Continuation Commitment: Family’s Commitment to Continue the Family Business

This study investigates what influences families’ commitment to continue a family business, or continuation commitment. We hypothesize that top executives’ cultural capital, family members’ satisfaction with the firms past performance and their aspirations regarding its future performance, as well as the level of family involvement in the family business represent key factors underlying continuation commitment. In addition, we suggest the interaction effects among the identified factors that affect a family’s commitment will be higher in the founder generation compared to successive generations of family owners. Analysis of a dataset of 2,168 family firms from a nationwide survey provided support for most hypotheses.     

Mechanisms of Adherence in a Harm Reduction Housing Program

Advances in clinical therapies for people living with HIV have greatly increased life expectancies, but the high levels of adherence that are necessary for clinical success are infrequently achieved, especially for chronically homeless substance users. The Open Door is a harm reduction housing program that seeks to improve clinical outcomes for this population. We present findings from qualitative interviews with residents of the program, conducted to explore facilitators of residents’ success in the program, which is ultimately defined as HIV clinical adherence. Two major themes developed. Positive changes captures processes or characteristics that residents reported as having changed as a result of living in the program. Mechanisms of success reflects aspects of the program to which residents attributed their improved adherence. Given that improving adherence in vulnerable populations has both clinical and public health implications, our study suggests future avenues for research and foundations on which to build future interventions.     

Women's Unprotected Sex Intentions: Roles of Sexual Victimization,Intoxication, and Partner Perception

Sexually victimized women may make sexual decisions differently than nonvictimized women. This study used an eroticized scenario and laboratory alcohol administration to investigate the roles of victimization history, intoxication, and relationship context in women's perceptions of a male partner and their subsequent intentions for unprotected sex. A community sample of 436 women completed childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and adolescent/adult sexual assault (ASA) measures. After random assignment to an alcohol or control condition, participants read and projected themselves into a sexual scenario that depicted the male partner as having high or low potential for a lasting relationship. Participants rated their perceptions of his intoxication, sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk level, and anticipated reactions to insistence on condom use. They then indicated their likelihood of allowing the partner to decide how far to go sexually (abdication) and of engaging in unprotected sex. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that intoxication predicted greater unprotected sex likelihood indirectly via abdication. CSA and ASA predicted partner perceptions, which in turn predicted unprotected sex likelihood. These findings indicate that, compared to their nonvictimized counterparts, sexually victimized women may respond differently in sexual encounters partly as a function of their perceptions of partners' STI risk and anticipated reactions to condom insistence.     

The Therapeutic Pyramid: A Common Factors Synthesis of Techniques,Alliance, and Way of Being

Common factors in therapy such as the therapeutic alliance and client motivation have been found to account for more change than therapy models. But common factors have been critiqued as only lists of variables that provide little practical guidance. Some researchers have demonstrated that certain common elements (e.g., the therapeutic alliance) account for more variance than others (e.g., techniques), suggesting that some factors should be emphasized over others. Such findings suggest the need for alternatives to model‐based therapy, with one alternative being meta‐models, or “models of models,” that focus on how therapeutic factors interact with each other to produce change. The purpose of this article is to propose a meta‐model describing the relationship between two specific common factors—the therapeutic alliance and interventions. We also propose a new factor—a therapist's way of being—that we believe is foundational to effective therapy. The model is proposed in pyramid format, with techniques on top, the therapeutic alliance in the middle, and therapist way of being as the foundation. The hierarchical relationships between these three concepts are discussed, along with implications for training, research, and therapy.     

The mental health recovery movement and family therapy, part I: consumer-led reform of services to persons diagnosed with severe mental illness

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a consensus statement on mental health recovery based on the New Freedom Commission's recommendation that public mental health organizations adopt a "recovery" approach to severe and persistent mental illness, including services to those dually diagnosed with mental health and substance abuse issues. By formally adopting and promoting a recovery orientation to severe mental illness, the United States followed suit with other first-world nations that have also adopted this approach based on two decades of research by the World Health Organization. This movement represents a significant paradigm shift in the treatment of severe mental health, a shift that is more closely aligned with the nonpathologizing and strength-based traditions in marriage and family therapy. Furthermore, the recovery movement is the first consumer-led movement to have a transformational effect on professional practice, thus a watershed moment for the field. Part I of this article introduces family therapists to the concept of mental health recovery, providing an overview of its history, key concepts, and practice implications. Part II of this article outlines a collaborative, appreciative approach for working in recovery-oriented contexts.     

The mental health recovery movement and family therapy, part II: a collaborative, appreciative approach for supporting mental health recovery

A continuation of Part I, which introduced mental health recovery concepts to family therapists, Part II of this article outlines a collaborative, appreciative approach for working in recovery-oriented contexts. This approach draws primarily upon postmodern therapies, which have numerous social justice and strength-based practices that are easily adapted in recovery-oriented contexts. The model outlined in this article includes an overview of the recovery partnership (i.e., therapeutic relationship), mapping recovery (i.e., assessment and case conceptualization), recovery planning (i.e., treatment planning), facilitating recovery (i.e., intervention), accessing resources (i.e., case management), recovery maintenance, and service contexts as well as a case study.     

Bath salts: they are not what you think

Psychoactive bath salts are a relatively new group of designer drugs sold as tablets, capsules, or powder and pur-chased in places such as tobacco and convenience stores, gas stations, head shops, and the Internet. Bath salts are stimulant agents that mimic cocaine,lysergic acid diethylamide, methamphetamine, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy). The most common bath salts are the cathinone derivatives 3,4-methylenedioxypyrovalerone(MDPV), 4-methylmethcathinone(mephedrone), and 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylcathinone (methylone). The drugs cause intense stimulation, eu-phoria, elevated mood, and a pleasurable "rush" Tachycardia, hypertension,peripheral constriction, chest pain, hallucinations, paranoia, erratic behavior,inattention, lack of memory of substance use, and psychosis have been observed in those who have used bath salts. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently exercised an emergency authority to name three key ingredients in bath salts as Schedule I, thereby making them illegal to possess or sell in the United States. Nursing implications related to both clinical and educational settings are discussed.