A three-phase model of public consultation and inquiry concerning the needs of the family was undertaken in British Columbia to identify those forces in society which enrich family life and those that pull the family apart. This article contains descriptions of the findings and a general evaluation. (Author)

By taking an advocacy stance between the intrafamilial and extrafamilial systems, focusing on individual and family need levels, the family-focused approach to managing mental health/social deviancy problems offers the clinician a promising framework to broaden the scope of service delivery befitting a wider and growing knowledge base. (Author)

The major problem areas reported by stepparents and their partners fall into three main categories: problems concerned with the children, financial difficulties, and marital misunderstanding and alienation. (Author)

Studies of Black families in varying social classes are reviewed to determine the prevailing power relationship between spouses. In general, Black families appear to be more egalitarian than White families; the middle-class Black family is more egalitarian than any other family type. (Author)

This paper attempts to reassess the role of grandparent from a social class perspective. The role is analyzed first as a "peculiar noninstitution" for middle-class families in the United States. Grandparenting is shown to differ by degree of "functional centrality" in middle-class families and families of lower socioeconomic status. (Author)

Coping with the problems of growing old may be complicated by demands for economic, psychological, and social support for aging parents. Second-generation children facing major age-related role shifts may not be equipped to provide such support. Both generations are coping with their own aging processes, as well as with changing family…

Chairpersons of departments of psychology and sociology were surveyed concerning the attitudes toward hiring a professional couple in their departments. Responses indicated opposition by 37 percent of the chairpersons, neutrality by 25 percent, and support by 38 percent. (Author)

Husbands and wives of dual-career families were compared with husbands and wives of traditional-career families on the variables of inner-directedness, self-actualizing values, existentiality, self-regard, and self-acceptance. (Author)

In the family picture the camera records during the first and last session how each family member arranges other members in a family sculpture. When pictures taken during the first session are compared with those taken during the last session, they can be a validation of the positive family changes. (Author)

This paper examines the family's experience of psychiatric hospitalization. It considers ways in which the family therapist can help keep the family system intact and involve it in the inpatient treatment process. Family-related and hospital-related obstacles to family involvement are discussed, along with suggestions for dealing with them.…

Vocation-rehabilitation client and significant-other (SO) family-member pairs were interviewed separately to determine factors and perceptions contributing to discussion of disability-related problems and conflict arising from these problems. Clients reported more discussion of problems and more mutual agreement than their SOs. (Author)

Informal helpers are characterized by their accessibility, credibility, empathy, caring, concreteness, and directness. (Author)

Ecological violations, observer problems, and intrusions of real world phenomena are discussed in relation to observations of family interaction in home settings. (Author/SB)

Subjects were 18 mothers and their clinic-referred children. A stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that two maternal behaviors, beta commands and total rewards, displayed in the clinic were the best predictors of child compliance in the home. (Author)

The results of the initial study suggested that the question of effects of television violence could be answered meaningfully only in the same context as the question of the social effect of television. Interim results reported here support this hypothesis. (Author)