Abstract

This work describes a research made on families in which the parents split during the adolescence of their children. The sample consists of 70 adolescents belonging to split families compared with a control group of 70 adolescents belonging to united families. In particular the author, using an ordinal scale made of 21 adjectives, investigates the adolescent self-perception and the way this perception is influenced by the actual status of the family. The results account for differences between the two groups with reference to the self-image feature that is in relation to the external world: the split families children show a perception of reduced opening to social relationships both in the actual and in the eventual appraisal.