The purpose of this study was to determine how parents and family relationships are characterized in realistic young adult fiction. A random sample of 20 realistic young adult novels was selected from the American Library Association's Best Lists for the years 1987-1991. A content analysis of the novels focused on the following: (1) whether parents were categorized as sympathetic/involved, neutral, or hostile/uninvolved; (2) whether the majority of families were two-parent families or single-parent families; (3) what the major conflicts in the story were; (4) what influence family members have on the protagonist's decisions and problems; (5) whether gender of the protagonist influences family relationships; and (6) whether family relationships evolve and how they are characterized at the end of the book. The major findings were: (1) most of the fictional parents were sympathetic and involved; (2) more two-parent families were used than one-parent families; (3) the largest number of conflicts involved embarrassment because of family members who deviated from the norm and from the breakup of the family due to divorce or death; (4) more females had intrafamily conflicts than males; and (5) most family relationships evolved in a positive way during the course of the book. Frequency tables of teen parent interaction and categories of conflict and a list of the books analyzed in the study are appended. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/KRN)