Young adults' evaluations of themselves and their parents as a function of family structure and disposition

Young adults (N=349) were asked to evaluate, in a counterbalanced fashion, their mothers, fathers, and themselves. They also evaluated their families. Individuals from "happy" families were found to rate themselves significantly higher and their mothers somewhat higher than did their counterparts from "unhappy" families. Evaluations of fathers were not found to vary as a function of family happiness. Evaluations of fathers, but not mothers or subjects themselves, were found to vary significantly depending upon the structure of their family environments. Heider's attribution theory seems to be able to account for these varied findings.