Challenges and Strenghts of Family and School with SCORE-15

Abstract

While a family faces a test of its own resilience on one side, the most vulnerable member – at the same time the strongest – often shows behavioral symptoms on the other side by sending distress signals that “somewhere” something is not working. If this is a child and a student, then they will surely not benefit from the linear approach of institutional support, in which they are labeled for their behavior as an individual who needs to change and adapt to the rules (of the school). The cause lies in the sub-layer of symptoms that the education staff, primarily an expert associate, understand with the help of other members of the family system. They will then try to intensify communication and mutual understanding of common goals. The aim of the research was to examine the challenges and strengths faced by families from the perspective of expert associates using descriptive, causal and assessment methods. Explication of the findings based on the SCORE-15 instrument, in this paper, we examine the quality of support from the perspective of expert associates who, observing the family, confirm the linearity of their own approach, but also the challenge of a family that does not accept changes, yet urgently needs help. The results confirm that in more than 50% of cases the observed families apply a pattern of behavior aimed at preserving traditional values (morphostasis) while resisting to accept change coming from younger generations (morphogenesis) and “without trust and family cohesion, have challenges in balancing functional relationships within the family system”. Also, that expert associates encounter difficulties in the application of the system paradigm and that the linear approach prevails in the work. As for institutional support, with an emphasis on the school system, the findings confirm linearly based actions in the direction of treating the manifestations of the observed symptoms, but not the causes that had led to challenges in children’s behavior, which ultimately leads to dissatisfaction with their own work as expert associates. Judging from the results which represent families that possess values such as nurturing truth, courage and personal resources they use to overcome problems, where protecting the youngest – children – is the number one priority, we can see there is room for establishing partnerships. The expert associates confirmed the systemic perspective when it comes to hoping that the family can cope with developmental challenges.