DISCUSSION

Overall, there was no significant three-way interaction between gender, family type and number of siblings as they relate to the assertion of autonomy. The lower order of interactions reflected this non-significance except the main effect of gender was significant.

Also, there was a significant three-way interaction between these variables as they relate to the emotional reliance scale. All three two-way interactions were not significant but they were also all potentially misleading for females. The only significant main effect was gender.

Both the main effects of gender are significant, replicating the previous research that females typically have higher emotional reliance, and males typically have higher assertion of autonomy. However, contrary to previous research this study showed no significant relationship between family structure and autonomy. Perhaps this is because the previous research compared single mothers, to two biological parents, or perhaps the previous study was done with youth, while this study was with college-age students.

This study demonstrated that the combination of gender, family type and the number of siblings have an impact on a person's emotional reliance, but not necessarily their autonomy. In the future it would be interesting to research the effects of gender, family type, and number of siblings on a person's dependency as a whole. This study used two of the interpersonal dependency inventory subscales, perhaps future research can use all subscales, or even compare different measures of dependency. It would also be interesting to see how this changes before and after a person moves out of their parent's house.

Home Intro Method Results Discussion Tables