Is our understanding of how individuals adjust to stressful life events increased when we analyze their adjustment in ways that recognize that these individuals are also married couples? The data used to answer this question came from a unique "natural experiment" occasioned by the forced evacuation of the Israeli settlement of Ophira under the terms of the Camp David Accords. We found that the adjustment of individuals within couples became more similar across the relocation, that is, couples adapted as a "family system." This occurred because the coping skills of one member of the couple "drove" the adjustment of both partners.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1989

Putting the illness in its place: discussion groups for families with chronic medical illnesses.

A new psychosocial intervention for families and patients experiencing the chronic phase of a disabling medical illness is described. The intervention, a short-term, highly structured, psychoeducationally oriented, multiple-family discussion group (MFDG), was developed within the context of a clinical research program and has been successfully applied to a heterogeneous range of disabling medical illnesses. This report includes a detailed description of the treatment model, the format and content of group meetings, and initial clinical impressions regarding MFDG efficacy.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1988

Differential adjustment of Ashkenazi versus Sephardi Jews to a forced relocation: the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai.

This report focuses on a set of findings regarding differential adjustment patterns of Ashkenazi (Western) versus Sephardi (Oriental) Jews when faced with a stressful life event. The event in question was the wholesale evacuation of the Israeli Sinai community of Ophira (Sharm-el-Sheik in Arabic) when the Sinai was handed over to Egyptian control in March 1982. Immediately prior to the evacuation, the authors went down to Ophira to carry out a study of patterns of psychosocial adjustment of community residents designed to assess the relationships between individual coping styles, personal network characteristics, levels of psychological distress, and adequacy of social adjustment. Data were collected from a sample of 66 adult civilian community residents (31 men; 35 women), a sample that by coincidence was composed of two reputedly quite different ethnic subgroups: Israeli-born Jews whose parents were of European origin; and "Oriental" Jews, i.e., immigrants from Moslem countries. This fortuitous mix allowed us to carry out the analyses exploring ethnic differences in adjustment and their possible causes that are to be presented in this paper.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1988

Perceived personal networks as mediators of stress reactions.

The evacuation of an Israeli community in the Sinai peninsula afforded an unusual opportunity to study the longitudinal relationships between personal network characteristics and psychosocial adjustment. Friendship network characteristics proved highly stable longitudinally but were poor predictors of long-term adjustment. The kinship network characteristics before relocation were better predictors, despite the fact that kin were not actually present in the community before relocation. These data support a hypothesis that the perception of social embeddedness rather than the actual availability of social supports mediates reactions to stressful life events.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1988

The relationship between sex of the alcoholic and patterns of interaction in the home.

The paper explores the relationship between sex of the identified alcoholic and patterns of interaction in the home. Twenty-three families with a male alcoholic member were compared to eight families with a female alcoholic member along a series of factors representing basic dimensions of interactional behavior. These dependent measures were derived via direct observation of families in their homes, using the Home Observation Assessment Method (HOAM). Previous analyses of this same HOAM database had demonstrated statistically significant associations between HOAM factor scores and the current drinking status of the alcoholic family member. In contrast to reports in the literature which have made claims to having demonstrated global differences between the behavior of male and female alcoholics, our data indicated that overall patterns of family home behavior were remarkably similar when sex of the alcoholic member was the only variable used to distinguish comparison groups. Thus no direct impact of sex of the alcoholic family member on family behavior could be demonstrated in this naturalistic observation study.

Adult↗

PubMed1987

Psychoeducational family therapy for schizophrenia: a review essay.

The recent publication of Schizophrenia and the Family, by Carol M. Anderson, Douglas J. Reiss, and Gerald E. Hogarty (Guilford Press, 1986; 365 pp; $26.95), has provided an excellent opportunity for the field to take a fresh look at what has been called the "psychoeducational" approach to family therapy for schizophrenia. Although Anderson and her colleagues are not the first group to have provided us with a "treatment manual" for this innovative approach to therapy (e.g., see Falloon et al. 1984), their efforts come at a time when the psychoeducational approach is beginning to receive widespread attention. For example, a new multicenter NIMH study is currently under way examining the efficacy of such psychoeducational approaches as components of the posthospital treatment of schizophrenia. Hence this is a particularly propitious moment to review the issues raised by this book and the treatment it describes.

Chronic Disease↗

PubMed1985

Family systems approaches to alcoholism.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed1985

Stability/instability in the alcoholic marriage: the interrelationships between course of alcoholism, family process, and marital outcome.

Thirty-one alcoholic families who were originally studied in home, multiple-family group, and laboratory settings were reassessed two years later to determine course of alcoholism and degree of marital stability. This paper presents data comparing baseline alcohol consumption and family interactional behavior at home with subsequent alcoholism and marital stability outcomes. Findings suggest that the relative degree of stability/instability in these marriages is best understood as a function of the "goodness-of-fit" between the relative predictability of drinking on the part of the identified alcoholic and the family's characteristic pattern of interactional behavior at home.

Alcoholism↗

PubMed1982

Discussion groups for chronic hemodialysis patients and their families.

The family as well as the patient undergoes many psychological stresses in the adjustment to end stage renal disease and maintenance hemodialysis. Despite the apparent need for psychological support services for families, few are offered. Renal social workers have found it difficult to elicit interest in discussion groups for families dealing with problems associated with dialysis. This report presents two discussion groups that were recruited and conducted for dialysis patients and their families. The process and development of the two groups are described, and recommendations are given for conducting multiple-family groups as an adjunct to the biologic treatment of severe long-term illness.

Attitude to Health↗

PubMed1982

Coping with spinal cord injury: the family perspective.

Little attention has been paid in the literature to the special needs of family members in dealing with the sudden trauma of spinal cord injury and the long-term implications of rehabilitation. Families are often encouraged to participate in rehabilitation plans that do not take their own developmental needs into account. As a result, developmental stresses occur, often expressed as a medical crisis for the spinal cord injured patient. Requests for psychiatric consultation are a frequent initial response of the medical staff to such crisis. Two clinical cases are presented to illustrate this process. Emphasis is placed on family aspects of the cases. Data from family interviews and home visits are used to illustrate the central themes that emerged during consultations. In particular, the data illustrate how family efforts to cope with the needs of their spinal cord injured member have caused them to place inappropriate emphasis on short-term stability of family life, sacrificing, in the process, long-term growth. Recommendations are made regarding the role of the consultation-liaison psychiatrist in the use of this family developmental approach.

Adaptation, Psychological↗