Effectiveness of an Educational and Support Program for Family Members of a Substance Abuser

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between marital adjustment and congruency of couple preference regarding wife employment. Implications for marriage and family therapists are emphasized. Husband, wife, and couple scores were obtained on the Marital Status Inventory and Dyadic Adjustment Scale for eight work pattern categories. The first four (Dual-Career, Dual-Work, Pre-Dual-Career, Traditional Single-Career) were current couple work patterns perceived as desirable by both spouses. The last four categories (Incongruent Dual-Career, Incongruent Dual-Work, Incongruent Pre-Dual-Career, Incongruent Traditional Single-Career) were current couple work patterns that one spouse, in conflict with the other spouse, perceived as undesirable. In addition, number and ages of children and number of wife work hours were analyzed for their effects on marital adjustment in these couples. The results of this study indicate that marital adjustment is negatively influenced only when the wife wants to work in her career, is not employed, and her husband does not want her to be employed now or in the future. Possible reasons for these findings and suggestions for further research are included.     

Individual Resiliency Factors from a Genetic Perspective: Results from a Twin Study

This article is part of the Twin Mother's Study, a study that examines influences on maternal adjustment. A number of studies have investigated the importance of genetic factors for mental health, but few of these examine how genes and the environment influence resiliency/salutogenic factors. This article investigates the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on resiliency/salutogenic factors. This study includes 326 twin pairs (150 monozygotic and 176 dizygotic) who are mothers, who are living with their spouse, and who are part of the Swedish twin register. Using self‐report structured questionnaires, we assessed salutogenic factors, depression, and quality of life; however, we analyzed the questionnaires completed by the mothers. Statistical analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling. We conclude that nonshared environmental components were of principal importance in individual resiliency/salutogenic factors in a genetically informative design, but we also noted that genetic influences were important. The shared environment had mainly no effect.     

Genetic probes of three theories of maternal adjustment: II. Genetic and environmental influences.

This is the first report of the Twin Mom Study, an investigation of three hypotheses concerning influences on maternal adjustment. These hypotheses concern the role of the marital and parent-child relationships in mediating genetic influences on maternal adjustment and on the importance of the mothers' marital partners as a specifiable source of influences on their adjustment not shared with their sisters. The study's sample of 150 monozygotic (MZ) twins and 176 dizygotic (DZ) twins was drawn randomly from the Swedish Twin Registry and is, with some small exceptions, likely to be representative of women in the Swedish population. The sample included the marital partners of these twins and their adolescent children. Self-report and coded videotapes were a source of information about family process. Results reported in this first report focus on comparability of American and Swedish samples on scales measuring psychiatric symptoms, and on an analysis of genetic and environmental influences on nine measures of mothers' adjustment. Results suggest comparability between the US and Sweden. Genetic influences were found for all measures of adjustment, particularly in the psychological manifestations of anxiety and for smoking. The pattern of findings also underscored the importance of influences unique to each sibling within the twin pair, thus focusing attention on the potential role of marital partners in maternal adjustment. Results also suggested that experiences shared by the twin sisters, experiences unrelated to their genetic similarity, may influence their fearfulness and alcohol consumption. Our model did not include these influences and thus must be amended.     

Intent and Choice Regarding Maternal Employment Following Childbirth

This study examined the impact of personal values, perceived spouse preference, and family income on maternal employment intent and maternal employment following childbirth. This study followed a sample of 70 expectant working mothers from the last trimester of pregnancy to 6 months following childbirth. Traditional gender role values and perceived spouse preference influenced maternal employment intent measured prior to childbirth. Maternal employment intent and marital partner's income influenced maternal employment 6 months after childbirth. The results of this study provided support for Brown's (1996) value-based theory of career choice. Results also suggested that some women who preferred to be withdrawn from the labor force had to work to provide greater family income.     

Perinatal complications in births to low socioeconomic status schizophrenic and depressed women.

Pregnancy and birth complications in births to 57 schizophrenic, 28 depressed, and 31 well women were studied. The sample was of low socioeconomic status and predominantly African-American. The study extended earlier work on the perinatal status of infants born to schizophrenic women by including measures of severity of maternal disturbance, mother's age, IQ, and premorbid social competence, and family composition. The results show that maternal competence and the mother's diagnosis of schizophrenia were significant variables in determining the likelihood of less adequate prenatal care and more complicated births. The results indicate the importance of an assessment not only of a disturbed woman's diagnosis but also of her personal background and social competence in determining the likelihood of obstetrical complications.     

