The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international law whose purpose is to establish uniform rules to be applied in cases of international child abduction, is described. The Hague Convention requires that children wrongfully removed or retained abroad in connection with parental custody disputes be…

Recounted by the father of a 21-year-old handicapped woman for whom no program has been helpful are his difficulties in obtaining an accurate diagnosis and in communicating with professionals. (CL)

The technique called "two-marriage therapy" (conjoint cotherapy by married cotherapy teams) has been developed to help couples in marital crises to confront the elusive nature of marriage. This paper attempts to show how the presence of a married cotherapy team adds a significant salutary perspective on the marriage in conflict. (Author)

The author examines the three crises he feels family therapy has passed through in the last three decades, including the need to transcend its focus on schizophrenia and to deal with families differing widely in socioeconimic origin. The current challenge is the need for professionalization of the field. (Author)

Comparison of 369 sexually abused children and 318 non-abused children found five variables explaining 20% of the variance including the following: tendency of parent to have negative outlook on life; number of problems the victim's family presents; and victim's perception of some responsibility for the abuse. (DB)

Tested the hypothesis that sequenced patterns of interaction in which mothers deferred control to their sons and sons assumed control would discriminate high- and low-problem single mother-son dyads. In high-problem dyads, compared to low, mothers' submissive communication was more likely to elicit sons' dominant communication and sons' dominant…

Reports series of studies investigating reliability and validity of the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD). Results indicated that the FAD has: (1) adequate test-retest reliability, (2) low correlations with social desirability, (3) moderate correlations with other self-report measures of family functioning, and (4) differentiates…

The case study illustrates the ways in which consultation with specialists can add strain to marriages involving disabled children. (CL)

A survey of 38 administrators of rehabilitation centers serving blind and visually impaired persons revealed opinions about the major causes of family problems (such as overprotection and financial problems), suggested means of ameliorating these problems, and decribed other types of family services offered by their agencies. (Author/CL)

Approximately 10% to 15% of children have some chronic health condition; 2% of children in the United States have severe chronic illnesses. Certain problems are common to most families with a chronically ill child: high costs, heavy daily care burden, conflicting professional advice, and social isolation. Early intervention may diminsh handicaps…

Distressed and nondistressed couples held discussions of their major marital problem. Mismatch errors or differences in intent and impact were most likely to occur when the receiver of the message evaluated the message more negatively than it was intended regardless of the group. The results provide some support for both the semantic and…

A project designed to analyze and remediate interaction patterns and adjustment in families with visually handicapped children uses direct observation and self-report techniques, and a behavioral family treatment strategy to enhance problem-solving and communication skills. (CL)

This is the first edition of a newly scheduled section which will appear in each future issue of the journal and which will deal with different aspects of legislation pertinent to child welfare. (CJ)

A Responsiveness Index, measuring the extent to which an abusive parent had responded positively to various common interventions revealed variables with predictive significance: number of abused children in the family, number of birth and bonding problems, and number of previous contacts with other agencies by family members. (Author/CL)

This article reviews the meaning and origins of child maltreatment in relation to children with disabilities. The heightened risk of abuse that is faced by such children arises from dynamics within the familial and community context of the child. (Author/DB)