Kinetic Family Drawings and MMPI diagnostic indicators in adolescent psychiatric inpatients

Correlations among Kinetic Family Drawings and MMPI indicators of depressive, anxiety, behavioral, and thought disorders and diagnostic category were estimated for a group of 52 adolescent psychiatric inpatients. No statistically significant values were found between test indicators and corresponding MMPI scales or diagnoses, although MMPI D and Sc scales were significantly related to diagnosis. Results do not support the concurrent or construct validity of the drawings.     

Toward an Understanding of the Connections in Creating Lasting Family Connections

Abstract

The Creating Lasting Family Connections^® (CLFC) program is designed to help improve relationship skills and reduce antisocial behaviors. Strader and colleagues propose that prosocial connectedness is responsible for program outcomes. We propose that the intersection of high agreeableness and low impulsivity represent an operational definition. We examined this definition in the context of a RCT with 246 men in prison reentry. CLFCFP increased the number of connected individuals. Being connected and the program independently impacted relationship skills, but no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that the program impacts would be more pronounced among those who were connected.     

Toward an Understanding of Family Planning Behaviors: An Initial Investigation1

Based on a theoretical model developed by Fishbein (1972), a questionnaire was administered to 73 female college students to test the hypotheses that (1) behavioral intention (BI) to use birth control pills is a function of (a) one's attitude toward the act (A-act) of using birth control pills and/or (b) one's normative beliefs weighted by one's motivation to comply with those perceived norms (ΣNB(Mc)); and (2) A-act of using birth control pills is a function of (or is highly correlated with) the sum of one's beliefs about the consequences of using birth control pills times the evaluation of those beliefs (ΣBiai). In support of the hypotheses, (1) the multiple correlation between the two components of the model and BI was significant (R= 335, p < .01); and (2) the correlation between XBiui and A-act was significant (r= .792, p < .01).     

A decision procedure for the systemE (of entailment). I.

A system of natural deduction is presented whose set of theses is identical with that of the systemE of entailment. For that system a decision procedure is described proving the decidability ofE.     

An objective procedure for the hand scoring of scalp average evoked potentials

A method is described for identifying and scoring average evoked response (AER) components. The method uses background EEG activity as a guide for visual identification of AER components. This procedure provides an advantage in objectivity and precision over most other methods, thus producing an increase in reliability and greater likelihood for interlaboratory agreement in experiments employing measures based upon the AER components.     

Attitudes Toward the Continuation of Family Rituals Among Emerging Adults

In this study we examined college students' assessment of the personal meaningfulness of their families' rituals and their desire to initiate family rituals in the future. Participants were 46 male and 49 female never-married, primarily European American undergraduates at a private east coast university. It was found that women were more likely than men to see themselves initiating future family rituals. The amount of ritual initiation undertaken by participants' same-sex parents and participants' communality were significant predictors of reported likelihood of future ritual initiation. A “caring” parenting style was the only significant predictor of the meaningfulness of rituals. The relationships of respondents' religious and ethnic background and their parents' marital status to their attitudes toward rituals were also examined.     

Toward a Definition of Family Resilience: Integrating Life-Span and Family Perspectives

Family resilience is a relatively new construct that describes how families adapt to stress and bounce back from adversity. Literature pertaining to resilience as a family-level variable is reviewed. An overview of the developmental psychopathology literature dealing with individual resilience is also presented. Implications for extending the study of family resilience drawn from research on individual resilience are discussed and a definition of family resilience is proposed.     

The Family Alliance Assessment Scales: Steps Toward Validity and Reliability of an Observational Assessment Tool for Early Family Interactions

We present the first steps in the validation of an observational tool for father-mother-infant interactions: the FAAS (Family Alliance Assessment Scales). Family-level variables are acknowledged as unique contributors to the understanding of the socio-affective development of the child, yet producing reliable assessments of family-level interactions poses a methodological challenge. There is, therefore, a clear need for a validated and clinically relevant tool. This validation study has been carried out on three samples: one non-referred sample, of families taking part in a study on the transition to parenthood (normative sample; n = 30), one referred for medically assisted procreation (infertility sample; n = 30) and one referred for a psychiatric condition in one parent (clinical sample; n = 15). Results show that the FAAS scales have (1) good inter-rater reliability and (2) good validity, as assessed through known-group validity by comparing the three samples and through concurrent validity by checking family interactions against parents’ self-reported marital satisfaction.