| Abstract: | This article examines the conceptualization and treatment of families during normative and non-normative life transitions. Variables identified by individual and family developmental theorists account for some variation in responses of families to life transitions. Three family variables are identified as critical to practitioners' understanding of families: disruption of time schedules, number of new decisions involving initial disagreement, and pretransition family conflict. Different responses are hypothesized for families high or low on each variable. Six treatments of families are identified: historical family therapy, structure/process family therapy, experiential family therapy, psychoeducational approaches, family crisis intervention, and enrichment. The likelihood of success of each treatment is predicted on the basis of a family's response to the transition. |
