The developmental dynamics of achieving egoautonomy in adolescent girls have not been adequately explored. This is a report of a qualitative study that investigated the relationship between female adolescent ego development and parent behavior from the perspective of the adolescent girl's view of her parents. The thesis of the study was that in order to understand the process of ego development in the adolescent girl, it would be necessary to understand that her development is embedded within the context of a father-daughter-mother triangle. Twelve high school senior girls were randomly selected from a larger study and intensively interviewed as they were negotiating the transition from high school to college. Findings indicated that perceived parenting behaviors of their mothers andfathers and the girls' level of ego development were related lo each other and to variations in the effectiveness with which the adolescents negotiated the difficulties associated with the transition to college.
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