Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Res Adolesc. 2024 Dec;34(4):1500-1516. doi: 10.1111/jora.13016. Epub 2024 Aug 29.
A large body of literature has established that chaos in the home environment, characterized by high levels of disorganization, lack of household routine, crowding, noise, and unpredictability, undermines social-emotional and behavioral development in early childhood. It is less clear whether household chaos is linked to elevated risk for behavior problems in adolescence. The aims of this study were 3fold: (1) characterize the variability of adolescent and caregiver reports of household chaos over time; (2) examine associations among caregiver and adolescent reports of chaos over a 9-month period; (3) consider how between- and within- individual variability in household chaos predicts adolescent externalizing and internalizing problems. This study drew data from the Family Income Dynamics study, a 9-month longitudinal study. Participants included 104 adolescents between 14 and 16 years old (55% female; M age = 14.85) and their caregiver (92% female) from low- and middle-income families. Results showed that adolescent-reports of household chaos were more variable over time compared to caregivers' reports. Adolescent-reports of household chaos had positive within- and between-level associations with externalizing problems and between-level associations with internalizing, while caregiver-reports of chaos had no links to behavior. This work highlights the importance of adolescents' own perceptions of household chaos when considering its links to adolescent development.
大量文献已经证实，家庭环境中的混乱状态，表现为高度无序、缺乏家庭常规、拥挤、嘈杂和不可预测性，会破坏儿童早期的社会情感和行为发展。但家庭环境混乱是否与青少年时期行为问题风险增加有关，目前还不太清楚。本研究的目的有三个：（1）描述青少年和照顾者对家庭混乱的报告随时间的变化；（2）在 9 个月的时间里，考察照顾者和青少年对混乱的报告之间的关联；（3）考虑家庭混乱的个体间和个体内变异性如何预测青少年的外化和内化问题。本研究从家庭收入动态研究中提取数据，这是一项为期 9 个月的纵向研究。参与者包括来自低收入和中等收入家庭的 104 名 14 至 16 岁的青少年（55%为女性；平均年龄为 14.85 岁）及其照顾者（92%为女性）。结果表明，与照顾者的报告相比，青少年对家庭混乱的报告随时间变化的幅度更大。青少年对家庭混乱的报告与外化问题存在积极的个体内和个体间关联，与内化问题存在个体间关联，而照顾者对混乱的报告与行为没有关联。这项工作强调了在考虑家庭混乱与其对青少年发展的关系时，青少年自身对家庭混乱的感知的重要性。
