Life stress, family support and adolescent disturbance

Abstract

Stressful life events over the previous two years were more often reported by a group of 24 young adolescents referred to psychiatric outpatient clinics than by a carefully matched control group. Family support was rated by the patient group as less satisfactory during the same period. These findings taken together suggest that developmental stress is not the only, nor necessarily the most important, source of disturbance in the post‐pubertal years.