Family Members as Boundary Managers: Behaviors that Promote and Limit Service Members’ Involvement in Daily Family Life

When military service members deploy, they move outside the immediate boundary of their families. However, because boundaries are permeable, service members remain a psychological part of their families in spite of their physical absence. The extent of service members’ continued involvement in daily family life is likely tied to their non-deployed family members’ actions to manage this boundary. In the current study, we were interested in identifying non-deployed family members’ actions to either promote, or limit, service members’ involvement in daily family life during deployment. These actions by family members constitute boundary management behaviors. We collected qualitative data from a sample of Army reservists (N = 13) and their household family members (N = 15). Findings indicated that family members used a variety of boundary management behaviors during deployment, some of which promoted reservists’ involvement, and others which limited it. In addition, boundary management behaviors varied by who they targeted, their intentionality, and their implications for reservists’ well-being. Findings illustrate the value in equipping military families with language that enables them to communicate openly about the significance of their boundary management behavior over the course of deployment so that they may arrive at a balance between stretching and restricting boundaries that best suits their unique needs.     

Can Housing and Service Interventions Reduce Family Separations for Families Who Experience Homelessness?

Family break‐up is common in families experiencing homelessness. This paper examines the extent of separations of children from parents and of partners from each other and whether housing and service interventions reduced separations and their precursors among 1,857 families across 12 sites who participated in the Family Options Study. Families in shelters were randomized to offers of one of three interventions: permanent housing subsidies that reduce expenditures for rent to 30% of families’ income, temporary rapid re‐housing subsidies with some services directed at housing and employment, and transitional housing in supervised facilities with extensive psychosocial services. Each group was compared to usual care families who were eligible for that intervention but received no special offer. Twenty months later, permanent housing subsidies almost halved rates of child separation and more than halved rates of foster care placements; the other interventions did not affect separations significantly. Predictors of separation were primarily homelessness and drug abuse (all comparisons), and alcohol dependence (one comparison). Although housing subsidies reduced homelessness, alcohol dependence, intimate partner violence, and economic stressors, the last three variables had no association with child separations in the subsidy comparison; thus subsidies had indirect effects via reductions in homelessness. No intervention reduced partner separations.     

Focused on the Family? Religious Traditions,Family Discourse,and Pastoral Practice

The relationship between religion and the family has recently reemerged as an important object of sociological inquiry. However, research has largely overlooked the ways in which the family discourse produced by specific religious traditions is connected to family-focused pastoral practices of congregations. Using data from the National Congregations Study, we find that family discourse and pastoral practice are only "loosely coupled" to one another. Ideological differences among mainline Protestant, conservative Protestant, and Roman Catholic congregations do not translate directly into differences in family ministry offerings. These findings help explain why research often finds that religion exercises uniform effects on family life, insofar as most congregations offer a similar package of ministries even though their family discourse is markedly different .     

Adolescents of the USA National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Can Family Characteristics Counteract the Negative Effects of Stigmatization?

This investigation examines the impact of homophobic stigmatization on the well-being of 17-year-old adolescents who were conceived through donor insemination and whose mothers enrolled before they were born in the largest, longest-running, prospective study of lesbian families, with a 93% retention rate to date. The data for the current report were collected through questionnaires completed by the adolescents and their mothers. The adolescents (39 girls and 39 boys) were queried about family connection and compatibility. They were also asked to indicate if they had experienced discrimination based on their mothers' sexual orientation. Adolescent well-being was assessed through the parental report of the Child Behavior Checklist/6-18. Forty-one percent of the adolescents had experienced stigmatization based on homophobia. Hierarchical, multiple-regression analyses revealed that stigmatization was associated with more problem behavior in these adolescents, but that family compatibility neutralized this negative influence. The results indicate that adolescents who have close, positive relationships with their lesbian mothers demonstrate resilience in response to stigmatization.     

