Introduction:
The determination of psychosocial factors that mediate the risk of conduct disorder in adolescents’ children is a complex task, and no simple relationships between specific variables and adolescents’ child outcome have emerged. Yet, the risk of conduct disorder is increased or decreased by the social and family context within which the child develops.
Family therapy is a credible and effective treatment for a variety of child and adolescent problems. Scientific work carried out during the last decade demonstrates the efficacy of certain forms of family therapy with adolescent behavior problems, including conduct disorder, a disorder known to be among the most difficult to treat. Particular forms of family-based intervention can retain adolescents and their families in treatment; can demonstrate in-session changes of parent-adolescent conflict; and, in comparative controlled trials, can demonstrate greater effectiveness than peer group therapy, individual counseling, and family-based educational programs in eliminate conduct disorder.
An underlying assumption of all family-based interventions, is that change in an individual (i.e., decrease in symptoms and increase in prosocial functioning) results from change in the family system. Parenting has received an enormous amount of attention for decades from intervention scientists and basic researchers. As a key ingredient in child socialization, parenting is a fundamental aspect of the family system. Research reaffirms the importance of parenting as a critical facilitator of development throughout the second decade of life. Certain parenting practices serve as a buffer against risk factors known to be associated with dysfunction. For example, parenting practices are linked to peer group affiliations: "If parents model deviant behavior or fail to maintain close relationships with their teenager, the child is more likely to drift into deviant peer crowds and, as a consequence, be more involved in drug use or delinquency". Parenting is multifaceted and encompasses a wide spectrum of features, strategies, and methods reflecting behavioral, affective, and cognitive domains of functioning......
