Alcoholics Anonymous and Family Therapy*

Alcoholism affects the family of the alcoholic as well as the individual problem drinker. Change in drinking behavior is often brought about by change in the alcoholic's family members. There has been a natural evolution in the alcoholism field of self-help groups for mates and children of alcoholics. This development has paralleled the recent growth and development of family therapy as a major mode of psychotherapeutic intervention. Yet, crossfertilization of ideas and intervention strategies between the two fields has been slow in occurring. Arguments over whether one uses family therapy or A.A. and Al-Anon persist. This paper focuses on ways in which family therapy and the A.A. self-help groups add to, rather than detract from, one another. A note of caution about the misuse of family therapy when alcoholism is present is also provided.¹     

Measurement equivalence of Watson and Clark's 18 surrogate measures of negative affectivity: Applying the principle of tetrad differences to an incomplete correlation matrix

Watson and Clark concluded, based primarily on a subjective analysis of the positive manifold of 87 intercorrelations, that 18 personality measures were manifestations of the same stable and pervasive trait of negative affectivity. Confirmatory factor analysis to test a one-factor measurement model was not possible, since only an incomplete matrix of correlations (87 out of 153) was available. In this paper, the principle of tetrad differences was applied to an incomplete correlation matrix to test for a general factor across the 18 measures. This principle assesses the equivalence of different measures hypothesized to tap into the same construct. Of the 614 first-order partial correlations, only 44 (7.2%) failed to satisfy the principle of tetrad differences, indicating support for a common underlying trait. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis and Herman's one-factor test provided support for a general factor across a subset of the 18 scales for which a complete matrix of correlations was available.     

Comprehensive model for child services: Parent education follow through program

One program which provides comprehensive child and family services is the Parent Education Follow Through Program. Developed at the University of Florida in 1968 by Dr. Ira J. Gordon and moved to the University of North Carolina in 1977, this program is currently implemented in ten diverse communities across the nation, both rural and urban. Using a theoretical ecological framework, the program focuses on the relationship between the home and the school with attention also given to other systems present in the community as well as at the state and national levels. The major features of the program include the following: (1) comprehensive services (social, psychological, and medical); (2) weekly home visitations by paid paraprofessionals during which home learning activities stressing specific parental teaching behaviors are delivered; and (3) parental participation of various kinds including volunteer, employee and decision-maker. The data that have been collected to measure these program areas have shown that the model has had a positive impact upon children's achievement as well as upon their families, the school, and the community.     

On the construction of orthogonal F-squares of order n from an orthogonal array (n, k, s, 2) and an OL(s, t) set

Complete sets of orthogonal F-squares of order n = s^p, where g is a prime or prime power and p is a positive integer have been constructed by Hedayat, Raghavarao, and Seiden (1975). Federer (1977) has constructed complete sets of orthogonal F-squares of order n = 4t, where t is a positive integer. We give a general procedure for constructing orthogonal F-squares of order n from an orthogonal array (n, k, s, 2) and an OL(s, t) set, where n is not necessarily a prime or prime power. In particular, we show how to construct sets of orthogonal F-squares of order n = 2s^p, where s is a prime or prime power and p is a positive integer. These sets are shown to be near complete and approach complete sets as s and/or p become large. We have also shown how to construct orthogonal arrays by these methods. In addition, the best upper bound on the number t of orthogonal F(n, λ₁), F(n, λ₂), …, F(n, λ₁) squares is given.     

Graphical evaluation of the adequacy of the method of unweighted means

A graphical technique is introduced to assess the adequacy of the method of unweighted means in providing approximate F -tests for an unbalanced random model. These tests are similar to those obtained under a balanced ANOVA. The proposed technique is simple and can easily be used to determine the effects of imbalance and values of the variance components on the adequacy of the approximation. The one-way and two-way random models are used to illustrate the proposed methodology. Extensions to higher-order models are also mentioned.     

Clustering of correlation matrices: A step-wise procedure

An alternative to the criteria proposed by King [9] for clustering correlation matrices is explored. Several simple examples examined by total enumeration employing our criterion indicate that the criterion yields clusters with high within group correlation. A step-wise routine is suggested for problems of realistic size and is applied to the examples presented in King's article. Additional evidence in the form of several Monte Carlo experiments indicates that the routine performs satisfactorily in determining the optimal separation of variables into two groups.