Circularidade relacional: padrões de funcionalidade familiar percebidos e o ajustamento psicológico em adolescentes

Considering the several systems that influence the adolescent, we aimed, in this study, to study the influence of familiar functionality in the adolescent’s psychological adjustment and the differences between these variables according to gender and age. This exploratory study was carried out with a sample of 318 adolescents from the centre of Portugal. The quantitative analysis of results was done using SPSS 15.0 software, drawing the following conclusions: a) the not independent familiar functioning patterns correlate negatively with anti-social, depressive and obsessive behaviours; the collaborative patterns present negative correlations with the depressive and obsessive behaviours; and b) female adolescents present higher values of depressive, anxious, obsessive and pro-social behaviour.