This is a descriptive study, which evaluates and compares what adolescents from intact families and remarried families think about "family", "marriage" and "divorce", and what are their "life projects"are. The participants were 60 adolescents, 30 from intact families (IF) and 30 from remarried families (RF), of both sexes, ages 12 to 17, was used. An instrument composed of 12 incomplete sentences, which the teenagers were asked to fill out with the first idea that came to their minds, was employed. The content of these responses was analyzed and categories were established. Chi-square was used to examine the variables group (IF and RF) and sex. The results showed that IF adolescents tended to consider their families as more "united" than the RM adolescents. A significant difference was also found regarding the adolescents’ expectations about marriage. IF adolescents expected more happiness and RF adolescents expected more love. There was a significant gender difference related to marriafe and divorce. Girls believed that people get married because they love each other (97%) and divorce because they cease loving each other (56.25%), while the boys gave several other reasons for marriage, and believed that divorce happens because couples do not get along anymore. There was no significant differences regarding their life projects.
Adolescents; family; marriage; divorce; life projects