A considerable number of studies linking family history and high risk for suicide have reported that suicidality runs in families. Community studies that avoid a selection effect confirm these findings. These results seem independent of comorbidities such ...
Read more [Safety Literature] 

This study examined longitudinal associations between parents' hostility and siblings' externalizing behavior in the context of interparental discord. The sample included 116 families (mothers, fathers, 2 siblings) assessed in middle childhood, when siblings were, on average, 8 and 10 years old, and in adolescence, at average ages of 14 and 16 years. Parents reported on their hostility toward each child and on each child's externalizing problems. Raters observed interparental hostility, and parents rated their marital quality. Results indicated both within-family and between-families effects. Specifically, the child who received more parental hostility than his or her sibling showed greater increases in externalizing problems than his or her sibling; this association was moderated by marital discord. In addition, the child who exhibited more behavioral problems than his or her sibling received greater increases in hostile mothering than did his or her sibling. Between-families effects were evident, in that children's externalizing problems were associated with increases in mothers' hostility toward both children in the family. Results support transactional models of development and family systems theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
Read more [Journal of Family Psychology] 

This study investigated the factors predictive of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the early years of marriage, focusing on premarital drinking and the relatively stable individual risk and protective factors that were present prior to marriage and on social-interpersonal factors that may change or emerge over marriage. Newlywed couples were assessed at the time of marriage and at the 1st, 2nd, and 4th anniversaries with respect to frequency of heavy drinking and the extent of drinking problems and a variety of factors that have been found to be predictive of adult alcohol problems. The results indicated that antisocial characteristics, family history of alcoholism, negative affect, and alcohol expectancies were related to heavy drinking and alcohol problems at the time of marriage. Changes after marriage were predicted by the drinking of one's partner and of one's peers and by alcohol expectancies for social/physical pleasure for both men and women. In addition, the quality of the marriage was longitudinally protective from the experience of alcohol problems for both men and women, although it was not related to changes in heavy drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
Read more [Psychology of Addictive Behaviors] 

To identify alliance-related behavior patterns in more and less successful family therapy, the authors intensively analyzed two cases with highly discrepant outcomes. Both families were seen by the same experienced clinician. Results showed that participants' perceptions of the alliance, session impact, and improvement at three points in time were congruent with the families' differential outcomes and with observer-related alliance behavior using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances. In this measure, therapist behaviors contribute to the alliance and client behaviors reveal the strength of the alliance on four dimensions: Engagement in the Therapeutic Process, Emotional Connection with the Therapist, Safety within the Therapeutic System, and Shared Sense of Purpose within the Family. In the poor outcome case, observer ratings and self-reported alliance scores revealed a persistently "split" alliance between family members; this family dropped out midtreatment. Only in the good outcome case did the clients follow the therapist's alliance-building interventions with positive alliance behaviors; sequential analyses showed that therapist contributions to Engagement significantly activated client Engagement behavior, and therapist Emotional Connection interventions significantly activated client Emotional Connection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
Read more [Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training] 

Read more [American Journal of Family Therapy] 

We wanted to know whether adolescents with eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) differ from those with bulimia nervosa (BN) in clinical features, comorbidity, risk factors, treatment outcome or cost.Adolescents with EDNOS (n = 24) or BN (n = 61) took part in a trial of family therapy versus guided self-care. At baseline, eating disorder symptoms, risk factors, and costs were assessed by interview. Patients were reinterviewed at 6 and 12 months.Compared with EDNOS, BN patients binged, vomited and purged significantly more, and were more preoccupied with food. Those with EDNOS had more depression and had more current and childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder. 66.6% of EDNOS versus 27.8% of BN patients were abstinent from bingeing and vomiting at 1 year. Diagnosis did not moderate treatment outcome. Costs did not differ between groups.EDNOS in adolescents is not trival. It has milder eating disorder symptoms but more comorbidity than BN. © 2008 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2008
Read more [International Journal of Eating Disorders] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 2, Page 215-217, May 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 2, Page 194-214, May 2008.
Positive and negative alliance-related behaviours of thirty-seven families seen in brief family therapy were rated from videotapes using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (Friedlander et al., 2006b). Positive associations were found ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 2, Page 117-128, May 2008.
An experience in which the author followed his own objectives rather than the patient's, leading to a tragic end, is evoked as a frame for the presentation and discussion of a family treatment where the therapeutic process led by the therapist may have ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 2, Page 163-193, May 2008.
Starting from the core systemic premise that humans influence each other, this paper focuses on child influences in the bidirectional parent–child relationship. Following a co-constructionist approach on bidirectionality, meaning constructions of ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 2, Page 129-146, May 2008.
This paper's aim is to enable family therapists from whatever approach to address family attachments during their work. It explores the role of attachment in the family, and how to enable therapists to increase security in the family so that family ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 2, Page 147-162, May 2008.
This article describes how family therapists can routinely address the important, but often overlooked, issue of how some children may play parental roles in families. In some situations such as inadequate or absent parenting, a child is drawn into the ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

