Dysfunctional family
Some of these include difficulty integrating into a new culture, strain in the relationship between nuclear and extended family members, children in a rebellion phase, and ideological differences in belief systems.
While many instances of such manipulation occur in shared custody situations that have resulted from separation or divorce, it can also take place in intact families, where it is known as triangulation.
In addition, a child may be unfairly blamed for the family's dysfunction, and placed under even greater stress than those whose parents separate.
[17] A disordered family environment unfortunately places these young individuals at a higher risk of engaging in more severe actions of self-harm and problematic conduct.
[18] This troubled environment can also subject the youth to a significantly higher risk of becoming addicted to drugs or developing alcoholism, especially if parents or close peers have a history of substance use.
[24] A child may also demonstrate oppositional defiant characteristics by rebelling against parental authority, and non-family adults, or conversely, upholding their family's values in the face of peer pressure.
Children of disordered environments may also demonstrate a lack of self-discipline when their parents are not around, or develop procrastinating tendencies that can have detrimental effects on their educational/occupational obligations.
[29] This habitual behavior and environmental factors can also lead the troubled youth to a life of crime, or to become involved in gang activity.
[30] This lack of socially normative structure and defiant behavior is also notable in cases where sexual abuse was prevalent.
[32] Additionally, the young individual may be at an elevated risk of becoming poor or homeless,[33] even in cases where the child's environment consisted of an average/above-average socioeconomic standing.
These individuals are also at an elevated inability to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships, which often includes distrusting others or even demonstrating paranoid behaviors that can be indicative of childhood trauma-induced psychosis and schizophrenia.
[37] These social inadequacies can result in individuals demonstrating self-protective behaviors, to compensate for the difference in their childhoods, as they may have the inability to practice positive self-care and effective emotional coping strategies.
