Research on family relationships has indicated that the family is the primary basis of security for adults in later life. To explore the family environment and interactional experience of multigenerational families in which the elderly grandparent is chronically ill, 12 families (12 grandparents, 13 adult children, and 11 grandchildren) completed…

This manual provides caregivers with practical knowledge and suggestions that could be of help to them in this important role. Chapter 1 gives an overview of the volume and tells how to use it. Chapter 2 identifies who caregivers are, what they do, and what changes have taken place in their lives since they became caregivers. Chapter 3 begins with…

The welfare of American families improved steadily for over 20 years after World War II. After the War on Poverty of the 1960s, the number of people living in poverty fell, reaching its lowest point in 1973. During the 1980s, homeless families, including those living in the streets, in cars, and in shelters seemingly appeared out of nowhere. As…

The paper explores the impact of child variables, parent variables, and family resources (professional and informal supports) on the family's ability to cope with a child with special needs. Child variables include child gender, birth order, severity of handicap, degree of child dependency, extent of attachment, age of the child, and presence of…

This document is the text of a Congressional hearing called to examine prevention of alcohol abuse in American families. In her opening statement, Representative Lindy Boggs states that alcohol abuse is related to many problems confronting families including divorce, violence, and behavioral emotional problems and that the purpose of this hearing…

This guide is designed to show group leaders how to organize a program on single parents and their families and present this program in two meetings. At the first meeting, presenters provide information about single-parent families; at the second they suggest ways to involve the school, the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and other community…

Attempts are made in this address to outline how social change in Australia affects the nurturing tasks of family life and to suggest a rethinking of how the community as a whole might assist the child development process. Changes in the Australian family context include divorce, family breakdown, one-parent families, remarriage, extended…

The purpose of this manual is to provide a written tool for those participating in a 3-day workshop designed to train mental health professionals from diverse settings and communities to counsel court-mandated batterers. The manual consists of: (1) an outline of the workshop; (2) an introduction; (3) six chapters/sections; (4) notes; and (5) three…

Recent trends in litigation involving child custody, parental rights, foster care, and child abuse draw heavily on interpretations of developmental research and theory. In a recent landmark case, a developmentalist testified on a number of issues for which scant developmental data were found. These issues included neonatal bonding and the…

It has often been suggested that knowledge of the underlying power sturcture is essential to understanding the day-to-day functioning of the nuclear family and that such knowledge may be of special relevance for understanding violence between husbands and wives. To explore the relationship of the family power structure (e.g., wife-dominant,…

This document contains transcripts of testimony and prepared statements from the Congressional hearing called to examine the effects of alcoholism on children and families. Testimonies are presented from the director of the Alcoholism Control Administration, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; the medical director of the Alcoholism and…

There has been increased interest in family systems approaches to the treatment of children's behavior problems. A study was conducted to compare children's behavior patterns in clinical and nonclinical intact families and to explore the relationship between family functioning and boys' behavior patterns. Subjects consisted of 16 clinic families…

The Task Force to Develop Standards and Goals for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention was initiated in the Spring of 1975 by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) of the U.S. Department of Justice. The efforts of this task force resulted in nine reports, each one dealing with one aspect of the Juvenile Justice System. This…

Reviewed is research on the etiology and treatment of child abuse, specifically on three basic theoretical models: A psychiatric model emphasizing the individual abuser's role; a sociological model stressing the impact of social factors; and a model which focuses on the child's role in stimulating his own maltreatment. The second part of the paper…