Questionnaires completed by 301 junior and senior high school students provided data for a study of family influences on the development of various consumer competencies, materialistic values, communication behaviors, and attitudes toward marketing stimuli. Family influences were studied in the context of two dimensions of communication structure--socio-oriented (emphasizing the importance of pleasant family social relationships) and concept-oriented (emphasizing conceptual matters)--that produce four types of family communication patterns: laissez-faire (little parent/child communication), protective (stressing obedience), pluralistic (encouraging open discussion), and consensual (encouraging discussion that does not disturb internal harmony). Analysis of the data indicated that adolescents from pluralistic families knew more than other adolescents about consumer-related matters, were better able to detect puffery in advertising and to manage a family budget, knew more about products, and were more likely to show socially desirable consumer behaviors. The findings further suggested that a socio-oriented family structure may encourage the development of materialistic orientations. Family communication patterns predicted some aspects of adolescents' communication behavior and appeared to affect their perceptions of various marketing stimuli. (GW)