Intelligence and school phobia

Although the notion is widespread that school phobics are generally brighter than average, data to support this notion have never been collected systematically. Evidence from this study suggests that if the sample size is large and if economic barriers to treatment are not present, one finds that intelligence is distributed among school phobics as it is distributed in the general population. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

Family interaction and acting-out behavior of adolescent psychiatric patients

Although the literature has described how families reinforce and contribute to acting out by adolescents, this phenomena has not previously been studied within the psychiatric hospital. The present study systematically investigated whether family interaction influences the acting-out behavior of hospitalized adolescent psychiatric patients. Data was collected from the clinical charts of 94 adolescents, each hospitalized for over 30 days. The results supported the contention that families do contribute to acting out in the hospital. However, a majority of the acting out was not directly related to family contact. The research highlights how the hospital can serve to offset negative influences by engaging the family in treatment and by considering family contact during treatment planning.     

Family interaction and the course of adolescent psychopathology: An analysis of adolescent and parent effects

This study focused on evaluating the utility of three family measures for predicting outcome in a sample of disturbed but nonpsychotic adolescents: (a) the affective quality of the adolescents' voice tone when communicating with his/her parents; (b) the predominant affective quality of the parents' voice tones when communicating with the adolescent, and (c) the affective quality of the content of the parents' verbalizations to the adolescent. These measures were derived from 5-minute face to face discussions between parents and their disturbed adolescent. Results indicated that adolescents using positive or neutral voice tones during emotionally laden discussions with their parents tended to show relatively adequate levels of psychosocial adjustment as young adults, while adolescents using exclusively negative voice tones tended to show sufficient adjustment difficulties in early adulthood to warrant diagnoses within the extended schizophrenia spectrum. Although adolescent voice tone was associated with outcome, considering both adolescent and parent affective response led to improved prediction, with consideration of adolescent and parent variables leading to accurate prediction of outcome for 30 of the 33 sample cases.     

Family factors related to adolescent autonomy

This paper analyzes the role that the family plays in the development of adolescent autonomy. Three family factors are analyzed in relation to the development of adolescent autonomy; parenting styles, family interaction, and transitions related to the family life cycle.     

Family,peer and school connectedness in final year secondary school students

The study aim was to investigate Australian Year 12 students' sense of connectedness to their schools, families, and peers, and examine associations between connectedness and emotional wellbeing. Year 12 students (492 male, 449 female) from 10 secondary schools in Victoria, Australia participated in Phase 1 of the study. of these, 204 participants (82 male, 122 female) returned surveys 1 year later; 175 of these were attending tertiary education institutions. The study found high levels of depression, anxiety and stress among Year 12 students, with higher negative affect associated with lower levels of family, peer and school connectedness. Negative affect 1 year after leaving school was predicted by negative affect and peer connectedness at Year 12. Results suggest there are significant numbers of at‐risk young people in their final year of school, who feel lonely and disconnected from peers, and who maintain concerning levels of depression, anxiety and stress in first year of university.     

A multicomponent investigation of the interaction of generalized anxiety and phobia

Forty female undergraduates forming four groups, high or low trait anxiety with or without a specific fear (rats), participated in a psychophysiological assessment of their response to the phobic object, a neutral object (rabbit), and to a general anxiety-induction procedure (threat of shock). Subjects also completed a number of tasks requiring sustained attention. Blood samples were drawn to determine thyroid hormone (T3 and T4) levels. Trait anxiety was found to interact with specific fear in response to the feared object. The high-trait anxious/high-fear group was most physiologically responsive to the rat. Trait- anxious subjects were more responsive to the threat of shock and showed performance deficits on reaction time, vigilance, and backward digit span tasks. These subjects also had significantly higher T3 and T4 levels. The findings are discussed with regard to the role of general anxiety in the etiology and/or maintenance of specific fears and the role of thyroid hormones in accentuating physiological response to feared stimuli.     

Family reconciliation as a response to adolescent crises

Concern for adolescents who act in dangerous, life-threatening ways has heightened dramatically in recent years. Many of these adolescents appear to come from nuclear families isolated from their kinship systems. Without the mediating effects of kin, the adolescent transition can become a major crisis. Kinship systems remain cohesive when members can reconcile their beliefs about essential aspects of family functioning with the demands for adaptation during major life transitions. Reconciliation is lost when members believe that kin can no longer be trusted to insure their well-being. Kinship fragmentation ensues as family members leave the field or are excluded. Isolated nuclear families then rapidly lose the resilience to respond to life transitions without resorting to extreme, maladaptive solutions. The Systemic Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) uses the opportunity of the crisis precipitated by the adolescent's life-threatening behavior to alter family myths that have led to network fragmentation. Crisis teams mobilize and meet with kin in four-hour gatherings to foster reconciliation and kinship system reintegration.     

Family environment as a predictor of adolescent delinquency

Efforts to decrease delinquency have led many researchers to study the underlying factors that lead youth to engage in delinquent acts. Webber (1997) has suggested that studies of delinquency can be categorized into those positing societal, individual, and/or family etiologies. The current research investigated the latter by assessing the relationship between family environment and delinquency. One hundred twenty-seven 9th-grade students completed the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES III; Olson, Portner, & Lavee, 1985) and a modified version of Elliot and Ageton's (1980) Self-Report Delinquency Scale. Results indicated that the relationship between the two scales was moderated by family status (traditional versus nontraditional). The cohesiveness of the family successfully predicted the frequency of delinquent acts for nontraditional families, but failed to predict delinquency for traditional families. Implications for counselors, educators, and parents are discussed.     

