Perceptions of the family, delinquency, and emotional adjustment among youth

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Abstract

This study explored the relationships between perceived family processes (parental bonding and parental discipline styles) and adolescent emotional and behavioural adjustment among a sample of youth. Respondents were 92 (53 female, 39 male) high school students, aged 13–17 years. Significant sex differences were noted regarding levels of self-reported delinquency and parental induction style. After controlling for sex, perceptions of low care and love withdrawal were significantly related to delinquency, while low care, overprotectiveness and love withdrawal were found to be related to poor well being. Structural equation modelling was used to further assess the relationships between perceptions of family life and the outcome variables. It was concluded that adolescent perceptions of family processes form a coherent and integrated network with implications for behavioural and emotional adjustment.

Introduction

Given the challenges posed by the adolescent years (Barnes, 1995), it is hardly surprising that teenagers have been earmarked as a group at risk for problem behaviour and emotional distress (Hendry, Shucksmith, Love, & Glendinning, 1993). Family environment is acknowledged to be of critical importance when considering the behavioural and emotional well-being of adolescents (see also Bahr, 1991, Downey and Coyne, 1990, Noller and Callan, 1991). The present research investigates the extent to which adolescents’ perceptions of parental bonding and parental discipline styles are related to their levels of self-reported delinquency and general emotional adjustment.

Section snippets

Family life and psychological adjustment

The family, as the primary source of socialisation, has been consistently implicated in the emotional adjustment of adolescents. What appears most influential in shaping adolescent outcomes is family process (e.g. conflict, cohesiveness, etc.) rather than family structure (Borrine, Handal, Brown, & Searight, 1991). For instance, longitudinal research by Newcomer and Udry (1987) showed that family disruption rather than family structure was instrumental in altering adolescents’ transitions to

Aims and rationale of present study

The present study was designed to determine the relationships between adolescents’ perceptions of parental bonding and discipline style and their emotional and behavioural adjustment. No study to date has examined the effects of these variables on both delinquency and emotional adjustment. The following hypotheses guided this investigation:

1(a). Adolescents who perceive themselves to have been insufficiently cared for or overprotected by their parents will be at greater risk of displaying

Participants

Respondents were 92 (53 female; 39 male) Australian high school students, primarily of European extraction who volunteered for a study of “Attitudes and behaviours”. Their ages ranged from 13 to 18 years, with 15 and 16 year olds representing 92% of the respondents.

Materials

Students were provided with a test booklet containing the following measures:

Means and standard deviations

Mean scores and standard deviations on each of the variables for males and females are presented in Table 1. In order to examine sex differences a one-way MANOVA with sex as the independent factor was computed. Wilks’ criterion showed that the combined dependent variables were significantly affected by sex, F(7, 68)=6.47, p<0.001. Males scored significantly higher than females on the self-reported delinquency measure, F(1, 74)=26.25, p<0.001, while females experienced significantly higher

Discussion

Previous research has made a strong argument for the integral role played by family processes in the etiology of adolescent psychological adjustment (e.g., Bahr, 1991, Baumrind, 1991, Chiariello and Orvaschel, 1995, Foxcroft and Lowe, 1991, Noller and Callan, 1991). The present results support these arguments and demonstrate the significant influence of parental bonding and parental discipline style on self-reported delinquency and GHQ scores. The results also support those of Ge et al., 1996,

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