Early interactional change and its relationship to family therapy outcome

In the present study, a tailoring methodology was employed to investigate the detection of early interactional change in the course of family therapy and the possible prognostic value of such change for therapy outcome. The predicted relationship received partial support and suggested a model of change in families, with early interactional change as a mediating factor.     

Medical family therapy: an emerging arena for family therapy

This paper describes an important recent development in American family therapy. Medical family therapy uses a biopsychosocial systems model to work with families who have a member with a chronic illness or disability. The authors maintain that family therapy has tended to embrace the mind–body split and to view itself too narrowly as a mental health specialty. Medical family therapists work collaboratively with physicians and other health professionals to help families achieve a sense of agency and communion in facing some of the greatest challenges that life brings.     

Causal attributions during therapy II: Reconstituted families and parental blaming

A powerful route to understanding communication within the family is provided by identifying and coding the causal attributions they make during family therapy sessions. The analysis of attributions of responsibility reported in the first of these linked papers (Stratton, 2003) is here extended to explore the accounts given by biological, step- and adoptive parents about their children. Some 1799 causal attributions offered spontaneously by the family members during therapy were analysed according to the Leeds Attributional Coding System (Stratton et al ., 1988). Attributional styles that previously have been found to relate to abuse were more common when stepfathers talked about their children, although none of the parents were believed to be abusing their children. The adoptive parents' attributions were more explicit about problems with the children but were more likely to be functional. Stepfathers made substantially more attributions in the form of blaming a child, with the dimensions identifying characterological blaming being especially significant. Alternative styles of attributing which would offer a way of avoiding characterological blaming are presented. Possible causes and consequences of the consistencies in problematic attributing, and the implications for therapy, are discussed.     

Multiple family therapy: an overview

In recent years there has been increased interest in working with groups of families systemically. Multiple family therapy is applied in different settings and to a whole range of different presentations. These include work with multi-problem families; with schools, parents and pupils; with adult mentally ill individuals and their families; and with eating-disordered teenagers and their families. Principles and aims of multiple family therapy are presented, specific projects described and trends for future work outlined.     

Aggressive acts and assaults in intimate relationships: towards an understanding of the literature.

Far more people in relationships are subjected to violent acts than those who receive injuries. The degree of damage sustained may not reflect the perpetrator's intent to deliberately harm a partner. Data documenting aggressive acts determines the population at risk and their prevention and early treatment requirements; whereas data focusing on harm and injury helps determine emergency medical and refuge services. Data from national crime surveys, police records, or clinical populations should not be generalized to the population at large. Even if men perpetrate the majority of serious partner attacks, addressing the issue of female violence will significantly reduce the overall level of domestic violence. Judicial, medical, and social services should take note that while male violence may be more problematic, violence is a relationship issue, not a male issue.     

Honouring our great grandparents: towards a rhetorical analysis of family therapy

This paper argues that family therapy is an inherently and inescapably rhetorical activity, although its connections with rhetoric have remained largely ignored and the implications for practice unexplored. An uncritical acceptance of a range of postmodern ideas has led many family therapists to ignore the power of their therapeutic rhetoric. The paper offers rhetorical analysis as a tool to help family therapists to reflect on the rhetorical power of their practice and thereby to exercise this power more responsibly.     

Understanding political responsibility in corporate citizenship: towards a shared responsibility for the common good

In this article, we explore the debate on corporate citizenship and the role of business in global governance. In the debate on political corporate social responsibility it is assumed that under globalization business is taking up a greater political role. Apart from economic responsibilities firms assume political responsibilities taking up traditional governmental tasks such as regulation of business and provision of public goods. We contrast this with a subsidiarity-based approach to governance, in which firms are seen as intermediate actors who have political co-responsibilities in society endowed upon them by (inter)national governmental institutions. We argue that both approaches face conceptual and empirical problems, and do not make clear the content and scope of political corporate responsibility. Based on Iris Marion Young’s account of political responsibility we argue that corporate actors and governmental actors have a shared responsibility to tackle societal problems. Taking political corporate responsibility not only entails engaging in private action or engaging in public–private partnerships, but it also includes aiding governmental actors to remedy injustice or even create public institutions where they do not yet exist. By adding this perspective we contribute to the debate on responsibility in corporate citizenship and clarify the political role business can play in global governance.     