The authors focused on 2 unique aspects of the alliance in conjoint therapy: feeling safe in the therapeutic context with other family members and the family's shared sense of purpose about treatment (i.e., productive within-family collaboration). Low-income, multiproblem families were seen in a community clinic by therapists with varying theoretical orientations and a wide range of experience. Alliance-related behavior was assessed using the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (M. L. Friedlander, V. Escudero, & L. Heatherington, 2006). The significant mediated model showed that parent safety contributed to productive family collaboration in the 1st session, which, in turn, predicted global improvement rated after Session 3. Given the heterogeneous sample of clients, therapists, and therapy approaches, findings support the ecological validity of the alliance in family therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
Read more [Journal of Counseling Psychology] 

In this study, the authors examined the role of balance between adolescent-therapist and parent-therapist alliances in the retention of functional family therapy clients. Therapeutic alliances of mothers, fathers, and adolescents were assessed from videotapes of the 1st treatment session for 43 Hispanic and 43 Anglo families. Hispanic families who dropped out before completing the requisite number of sessions were found to have greater imbalance in alliance (parent-adolescent) than those who did complete therapy. However, this finding was not replicated with Anglo families. Results are interpreted in terms of previous research on family-level balanced alliance effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
Read more [Journal of Family Psychology] 

Many family therapies for adolescent drug use include ecological interventions. The purpose of this randomized clinical trial was to establish whether ecological interventions contribute to the impact of family therapy above and beyond the contributions of family process-only interventions. A family-based ecological approach, structural ecosystems therapy (SET), was compared with family process-only condition (FAM) and community services control (CS). One hundred ninety substance-abusing or dependent African American and Hispanic adolescents were randomized to SET, FAM, or CS. Follow-up assessments were conducted at 3, 6, 12, and 18 months postrandomization. SET was significantly more efficacious than FAM and CS in reducing adolescent drug use. However, these improvements were limited to Hispanic adolescents. The study demonstrates the importance of investigating changes in adolescent drug use as a result of treatment condition across more than 1 racial/ethnic group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
Read more [Journal of Family Psychology] 

In this article, the authors link a central organizing concept and process, The Functional Hypothesis, to the literature on metatheoretical approaches to the psychotherapy process. The Functional Hypothesis is presented as a central thread that runs through all family systems models, the employment of which contributes to successful therapeutic outcomes. The Functional Hypothesis is linked to the literature on client factors in emotional healing and is posited as the creative catalyst for the dynamics of the Common Factors. A Case Example is included, exemplifying the metatheoretical Internal Family Systems Therapy model which operationalizes therapeutic work with the Functional Hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved)
Read more [Journal of Psychotherapy Integration] 

