This study explored some of the impacts of the presence of others on the most intimate human relationships: those of couples and parents and children in communal households. The shift from essentially dyadic to larger group relations in the home adds a number of complex phenomena: audiences, alternative resources, coalition partners,…

This paper considers the nature of couple and parent-child relationships when family space is public rather than private, and others are present as audiences, claimants on the intimate territory, and sources of alternative ties. Research on 35 urban communal households found an initial shift in the locus of social control. (Author)