The psychosocial etiology of adolescent drug use: a family interactional approach

The purpose of this monograph was to propose a framework, family interactional theory, for explaining the psychosocial aspects of adolescent drug use. Three themes are stressed: (a) the extension of developmental perspectives on drug use, (b) the elucidation of family (especially parental) influences leading to drug use, and (c) the exploration of factors that increase or mitigate adolescents' vulnerability to drug use. We present a developmental model with two components; the first deals with adolescent pathways to drug use, and the second incorporates childhood factors. The model was tested in two studies: one cross-sectional study of 649 college students and their fathers, and one longitudinal study of 429 children and their mothers. The subjects were given self-administered questionnaires containing scales measuring the personality, family, and peer variables outlined in the model. The results of each study supported the hypothesized model, with some differences between parental influences. We also found that individual protective factors (e.g., adolescent conventionality, parent-child attachment) could offset risk factors (e.g., peer drug use) and enhance other protective factors, resulting in less adolescent marijuana use. Implications of the findings for prevention and treatment, future research, and public policy are discussed.     

A diasporic Christian theology: towards an eschatological understanding of theological education in post-communist societies

Christian theology amidst post-communist societies finds itself in a precarious situation as it seeks to emerge from the competing social imaginaries of its totalitarian Soviet past and the democratic capitalism of its future. To do so, eschatological hope will need to spring eternal as it seeks understanding by faith in love of the triune God and its diverse neighbours while reckoning with its diasporic status. As such, this programmatic article succinctly circumscribes the meaning (hope), message (faith), and mission (love) of a diasporic Christian theology with an ecumenical vision predominately for university theological education under post-communist conditions. It seeks to give reason for the eschatological hope within (meaning) that is fixated on the resurrected Christ in the Spirit (message) for the wisdom and flourishing of humanity (mission).     

Integrating family therapy in adolescent depression: an ethical stance

Adolescent depression, particularly where suicidal behaviour is involved, is a complex and pressing mental health problem and demanding for families, therapists and services alike. This article reviews the evidence-based literature for adolescent depression including family therapy approaches. It suggests an integrative treatment approach that includes individual psychological treatment like CBT, medication where required and a family therapy intervention is supported by the literature. The focus of the latter is psychoeducation, building resilience and hope, enhancing communication, reducing relational conflict between parents and adolescents and addressing attachment and relationship issues. A systemic framework for integrating family therapy in the evidence- based treatment of adolescent depression is described. This is based on an ethic of hospitality towards different languages of therapy, which is illustrated by a detailed example from family therapy practice.     

Success after failure: the reassignment of responsibility in an integrated approach to a family with an adolescent bedwetter

In this paper we review the development of our team's thinking and demonstrate it through our approach to a particular family. This approach integrates theoretical models, the resources of the team members and the family's belief system. Analytic and structural models give an understanding of the family's problems. A behavioural intervention, integrated with this understanding, enabled us to circumvent the family's investment in failure and to negotiate avoided developmental tasks.     

Effects of openness, problem solving, and blaming on learning: an experiment in China

Researchers have considered interdependence and interaction among individuals and groups as critical for promoting learning in organizations. In an experiment with 80 participants in China, the present authors found that (a) open discussion compared with avoiding discussion and (b) problem solving compared with blaming stimulated the exploration, integration, and adoption of alternative ideas in addition to strengthening interpersonal relationships. The results also indicated the possibility that openness and problem solving have these effects by developing a perceived cooperative interdependence that encourages people to believe that incorporating alternative ideas can help them succeed. Avoidance and blaming, on the other hand, seemed to result in a competitive struggle to see who could impose their ideas on the other, leaving people committed to their original thinking.     

Drawing a family map: an experiential tool for engaging children in family therapy

Inclusion of children in the treatment process is a central aspect of the discipline of family therapy. Young children's verbal skill and level of abstraction may not be suited to ‘talking therapy’, but they have an intuitive grasp of family life which is invaluable, and their views and needs should be considered when effecting change in the family system. A method is offered to engage young children, adolescents and adults of divergent verbal skills into a shared process. It requires no special set‐up or tools, only paper and markers. Distance and proximity are represented in a simple map of the family, adding symbols for affection and conflict. A spatial representation of the family system is created, and may be referred to in the course of the therapy.