuclear family or in a single-parent family and in a children´s home. Elements of attachment theory have been embraced by the practitioners endeavoring to assist foster and adopted children and their parents. The E.M.B.U questionnaire is used as a methodological tool that assesses perceived parental rearing style, comprising 3 sub scales (Emotional Warmth, Rejection, Over-protection). The survey sample consisted of the total of 110 respondents; 35,5% of the respondents from a complete nuclear family, 18,2 % of the respondents being raised in a single-parent family and 46,2 % of the respondents who have grown up in a children´s home. The primary results show that the respondents from the complete families perceive the mother and father as emotionally warm-hearted, less rejecting and overprotective. On the contrary, children from the children´s homes perceive the parents as more rejecting, less emotional warm-hearted and less overprotective. Professionals who approach their work from the paradigm of attachment theories may incorporate ideas from earlier work to integrate an understanding of the attachment between family members and behavioral interventions that help to modify parent – child relationships (Greenberg & Speltz, 1988; Speltz, 1990; Scott, 2003).