Family characteristics of adolescents who display overt and covert behavior problems

The purpose of the present study was to examine and compare the families of young adolescents who demonstrated overt behavior problems, overt and covert behavior problems (i.e. versatile adolescents), and neither type of problem. From 176 nonclinic adolescents, a sample of 23 was selected based upon a teacher-completed measure. Interparental conflict, parental marital status, and mother-adolescent conflict were examined. The results indicated that families with a versatile adolescent were characterized by divorce as well as more interparental and mother-adolescent conflict than the other two groups. Assessment of and intervention for school-identified adolescents may need to include a focus on interparental conflict and parent-adolescent conflict.