The relationships between support system failures and college students' ratings of self and family: do they vary across family configuration?

In the present study, 130 college students voluntarily described the support system failures they encountered during their childhood and/or adolescence through their responses on the Personal History Inventory and their ratings of self and family on the Personal Attribute Inventory. Significant direct relationships were found between the level of support system failures and the negativeness expressed in their ratings of both self and family. Notably, however, these significant relationships applied only to individuals from intact families, and not those from families divided either by parental divorce or death of a parent. Possible explanations are offered to account for these findings.