Exposing operations of power in supervisory relationships

Through a poststructural lens, we examine how power may show itself in relationships between supervisees and supervisors, producing both helpful and harmful effects. Drawing from our own experiences, as well as conversations with other members of our supervisory group, we demonstrate how privileged discourses around professional status, gender, and race may bring about difficulties including a sense of doubt, worry, inadequacy, and a fear of speaking up. We also illustrate how these difficulties can be addressed in a manner that may lessen their influence, while increasing supervisees' sense of agency.     

Collaborative helping maps: a tool to guide thinking and action in family-centered services

This article highlights "disciplined improvisation" as a metaphor for community-based work with multi-stressed families. It introduces Collaborative Helping maps as a tool that both helps workers think their way through complex situations with families and provides a structure to support constructive conversations between workers and families about challenging situations. The article illustrates this map through a clinical vignette and uses interviews with workers to highlight ways in which the map can both enhance worker thinking and support constructive conversations between workers and families about problems that could easily divide them and lead to polarization and escalating tension.     

Developing an outcome-based assessment for family therapy training: the Rochester Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (ROSCE)

This paper addresses a growing need for cost-effective, outcome-based assessment in family therapy training. We describe the ROSCE, a structured, evidence-informed, learner-centered approach to the assessment of clinical skills developed at the University of Rochester Medical Center. The ROSCE emphasizes direct observation of trainees demonstrating clinical competencies. The format integrates both formative and summative assessment methods. It can readily be adapted to a wide variety of educational and training settings.     

Canadian and Spanish youths' risk perceptions of drinking and driving, and riding with a drunk driver

The present research compared Canadian and Spanish youths' perceptions of the potential benefits and drawbacks of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) and riding with a drunk driver (RDD). Eighty (41 female) Canadian and 87 (71 female) Spanish undergraduates completed a survey asking about their past and forecasted engagement in DUI and RDD, and their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of DUI and RDD. A sizeable proportion of both samples reported DUI and RDD in the past year. Past risk takers forecasted significantly greater chances of engaging in these behaviors in the following year compared to those who had not engaged in DUI and RDD. Both samples provided significantly more drawbacks than benefits of DUI and RDD. Whereas the benefits of both behaviors tended to refer to personal effects (e.g., save money, arrive faster) that occurred before, during, or after driving, the drawbacks referred to a range of outcomes (e.g., accident, kill/injure, penal sanction) that mostly occurred during driving. Although Canada and Spain differ in important respects (e.g., potential penalty for DUI), there were similarities in the two samples' perceptions of DUI and RDD. Young people are aware of the costs of these risky behaviors but nevertheless engage in them. These findings can inform theories of the co-occurrence of risky driving behaviors, and the development of prevention programs that focus on perceived outcomes.     

Parents' Differential Treatment of Adolescent Siblings in African American Families

Research on European and European American families suggests that parents' differential treatment of siblings has negative implications for youths' adjustment, but few studies have explored these dynamics in minority samples. This study examined parents' differential acceptance and conflict in a sample of mothers, fathers, and two adolescent siblings in 179 African American families who were interviewed on three annual occasions. In an effort to replicate findings from European and European American samples, we assessed the longitudinal associations between differential treatment and adolescent adjustment and tested three sibling characteristics (birth order, gender, and dyad gender composition) as potential moderators of these linkages. To illuminate the sociocultural context of differential treatment and its implications, we also explored parents' cultural socialization practices and experiences of financial stress as potential moderators of these links. Multilevel models revealed that, controlling for average parent–child relationship qualities, decreases in parental acceptance and increases in parent–youth conflict over time—relative to the sibling—were associated with increases in youths' risky behavior and depressive symptoms. Links between differential treatment and adjustment were not evident, however, when mothers engaged in high levels of cultural socialization and in families under high financial stress. The discussion highlights the significance of sociocultural factors in family dynamics.     

