Exploring Exceptions and Discovering Solutions: A Case Presentation of Autism and the Family

As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continues to rise, there is a rapidly increasing need for treatment services among individuals diagnosed with ASD and families. Currently, the majority of the evidence-based treatments, such as Applied Behavior Analysis, overlook the notable systemic effects of ASD and maintain a problem-focused lens. There is a growing body of research calling for strength-based, relational interventions that build on existing resources to enhance coping, efficacy, and well-being among families affected by ASD. Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) is a widely practiced clinical approach that is increasingly being used among clinicians to address the systemic effects of developmental disabilities in the family. However, particular modifications to specific interventions may better accommodate autism-associated deficits in executive functioning (e.g., goal development and impulsivity), perspective taking, or restricted interests when using an SFBT approach. This article offers recommendations for adapting a solution-focused approach by modifying commonly used SFBT interventions to address family-driven treatment goals using a collaborative stance with families of children with ASD. A case presentation is included to demonstrate SFBT as informed by the unique challenges and inherent resources of families affected by ASD that have been identified in the extant literature.     

The Uses of Emotion Maps in Research and Clinical Practice with Families and Couples: Methodological Innovation and Critical Inquiry

We explore how “emotion maps” can be productively used in clinical assessment and clinical practice with families and couples. This graphic participatory method was developed in sociological studies to examine everyday family relationships. Emotion maps enable us to effectively “see” the dynamic experience and emotional repertoires of family life. Through the use of a case example, in this article we illustrate how emotion maps can add to the systemic clinicians’ repertoire of visual methods. For clinicians working with families, couples, and young people, the importance of gaining insight into how lives are lived, at home, cannot be understated. Producing emotion maps can encourage critical personal reflection and expedite change in family practice. Hot spots in the household become visualized, facilitating dialogue on prevailing issues and how these events may be perceived differently by different family members. As emotion maps are not reliant on literacy or language skills they can be equally completed by parents and children alike, enabling children's perspective to be heard. Emotion maps can be used as assessment tools, to demonstrate the process of change within families. Furthermore, emotion maps can be extended to use through technology and hence are well suited particularly to working with young people. We end the article with a wider discussion of the place of emotions and emotion maps within systemic psychotherapy.     

Marital Interactions,Family Intervention,and Disagreements: A Daily Diary Study in a Low‐income Sample

Little research has examined associations between low‐income married couples’ daily interactions and severity of disagreements. Similarly, few researchers have considered how family‐strengthening interventions for low‐income couples may affect the quality of daily interactions and associations between interactions and conflict experiences. This study aims to fill these gaps in the literature by leveraging daily diary data from a random assignment study of a family‐strengthening intervention with low‐income husbands and wives 30 months postenrollment. Married couples randomly assigned to the intervention participated in 10 weeks of relationship education services. Control group couples received no services. Thirty months postrandom assignment, participants reported on the severity of daily marital disagreements over a 15‐day period, as well as their positive and negative emotions during inter‐spousal interactions. Multi‐level models demonstrated associations between reports of emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements. In addition, wives assigned to the family strengthening program reported fewer negative emotions during interactions at follow‐up than wives in the control condition. Finally, negative associations between positive emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were stronger for wives assigned to the intervention, while positive associations between negative emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were weaker for wives assigned to the intervention. Implications for future research and intervention development are discussed.     

The Critical Need to Recognize That Families Matter for Adult Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature

A systemic approach to researching families and health should capture the complex network within which family members are embedded, including multiple family relationships and larger systems of health care. However, much of the families and health research focused on adult family members has focused solely on intimate partnerships, usually the marital relationship. This neglects the remainder of the powerfully influencing family relationships adults retain, and may increasingly focus on as they age. We conducted a systematic review of the families and adult health literature, retaining 72 articles which were subsequently thematically coded to highlight main foci of this area of research. Results highlight six themes, which include family relationship quality, family composition, behavioral factors in health and health care, psychophysiological mediators, caregiving, and aging health. Findings support an underrepresentation of family members, other than the intimate partner, in research on adult health.     

Family Secrecy in Family Therapy Practice: An Explorative Focus Group Study

The aim of this focus group study was to explore the experiences of family therapists working with family secrecy. Our study highlights that family secrets present important and compelling challenges for family therapists. Furthermore, our study reveals that there seem to be some basic strategies family therapists use in dealing with these challenges in therapy sessions. One basic strategy is that family therapists try to guard their position of being a trustworthy therapist for each family member by avoiding becoming stuck in family secrecy. Furthermore, therapists explore ways to guide the family toward the disclosure of the secret in order to alleviate the toxicity of the secrecy. This highlights the importance of the systemic model and how influential this perspective is in family therapy practice. Some participants, however, have in addition a second strategy they sometimes use: talking with the family about secrecy without aiming to disclose the secret. In the discussion section of the article we reflect on the possibility that in the strategic choices family therapists make conceptual issues might be involved. Furthermore, we stress the importance of further research.     

