Utilizing Family Strengths and Resilience: Integrative Family and Systems Treatment with Children and Adolescents with Severe Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Community mental health agencies are consistently challenged to provide realistic and effective home-based family-centered treatment that meets local needs and can realistically fit within available budget and resource capabilities. Integrated Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) is developed based on existing evidence-based approaches for working with at-risk children, adolescents, and families and a strengths perspective. I-FAST identified 3 evidence-based, core treatment components and integrated them into a coherent treatment protocol; this is done in a way that builds on and is integrated with mental health agencies' existing expertise in home-based treatment. This is an intervention development study in which we conducted an initial feasibility trial of I-FAST for treating families with children at risk of out-of-home placement. The outcomes of the study provide initial empirical evidence that supports the effectiveness of I-FAST. Findings indicate that there were significant improvements in child behavior, significant increases in parental competency, and significant increases in the level of cohesion and adaptability in these families. All observed changes were significant from pre- to posttreatment with the families able to maintain these positive changes at 6-month follow-up. A more rigorous and robust research design, however, will be needed to establish definitive evidence of the effectiveness of I-FAST.     

Treating Inner-City Families of Homicide Victims: A Contextually Oriented Approach

Violence, including youth homicide, has assumed near epidemic proportions in US inner cities, with few signs that such violence is abating. Professionals working with families after the murder of a family member, are faced with the task of helping such families achieve a meaningful restoration of functioning. At the same time, there is a need to prevent retaliatory violence by surviving siblings and other family members. A treatment model will be discussed that uses the basic, theoretical principles of Boszormenyi-Nagy's Contextual Therapy (CT) while incorporating White and Epston's technique of “therapeutic certificates” in work with young people coping with loss via homicide. Case examples, drawn from the author's work at a unique, predominantly African American agency in an urban inner city will be used to illustrate applications of CT principles, and to show how therapeutic certificates can provide tools to clinicians working with this deeply troubling problem.     

DEAFNESS IN THE FAMILY: WILL THE THERAPIST LISTEN?

This discussion of Harvey's paper suggests a basic approach to working with families of the deaf. It emphasizes the utilization of the natural resources and strengths of these families in helping them solve problems. The approach assumes that communication is always secure in families and that therapists must learn to capitalize on the family's intrinsic style of communication. The use of an interpreter is viewed as resourceful in some cases, depending upon individual family circumstance.     

DETECTING JOB DIFFERENCES: A MONTE CARLO STUDY1

A monte carlo computer study was conducted where the statistical power of the univariate repeated measures ANOVA design proposed by Arvey and Mossholder (1977) to detect job differences was investigated. Also investigated was the relative value and usefulness of omega-squared estimates to indicate job similarities and differences. Job profile means and covariance structures were generated by using data from six relatively similar jobs and six dissimilar jobs based on Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) data bank information. Different combinations of job differences (4 conditions), number of job raters (2 conditions), and violations of statistical assumptions (3 conditions) were generated (1000 sets for each of the 24 combinations) and each data set analyzed using the ANOVA design. Results indicate that testing for statistical significance is not as useful in determining job differences as examining the omega-squared estimates. Specifically, the omega-squared estimates for the interaction of the Jobs × Dimension effect is a relatively sensitive and stable indicator of job differences regardless of the number of raters and violations of the statistical assumptions.     

ASSESSING COMPANY EMPLOYMENT IMAGE: AN EXAMPLE IN THE FAST FOOD INDUSTRY

Historically, there has been little guidance from the recruitment literature on how organizations can assess the image that potential applicants hold of their company as a place to work. We demonstrate the application of a technique for identifying employment image dimensions that are most critical in distinguishing among companies in the same industry, and show how this information can be used to assess companies relative to their competitors on these dimensions. We used a forced-choice inductive methodology to identify relevant dimensions of company employment image in the fast food industry, and randomly assigned high school students ( n = 336) and retirees ( n = 102) to describe 1 of 8 well-known fast food companies on the dimensions. In addition, respondents indicated their general image of the targeted company as a place to work. We were able to identify dimensions that both discriminated between companies and predicted general image, and graphically benchmarked one company against other companies on image dimensions.     

EVEN MORE IDEAS ABOUT METHODOLOGIES FOR DETERMINING JOB DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

McIntyre and Farr (1979), Hanser, Mendel, and Wolins (1979), and Lissitz, Mendoza, Huberty, and Markos (1979) comment on the repeated measures Analysis of Variance design suggested by Arvey and Mossholder (1977) to detect job differences and similarities. These authors propose alternative procedures to determine job differences. We, in turn, point out here that the problems specified by these critics may not be as severe as they indicate, and that some problems are even nonexistent. Moreover, the alternative solutions they suggest also have their own limitations. Finally, we propose an additional procedure–a multivariate approach to repeated measures data–which might be useful in the context of detecting job differences. It appears as if there are assumptions and limitations to both the univariate and multivariate approaches to the problem; these assumptions and limitations are delineated more precisely in the present paper.     

ON THE INTERCHANGEABILITY OF OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE MEASURES OF EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: A META-ANALYSIS

A meta-analysis of studies containing both objective and subjective ratings of employee performance resulted in a corrected mean correlation of .389. This value, although significantly greater than zero, indicates that objective and subjective performance measures should not be used interchangeably. Moreover, in no moderator subgroup examined did the correlation suggest convergent validity. After discussing issues related to resolving the previous anomalies of primary and meta-analytic results, a secondary analysis suggested that objective and subjective measures of the same construct at the same level may be used inter-changeably. The secondary analysis, however, was based on a very limited sample. Future research should address the appropriate dimensionality of employee performance.     

Types of creativity training: Approaches and their effectiveness

Prior meta‐analytic studies have provided evidence for the effectiveness of creativity training. In the present study, 156 training programs were obtained and a content analysis was used to appraise these programs with respect to: a) cognitive processes, b) training techniques, c) media, and d) types of practice exercises. A cluster analysis was used to determine the major types of training, as reflected in these variables, and meta‐analytic data were used to assess the effectiveness of each type of training. Overall, 11 common types of training were identified, all of which appeared to have some value. However, some types of training, specifically idea production and cognitive training, proved particularly effective while some commonly applied training strategies, specifically imagery training, proved less effective. The implications of these findings for the design of creativity training are discussed.