The nature of adolescents' relationships with their "very important" nonparental adults.

As part of a larger program of research on the nature of adolescents' relationships with very important nonparental adults (hereafter referred to as "VIPs"), a community sample of 243 eleventh graders (mean age = 16.6 years) was surveyed, and a subgroup of 55 adolescents and their VIPs were interviewed about the nature and quality of their relationships. Results showed that (a) adolescent-VIP relationships were a normative component of adolescent development, not a result of problems in adolescents' lives; (b) adolescent-VIP relationships were generally of high quality (e.