Action Regulation at the Work–Family Interface: Nomological Network and Work–Family Consequences

Pursuing personally valued goals in work and family is important for many people, yet research has only partially addressed how individuals can actively manage the work–family interface. We examined the role of action regulation at the work–family interface (AR-WF) as an integrated individual-level approach to attain favorable work–family outcomes through the selection and pursuit of goals at the work–family interface. We investigated the relation of AR-WF to theoretically derived correlates and outcomes in two time-lagged studies with samples from the USA and Germany, based on a newly developed and validated measure to assess AR-WF. Overall, results showed that AR-WF is positively related to dispositional self-regulation, work and family role commitment, work and family goal regulation, and work and family social support. In contrast, AR-WF was largely unrelated to work and family role demands and segmentation or integration boundary enactment. AR-WF further positively related to work and family goal attainment, as well as work–family enrichment beyond related constructs. However, AR-WF was also positively related to increased work-to-family conflict. We discuss how a focus on action regulation can be useful for attaining a better understanding of the active role that people play in managing multiple role demands at the work–family interface.

     

Transcendence Matters: Do the Ways Family Members Experience God Meaningfully Relate to Family Life?

As more Americans continue to move away from an institutional approach to religion and spirituality to a more personal approach, it is important to explore the ways that personal perspectives about God influence various aspects of life including family life. This study explored how participants viewed and experienced God as an authority figure (Directive Transcendence), as a close confidant (Intimate Transcendence), or as both (Authoritative Transcendence). In-depth interviews with 198 religious families from across America were analyzed using a team-based qualitative approach. These analyses revealed that participants experienced God as both an authority figure and as a close confidant. Both types of experiences are associated with family relationships in different ways. Concepts relating to ideas of authority, parenting styles, and attachment theory are used to help understand familial impacts from how one experiences God.     

Debriefing the Family: Is Research an Intervention?

The primary focus of this article is to examine the general assumption that families are left largely unchanged by their participation in research, and to question whether family research can have unintended positive or negative effects on participants. The present article reports feedback from families participating in the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development project, a longitudinal study of family process and adolescent development. Families differed in their perceptions about whether the research experience was positive, detrimental, or inconsequential. This feedback underscores the researcher's ethical responsibility to detect and remove deleterious effects of participation. Suggestions are made for providing adequate debriefing to subjects and for using debriefing as a research tool to study the interaction between researcher and families.     

Family therapy for the “Truncated” nuclear family

The truncated nuclear family is the commonest or gardenvariety family psychopathology observed by therapists, and consists of a two-generation group in which heated, prolonged conflict has produced a polarization of values which has generated pathogenic relating, raising the potential for a family member to become scapegoated and react in a disorganized or disoriented manner. Although many so-called intact families are of the truncated variety, the single-parent family is at special risk. Go-between process is a useful family therapy for the truncated nuclear family because it enables the therapist to depolarize sharply conflicted values and is a mechanism for reducing pathogenic relating.This article was originally an invited presentation for the Third Annual Research Symposium of the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, held in Philadelphia on February 22, 1980.     

Family therapy's missing question,why the plight of the modern family?

The field of family therapy has developed rapidly over the last thirty years. The account of its emergence produced by family therapists neglects the socio-historical context and wider issues of social and family change. The contemporary practitioners need to understand this context, and in particular, the extent to which assorted unexamined, and perhaps unwanted, assumptions about the family and about social reality are embedded in family therapy. Hence the paper will explore some of these assumptions in the light of analysis of the technological and intellectual climate in which family therapy emerged, and of social changes affecting marriage and the family.     

Gender Differences in the Importance of Work and Family Roles: Implications for Work–Family Conflict

In this study we explored between- and within-gender differences in the importance of life roles and their implications for work–family conflict. In earlier research (Cinamon & Rich, 2002) we found 3 profiles of workers who differ in attributions of importance to work and family roles: persons who assigned high importance to both the work role and the family role (“Dual” profile); participants who ascribed high importance to the work role and low importance to the family role (“Work” profile); and participants who attributed high importance to the family role and low importance to the work role (“Family” profile). We used these profiles to clarify the relationship between gender and work–family conflict. Participants were 126 married men and 87 married women who were employed in computer or law firms. Significant between- and within-gender differences were found in the distribution of participants to profiles. Men were equally distributed throughout the profiles, whereas women were underrepresented in the Work category. More women than men fit the Family profile, and more men than women fit the Work profile. No gender differences were found for the Dual profile. Women reported higher parenting and work values than men did. Between-gender differences in work–family conflict were apparent, as were within-gender differences across profiles. Results demonstrate the value of examining both between- and within-gender variation in studies of gender and work–family conflict.     

