Developing culturally competent marriage and family therapists: guidelines for working with Hispanic families

As the Hispanic population of the United States continues to grow, so will the need for therapists who have been trained to work with Hispanic families. This content analysis of the available treatment literature generated several specific guidelines that can be used in training and evaluating culturally competent therapists. Guidelines included: Use family therapy, act as advocate for the family, assess immigration experience, assess acculturation, respect father, interview family subsystems separately, do not force changes, provide concrete suggestions, and warmly engage the family. Empirical and conceptual support for each guideline is discussed and several conclusions are made regarding culturally competent therapy with Hispanic families.     

Quantitative models for optimal rest period scheduling

Mathematical and simulation models studying work-rest schedules in a production process are developed to arrive at an optimal rest policy to maximize work output per unit time. A CSMP simulation study is used to test the sensitivity of the results for different specific cases.     

Developing culturally competent marriage and family therapists: treatment guidelines for non-African-American therapists working with African-American families

To serve African-American families effectively, marriage and family therapists need to develop a level of cultural competence. This content analysis of the relevant treatment literature was conducted to examine the most common expert recommendations for family therapy with African Americans. Fifteen specific guidelines were generated, including orient the family to therapy, do not assume familiarity, address issue of racism, intervene multi-systemically, do home visits, use problem-solving focus, involve religious leader, incorporate the father, and acknowledge strengths. Conceptual and empirical support for each guideline is discussed, and conclusions are made regarding culturally competent therapy with African-American families.     

Children's Perceptions of Mental Illness: A Partial Test of Scheff's Hypothesis*

Scheff's proposition that “stereotyped images of mental disorder are learned in early childhood” was tested in a study of seventy-five (75) elementary school children. Interviews indicate that children were familiar with simple concepts associated with mental illness, i.e., crazy, nuts, and cuckoo, but that few children knew more sophisticated terms or psychiatric labels. The children tended to see the concepts they were familiar with in terms of residual norm violations, which partially supports Scheff's hypothesis. Contrary to Scheff's expectations, however, adults were most frequently cited as primary agents of socialization and other children were rarely cited as sources of information. The children viewed media as less important than suggested by Scheff in providing images of mental illness and violence. The data suggest, contrary to the proposition tested, that elementary school-age children have amorphous conceptions of psychiatric deviance and findings in this study raise questions regarding the widespread applicability of the labeling perspective to pre-adolescent children.