Core Family Process Measures in the NLSY97: Variation by Gender, Race, Income, and Family Structure.

This article uses data from the NLSY97 to provide a descriptive portrait of core family process measures—family routines, parent-youth relationship, parental monitoring, control and autonomy in parenting adolescents, parenting style, and the parents' marital relationship. This research contributes to our understanding of how family processes vary by gender, race, household income, and family structure. The comparisons were performed using analysis of variance. We found that adolescents with single mothers reported fewer family routines; adolescents reported better relationships with their mothers than their fathers; and adolescents reported less control over limit setting than their parents reported but reported more limit breaking than their parents. Finally, most adolescents reported their parents had an authoritative parenting style. Other findings with respect to gender, race, and income, as well as some interaction effects, were also indicated by the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]