The complexity of families assessing family relationships and their association with externalizing problems

Abstract

Family relationships can be studied in different ways, and with different methods. In the current dissertation we present several ways to examine family relationships in five different studies: we use a dyadic approach of studying family relationships, we study family relationships considering the family as a whole, and we examine family relationships on multiple levels of family functioning in five different studies. In Chapter 2 we tested the replicability of existing models of associations between aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship on the one hand, and both aggression and delinquency on the other hand in two independent Dutch samples of adolescents. Another dyadic approach was used in Chapter 3, in which we examined patterns of related change among family negativity in three family dyads, and adolescent aggressive or delinquent behavior by using multivariate Latent Growth Models. The aim of the study in Chapter 4 was to examine the associations between family relationships (affective and instrumental family functioning) measured at the “family level” and adolescent externalizing behavior by performing a meta-analysis on 28 studies. In Chapter 5, we present a systematic review of studies that have used the Social Relations Model to study family relationships. The aim of the study was to identify general patterns of actor, partner, relationship, and family effects. In most past Social Relations Model studies, the SRM was applied to relatively well functioning families. Chapter 6 therefore focuses on the comparison of SRM patterns of negativity in families with and without an adolescent child that showed serious externalizing problems in order to gain insight in processes in problematic families. Most important conclusions that can be drawn from this dissertation are that across the studies included in the current dissertation we find a strong and consistent association between the quality of family relationship and externalizing problems. This association does not seem to be affected by ethnic or gender differences, and it seems persistent with both dyadic and static measures of family relationships. Family functioning measures at the family level, either with whole family measures or by the SRM family effect, are both related to adolescent externalizing problems. The current dissertation shows that family relationship scores are highly dependent on the perceptions of the rater, and on the characteristics of the family member that is being rated. Perceptions differ depending on the family role (child or parent), and perceptions of family members differ across problematic and non-problematic families. By presenting multiple ways of studying family relationships, the present dissertation aims to fill a gap between this rather well-defined theory and a relative shortage of methods and studies that test this theoretical model