"Family enviroment" and children 's conduct disorders

Abstract

Introduction: a relationship has often been found in daily clínica/ praciice between a "hostile" family enviroment and children 's conduct disorders. This relationship could suggest that children and adolescents surrounded by such an enviroment are more prone to develop a conduct disorder. The existence of sorne protective factors should also be considerer, since not ali teenagers under such conditions develop a pryrhiatric problem. Objetives: 1° To determine whether living in a hostile family environment facilitates the development of conduct disorders. 2 ° To investigate which factors may protect children from developing conduct disorders. 3 ° To evaluate the usefulness of psychological measurement questionnaires as a screeng for conduct disorders. Method: a retrospective study of 48 disocial patients was carried out. Data was collected concerning the reason for referal, sex, IQ, school pe,formance, socioeconomic class, diagnosis, seores obteined in Bell 's Adjustem.ent Questionaire and the Antisocial Scale of EPQ-J, and severa! "hostile" family circunstances. Results: 62.5% (sixty two percent) of the families studied had a hostile environment. Bel! Adjustement Questionaire and the Antisocial Sea/e of EPQ-J identifi.ed over 83% of the sample. IQ was sLightly lower than average. A low school performance was reported in 85% of the young. Most of the patients came from low socioeconomic class and had parents who were o ver 3 9 years old. Conclusions: 1° Adverse familiar conditions are strongly rclatcd to conduct disorders in our patients. 2° A higher score in Be!L Adjustement Questionaire (social scale) and a higher IQ could be protective factors. 3° Low IQ, family disruptions and low socioeconomic class were associa.ted with a poorer outcome. 4° Both EPQ-J and Bel! are useful tools when diagnosing conduct disorders.