Article Review on Family Functioning and Adolescent Delinquency in Malaysia

Article Summary
This article is written by Fauziah Hanim Abdul Jalal, she studied family functioning and
adolescent delinquency in Malaysia. The main objective of this research is to study about family
functioning dimensions and the effect on the occurrence of adolescent delinquency. As stated in
this article, there was broad discussion on family functioning dimension and adolescent
delinquency. In brief, the definition of family functioning based on the writer writings are
interaction pattern in family, family roles, relationship pattern and parenting skills. In this study,
the researcher was trying to figure out the consequences of those patterns towards the adolescent
delinquent behavior. The involvement of adolescent in delinquency behavior is an act of risky
behavior that threatens the well being of families and societies. The most prevalent problem
affecting adolescent in Malaysia is emotional disturbances. Therefore, they need professional
help to prevent them from involving in delinquent behavior. Adolescents delinquencies have the
long term consequences towards family institutions and society. As mentioned in this article,
adolescent may face challenges as they go through the developmental stages and the conflict
between parents and adolescent may arise. This is the period where the adolescent needs most
support and guidance from family in understanding about themselves. Adolescent delinquency is
becoming worst in Malaysia and many researcher found out that one of the contributing factors
in this issues= is family functioning. Several researchers saying that poor family functioning lead
to negative behavior among adolescent within the family. Therefore, family relationships at the
systemic level affect the adolescent adjustment. Researcher also mentioned that she used Bowen
multigenerational approach as her framework for this research to describe the relationship
between family functioning with adolescent delinquency.

Article Review
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This research is a good reading material for readers especially for the professional
helpers. Researcher explained adolescent delinquency is becoming worse scenario in Malaysia
by using the statistic from 2002 to 2003. In May 2014, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye as a vice president
of Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) reported that, the number is continually
increasing from 1, 042 juvenile cases in 2012 to 1, 632 juvenile cases in 2013 (Jaafar, J. 2014).
There will be long term consequences related to this matter which is the unstable societies in
future. Our social system is becoming unstable and chaos due to rules and barrier are not longer
our society priority. Nowadays, the changes of individuals lifestyles are one of the contributing
factors towards the loose of societies rules and barriers. As mentioned in this study, delinquency
refers to an act that violates the law and social norms of Malaysia while adolescents are
individual under the age 18 years old. According to Erikson stages of development, adolescence
is the period of life from about age 13 to 19 years old (Ciccarelli, S. K & Meyer, G.E. 2006).
According to Erikson, at this stage of development, adolescence will have conflict in
indentifying their own personality and they might experience peer pressure due to desperately to
fit in the group. At this stage, adolescences are not able to identify the moral value and they need
support and guidance from family. It is stated in this study that adolescence may face changes
when making transition from elementary to middle school and the parental supervision becomes
increasingly important. The transition period also leads to conflict between parents and
adolescence. That is why family functioning is important in molding children behavior.
In this study, researcher mentioned that family functioning is one of the contributing
factors towards adolescent delinquency. Based on this study, there are few major components
related to family functioning which are love and attention, family roles, relationship and
interaction pattern, parenting skills as well as culture. All those components play the important
roles towards adolescent delinquency as stated by researcher .. found that many parents of
delinquent adolescents are not giving their children love and attention. Loeber & Stouthamer
Lober (1986) also said that the family relation and parental control are the factors of adolescent
delinquency. They also mentioned children who are feeling neglected by the parents tend to
involve with delinquent behavior. Nowadays, the family institutions are experiencing several
important shifts in society where the family roles have become more complex. Due to that, there
are few issues may arise and this is the stage they need help from professional helpers to
reconstruct the roles and issues in family.
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In this study, researcher used the family system theory based on Bowens
multigenerational approach which describes a family as a multigenerational network of
relationship. However, there are few theories related family system but the most important part is
the involvement of family in family therapy. Family group therapy relied primarily on
stimulating open discussion to help families solve their problems and therapist equalized support
for the entire family while they continued to improve their communication and workout solutions
to their problems (Nicholas, M.P. 2014). As mentioned by researcher in this study, the need of
this study is to reveal the underlying pattern of family functioning and delinquency. Besides that,
to make the professional helpers aware the importance of planning strategies in reducing the
delinquent behavior should be started from the family institutions. Indirectly, this study can make
others realize that the existence of family therapy in Malaysia and view the family functioning
from the Malaysian context.
Undeniable, the existence of family therapy in Malaysia is not well developing yet
compare to western culture. However, as professional family therapist, the main objective of
their task is to make sure the family functioning are well organize to bring the wellness to
societies.

References
Ciccarelli, S. K & Meyer, G.E. 2006. Psychology. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Jaafar, J. 2014. Peningkatan Kes Juvana Meningkat. Berita Harian Online. Dimuat tUrun pada 7
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November 2014, daripada http://www2.bharian.com.my/bharian/articles

Loeber, R. & Stouthamer-Lober, M. 1986. Family factors as correlates and predictors of juvenile
conduct problems and delinquency. Journal of Crime and Justice: An annual review of
research. 7, 29-49.
Nicholas, M.P. 2014. Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods. 10ed. United Kingdom: Pearson
Education Limited.

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