A Study of Youth and Adolescent's Needs and Their Relationship with Family Cohesion and Flexibility (A Case Study of Shirazi Youth and Adolescents)

The purpose of the present study was to investigate youth and adolescents’ needs and their relationship with family cohesion and flexibility. In this survey research the instrumentation consisted of questionnaires. Population of the study comprised all Shirazi adolescents and youth and the sample size was computed to be 888 based on Lin’s Table (with a 95% confidence interval and a margin of error of 3%). The questionnaires were administered to the subjects who were selected through multi-stage stratified-random sampling method. Factor analysis was used for primary analysis of the data and validation of the questionnaires. The results indicated that adolescents and youth’s needs can be classified into 5 and 8 factors, respectively. Moreover, the findings revealed “esteem and cognitive” needs among adolescents and the “need for confidence in future” among the youth obtained maximum means. In the case of adolescents, there was a positive significant relationship between family cohesion and the “belonging/love need” and there was a negative significant relationship between family flexibility and “esteem and cognitive” needs. In the case of the youth, family cohesion had a positive association with cognitive, aesthetic, and altruism needs; whereas there was a negative significant relation between family flexibility and “belonging, altruism, and esteem” needs.