A PREVENTIVE APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS IN ADOLESCENCE: INADEQUATE PARENTAL SKILLS INFLUENCE OF GENERALIZED USE

Abstract

The influence of parental skills and styles on children’s behavior problems is a recurring theme in psychological research. For years we have known the effect that certain negative parental practices (for example, coercion or physical punishment) exert on the development of children. However, there are other non-punitive parental practices that continue to be used in a generalized manner and whose negative effects have been found in the research. Among these commonly used parental practices we find overprotecting children and controlling their behavior through psychological strategies. In this symposium we will talk specifically about the effect that the hyperprotection of the parents exerts on the manifestation of behavioral problems in children. Likewise, we will address the issue of the use of psychological control as an educational strategy and its relationship with externalizing and internalizing problems in adolescents. Given the relevance that research has given to the risk factors of various problem behaviors, these and other inadequate parental abilities are the focus of programs that have been developed to prevent behavioral problems throughout development. This symposium aims to offer a real and practical perspective in the field of behavior problems; therefore, different preventive approaches will be presented in it. On the one hand, the Learning to Live at Home program is a proposal of early prevention aimed at the training of parental abilities in childhood. On the other hand, the Family Competition Program is an intervention aimed at promoting positive parental abilities in the adolescent stage. It is intended, therefore, to present a comprehensive vision in the approach to behavior problems from childhood to adolescence.

Olalla Cutrín is PhD student at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). She is currently a research fellow in the department of clinical psychology and psychobiology in charge of the pre-doctoral support of the Xunta de Galicia. Since her inception in the field of research in 2013, she has published several articles in national and international impact journals as the main author and co-author (eg, Psicothema, the European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, Journal of Child and Family Studies, Personality and Individual Differences). Her brief scientific production has led to numerous presentations at national and international conferences. She has been member since 2015 of UDIPRE “Unit of Research in Prevention and Treatment of Behaviour Problems” of the USC and she is currently member of the UNDERISK group. As a member of this group she has collaborated in various projects within the field of juvenile justice and behavioural problems. Within her predoctoral training, she has made a research stay in Phoenix (Arizona) for three months. Her main line of research focuses on the study of the influence of parental skills on adolescent behaviour problems through the mediation of antisocial friends.