Family Functioning, Behavioral Activation System and Problem Behaviors in Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Identity

Behavior problems of adolescents which have become a major concern for the clinicians and researchers in psychology, is influenced by diverse factors such as social, biological and psychological factors. Family functioning, personality traits and identity are some of the predictor factors of such behaviors. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between family functioning, behavioral activation system and problem behavior in adolescents and study the mediating role of identity on the relationship between the two factors with the problem behavior. 190 adolescent students were selected from some schools in Tehran by cluster sampling method.
The data was gathered by Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale IV (FACES-IV), Jessor’s Health Behavior questionnaire, Rosenthall’s identity questionnaire and Gray’s Brain-Behavioral Systems Scale. Findings showed that family functioning, behavioral activation system and identity all have a significant relationship with the problem behavior and can also predict it. It was also found that identity mediates the relationship between family functioning and problem behavior but has no influence on the relationship between behavioral activation system and problem behavior. The better the functioning of the family, the less the sensitivity of the brain-behavioral system and the more coherent the identity, the less the probability of adolescent involving in the problem behavior. Clinical implications are discussed.