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Marital Conflict Among Parents: Implications for Family Therapy with Adolescent Conduct Disorder

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Abstract

Conduct disorder is associated with several causative and maintaining factors, with family functioning being an important one. This is especially true in the Indian context, where a lot of the problem behaviors manifested by adolescents with conduct disorders are in the family context. Marital relationship of the parents is a key aspect of family functioning, affecting a number of other dimensions of family functioning, including adolescent adjustment. The paper highlights the role of parents’ marital conflict in the emergence and maintenance of adolescent conduct problems. The importance of family therapy in managing adolescent conduct disorder is discussed through case examples from India.

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Correspondence to Shalini Anant.

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Shalini Anant, MPhil, PhD Scholar, Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore 560029, India. Ahalya Raguram, PhD, Additional Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS, Bangalore 560029, India. Address correspondence to Shalini Anant (shalinianant@gmail.com).

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Anant, S., Raguram, A. Marital Conflict Among Parents: Implications for Family Therapy with Adolescent Conduct Disorder. Contemp Fam Ther 27, 473–482 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-005-8234-x

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