Social Adjustment Problems example essay topic

Studies of offspring of abusive parents have the methodological advantages of prospective design and measurement focused on issues of schizophrenia. Most high-risk studies have found impairment in interpersonal functioning in offspring of abusive parents in terms of social withdrawal, aggressive behavior, or both withdrawn and aggressive behavior. However, other studies suggest that poor interpersonal functioning is not specific to children with abusive parents, but rather that interpersonal difficulties occur with greater frequency in children of parents with various types of mental illness. The 2 independent samples of the New York High-Risk Project examined multiple domains of social adjustment, including aspects of social competence. Adolescents at risk for schizophrenia had significantly poorer peer relationships and fewer hobbies and interests than those at risk for affective disorder and the normal comparison youths. Although they were poorer in their school adjustment than the normal comparison subjects, offspring of abusive parents were not poorer than the offspring of parents with affective disorders.

The studies using retrospective, population-based, and high-risk approaches converge to suggest that poor childhood and adolescent social adjustment, particularly in terms of withdrawal and poor peer engagement, is related to risk for schizophrenia. Interpretation of these findings, however, is limited in most studies by a lack of information about whether mental disorder was already present in young people when the assessment of social adjustment was made. No existing study of pre morbid functioning in high-risk children reports on psychiatric diagnosis concurrent with assessments of social adjustment. Thus it may be possible to gain insight into whether social adjustment problems are subclinical indicators of vulnerability to disorder that precede other signs of psychopathology or whether they co-occur with clear signs of childhood disorder. Compared with youths whose parents have no mental disorder or who have non schizophrenic disorders, adolescents at high risk for schizophrenia will show more severe social adjustment problems, particularly in terms of social withdrawal and disengagement. Associations between parent schizophrenia and poor offspring social adjustment are mediated by the presence of psychiatric disorder in the youths.

The strengths of this data set lie in extensive assessment of social adjustment using 2 different tools, a comparison group of youths at risk for non schizophrenic psychiatric disorder, and availability of diagnostic information on young people concurrent with measures of social adjustment. The sample, which included 86 adolescents from 55 families, was divided into 3 groups based on parent mental disorder: (1) 27 young people from 21 families in which at least one parent had schizophrenia, (2) 30 young people from 18 families in which at least one parent had a major lifetime non schizophrenic mental disorder (affective disorder or personality disorder), and (3) 29 young people from 16 families in which neither parent had diagnosable mental illness. Six families had three children participating in the study, 18 had two, and 31 had one. An additional 24 families were recruited during the adolescent follow-up of the sample to increase the power of the sample for addressing questions not requiring longitudinal study. These families were recruited from mental health clinics and from the files of families who had previously participated in studies at the Institute for Mental Health and Behavioral Studies. The 53 boys and 33 girls included in the study ranged in age from 12 to 18 with a mean age of 15.9 years.

Additional young people who were assessed as part of the study but were older than age 18 were excluded from the study. To reduce the number of variables used for analysis of the SAICA, a principal-components analysis with vari max rotation was computed on the SAICA global ratings. This analysis yielded 3 interpretable components with each of the 11 scores loading on one component with a loading greater than 0.50. The first component, which we called Peer Engagement, accounted for 17.6% of the variance and was composed of the SAICA items Peer Engagement and Opposite Sex Relationships. The second component, which we called Family Relationships, accounted for 18.0% of the variance and was composed of SAICA items Relationship With Siblings, Relationship With Father, and Relationship With Mother. The third component, which we called Adjustment Problems, accounted for 27.1% of the variance and was composed of SAICA items Problems With School Behavior, Problems With Leisure Time, Problems With Opposite Sex, Problems With Peers, Problems With Siblings, and Problems With Parent.

Unit weighted means were computed for these 3 SAICA components with higher scores indicating greater problems. The Youth Self-Report (YSR), an instrument designed to obtain information on competencies and behavioral and emotional problems as perceived by adolescents, was completed by the adolescents. The YSR includes 2 competence scales reflecting social adjustment: (1) Activities (amount and quality of child's participation in sports, hobbies, jobs, and chores); and (2) Social (participation in organizations, number of friends and frequency of contact, and quality of relationships with parents, siblings, and peers). The YSR includes 8 narrow-band syndrome scales, 3 of which reflect aspects of social adjustment: Withdrawn, Social Problems, and Aggressive Behavior. For the YSR competence scales, higher scores reflect higher competence and for the YSR behavior problem scales, higher scores reflect more problems.