Social Networks Among Early Adolescent Zimbabweans in Extended Families

Abstract

This project examined the impact of extended family organizational patterns on adolescents' perceptions of their social networks. The sample was 13- to 15-year-old Zimbabwean adolescents residing in traditional extended families and modified extended families (N = 128). The instrument used in the investigation was the Network of Relationships Inventory. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance was conducted with sex (boys vs. girls) and type of extended family (modified vs. traditional) treated as between-group factors and type of relationship (mother, father, favorite other adult relative, teacher, best friend, and favorite sibling) as a within-subjects factor. Adolescents in traditional extended families perceived themselves as receiving higher levels of intimacy from their family and conflict/discipline from all members of their social network in comparison to their counterparts living in modified extended families. In contrast, participants in modified extended families rated nonfamily ta...