A comparison of self-esteem, dogmatism and fantasy in psychiatric inpatient adolescents and their parents with non-hospitalized adolescents and their parents.

Forty in-patient adolescents and 40 non-hospitalized adolescents, comparable in age, sex, education, birth position and socioeconomic level, and their parents were administered the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, Barksdale Self-Esteem Evaluation Scale, the Singer and Antrobus Imaginal Process Inventory, and the Elms Empathic Fantasy Scale. Distinct differences were found between the in-patient adolescent and his/her parents in aspects of fantasy, empathy, dogmatism, and self-esteem, while the non-hospitalized adolescents were very similar in fantasy with both parents. In addition, both parents of the nonhospitalized adolescents had greater levels of self-esteem with less dogmatism evident in the fathers. The results are discussed in terms of the identification process and modeling, the socialization process with its suppression or reduction of taboo drive manifestations and fantasy as a means of achieving unattainable drives.