FAMILY DYSFUNCTIONING AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE IN ADOLESCENTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FAMILY STRUC

Abstract

Background: Family has a significant role to play in the social development of children. Family problems hamper the development of healthy and socially competent behaviors among children and adolescents. The objective of the current study was to compare family dysfunctioning and social competence between joint and nuclear family structures. Methods: This cross sectional comparative study was conducted at International Islamic University Islamabad. A total of 400 adolescents with age range of 12–18 years were included through purposive sampling. The data collection tools of the study included Multi-Dimensional Family Functioning scale (MFFS) and Youth Social Competence Scale. The tools are fully validated with high reliability. Analysis was done using SPSS version 21 and the significance level was kept at 0.05. Results: There were 200 (50%) males and 200 (50%) females with a mean age of 15±2.16 years. The family structure descriptive analysis revealed that 181(45.3%) were from joint family structure, 193(48.3%) from nuclear family structure, and 26 (6.5%) from extended family structure. Cronbach Alpha coefficient was 0.81 and 0.61 for MFFS and Social competence questionnaires respectively. Mean values of Family dysfunctioning for joint and nuclear family structures were 63.69±22.30 and 75.07±20.97 respectively and the difference was significant (p<0.001). The mean values for Social Competence for the two family structures were 35.90±5.71 and 33.64±5.78 respectively with significant difference between the means. Family dysfunctioning was shown to be the significant predictor of Social Competence (p<0.01). Conclusions: Provision of a hale and hearty family environment to adolescents is necessary for the development of healthy social skills.

Pak J Physiol 2016;12(3):19–22