From Couple Therapy 1.0 to a Comprehensive Model: A Roadmap for Sequencing and Integrating Systemic,Psychodynamic, and Behavioral Approaches in Couple Therapy

Couple therapy is a complex undertaking that proceeds best by integrating various schools of thought. Grounded in an in‐depth review of the clinical and research literature, and drawing on the author's 40‐plus years of experience, this paper presents a comprehensive, flexible, and user‐friendly roadmap for conducting couple therapy. It begins by describing “Couple Therapy 1.0,” the basic conjoint couple therapy format in which partners talk to each other with the help of the therapist. After noting the limitations of this model, the paper introduces upgrades derived from systemic, psychodynamic, and behavioral/educational approaches, and shows how to combine and sequence them. The most important upgrade is the early focus on the couple's negative interaction cycle, which causes them pain and impedes their ability to address it. Using a clinical case example, the paper shows how all three approaches can improve couple process as a prerequisite for better problem solving. Additional modules and sequencing choice points are also discussed, including discernment counseling and encouraging positive couple experiences.     

New Sexism in Couple Therapy: A Discursive Analysis

The persistence of gender inequality in postindustrial societies is puzzling in light of a plethora of changes that destabilize it, including shifts in economy, legislation, and the proliferation of feminist politics. In family relations, such persistence manifests as a disconnect between couples aspiring to be more egalitarian yet continuing to enact traditional gender roles and hierarchies. There is an emerging consensus that gender inequality persists because of people's continued reliance on sexist ideology or gendered assumptions that constitute women as innately distinct from and inferior to men. Sexist ideology changes its form to accommodate to changing socio‐economic conditions. Contemporary forms of sexism are old ways of legitimizing male power articulated in new and creative ways, often by incorporating feminist arguments. To effectively recognize and address “new sexism,” scholars and practitioners require new, innovative research frameworks. Our objective in writing this article is two‐fold. First, we seek to advance discursive (i.e., focused on language in use) approaches to the study of sexism. Second, we present the results of a discursive analysis of “new” sexist discourse in the context of couple therapy. The study provides preliminary evidence that, despite endorsing egalitarian norms, couples studied continue to rely on gender binaries and remain entrenched in old‐fashioned patterns of gender inequality. Implications of these results for the practice of couple therapy and for future research are discussed.     

A Multi‐Family Group Intervention for Adolescent Depression: The BEST MOOD Program

Depression is the most common mental disorder for young people, and it is associated with educational underachievement, self‐harm, and suicidality. Current psychological therapies for adolescent depression are usually focused only on individual‐level change and often neglect family or contextual influences. The efficacy of interventions may be enhanced with a broader therapeutic focus on family factors such as communication, conflict, support, and cohesion. This article describes a structured multi‐family group approach to the treatment of adolescent depression: Behaviour Exchange Systems Therapy for adolescent depression (BEST MOOD). BEST MOOD is a manualized intervention that is designed to address both individual and family factors in the treatment of adolescent depression. BEST MOOD adopts a family systems approach that also incorporates psychoeducation and elements of attachment theories. The program consists of eight multifamily group therapy sessions delivered over 2 hours per week, where parents attend the first four sessions and young people and siblings join from week 5. The program design is specifically aimed to engage youth who are initially resistant to treatment and to optimize youth and family mental health outcomes. This article presents an overview of the theoretical model, session content, and evaluations to date, and provides a case study to illustrate the approach.     

The Effectiveness of Functional Family Therapy for Adolescent Behavioral and Substance Misuse Problems: A Meta‐Analysis

A systematic review of published and unpublished English language articles identified 14 studies containing 18 comparisons between functional family therapy (FFT) and another condition in the treatment of adolescent disruptive behavior and substance use disorders. In 11 of these comparisons, assignment to conditions was random, while nonrandom assignment occurred in seven studies. For both random and nonrandom comparisons, separate meta‐analyses were conducted for subgroups of studies depending on the type of comparison group used. Data from studies of untreated control groups (CTL), treatment as usual (TAU), and well‐defined alternative treatments (ALTs) were analyzed separately. Effect sizes from these six meta‐analyses were as follows: random assignment FFT versus CTL (k = 3, d = 0.48, p < .01); random assignment FFT versus TAU (k = 3, d = .20, ns); random assignment FFT versus ALT (k = 5, d = .35, p < .05); nonrandom assignment FFT versus CTL (k = 2, d = .90, ns); nonrandom assignment FFT versus TAU (k = 2, d = .08, ns); and nonrandom assignment FFT versus ALT (k = 3, d = .75, p < .001). These results provide support for the effectiveness of FFT compared with untreated controls and well‐defined ALTs, such as cognitive behavior therapy, other models of family therapy, and individual and group therapy for adolescents.