Family court ordered “reunification therapy:” junk science in the guise of helping parent/child relationships?

This Commentary addresses the issue of the ethics of mental health professionals recommending or doing what family courts and some others are calling “Reunification Therapy.” This is often being recommended and used across the country, and ordered by family courts, as if it has a scientific basis for successful therapy between an estranged parent and a child who does not wish to re-engage with that parent, often where the child has alleged the parent has abused them physically, sexually, or psychologically. This Commentary challenges the ethics and validity of such approaches and programs.     

Randomized controlled trial of the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students

Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the Resilience and Coping Intervention (RCI) with college students. Participants: College students (aged 18–23) from a large Midwest US university who volunteered for a randomized controlled trial during the 2015 spring semester. Methods: College students were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 64) or a control (n = 65) group. Intervention participants received three 45-minute RCI sessions over subsequent weeks. All participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments at the beginning of Week 1 and end of Week 3. Student resilience, coping, hope, stress, depression, and anxiety were assessed. Results. RCI participants reported significantly more hope and less stress and depression from Week 1 to Week 3 compared with control participants. Results for resilience also approached statistical significance. Effect sizes were small to moderate. Conclusions: This study found preliminary evidence that RCI is an effective resilience intervention for use with college students.     

“Post-Gay” Yet? The Relevance of the Lesbian and Gay Scene to Same-Sex Attracted Young People in Contemporary Australia

In recent years, the lesbian and gay “scene” of bars, nightclubs, and dance parties has been undergoing a structural decline in many Western cities. This article aimed to examine the relevance of the scene to same-sex attracted young adults amid these changes. An online survey was conducted with 572 same-sex attracted young women and men in Sydney. Only a minority of respondents participated in the scene at least weekly (16%), and the majority did not regard the scene as important to their leisure time (60%). However, respondents valued the scene as a space to connect with other same-sex attracted people and display same-sex affection without fear of hostility. Lesbian and gay identified respondents tended to be more socially engaged with the scene compared to other same-sex attracted respondents. The findings suggest that while the scene continues to be valued by many same-sex attracted young people, improved social attitudes have made participating in the scene less of an imperative.     

BOUNDARIES IN SCIENCE POLICY MAKING:

We simultaneously explore the history of European Union policy on the commercialization of recombinant bovine growth hormone and the sociology of boundary drawing. We argue that, to understand why some boundary-drawing efforts succeed and others fail, we need to be attentive to the relatively stable discursive, organizational, and institutional factors that shape boundary construction. We suggest that attention to two discourses (scientism and social welfarism), the structure of policy making in the European Union, and the institutionalization of particular discourses in World Trade Organization regulations shed light on the E.U.-rbGH case.     

NETWORK AND MEANING: AN INTERACTIONIST APPROACH TO STRUCTURE*

Social network is a concept interactionists might use to link individual behavior to the larger social system. A symbolic interactionist formulation of network would: 1) approximate the original, anthropological usage better than the current structural conception does, 2) offer symbolic interactionists a unit of social organization better suited to their perspective than the small group, and 3) allow symbolic interactionists to deal with “macro” sociological concerns. Network is conceived of as a set of relationships which people imbue with meaning and use for personal or collective purposes. By emphasizing subjective meaning and the investigation of multi-purpose and weak ties, the interactionist formulation provides theoretical insights into those aspects of society which “structural” approaches overlook.     

Common Developmental Tasks in Forming Reconstituted Families*

Developmental tasks common to the formation of a reconstituted family are described, particularly the continued mourning of the old family; the formation of a solid marital relationship despite the difficulties presented by past failures and the presence of children; formation of sibling alliances across family lines. A treatment case is described which illustrates one family's process of achieving these developmental tasks.