Longitudinal genetic analysis of anxiety sensitivity

Anxiety sensitivity is associated with both anxiety and depression and has been shown to be heritable. Little, however, is known about the role of genetic influence on continuity and change of symptoms over time. The authors' aim was to examine the stability of anxiety sensitivity during adolescence. By using a genetically sensitive design, the authors were also able to investigate the extent to which genetic and environmental factors influence anxiety sensitivity over time. Self-reports of anxiety sensitivity were obtained for over 1,300 twin and sibling pairs at 3 time points. Data were analyzed using multivariate genetic models. Anxiety sensitivity was moderately heritable at all time points with substantial nonshared environmental contributions. Time 1 genetic factors accounted for continuity of symptoms at Times 2 and 3. New genetic factors at Time 2 also influenced Time 3 symptoms. New nonshared environmental influences emerged at each time point. Analysis of a latent factor of trait anxiety sensitivity revealed some stable nonshared environmental influences. Genetic effects were generally stable over time, with new genetic influences emerging in late adolescence. Environmental influences on anxiety sensitivity were, on the whole, more time specific; however, some stable environmental influences were also found.     

Marriage and personality: a genetic analysis

There is substantial evidence that married people fare better than their unmarried peers on many life outcome variables. The authors asked whether self-selection might partially explain these benefits through genetic influences on personality contributing to propensity to marry. Using a population-based sample of 4,225 women and 2,869 men that included 2,527 complete twin pairs, the authors investigated the phenotypic associations between personality and propensity to marry, the heritability of propensity to marry, and the extent of genetic influence on the link between personality and propensity to marry. The results suggest that propensity to marry is heritable and that the phenotypic link between personality and propensity to marry is genetically influenced.     

瑞典的双生子与子代研究： 通过双生子及其家庭来增加对遗传与环境互动的了解

双生子及子代研究（TOSS）收集了909对双生子及他（她）们的配偶和他（她）们的青少年子女的数据。设计该项目是为研究以下三个问题：1）遗传与环境是如何影响双生子父母的养育方式的？2）遗传与环境是如何影响成年人的家庭关系的？3）家庭关系是如何影响成年人的心理调适的？由于此研究包括了双生子及其子女,该设计可以与其他研究相比较来具体地分析遗传与环境的关联。此研究的结果有助于厘清遗传与环境在养育方式和家庭关系中的型态,同时也澄清了父母亲个人特征是如何影响他（她）们的养育方式,以及父母的个体特征是如何帮助解释了遗传对家庭关系的影响。此研究今后将进一步分析遗传与环境的关联与互动,以及候选基因与环境的关联与互动     

Parenting,Protecting, Preserving:Mission of the Adolescent Female Runaway

This paper presents a systemic framework for therapy with families of adolescent female runaways. The runaway adolescent is viewed as serving three functions within her family. First, she often parents her parents and siblings. Second, she protects her parents' marriage and regulates marital distance. Third, she preserves her family unit at the preadolescent developmental stage. Interventions are described that remove the adolescent from those roles by empowering the parents to take charge of the adolescent, by changing the communication process such that the couple deal with their marital issues without the help of the teenager, and by facilitating the family's movement toward a new stage of separation and individuation.     

Maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy in socioeconomically disadvantaged mothers: an explicative model

Studies have demonstrated that maternal stress and perceptions of self-efficacy influence a mother's performance, affecting her ability to interact with her child and to understand and answer his needs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate maternal stress and the perception of self-efficacy in the mothers of infants who are cared for in child-care centers and belong to the poorest segment of the Chilean population. To this end, these aspects were studied in 121 low-income, high-social-risk mothers with children between the ages of 4 and 9 months. The final goal was to generate an explicative model of self-efficacy and maternal stress that considered characteristics of the family and the child. The results revealed that family characteristics - especially household size, per capita incomes and mother age - are more relevant for explaining maternal self-efficacy and stress. The findings and implications for practice are discussed.     

Effects of parental divorce on marital commitment and confidence

Research on the intergenerational transmission of divorce has demonstrated that compared with offspring of nondivorced parents, those of divorced parents generally have more negative attitudes toward marriage as an institution and are less optimistic about the feasibility of a long-lasting, healthy marriage. It is also possible that when entering marriage themselves, adults whose parents divorced have less personal relationship commitment to their own marriages and less confidence in their own ability to maintain a happy marriage with their spouse. However, this prediction has not been tested. In the current study, we assessed relationship commitment and relationship confidence, as well as parental divorce and retrospectively reported interparental conflict, in a sample of 265 engaged couples prior to their first marriage. Results demonstrated that women's, but not men's, parental divorce was associated with lower relationship commitment and lower relationship confidence. These effects persisted when controlling for the influence of recalled interparental conflict and premarital relationship adjustment. The current findings suggest that women whose parents divorced are more likely to enter marriage with relatively lower commitment to, and confidence in, the future of those marriages, potentially raising their risk for divorce.     

