The article recounts the counseling process of a divorced couple who are helped to make joint decisions concerning their handicapped 12-year-old son. (DB)

Evaluated Stress Management and Alcohol Awareness Program (SMAAP) for children from alcoholic families, in which 79 children of alcoholics between the ages of 9 and 13 participated in 8-week school-based curriculum on alcoholism, self-esteem enhancement strategies, and coping strategies. Found greater positive coping strategies, decreased…

The article examines the potential impact upon the family of traumatic brain injury to a child and the complex array of factors related to effective family coping and adaptation. Considered are stages in family adaptation, sources of family stress, and coping with stress. (Author/DB)

Proposes a model for understanding child and adolescent achievement problems. Suggests four dimensions of a family's learning environment: (1) family communication deviances; (2) family structure; (3) family attributions; and (4) family achievement values. Offers metaphor of family as "primary classroom." (Author/ABL)

Describes the Host Homes and Youth Center run by the Community Advocacy Council in Carrollton, Texas. The homes serve as places where troubled youth can go when there is trouble in their homes. The center provides counseling to both young people and their families. Families volunteer to serve as hosts. (SKC)

Addresses the parental alienation syndrome, which is the process by which one parent overtly or covertly speaks or acts in a derogatory manner to or about the other parent during or subsequent to a divorce proceeding, in an attempt to alienate the child or children from that other parent. (Author)

Users and non-users of home-based respite care services for parents of children with developmental disabilities were compared. The respite care group showed overall consistent benefits from the respite services in coping resources and stress reduction. (Author/DB)

Explores some of the more important changes that are occurring because of the farm crisis and discusses how they affect rural community development needs. Examines (1) characteristics of those failing in agriculture; (2) changes in farm production practices resulting from the crisis; and (3) problems experienced by farmers and farm families. (JOW)

The study examined the extent to which child neglect and family dysfunction have contributed to the need for hospitalization of asthmatic children. Using a measure of global functioning, psychologic morbidity is associated with medical neglect. (Author/DB)

The upward or downward social class mobility of a family member can result in tensions between the individual and the rest of the family. Explores the issue of class, identifies common situations in which class tensions occur within families, and discusses clinical implications. (JPS)

Differences in family trauma, stressors, and dysfunction among adolescent psychiatric inpatients grouped by sexual abuse self-reports were investigated. Family trauma/dysfunction was determined from a composite score derived from the Traumatic Antecedents Scale. The results indicated that sexually abused adolescents reported more family…

Examines the role of social support in the discrimination of physical child abusers and nonabusers, both with a childhood history of physical child abuse. In contrast to expectations, none of the social support factors distinguished between the abusers and nonabusers. (JPS)

Examined maternal ratings of family functioning and children's depression, anxiety, and problem behaviors among 53 families. Women (n=26) with alcohol-dependent partners reported significantly more marital and family disruption and higher levels of child problem behaviors. Both fathers' alcohol dependence and family risk factor index accounted for…

Assessed adolescents' perception of family adaptability and cohesion to identify whether and in what ways family systems of adolescent sex offenders (n=39) differ from those of violent juvenile delinquents (n=25), nonviolent juvenile delinquents (n=41), and from nonproblem families. Families of sex offenders were characterized by greater family…

This study examined the relationship between intelligence and delinquency in 157 youth convicted of serious crimes. Few of the delinquents obtained high scores on intelligence testing; most were of below average intelligence. Highly intelligent delinquents shared a history of troubled family backgrounds, school behavior problems, substance abuse,…