Uplifting the Family: African American Parents’ Ideas of How to Integrate Religion into Family Health Programming

Religion has been reported as a strong cultural-historical and protective factor in the African American community, particularly for African American youth regarding risky behavior prevention. Despite the historical and scholarly evidence of its utility, the opportunities for using religion and the Black Church in supporting the mental, emotional, and physical health of Black youth have not been fulfilled. Furthermore, partnering with the community to conduct research and program development increases the likelihood of use and success. The purpose of this study was to partner with the community and learn and conceptualize how to integrate or use religion in a family health program. Seven focus groups were conducted with African American parents/guardians regarding how a family health program could use religion to enhance the mental and physical wellbeing of Black families. A community sample of parents and guardians conveyed religious/spiritual values that a program should adopt and teach to participants (particularly parents) and ways that a program could use religion and the Black Church to function and succeed. These values include respect, love, prayer, fellowship/community, physical health, Scripture, faith, and empathy/understanding. Participants further provided specifics regarding how such programming might be implemented and offered real world implications for the development of religious family health planning. Parents/guardians indicated that religious values and methods should be used together to bolster family health, prevent risky behavior in youth, and support community functioning.     

Family Cohesion and Adaptation in Pediatric Chronic Conditions: The Missing Link of the Family’s Condition Management

The quality of family functioning has been considered an important predictor of adaptation in children with chronic conditions and their parents. Previous research suggests that beyond general family functioning, the specific experience of the family’s condition management is paramount for understanding family members’ adaptation. This study’s first goal was to compare family functioning and parents’ and children’s adaptation outcomes across four chronic conditions: asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and obesity. Secondly, we explored the mediating role of family life difficulties and parental mutuality, as two potential paths through which family cohesion is linked to family members’ adaptation. A total of 263 parents of children (3–19 years old) with asthma (n = 77), obesity (n = 79), epilepsy (n = 52) and diabetes (n = 55) completed self-report measures of family cohesion, family life difficulty, parental mutuality, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and their children’s health-related quality of life (HrQoL). The results showed that families of children with diabetes, obesity, and epilepsy were at higher risk of experiencing family difficulties and children’s deteriorated HrQoL when compared to families of children with asthma. With regard to the links among study variables, although family cohesion had both a direct and indirect relationship with parental depressive symptoms, its links with parental anxiety symptoms and children’s HrQoL were only indirect, through family life difficulty. These associations were consistent across the four clinical groups. These findings emphasize the relevance of family-centered interventions aimed at promoting family cohesion, parents’ mutuality, and effective coping with the demands of pediatric chronic conditions.     

Family Expressiveness Mediates the Relation Between Cumulative Family Risks and Children’s Emotion Regulation in a Chinese Sample

Family expressiveness, a reflection of a family’s emotional environment, has been identified as a critical factor that influences children’s emotion regulation, yet research on this topic is limited, especially in varying cultural contexts. The present study addresses this research gap and expands on the extant literature by examining the influence of family expressiveness on children’s emotional development in the context of cumulative risks (e.g., low annual household income, parental psychological distress, parents’ education level, marital dissatisfaction and the family’s housing situation). Our final sample included one hundred and seventy-eight school-aged children (84 boys and 94 girls) and their biological parents. Results showed that higher scores on the familial risk index were related to increased emotion dysregulation and decreased adaptive emotion regulation, through the mediated effects of positive family expressiveness. Negative expressiveness, however, did not mediate the aforementioned links. Reasons for the different findings regarding positive expressiveness and negative expressiveness were discussed. These findings highlight the importance of cumulative risk on children’s emotional development in the Chinese cultural context and offer potential avenues to promote adaptive emotional development in the context of cumulative risks.     

