ABSTRACT
This chapter explains variation between different family members' appraisals of adolescent adjustment by relating these to the concerns each expresses about the adolescent's future. It presents a description of the concerns articulated by different family members. The chapter examines an inter-rater analysis of the adolescent's current adjustment problems and discusses the relationship between areas of concern and adjustment scores. A complementary pattern was evident for reports of family members concerns about the coming year for the adolescent. The concerns expressed by family members support the hypothesis of greater overlap within the parent family subsystem. The parents' concerns about their children's poor attitude appear to drive their assessment of adjustment difficulties; whereas the adolescent appears to be more influenced by concerns about personal relationships outside of the family system. Adolescents predict the pattern for their parents although they underestimate the number of relationship statements that are made by fathers.
