Child and Adolescent Interpersonal Relations with Parents, Peers, and Teachers: A Factor Analytic Investigation

Abstract

This study investigated the factor structure of the Assessment of Interpersonal Relations scale, an instrument designed to assess children's and adolescents' relationships with their mothers, fathers, male peers, female peers, and teachers. A nation-wide (USA), representative sample of 2,501 white, black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian-American children and adolescents rated their relationships with others, and their ratings were submitted to a principal components factor analysis with Varimax rotation. Results supported the theoretical structure of fhe five AIR subscales and suggest that clinicians should take care not to group parents or peers into single relationship categories, but rather to consider children's and adolescents relations with their mothers and fathers, male and female peers separately.