The role of family function in teenagers anxiety and depression

Introductoin: Adolescence is a critical period during human growth. According to McMaster model, Family functions such as problem solving, communication, roles, emotional involvement, cognitive participation and behavior control play an important role in this critical period. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of family function in depression and anxiety of teenagers.
Method: In this correlation descriptive study, Statistical sample was consisted of 180 girl teenagers who were selected through cluster sampling. The girls were studying at first, second and third grade of high school. Demographic Information Form, McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), and Cattle anxiety scale were used for collecting data.
Results: The finding of the study showed that teenagers with anxiety and depression report dysfunctional family functions in subscales such as problem solving, cognitive response, emotional involvement, and behavior control in comparison with healthy teenagers. The results of multivariate regression analysis indicated that the subscales of emotional involvement and behavior control play the most important role in predicting depression in teenagers (p<0.01).
Discussion and conclusion: This study shows that anxiety and depression is related with dysfunctional family functioning of teenagers. Therefore, psychotherapist should be aware of this effect during the treatment teenagers with anxiety and depression, and emphasize on the relationship between the teenagers and their family.