Variáveis preditoras dos problemas de comportamento na adolescência

Abstract

Adolescence has been considered a troublesome stressful period and prone to the emergence of problem behavior, mainly by the intense changes that mark this phase of development. Therefore, a great variety of research has been proposed to investigate which are the main variables associated to adolescent problem behavior, in order to develop preventive measures focusing upon the youngsters and their families. Having this in mind, a research with 523 high-school students from city of Porto Alegre was carried out. Considering the prevalence of problem behavior, the results show that there is a group of youngsters more suscetible, independent of age, socio-economical status or family configuration. Pointing to a greater prevalence of problems among women than among men. We also identified four groups with relatively homogeneous characteristics: group I with adolescents, mostly women, with internilizing problems; group II characterized by showing more men with externalizing problems; group III also having mostly men who did not present problem behavior and group IV with adolescents, mostly women, with both internilizing and externilizing problems. The statistical analysis showed that problem behavior presented negative and significant correlations to parental responsiveness and demangingness. The adolescents, independently of sex, considered mothers more demanding and responsive than fathers. From an analysis of multiple regression, the results showed that the predictive variables explain 20% of adolescent problem behavior. Among the ones with more expressive power are maternal responsiveness, male gender, bad relationship with parents and friends.