The study sample consisted of 61 nonchronic juvenile offenders (41 males and 20 females). These youth and their parents were voluntary participants from a compiled list of 253 potential subjects. Criteria for inclusion in the study were involvement with a county juvenile probation department in a mixed urban/rural area of a southwestern state between May 1983 and May 1985, lack of involvement in a residential treatment program or in long-term psychotherapy, and juvenile offender membership in an intact family. The juvenile offender's level of ego development and family members' perceived cohesion and adaptability were assessed individually at the juvenile probation office or at the families' homes. Level of ego development was assessed by the Washington University Sentence Completion Test. Four post hoc comparisons revealed that functional perspectives of family cohesion and adaptability by the juvenile offender and one or both parents were associated with higher levels of ego development. Lower levels of ego development were associated with shared dysfunctional perspectives of family dimensions by the juvenile offender and both parents and a functional perspective of family dimensions by the juvenile offender which was not shared by either parent. 31 references and 2 tables (Author abstract modified)