Family interaction patterns and childhood depression

Rehm's (1977) self-control model for depression and Bandura's (1977) concept that children internalize external controls placed upon them are united to predict family interaction patterns that may contribute to the etiology or maintenance of depression in children. Families of depressed, nondepressed, and nonclinic children were compared on rates of, and criteria for, parental and self-reinforcement. Mother-father-child interactions were sequentially coded to reveal that mothers of depressed and nonclinic children both set very high criteria for rewarding their children, compared to mothers of clinic/nondepressed children. However, mothers of depressed children rewarded their depressed children at much lower rates than mothers of either clinic/nondepressed or nonclinic children. These factors, taken together, are discussed in terms of their possible etiological role in childhood depression.     

Family interaction and outcome IQ in high-risk boys

This study examined the relationship between measures of family interaction and outcome for 97 boys at risk for psychopathology from having one parent previously hospitalized for psychiatric illness. Measures of communication deviance and of activity, balance and warmth, derived from two family activities, correlated significantly with 3-yr. follow-up adaptive functioning, measured by IQ. Poor family interaction, in previous studies associated with schizophrenic symptomatology, was here correlated with poor cognitive/social/emotional functioning, suggesting that family interaction may be a broad predictor of adequacy of functioning.     

Early adolescent peer orientation and adjustment during high school

The long-term consequences of early adolescents' orientation toward peers for their adjustment during high school were assessed. Approximately 1,200 adolescents completed questionnaires in the 7th grade and in the 10th or 12th grades; course grades were also obtained from the students' school records. Early adolescents who were willing to sacrifice their talents, school performance, and parents' rules engaged in greater problem behavior and evidenced lower academic achievement than did other adolescents during high school. The poorer adjustment of adolescents with this extreme orientation toward peers was mediated by their reported involvement in deviant peer groups. In contrast, a tendency to seek advice from peers more than from parents during early adolescence had little implication for later adjustment. Discussion focuses on the need to consider the role of peer dependence along with the effects of supportive friendships during adolescence.     

Family environment and its relation to adolescent personality factors

Investigated the relationship between family social climate characteristics and adolescent personality functioning. The High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ) was administered to 80 high school students. These students and their parents also completed the Family Environment Scale (FES). Results of a stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that one or more HSPQ scales had significant associations with each FES scale. Significant variance in child behavior was attributed to family social system functioning; however, no single family variable accounted for a major portion of the variance to the exclusion of other factors. It was concluded that child behavior varies with total system functioning, more than with separate system factors.     

Family unemployment and its impact on adolescent personality development

The issue of family unemployment is examined in terms of its effect on adolescent work values and self-concept. The subjects were 344 high school youths from an Israeli development town. The study findings show no significant differences among youth from families where the father is either employed or unemployed. These results tend to be consistent with other research in the sense that father's work status has little, if any, impact on adolescent family member's attitudes toward work and self.     

Family correlates of adolescent self-monitoring and social competence.

The purpose of this study was to investigate linkages between adolescent self-monitoring, global social competence, and parenting and family environment dimensions of support and encouragement of autonomy. The sample consisted of 233 young women and 199 young men at 2 southwestern universities. The primary measures used were the Family Environment Scale (R. H. Moos, 1981), the Parent Behavior Form (L. Worell & J. Worell, 1974), the revised Self-Monitoring Scale (M. Snyder, 1987), and the Texas Social Behavior Inventory (R. Helmreich, J. Stapp, & C. Ervin, 1974). Findings indicated that family variables are more strongly associated with social competence than with self-monitoring; family support was, overall, a more important ingredient of social competence than was autonomy. Women and men had different patterns of associations among specific variables.     

Family planning for inner-city adolescent males: pilot study

The results of a pilot family planning program (FPP) in a pediatric practice are reported for 66 inner-city male adolescents. The FPP was designed to eliminate registration barriers to the procurement of contraceptives by adolescent males, and to prompt the community neighborhood health center (CNHC) providers to initiate discussion of birth control with their male adolescent patients. Utilization data show that males were more likely to receive contraceptives if the provider first raised the topic of birth control to them. Unstructured follow-up interviews with 27 adolescent male FPP users identified a desire for anonymity/confidentiality and embarrassment or discomfort as the key reasons for not seeking contraceptives from the CNHC. If health care providers are sensitive to male adolescents' feelings about birth control, community health centers potentially could serve as a cost-effective source of contraceptives for sexually active male adolescents.     

Group psychotherapy in a school setting for adolescent children of alchoholics

Adolescents experiencing personal difficulties commonly evidence their problems while in school. Group psychotherapy within the school setting can be an effective means of helping an adolescent subject to stress at home. Parental alcoholism is the problem shared by a group composed of six students led by a clinical social worker. The broader implications of group therapy in a school setting as a means of helping young people with problems that interfere with their education and socialization are also considered.