Associations Between Family Cohesion and Adolescent Siblings' Externalizing Behavior

This study asked whether family cohesion, a measure of whole family functioning, was associated with adolescent siblings' externalizing problems, controlling for the quality of each sibling's relationship with his or her parents. The sample included 93 families (mothers, fathers, and 2 ado...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of environmental psychology 2006-12, Vol.20 (4), p.663-669
Main Authors: Richmond, Melissa K, Stocker, Clare M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adjustment
Adolescent
Adolescent Development
Adolescents
Behavior
Behavior Problems
Biological and medical sciences
Child Behavior Disorders - diagnosis
Child Behavior Disorders - psychology
Conflict
Conflict (Psychology)
Externalization
Family cohesion
Family environment. Family history
Family functioning
Family Relations
Family Systems Theory
Female
Hostility
Human
Humans
Internal-External Control
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Marriage - psychology
Medical sciences
Parent-Child Relations
Parenting - psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Siblings
Siblings - psychology
Social Adjustment
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Studies
Teenagers
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Summary:This study asked whether family cohesion, a measure of whole family functioning, was associated with adolescent siblings' externalizing problems, controlling for the quality of each sibling's relationship with his or her parents. The sample included 93 families (mothers, fathers, and 2 adolescent siblings). Family cohesion was measured from videotaped observations of parents and 2 of their adolescent children discussing family conflict and limit setting. Adolescents reported on hostility in their relationships with mothers and fathers, and parents rated adolescents' externalizing problems. Results from multilevel modeling showed that family cohesion was negatively associated with adolescents' externalizing problems, independent of variance explained by hostility in dyadic parent-child relationships. Results support family systems theory, suggesting that whole family functioning has implications for adolescents' behavioral problems beyond those accounted for by dyadic family relationships.
ISSN:0893-3200
0272-4944
1939-1293
DOI:10.1037/0893-3200.20.4.663