Differences on the perception of family functioning in adolescents from Paraguay and Mexico

Abstract

Family functioning is understood as a system of interactions between family members, oriented towards communication, emotional expression, and coping with problems and conflicts. These interactions determine the psychological development of the adolescent, as well as their social and academic performance. The present study focuses on a comparison between sexes on the perception of family functioning among early and middle-stage adolescents from both Paraguay and Mexico. The sample is constituted by 1728 adolescents aged between 13 and 18 years old (Mage=15; DS=1.460). All adolescents attend to public middle schools, 767 of them to schools in Asuncion (Mage=15.20; DS=1.336) and 961 of them to schools in Mexico City (Mage=14.84; DS=1.534). The instrument used to measure the variables was the Escala de Relaciones Intrafamiliares (Rivera-Heredia & Andrade, 2010); Intrafamilial Relationships Scale, by its name in English. The data was analyzed by the software SPSS v.21, running a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). There were found significant differences by country and age, with interaction of both variables in all familial functioning’ scales. There were no significant differences by sex in any of the scales. The results indicate that low scores in the scale among Paraguayan adolescents may be due to cultural factors.