Asian American Female College Students' Subjective Femininity Conceptualizations: Using a Mixed‐Methods Approach

This mixed‐methods study explored 184 Asian American female college students' subjective femininity conceptualizations and their associations with family conflict. A direct content analysis of responses identified 5 categories of subjective femininity conceptualizations: model minority, physical attributes, traditional femininity, subordinate roles, and modern femininity. Conceptualizations of subordinate roles were positively related to intensity of family conflict. Interdependent self‐construal moderated the relationship between subjective conceptualizations of subordinate roles, modern femininity, and intensity of family conflict. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed. Este estudio de métodos combinados exploró las conceptualizaciones subjetivas de feminidad y sus asociaciones con conflictos familiares entre 184 estudiantes universitarias asiático‐americanas. Un análisis directo del contenido de las respuestas identificó 5 categorías de conceptualizaciones subjetivas de feminidad: modelo de minoría, atributos físicos, feminidad tradicional, roles subordinados y feminidad moderna. Las conceptualizaciones de roles subordinados se relacionaron de forma positiva con la intensidad de los conflictos familiares. La autoconstrucción interdependiente moderó la relación entre las conceptualizaciones subjetivas de roles subordinados, la feminidad moderna y la intensidad de los conflictos familiares. Se discuten las implicaciones clínicas de estos hallazgos.     

Family Profiles of Cohesion and Parenting Practices and Latino Youth Adjustment

Using a sample of 279 (52% female) Latino youth in 9th grade (M = 14.57, SD = .56), we examined profiles of family cohesion and parenting practices and their relation to youth adjustment. The results of latent profile analyses revealed four family profiles: Engaged, Supportive, Intrusive, and Disengaged. Latino youth in the Supportive family profile showed most positive adjustment (highest self‐esteem and lowest depressive symptoms), followed by youth in the Engaged family profile. Youth in the Intrusive and Disengaged profiles showed the lowest levels of positive adjustment. The findings contribute to the current literature on family dynamics, family profiles, and youth psychological adjustment within specific ethnic groups.     

Bidirectional Spillover in the Family across the Transition to Parenthood

Although family systems theory posits reciprocal causality between subsystems of the family, such as intimate partner violence exacerbating harsh parenting and vice versa, longitudinal studies with cross‐lagged models have been used infrequently to test these principles. As guided by the spillover model, this study examined bidirectional associations between couple dysfunction, parent–child aggression risk, and child functioning across the transition to parenthood to determine whether and how disruptions in one subsystem relate to problems in other family subsystems. Participants were 201 first‐time mothers and 151 fathers from a diverse community sample, evaluated during pregnancy, and reassessed two more times through their child's first 18 months of life. Individual and dyadic path model results indicate bidirectional spillover effects between parent–child aggression risk and child functioning for both mothers and fathers, and spillover from parent–child aggression risk to couple dysfunction for mothers but not fathers. However, limited spillover effects were identified between couple functioning and child adjustment, in contrast to previous work. Findings suggest that spillover can happen reciprocally and early in the family, supporting transactional models of behavior and highlighting the need for early family level intervention.     

Determinantes familiares,escolares y grupales del consumo de drogas en la adolescencia. Implicaciones para el Tratamiento

Resumen

El propósito del presente artículo es el de llamar la atención acerca de la necesidad de recoger los datos que señalan la importancia de los grupos familiar, escolar y de iguales, de cara a la elaboration de programas concretos de prevención y tratamiento de incidencia en estos tres entornos del adolescente. Con este fin, en primer lugar se analizarán los principales hallazgos de las investigaciones que relacionan la familia, la escuela y el grupo de iguales con la aparición de drogodependencias en los adolescentes. Como segundo paso se apuntarán las líneas generales de aplicación de estos hallazgos en programas de prevención e intervención.     

Relationships,Environment, and the Brain: How Emerging Research is Changing What We Know about the Impact of Families on Human Development

Recent research is providing family therapists with new information about the complex interaction between an individual's biological makeup and his/her social and physical environment. Family and social relationships, particularly during sensitive periods early in life, can affect a child's biological foundation. Additionally, stress during the early years can have a lasting effect on an individual's physical and mental health and contribute to the onset of severe mental illness. Community programs have been developed to intervene early with families who have an at‐risk child to prevent or minimize the onset of mental illness including providing partnerships with at‐risk mothers of infants to shape attachment relationships. Programs are also developing individual and family interventions to prevent the onset of psychosis. Practicing family therapists can incorporate emerging neuroscience and early intervention research and leverage the growing base of community programs to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of mental health outcomes for clients. Additionally, family therapy education programs should broaden student training to incorporate the growing body of information about how family relationships affect individual mental health development.