Abstract

This study aims at investigating the relationships between psycho-social risk symptoms and children's perception of their families. The sample comprised 304 participants of two age levels: 84 boys and 71 girls attending the 4th grade in primary school; 77 boys and 72 girls attending the 7th grade in middle school. Two measures were administered: the «Seattle Personality Inventory» by Greenberg in the form adapted to the Italian population by Tani e Schneider (1998) which investigated 4 symptoms of disease (anxiety, conduct disorder, somatization and depression) and 5 subscales of «Family Environment Scale» (FES) by Moos and Moos (1981) (expressiveness, cohesion, conflict, organization and control). Results highlighted the role of family monitoring in mediating adaptive and maladaptive development since the control scale resulted positively associated to symptoms of conduct disorders, anxiety and depression.