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Family functioning, parental psychological distress and child behaviours : evidence from the Victorian child health and wellbeing study

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journal contribution
posted on 2013-06-01, 00:00 authored by Andre Renzaho, David MellorDavid Mellor, M McCabe, Martine Powell
We examined, using data from the 2006 Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study (VCHWS), whether family functioning is associated with parental psychological distress and children’s behavioural difficulties. The VCHWS was a statewide cross-sectional telephone survey to 5,000 randomly selected primary caregivers of 0- to 12-year-old children between October 2005 and March 2006. Only parents or guardians of children aged 4–12 years (n = 3,370) were included in this study. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables and ethnicity, parents or guardians scoring higher on the family functioning scale (i.e., from poorly functioning households) were at greater risk of psychological distress and had children with lower levels of prosocial behaviour and higher levels of behavioural difficulties relative to those from healthily functioning households. Mental health prevention programmes addressing child mental and conduct problems should consider the family environment and target those families functioning poorly.

History

Journal

Australian psychologist

Volume

48

Issue

3

Season

Early view

Pagination

217 - 225

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Location

Oxford, U. K.

ISSN

0005-0067

eISSN

1742-9544

Language

eng

Notes

Article first published online 23rd December 2011

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal article

Copyright notice

2011, The Australian Psychological Society