Ten adaptive strategies for family and work balance: advice from successful families

Despite negative media images and social dynamics insensitive to the lives of many dual-career couples, research shows that these families are largely healthy and thriving. In this study, we investigated the adaptive strategies of middle-class, dual-earner couples (N = 47) with children that are successfully managing family and work. Guided by grounded-theory methodology, analysis of interview data revealed that these successful couples structured their lives around 10 major strategies: Valuing family, striving for partnership, deriving meaning from work, maintaining work boundaries, focusing and producing at work, taking pride in dual earning, prioritizing family fun, living simply, making decisions proactively, and valuing time. Each adaptive strategy is defined and illustrated through the participants' own words. Clinical applications for therapists working with dual-earner couples are offered.     

AAMFT Master Series tapes: an analysis of the inclusion of feminist principles into family therapy practice

Content analysis of 23 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Master Series tapes was used to determine how well feminist behaviors have been incorporated into "ideal" family therapy practice. Feminist behaviors were infrequent, being evident in fewer than 3% of time blocks in event sampling and 10 of 39 feminist behaviors of the Feminist Family Therapist Behavior Checklist. These eminent therapists most often dealt with empowerment of male clients and management of power differentials in the therapeutic relationship in a relatively feminist manner, but they tended to hold women responsible for family issues, endorsed traditional rather than egalitarian relationships, and overlooked how the social context affects families. Several of the therapists were blatantly sexist in their treatment of female clients, communicating disrespect of and pathologizing them. The few tapes portraying effective incorporation of feminist principles in family therapy indicate that a handful of behaviors are key to this approach.     

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Nursing Home Case-Mix and Quality Demonstration: a descriptive overview

This paper presents the first comprehensive account of a major national demonstration designed to integrate skilled nursing facilities (SNF) prospective case-mix payment and quality of care. It describes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Nursing Home Case-Mix and Quality (NHCMQ) Demonstration-the template for Medicare's SNF Prospective Payment System (PPS) implemented July 1998. The NHCMQ Demonstration provided the basis for one of the most significant changes in SNF reimbursement and quality monitoring policies to date. Prospective reimbursement policies created positive incentive for providers to admit Medicare residents under more equitable payment rates. However, controversy regarding unanticipated perverse provider incentives remains. The quality management system designed under the NHCMQDemonstration is currently used in over 17,000 nursing homes. Furthermore, under the NHCMQ Demonstration, one standardized assessment tool-the MDS-was used to assess a resident's clinical condition, to monitor quality, and to calculate provider reimbursement. Experiences from the NHCMQ Demonstration and continued evaluation of the current national PPS, along with state systems, provide a rich information source regarding prospective, case-mix reimbursement, and provider incentives.     

Peer Group Patterns of Alcohol‐Using Behaviors Among Early Adolescents in Victoria,Australia, and Washington State,United States

The goal of this study was to examine and cross‐nationally compare the peer group patterns of alcohol‐drinking behaviors among cohorts of early adolescents (ages 11–14 years) in Victoria, Australia, and Washington State, United States. Latent transition analysis revealed that after 1 year, transitions congruent with peer influence (whereby non‐drinking adolescents initiated alcohol use in the presence of drinking peers) and reverse peer influence were observed in both states; however, transitions congruent with peer selection (whereby drinking adolescents self‐selected into drinking peer groups) were only observed among Victorian early adolescents. Findings were interpreted to suggest that Australian family and cultural norms that more commonly allow early adolescent alcohol use lead to a higher rate of peer selection.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of Cumulative Risks,Cumulative Promotive Factors,and Adolescent Violent Behavior

This study examined the effects of cumulative risk and promotive factors on violent behavior across the high school years of adolescence in a sample of predominately African American urban adolescents (N = 750). Cumulative risk and promotive factor indices represented individual characteristics, and peer, parental, and familial influences. Using growth curve modeling, we describe trajectories of cumulative risk and promotive factors and test the associations between the time‐varying cumulative risk and promotive factor indices and violent behavior. Higher risk was associated with higher levels of violent behavior. Higher levels of promotive factors were associated with less violent behavior and moderated the association between risk and violent behaviors. The results support the risk‐protective model of resiliency. Implications for prevention are discussed.     

Youth violence in South Africa: exposure, attitudes, and resilience in Zulu adolescents

Exposure to violence is common in South Africa. Yet, few studies examine how violence exposure contributes to South African adolescents' participation in youth violence. The aims of this study were to examine effects of different violence exposures on violent attitudes and behavior, to test whether attitudes mediated effects of violence exposures on violent behavior, and to test whether adult involvement had protective or promotive effects. Questionnaires were administered to 424 Zulu adolescents in township high schools around Durban, South Africa. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test associations among violence exposures and both violent attitudes and behavior. Victimization, witnessing violence, and friends' violent behavior contributed directly to violent behavior. Only family conflict and friends' violence influenced violent attitudes. Attitudes mediated effects of friends' violence on violent behavior. Multiple-group SEM indicated that adult involvement fit a protective model of resilience. These findings are discussed regarding their implications for prevention.     

Two separate effects of variance heterogeneity on the validity and power of significance tests of location

Heterogeneity of variances of treatment groups influences the validity and power of significance tests of location in two distinct ways. First, if sample sizes are unequal, the Type I error rate and power are depressed if a larger variance is associated with a larger sample size, and elevated if a larger variance is associated with a smaller sample size. This well-established effect, which occurs in t and F tests, and to a lesser degree in nonparametric rank tests, results from unequal contributions of pooled estimates of error variance in the computation of test statistics. It is observed in samples from normal distributions, as well as non-normal distributions of various shapes. Second, transformation of scores from skewed distributions with unequal variances to ranks produces differences in the means of the ranks assigned to the respective groups, even if the means of the initial groups are equal, and a subsequent inflation of Type I error rates and power. This effect occurs for all sample sizes, equal and unequal. For the t test, the discrepancy diminishes, and for the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test, it becomes larger, as sample size increases. The Welch separate-variance t test overcomes the first effect but not the second. Because of interaction of these separate effects, the validity and power of both parametric and nonparametric tests performed on samples of any size from unknown distributions with possibly unequal variances can be distorted in unpredictable ways.