The Conjoint Family Diagnostic Interview and the Family Index of Tension

The present paper is written in response to the, as yet, unmet need for a broadly applicable, clinical rubric for assessing the psychiatric patient's situation in his family. It describes a conjoint family diagnostic interview procedure (CFDI) which enables a clinical interviewer, within a single ninety-minute, problem-focused, conjoint interview, to describe or rate the verbal and nonverbal behavior of a Ten family unit along dimensions relevant to clinical decision-making for the psychiatric patient. A rating instrument, the Family Index of Tension (FIT) will also be described. It provides a convenient format for quantifying the information obtained at the CFDI, facilitating comparisons within and across family systems. Though initially developed and protested on 350 families of hospitalized psychiatric patients, the procedure described appears applicable to all clinical situations in which families, regardless of their composition and background, are seen together with an “identified patient” for purposes of evaluation and treatment planning.     

Family Secrets and Family Functioning: The Case of Donor Assistance

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between adult offspring's perception of family functioning and of parental use of topic avoidance to maintain secrecy regarding the use of donor assistance to conceive. A cross‐sectional design was used to study a convenience sample of 69 young adult donor offspring who completed a demographic questionnaire, a topic avoidance scale relative to each of their rearing parents, and the Beavers Self Report Family Instrument. Findings indicated that participants perceived both parents as avoiding the topic of donor assistance more than other topics, mothers as avoiding all topics less than fathers, and topic avoidance was negatively associated with family functioning. Mothers' general topic avoidance was the strongest predictor of family functioning. Parents' disclosing together was predictive of higher family functioning. Implications for practice and future research are suggested.     

The Family in Us: Family History,Family Identity and Self-Reproductive Adaptive Behavior

This contribution is an essay about the notion of family identity reflecting shared significant experiences within a family system originating a set of signs used in social communication within and between families. Significant experiences are considered as experiences of events that have an immediate impact on the adaptation of the family in a given socio-ecological and cultural context at a given historical time. It is assumed that family history is stored in a shared “family memory” holding both implicit and explicit knowledge and exerting an influence on the behavior of each family member. This is described as transgenerational family memory being constituted of a system of meaningful signs. The crucial dimension underlying the logic of this essay are the ideas of adaptation as well as self-reproduction of systems.     

The Paraprofessional and Family Therapy

The new career movement in the community mental health field will increasingly demand that training programs provide the paraprofessional with a clinical role that avoids the temporary and mostly erroneous advantages of being an “indigenous” worker. Clinical functions taught in training need to be related to the problems of the urban poor; it is this group that needs a concept of service that can combine management of reality with beneficial restructuring of psychological systems. The resulting role is that of the paraprofessional family therapist — a new career that offers service to the troubled family unit of the urban poor and vocational definition to the person who is so trained.     

Aging and Family Therapy: Exploring The Training and Knowledge of Family Therapists

The present study examined therapists' training in aging issues, and their knowledge and attitudes about aging. One hundred and ninety-one clinicians completed a web-based questionnaire. The majority of respondents reported to have some training in aging issues, although they did not believe it prepared them well to work with older clients. Clinicians reported feeling comfortable working with older adults, yet they also agreed that special training could benefit their work. Knowledge scores were significantly correlated with interest in aging issues, perceived importance of training, perceived competence, and perceived effectiveness in treating older adults. Research and clinical implications are discussed.     

高中生家庭环境与家庭功能的影响因素研究

1　引言家庭环境量表 (FES)是MOSS等于 1981年编制 ,在西方国家已广泛用于描述不同家庭环境与家庭生活的特征和危机状态的家庭 ,经过我国学者多次修订后 ,具有较好的信度和效度。目前 ,关于家庭环境及其影响研究颇为丰富 ,例如家庭环境对儿童行为问题、学生的学习成绩、心理健康和创造个性等方面影响的研究。而家庭功能是指家庭对家庭成员的功能和效能 ,或者是指家庭对家庭成员生存与发展所能起到的作用。以往的研究表明 ,家庭功能与家庭系统中的相互作用和系统性质有关。那么 ,哪些因素影响着家庭环境与家庭功能呢 ?本研究旨在探讨家庭…