Examined role of selected family environment factors in facilitating children's postdivorce adjustment utilizing a nationwide sample of 341 divorced family children. Concurrent and longitudinal predictions of children's adjustment from selected home environment factors provide information for professionals working with divorced families. Discusses…

Study of former and current members of controversial religious cults revealed a strong correlation between measures of family affinity and choices by cult devotees to leave or stay. Differences between leavers and stayers are shown in perceived parental attitudes toward involvement, prior familial closeness, and adolescent experiences with…

Variables affecting placement requests by 251 families for their developmentally disabled members were examined. Results reaffirmed the importance of degree of disability, behavior problems, and external stressors for the decision-making process but also demonstrated that previous assumptions concerning their relative importance should be…

The parents of 90 children (30 each of learning disabled, emotionally disturbed, and normal children five-14 years old) completed The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales. Results provided partial support for the hypotheses on family interaction with implications for assessing and intervening in problems identified as learning…

Suggests that social workers have lacked models for understanding the process of a client's self-identification as a lesbian. Describes several developmental phases a woman may go through to form a healthy self-concept as a lesbian and discusses practice implications for this process. (Author/JAC)

Provides a case study illustrating the use of sibling pairings to understand the career development process. Factors such as birth order, age spacing, sex of siblings, and interactions can help clients explore various striving for significance patterns in sibling dyads and gain insight into their own career development. (JAC)

Examines the major principles and goals of contextual therapy and methods employed in its clinical application. A second article presents an interview with Dr. Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, who developed contextual family therapy. The interview ranges from Dr. Nagy's early training to the theoretical and clinical foundations of contextual family therapy.…

Makes a theoretical comparison between Adlerian and analytic formulations of family assessment in a case study involving a recently divorced couple and a child with encopresis. Discussed the family relationship in terms of object relations theory emphasizing intrapsychic experience, and Adlerian theory emphasizing the purposes of behavior. (JAC)

Presents a causal explanation predicting kinship ties involving division of labor and the usefulness of kin. Data on white households in the Public Use Sample of the 1900 U.S. Census confirmed that wife's parents would be more common in nonfarm households, while husband's parents would predominate in farm households. (JAC)

Naturalistic observation of seven autistic students (2-16 years old) and their families revealed unexpectedly frequent social interaction and low levels of ritualistic/stereotypic behavior. (CL)

Describes a counseling group comprised of people concerned with elderly family members. Group members found both information and emotional support, and all suggested that the group be continued. Challenges counselors to meet the need for similar groups. (JAC)

This study attempts to provide and to analyze some ethnographic data as evidence of functionality of an affiliative family. (Author)

Preliminary findings are presented bearing on several hypotheses derived from exchange theory. Postulating a relationship between the breakdown of intrafamilial exchange and parent-youth conflict, support for the general hypothesis is found. No significant relationships are found, however, between key structural variables and conflict. (Author)

This exploratory inquiry examines the primary relations of relatively stable lower, working, and middle class black couples with focus on friends shared by spouses and the role of the male in family structure. (DM)

An attempt was made to ascertain some of the major features of the Mexican family which have been retained by the Mexican-American family within the United States. Available literature which commented on the family systems was surveyed. (Author)