Chapter 8: Relationships, Family, And Romance Figure

Although adolescents were instructed to “Draw a picture of the ideal man/ woman doing something,” many of the young people we studied had their own interpretations of the instructions. One fourth drew the ideal person with another person. An additional 4% mentioned others in the comments. This suggests that many youth do not picture the ideal person as an isolated individual. ⁰⁹⁸ is an example of a drawing by a 12-year-old boy from Guatemala who drew the ideal man “happy alongside his family.” Implicit in the family drawings is the idea that a person does not stand alone, but rather has an identity based on membership in a group—as part of a couple, family, or community.