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In Reply to: Interesting research article of Family kids posted by Carol on August 16, 2004 at 09:57:53:
The tables associated with this article finally booted up, and I found some interesting results re: anxiety problems in the 172 Family kids. I'm not intimately familiar with the scales used in this study, but it appears as though this group of Family kids show significantly more apprehension, tension & anxiety than kids in the general population.
These are factor scores. When you put all the relevant factors up into a personality construct like "self esteem" or "emotional adjustment," the sample of 172 Family kids scores within normal ranges.
Individual factors on these scales that show a difference from the general population suggest that as long as this group of kids stays in the Family, they can probably cope with stressors in a reasonably successful manner. Once someone in this sample decides to leave the Family, issues related to coping with anxiety are likely to come roaring out of the closet.
However, this group of Family kids score significantly higher than general population kids on openness to change and are within the normal range for personality development. That suggests that even though adjusting to life outside the Family may be extremely rough going for some, kids in this sample probably have what it takes to successfully adapt to life outside the Family.
The study also shows some interesting differences between male/female personality traits in the Family sample versus that of the general population, with the sample of Family males scoring significantly lower on warmth & sensitivity than their System counterparts; conversely, the sample of Family females scores significantly higher on both these factors than System counterparts.
When these factors are lumped into personality constructs like "emotional expressivity" and "emotional sensitivity," the sample of Family kids scores no differently than their System counterparts. However, the study doesn't report differentiation between males & females on the personality constructs the same as with the factors. So I would wonder if there are some differences at the personality construct level. I bring this up because so many SGs who have left the Family talk about issues/problems with relating to their System peers around male/female social expectations.
