Parental attachment, cognitive distortion, selfregulation and externalizing problem behavior among juvenile in rehabilitation institutions in Malaysia
The present study aimed to examine a structural model on the relationship between parental attachment (i.e., paternal and maternal) and externalizing problem behavior (i.e., aggressive and rule-breaking), and the mediating effect of cognitive distortion. This study also examined whether the struc...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/98266/1/FEM%202021%201%20-%20IR.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/98266/ |
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| Summary: | The present study aimed to examine a structural model on the relationship between
parental attachment (i.e., paternal and maternal) and externalizing problem behavior
(i.e., aggressive and rule-breaking), and the mediating effect of cognitive distortion. This
study also examined whether the structural model is moderated by juvenile offenders’
self-regulation. A quantitative and cross-sectional approach was applied in the present
study. This study was based on a large national research (Baharudin, Zulkefly & Arshat,
2015). A total of 440 juvenile offenders aged between 14 to 18 years old from all eight
Juvenile Rehabilitation institutions or Tunas Bakti School (TBS), Malaysia were
involved in this study. There were 268 males and 172 females who were identified via
stratified random sampling technique. The Domain of Adolescent Attachment Scale-
Malay (DAAS-Malay) (Zulkefly & Wilkinson, 2013), the Youth Self Report (YSR)
(Achenbach, 1991), the 16-item version of ‘How I Think’ Questionnaire (HIT-16-Q)
(Ara & Shah, 2015), and the Self-Regulation Scale (SRS) (Novak & Clayton, 2001)
were utilized to assess the key variables of the study. The data were analyzed using the
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment Structures
(AMOS). The findings of the present study revealed that majority of juvenile offenders
in the rehabilitation institutions reported high levels of aggressive and rulebreaking/
delinquent behavior as well as cognitive distortion. Whereas, the levels of
paternal and maternal attachment and self-regulation among juvenile offenders were
lower. Prior to the structural model testing, all of the key variables were validated with
confirmatory factor analysis. The model indicated that both paternal and maternal
attachment were significantly and negatively related to aggressive behavior; meanwhile,
the respective relationship of paternal and maternal attachment with rule-breaking
behavior was found to be insignificant. Moreover, the indirect effect indicated that the
relationships of both paternal and maternal attachment with aggressive behavior were
partially mediated by cognitive distortion. In contrast, the paths from paternal and
maternal attachment to rule-breaking behavior were found to be completely mediated by
cognitive distortion. Besides, the multi-group analysis found no significant moderation effect of juvenile offenders’ self-regulation on the model. This study concludes that
parental attachment (i.e., paternal and maternal) and cognitive distortion possess
protective effects against juvenile offenders’ externalizing problem behavior (i.e.,
aggressive and rule-breaking). The present findings imply that any effort to reduce
juvenile offenders’ externalizing behavior should focus on the quality of parental
attachment and cognitive distortion. Further, the findings presented in this study may
contribute to the design of a more effective intervention program which aims to foster
parental attachment and cognitive distortion to protect juveniles from engaging in
externalizing problems. |
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