Relationship between Adolescent Behavior Disorders and Family Functioning
The aim of this study is to determine the specific patterns of functioning of adolescent family with behavioral disorders. A large representative sample of adolescents studied differences in family relationships, encouraging proper family development, and maintaining and changing the family system among adolescents with externalized problems, adolescent with internalized problems and typically developed adolescents. The research was conducted in fifteen primary schools in the area of Tuzla Municipality, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sample consists of 587 students of the seventh and eighth grade, 12-15 years of age, both sexes. The most important research findings are: statistically significant predictors of externalized problems are expression (β = 0.18, t = 3.69, p <0.01) and conflicts (β = 0.11, t = -2.47, p <0.05); statistically significant predictors of internalized problems are cohesiveness (β = -0.11, t = -2.03, p <0.05), expression (β = -0.15, t = -2.91, p <0.05), intellectual orientation (β = -0.15, t = -1.97, p <0.05) and organization (β = -0.15, t = -2.79, p <0.01). The general conclusion of this study is that there is a correlation between externalized problem of adolescents and the characteristics of their family environment. Adolescent families with externalized behavioral problems are characterized by inadequate family structure, reduced expression, more frequent conflicts, poor orientation towards achievement, poor intellectual orientation, lack of individual family members, and poor family organization.