[Family identity and adolescents' choices concerning health habits: an interventive interview method for assessing family strengths].

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe family identity as a strength and as part of the family functioning style. The concept of functioning style includes family identity, information sharing and resource mobilization. The article examines family identity in terms of a family's strengths in coping with seventh-grade adolescents' experiments with smoking, alcohol, and drugs. The data were gathered using interventive interviews and a questionnaire, in which family members (n = 14) assessed the strengths of the family. Finally, the families identified their strengths in a feedback discussion. Content analysis methods were used to analyze qualitative data according to the categories of family identity: commitment, values, time, a sense of purpose and uniformity (Dunst et. al. 1994, Mattus 1994a). Questionnaire data were analyzed quantitatively. The families identified commitment, values, a sense of purpose and uniformity to be the strengths in their family identity. They described commitment as sacrificing for others. The parents' aim was to strengthen adolescents' ability to resist the social pressure to experiment with drugs. The families were also confident in their ability to cope with these situations. It was important for both the parents and the adolescents to have a mutual understanding of what is important and of ways to spend their leisure time. The results indicate that these families possess strengths that enable them to support their adolescents' choices concerning health habits.