Managing the challenges of adolescence through improved family functioning

Adolescence can be a sensitive time encompassing significant, sometimes challenging, changes in an individual's physical, emotional, and social well-being. This developmental stage can involve challenges for the collective family unit. Caregivers must adjust several aspects of parenting, as the rules and boundaries they established when their child was younger can be the same ones adolescents feel confined by as they continue to develop and mature. This period can be even more challenging for adolescents with mental health challenges. At Bradley Hospital, several programs for adolescents in distress include individual, family, and group outpatient programs, inpatient and partial levels of hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs. Parents are encouraged to actively engage in treatment in all these modalities, often through family therapy. Family therapy is essential in ensuring sustainable long-term changes outside the therapy environment. Themes of dysregulation or dysfunction in behavior, communication, and family relationships emerge in family therapy sessions. Understanding these themes and potential solutions can benefit families in and out of the Bradley Hospital system. While families have individual challenges and strengths, caregivers and adolescents identified that open communication and adolescent-directed conversations support a high sense of family functioning (Bandura et al., 2011).