Externalizing Behaviors and Family Influences on Filipino Urban Adolescents

Abstract

This study will look through Bandura’s Social Learning Theory perspective on how parental influence predicts Filipino adolescents' externalizing behaviors. As children are impressionable, they observe their parents as role models; their behavior develops from childhood to adolescence is dependent on parental influence. With this in mind, the study’s research objectives aim to understand how parental influences, such as abusive and antisocial behavior, affect the adolescent’s externalizing behavior and the level of externalizing behaviors among Filipino adolescents living in Metro Manila, Philippines. The researchers then surveyed 202 Filipino adolescents residing in Metro Manila, answering a questionnaire that measured family characteristics, perceived abusive and antisocial behavior of parents, and self-assessed level of externalizing behaviors. The data gathered was processed through descriptive and inferential statistics, and the results concluded that family influence does have significance in the adolescent's externalizing behavior. In conclusion, through the Social Learning Theory and the data collected, the adolescent's externalizing behaviors are due to family influence.