Exploring the Social Origins of Dutch Mothers’ Ideal Family Lives

This paper examines how Dutch mothers’ ideal family lives (traditional, adaptive or egalitarian) have been formed in interaction with other people, an assumption that is central to socialization theories. With nominal regression analysis of data from a representative survey in 2010 among 935 Dutch mothers, we analyse various social influences on a mother’s current ideal family life. As hypothesized, the results show that a mother endorses a more egalitarian ideal family life if she recalls the gender role specific parental message ‘you should work in order to be financially independent of others’. Additionally, if the respondent recalls a positively work orientated mother at the age of 12 years, she has now as an adult more egalitarian ideals compared to daughters who recall a more home orientated mother or who have no memories of their mothers in that respect. We also show that as expected in the hypotheses 3 and 4, that Dutch mothers who have perceived career support by her partner and from people at work have now more egalitarian ideal family lives. Mothers’ current ideals are thus formed and further developed within prior social bonds. Moreover, mothers’ ideal family lives seem not only dependent on their current labour market behaviour, but to some degree resistant to change. However, the results must be interpreted with care because of the cross-sectional research design and the use of retrospective questions.     

Family therapy research: What are the most important variables?

This report summarizes the results of a nearly day-long session of a group of experienced and distinguished family therapy practitioners and researchers. The task the group set for itself was to begin delineating the most important variables to attend to in understanding family therapy and evaluating its effectiveness. With full recognition that such a task could be only partially and tentatively accomplished in the time allotted, a great many such variables were outlined.     

The Role of the Family in Childhood Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

While obsessive–compulsive disorder is widely recognized to have a strong genetic component, psychosocial factors are also acknowledged to be important. The primary focus of this paper is on familial factors associated with OCD in children and adolescents. It explores the family context as a possible risk factor in the development and maintenance of the disorder, including parental modeling, expressed emotion, parenting style, and family accommodation of the child's symptoms. The involvement of the family in the treatment of the disorder is also reviewed. Finally, future directions for research investigating familial factors in childhood OCD are presented.     

What Are the Confidentiality Rights of Collaterals in Family Therapy?

The privacy rights of collateral family members constitute one of the most complex ethical issues in the field of family therapy. The author opens with four case studies which illustrate some of the dilemmas. The opening section reviews the APA Ethics Code on this topic, followed by an in depth analysis of confidentiality issues in marital therapy and the special ethical dilemmas of high conflict, child custody cases. The author reviews the scant case law on this topic and closes with a set of best practices guidelines for the clinician.     

Occupational and Industry Sex Segregation and the Work–Family Interface

This study examines how gender interacts with the extent of occupational and industry sex segregation to affect family-to-work conflict, work-to-family conflict, coworker support, and supportive work-family culture. Using a theoretical framework that highlights the negative ramifications of working in a sex-atypical occupation or industry, we hypothesized that men and women would be impacted differently by the percentage of women in an occupation or industry. The data (N?=?2,810) are from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (a US sample). Findings suggest that gender interacts with the percentage of women in an industry in significantly predicting coworker support and supportive work–family culture. Gender also interacts with the percentage of women in an occupation in significantly predicting family-to-work conflict.     

Youth Mental Illness and the Family: Parents’ Loss and Grief

Parents and family members whose adult child or relative has a mental illness endure significant losses, to which they respond with grief. Such grief may negatively affect family members’ physical and psychological health and also the relationship with their relative. Yet, research in this field is sparse. Very few studies have examined parents’ loss and grief in the context of the patient being a child or teen. It is not clear the extent to which parents’ loss and grief in response to their child or adolescent’s mental illness is similar or different to the accounts of older parents and family members caring for an adult relative with major psychopathology (e.g., Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder). Parental loss and grief is not often addressed in child and adolescent mental health services’ provision of care; alarmingly, little is known about how best to support parents who access these services. The present study aimed to bridge this knowledge gap and identify the therapeutic needs of this younger parent population. Comprehensive interviews were conducted with 14 parents and one custodial grandparent of a youth aged 18 years or younger who was currently attending a child and adolescent mental health service. An inductive thematic analysis identified six themes; parents’ narrative of finding out, profound and pervasive loss, complex grief, waning support, the challenges of caregiving and a call for assistance. It can be inferred from these results that youth mental illness can constitute a source of loss and grief for parents. Participants’ loss and grief was largely consistent with the experience of families caring for an adult relative with major psychopathology. Opportunities for mental health practitioners to support families’ loss and grief were identified. Further studies are needed to enhance understanding of this complex and, to a large extent, ignored familial experience. Results do underscore the importance of clinicians acknowledging parents’ loss and grief and working directly with this experience over the course of youths’ treatment, perhaps in conjunction with family psychoeducation approaches.