Coping styles and personality: a biometric analysis

Previous research suggests that coping styles are modestly heritable and that this genetic influence is shared in large part with genetic influences on personality. To test this hypothesis, we estimated the heritable basis of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations in a sample of 91 monozygotic and 80 dizygotic twin pairs. Task-oriented, emotion-oriented, and social diversion coping styles were modestly heritable (h(2)=.17 to .20), whereas the use of distraction appeared to be influenced solely by environmental factors. Multivariate analyses showed that genetic contributions to coping styles were, at best, only modestly related to genetic contributions to personality (r=-.03 to .35). Environmental contributions to personality were unrelated to environmental factors in coping style. These results suggest that coping style is not merely a manifestation of basic personality traits but does support the possibility that the genetic factors in personality influences have a modest influence on an individual's preferred coping style or strength (e.g., rigidity vs flexibility).     

Effects of gender in social control of smoking cessation.

This study of 93 men and 117 women smokers during an ongoing quit attempt examined the roles of gender and social network influences on quitting. For men, social influences appeared to positively affect their ability to reduce their smoking but were less effective for women. Specifically, increased reports of a spouse or partner's influence, and family and friends' influence, were associated with greater reductions in men's smoking 2 days and 4 months post quit date, respectively. In contrast, for women, greater reports of spouse or partner influence and of family and friends' influence were associated with smaller reductions in smoking. Sex differences in social control strategies and perceived autonomy supportiveness of those strategies are discussed as possible explanations for these results.     

Friend support and psychological distress in a U.S. adult twin sample

Friend support is often assumed to exert direct environmental influences on psychological distress, yet the role of both genetic and environmental influences on this association has not been examined. This study investigates whether both genetic and environmental factors explain the link between friend support and psychological distress in adults. The sample was drawn from the Midlife Development in the United States study and included 947 pairs of monozygotic, same‐sex dizygotic (DZ), and opposite‐sex DZ twins. Results showed that genetic influences explain the association between friend support and psychological distress, suggesting that heritable contributions to friend support also shape psychological distress. Interventions focused on psychological distress should consider how individuals' heritable characteristics influence their friend support and psychological distress.     

Individual Differences in Leadership Emergence: Integrating Meta‐Analytic Findings and Behavioral Genetics Estimates

This paper investigates the extent to which differences in the likelihood of emerging as leaders are explained by genetic differences between individuals. Results indicated that approximately 17% of the variance in the latent construct of leadership emergence is explained by genetic effects that are mediated by intelligence and the Big Five personality traits. Because intelligence and the Big Five do not mediate all genetic influences on leadership emergence (other genetically‐influenced personal characteristics, such as height and attractiveness, are likely to mediate genetic effects on leadership emergence), the heritability estimate obtained in this study represents a lower‐bound estimate of the genetic influences on leadership emergence.     

Long-term influence of divorce and single parenting on adolescent family- and work-related values, behaviors, and aspirations.

Following a summary of the relevant divorce research, this article examines possible long-term influences of both divorce and living with a single mother on the development of adolescents' values and plans. We examine how divorce affects children both directly and indirectly through its impact on the mother's resources, attitudes, and socialization goals. Particular focus is placed on those aspects of family interaction that impact on identity formation as it is linked to educational and occupational goals and to gender-role related behaviors associated with marriage, family, and job plans. Possible benefits as well as potential costs of living with a single mother are discussed.     

Commitment to one’s spouse as a predictor of marital quality among older couples

The present study examined the relationships between several independent variables (ego development, commitment to the spouse, length of marriage, church attendance, and sex of subject) and three marital quality variables (marriage problems, expression of love, and dyadic adjustment) in a community sample of 72 married couples age 50 and up. Commitment to the spouse was the strongest and most consistent predictor of marital quality; commitment was negatively related to marriage problems and positively related to expression of love and dyadic adjustment. The other independent variables were generally unrelated to marital quality.     

Chaotic homes and children's disruptive behavior: a longitudinal cross-lagged twin study

Chaotic home lives are correlated with behavior problems in children. In the study reported here, we tested whether there was a cross-lagged relation between children's experience of chaos and their disruptive behaviors (conduct problems and hyperactivity-inattention). Using genetically informative models, we then tested for the first time whether the influence of household chaos on disruptive behavior was environmentally mediated and whether genetic influences on children's disruptive behaviors accounted for the heritability of household chaos. We measured children's perceptions of household chaos and parents' ratings of children's disruptive behavior at ages 9 and 12 in a sample of 6,286 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). There was a phenotypic cross-lagged relation between children's experiences of household chaos and their disruptive behavior. In genetically informative models, we found that the effect of household chaos on subsequent disruptive behavior was environmentally mediated. However, genetic influences on disruptive behavior did not explain why household chaos was heritable.