This paper summarizes a study on how interpersonal communication patterns within the family affect the political socialization of the child specifically, the acquisition of norms for adult citizenship roles. The data was collected in a 1968 survey of 1300 families in five eastern Wisconsin cities. One child from each family completed two self-administered questionnaires, and one parent was interviewed afterward. A wide range of political and socioeconomic groupings were provided for, and the sample was about equally divided between junior high and senior high adolescents. The analysis tests the hypothesis that a family communication environment combining a weak socio-relations orientation with a strong concept-orientation, pluralistic home, will stimulate a greater degree of anticipatory socialization than other types of environment. The other types are: 1) protective families which stress socio-relations or restrictions at the expense of concept-relations; and, 2) consensual families where the child is constrained to develop concepts that are consonant with existing socio-relations. The results show that pluralistic students expect that social norms will involve a greater level of political participation. Students from homes where concept orientation is emphasized tend to think that these obligations will be expected of them; socio-orientation tends to be unrelated to the level of norm learning. Concept and socio-orientation were positively related to the learning intensity measures. (Author/SBE)