Original scientific paper
Personal and Family Factors in the Adjustment of Early Adolescents
Ivana Macuka
orcid.org/0000-0002-8753-8991
; Sveučilište u Zadru, Odjel za psihologiju, Zadar, Hrvatska
Sanja Smojver-Ažić
; Sveučilište u Rijeci, Filozofski fakultet, Odsjek za psihologiju, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the role of some personal characteristics of the child (gender, temperament, pubertal status) and family factors (children’s perceptions of parental behavior of mothers and fathers and children’s perception and interpretation of the conflict between the parents) in explaining the adjustment of early adolescents. The study included 562 children (280 girls and 282 boys) with an average age of 13 years. It was found that girls have more internalizing problems and fewer externalizing problems than boys. Furthermore, this study has shown that during early adolescence, characteristics of children’s temperament and family factors play an important role in explaining problems of internalizing and externalizing type. Results of hierarchical regression analysis showed that personal and family variables explain 33% of boys’ internalizing problems and 40% of girls’ internalizing problem and 37% of boys’ externalizing problems and 55% of girls’ externalizing problems. Results showed that boys who have low levels of effortful control and high levels of negative emotions of anger and fear, and who perceive growing threat during conflict between parents have more internalizing problems. Also, boys who have low levels of effortful control and who are prone to anger, but are less afraid, and perceive a higher degree of father’s control have more externalizing problems. Girls who are more prone to negative emotions of fear and who perceive a higher degree of mother’s and father’s control, and perceive more threat during conflict between parents, have more internalizing problems. Girls with lower levels of effortful control and mother’s acceptance, and those who perceive higher levels of mother’s control, have more externalizing problems. Furthermore, girls who perceive parental conflicts as frequent and aggressive, and who blame themselves for their occurrence, have more externalizing problems.
Keywords
internalizing and externalizing problems; temperament; pubertal status; mother’s and father’s parental behavior; parental conflict; early adolescence
Hrčak ID:
79121
URI
Publication date:
2.4.2012.
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