STAGES OF FAMILY INVOLVEMENT IN THE RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT OF ADOLESCENTS

A strong case has been made in the literature that the effective treatment of adolescents in long-term psychiatric hospitals or residential treatment centers must include treatment of the family. This highlights the need for a family treatment model that integrates a long-term psychodynamically oriented residential treatment approach with family systems theory. Such a model must take into account the stages of inpatient treatment and must address therapeutic management of the physical, emotional and psychological aspects of separation between the adolescent and the family. A bridge between family systems theory and psychoanalytic theory can be found in object relations theory. A four-stage model for working with families having a hospitalized adolescent member is described in which each stage builds upon the previous one. Progress through the stages depends upon the establishment of a relationship in which the family perceives the hospital as supportive, nonjudgmental, helpful and trustworthy.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FAMILY THERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF ADOLESCENTS WITH CONDUCT DISORDERS AND DELINQUENCY

A literature review was conducted on recent studies using family therapy approaches to the treatment of conduct disorders in adolescents. Results from studies conducted since the Shadish et al. (1993) meta-analysis on the effects of family and marital therapies are included. Barriers to effective treatment are identified, costs of care are discussed, and a variety of systems of care in which family interventions are embedded are reviewed.     

ETHNIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONALLY ADOPTED CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FAMILY THERAPISTS

The life story of the internationally adopted child tends to be an emotional one. How the story is tole and retold in the family can have lasting consequences for the child's adjustment and well-being. In telling the story, parents are faced with a qunique challenge: To what extent is it desirable to encourage their children, who adready struggle with identity issue related to adoption, to identify with their cultures of origin? Therapists working on these issues with multiethnic adoptive families can find little guidance in the family systems literature. To fill this gap, the present article reviews the literature on racial/ethnic identity development and the available research on ethnic identification, self-esteem, and the psychological adjustment of cross-ethnically adopted children and adolescents. Implications for practice include developmental considerations, identifying chldren and families at risk, and recommendations for those in need of intervention.     

NURTURANCE: A NEGLECTED DIMENSION IN FAMILY THERAPY WITH ADOLESCENTS*

This paper offers a model for integrating a nurturance framework into family therapy approaches with adolescents. This approach is seen as adding an important but neglected dimension to commonly used approaches, thus increasing both flexibility in treatment and the likelihood of a positive outcome. Steps to an effective treatment approach are outlined and guidelines offered for both in-session work and out-of-session tasks.     

IMAGES OF FAMILY LIFE OVER THE FAMILY LIFECYCLE

Based on an analysis of 20 family photo albums, this study investigates how the family's depiction of its geographical boundaries as well as of its kin and friendship networks varies over the lifecycle. Results indicate that the geographical boundaries of the family system expand and contract over the lifecycle and are most constricted during the childrearing years. Kin and friends are most likely to be included in the family album during the pre-parental stage and when school age children are present. A more exclusively kin-oriented image of family life emerges during the pre-school years and at late stages of the lifecycle. Theoretical and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.     

FAMILY ASSESSMENT DEVICE: REPORTS FROM MOTHERS, FATHERS, AND ADOLESCENTS IN COMMUNITY AND CLINIC FAMILIES

This study compared responses on the 60-item version of the Family Assessment Device (FAD) obtained from mothers, fathers, and adolescents in two groups of families. The clinic group consisted of 94 families in which the adolescent had been referred to a mental health service in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. The community group consisted of 94 families, also containing an adolescent, living in the Adelaide community. Members of the clinic families consistently rated their families as less healthy than did families in the community. Importantly however, adolescents in both groups of families rated their families as significantly less healthy than their parents. Thus, while the results of the study provide support for the discriminative validity of the FAD, they also emphasize the need to consider separately self-reports on family functioning obtained from different members of the same family.     

THE STRUCTURE OF FAMILY PARADIGMS: AN ANALYTICAL MODEL OF FAMILY VARIATION

The theory of family paradigms provides an integrative framework for under-standing and systematizing the diverse ways that families organize and make sense of family life. Using formal methods of analysis based on logical and geometrical arguments, the priecise implications of models of family types can be investigated and compared. The paradigmatic framework can thus be refined and extended to form a more rigorous theoretical grounding for family typologies is explored and a miltidimensional model is derived the geometry of which is equivalent to, but more succinctly captures, the underlying structure of uariation in family para-digms. In Part II, the resulting model is interpredtd and explored in terms of implications for family theory, theory construction, and family therapy. Clarifying the basic dimensions of the paradigmatic framework also permits more precise exploration of interrelationships among related models of family types, which can be understood as reduced models derivable from the complete geometry of the paradigmatic framework.     

PREDICTORS OF FEAR OF CRIMINAL VICTIMIZATION AT SCHOOL AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Adolescent crime at school, as well as adolescent fear of crime at school, have increasingly become serious social problems. Although many studies have been conducted examining the predictors of fear of crime among adults in various settings, fear of criminal victimization among adolescents at school has been practically ignored. Using a representative sample of 742 high school students from a southeastern state, this study examined the predictors of adolescent fear of crime at school in an attempt to determine whether they are similar to predictors of adult fear of crime. Results indicate that, although the predictors of fear among adolescents are, in many cases, similar to those of adults, there are important differences. As expected, youths with lower levels of perceived safety at school and youths who perceive their neighborhoods as exhibiting signs of incivility were more likely to be fearful of criminal victimization at school. Interestingly, however, there were important differences between adolescents and adults regarding the effects of race, gender, and victimization experience and fear of crime. The results from this study indicate that the effects of race and victimization experience on fear of crime vary by gender: Namely, Black males were more fearful than White males, and female victims of crime were more fearful than females who had not been victimized by crime. This study suggests that the phenomena that underlie fear of crime among adults are somewhat different than those of adolescents.     

THE ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE ADOLESCENTS

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we analyze African-American and white respondents' reports of the nature of their romantic experiences. We explore levels of companionate intimacy, including frequency of interaction and intimate self-disclosure, degree of romantic and sexual intimacy, as well as problem areas including relationship violence and nonexclusivity. African-American respondents report relationships of longer average duration relative to white youths, but overall responses reflect a somewhat less intense or intimate relationship style. These observed differences were not completely attenuated once relevant controls are introduced. We connect these findings to prior research on African-American adolescent family and peer relations, and call for additional research that supplements the behavioral emphasis of Add Health.     

CYBERNETICS OF BRIEF FAMILY THERAPY

A cybernetic view of brief family therapy is presented. The article includes an historical discussion of the key ideas underlying brief family therapy, a cybernetic model of therapeutic change and a clinical case for exemplification.     

EMPHASES OF THE MAJOR FAMILY THERAPY MODELS: A FAMILY FIRO ANALYSIS

This paper analyzes 13 models of family therapy according to their special emphases on the Family FIRO model's dimensions of inclusion, control and intimacy. We first examined chapters on each model in Gurman and Kniskern's Handbook of Family Therapy; we then sent our preliminary ratings to the authors of the chapters for comment. The final conceptual analysis of the models indicated that 4 family therapy models emphasize inclusion as a primary focus, 4 emphasize control, and 5 emphasize intimacy. We also rated the secondary and tertiary emphases of the models. This analysis provides a possible guide for therapists who wish to be eclectic or integrative in their work, specifically, by suggesting a way to match therapy techniques from different family therapy models to the presenting family issues that each model emphasizes most strongly.     

BASIC FAMILY THERAPY SKILLS, IV: TRANSGENERATIONAL THEORIES OF FAMILY THERAPY

This pape focuses on the basic skills and compentencies of transgenerational approaches to family therapy, the fourth report of a program of research surveys by the Basic Family Therapy Skills Project. In the first survey, a panel of family therapy educators listed the most critical or basic skills or compentencies of beginning family therapist with a transgenerational orientation. In the third survey, self-selected respondents rated these items according to degree of importance for beginning family therapists. Rankings of the items according to mean scores of the Likert responses indicate that transgenerational family therapy skills are founded in theory and can be identified behaviorally. The most important skills are those that use the self of the therapist to understand and utilize transgenerational family therapy skills for both therapist and client. Also listed are skills that many raters deemed "generic" rather than specifically related to transgenerational family therapy. Other findings and their implications for the future training of family therapists are discusses. Although the paper is intended for family therapy educators interested in their colleagues' ideas about critical skills in trans-generational family therapy, theorists and clinicians may also find it useful.     

THE ECONOMICS OF FAMILY FORMATION*

In this article an economic model of the determinants of first marriage is formulated and then empirically tested. The model incorporates household production theory and search theory in order to explain the incentives to marry and the determinants of the age at first marriage. Age at first marriage is viewed as depending on the determinants of entry into the marriage market and the duration of search for a spouse. Empirical results from the 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity show a negative effect of male wages and a positive effect of female wages on own age at marriage. Additionally, education and urbanization are found to have positive effects and number of children a negative effect.     

THE CORRELATES OF HEALTHY FAMILY FUNCTIONING: THE ROLE OF CONSENSUS AND CONFLICT IN THE PRACTICE OF FAMILY THERAPY

The present study explores the relative importance of individual, dyadic and triadic measures of intrafamily functioning in predicting family health. Using self-report data from 78 families, it was found that dyadic measures pertaining to marital quality and parent-child relationships were more powerful predictors than either individual measures of emotional maturity, anxiety, self-esteem or locus of control, or triadic measures of the families' hierarchical alignments. The study also found that while mothers' and fathers' assessments of intrafamily functioning were more important than the childrens' (except for the childrens' view of parent-child relationships), the parents differed in that marital quality was more important to the mothers' evaluations of the family unit while parent-child relationships were more important to the fathers'. Compositely, the findings suggest that family health is a complex multidimensional phenomenon, and that change in a particular dimension of family life may not necessarily be greeted with consensual validation or repudiation by all family members.     

INFORMATION STRUCTURES OF PRODUCT MARKETS

Buyers demand continuing information flows to guide their choices among competing product brands. They select portfolios of information types, some supplied by sellers of the branded goods, some not. This paper investigates the determinants of businesses' outlays on information (media advertising, sales force, other sales promotion). They include buyers' overall demands for information, buyers' access to sources not controlled by the seller, the relative efficiency of seller-supplied information, and competitive conditions in the product market. The hypotheses about effects on sellers' total information outlays are strongly supported. Some evidence appears on determinants of the mixture of information types they provide.