Family physicians must continue to be the cornerstone of the American health care system. We must achieve better payment rates. We must attract the next generation of family physicians to our residency programs. So asserts an editorial in the March Journal of Family Practice. But then, to my puzzlement, the editorial criticizes the AAFP's new vigor in championing the specialty's issues with government, employers and private-sector payers -- a vigor telegraphed by the AAFP's new brand identity, embodied by the new AAFP seal and the tag line "Strong Medicine for America."
Read more [American Association Of Family Physicians] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 17-24 Abstract In the last decade there has been increasing interest in working systemically with groups of families. Multiple family groups (MFGs) have been used in mental health settings with schizophrenia, eating disorders and drug and substance abuse. This article describes the MFG program used in Higher Ground Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Trust, a rehabilitation centre in Auckland, (New Zealand). Higher Ground provides an 18-week residential therapeutic program for people with a severe substance abuse disorder. The MFG in Higher Ground focuses on developing better communication patterns and better boundaries between family members, fostering mutual support, and promoting self-responsibility.
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 25-33 Abstract A recent project sought to clarify how psychotherapists and mental health workers understand psychosocial health and pathology. In this enquiry, I paid particular attention to the client's interpersonal networks: did the professionals actively consider, and if so to what extent, `intimate social and family relationships' in constructing their understanding of the presenting problem and in the process they used for goal setting. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were undertaken, eleven with psychotherapists and eleven with mental health workers. Across both groups, interviewees tended not to see their clients as embedded, relational entities, but primarily, often quite exclusively, as autonomous beings. Second, inter - viewees accorded a high value to the importance of `the therapeutic relationship'. Is it possible that the emphasis practitioners place on `the therapeutic relationship' has the effect of marginalising the attention that is given to the client's significant-other network?
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 34-39 Abstract Amplifying deviations in family interactions is a critical skill in family therapy, and one that can be implemented following the first reflecting team intervention. This paper will provide trainees with a series of practical guidelines for amplifying deviations, derived from an integration of several models of family therapy. Solution-focused and narrative questions are employed systemically, with the aim of magnifying virtuous, rather than vicious cycles of interaction. A theoretical rationale for deviation amplifying and a brief case vignette will also be presented.
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 48-50
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 40-47 Abstract Max Cornwell is a psychologist and social worker in Sydney. He edited ANZJFT from 1985 until 1996 and is a former editor of Australian Social Work. He has taught in hundreds of venues in Australia and abroad. In 1980 he co-founded the Family Therapy Institute, a major influence on the training of family therapists in New South Wales until the mid-90s. He is an Honorary Life Member of VAFT and has received the Journal Award for services to family therapy.
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 56-56
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 54-55
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 51-53 Abstract The author describes her work with a dying patient, work that extends from the patient to his wife and adult offspring, and has transformative benefits for the family.
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 57-60 Abstract Dramatic Psychological Storytelling: Using the Expressive Arts and Psychotheatrics. Rob Allen and Nina Krebs, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. pp. 254. Hardback ISBN 978 0 230 50681 7. UK f50.00 Aus$144. Working with `Denied' Child Abuse. The Resolutions Approach. Andrew Turnell and Susie Essex. Maidenhead, Open University Press, 2006 pp. 213. Paper. ISBN 0 335 21657 9. Price f22.99. Solution-Focused Therapy (2nd edition). Bill O'Connell. London, Sage, 2005. Soft cover. pp. 150. ISBN: 1-4129-0329-7. $US38.95. `You're One Of Us': Systemic Insights and Solutions for Teachers, Students and Parents. Marianne Franke-Gricksch, translated by Karen Leube. 2003, Heidelberg, Carl-Auer-Systeme Verlag. Soft cover. pp 188. ISBN: 3-89670-413-3. US $30.95.
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 10-16 Abstract This article presents a qualitative study of the subjective experiences of 24 Chinese adolescents and young women who have been suffering from anorexia nervosa and who have received family treatment from a university-based family treatment centre in Hong Kong. In-depth post-treatment interviews were conducted and have been transcribed and thematised using content analysis. The narratives that have emerged have facilitated hearing the clients' and their family members' voices, especially in the areas of (a) perceived concepts of family therapy, (b) the perceived therapeutic relationship and its linkage to positive change, (c) perceived intervention strategies as employed in family treatment, and (d) the participants' own role in problem-solving. The study has enabled the author to refine the family treatment model, which has been adapted from the Micucci's (1998) model, with additional components introduced by the author to enhance family treatment in a Chinese context.
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): 1-9 Abstract Asperger's syndrome (AS) as a diagnostic category has gained enormous popularity and the label is being applied with increasing liberality. While greater awareness of the disorder may be of advantage to certain children and their families, we argue that the over-inclusive use of the diagnosis may also lead to professional conflicts and ethical dilemmas. Perhaps most concerning of these is that diagnostic `generosity' may exclude children from treatments they would have received if an alternative formulation had been considered. We present clinical scenarios, with special consideration of contextual and intergenerational influences on the children's early lives, and offer alternative conceptualisations. We argue that the new `epidemic' of Asperger's should not be allowed to compromise our professional standards. Assessment should always include a detailed family and developmental history. Finally, we would be interested in feedback from clinicians working in this field.
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): iv-iv
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): iii-iii
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 29(1): ii-ii
Read more [Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT)] 

The authors examined the factors associated with referral errors in which the presence of delirium was ostensibly not recognized by medical staff personnel. Medical records of 541 university-hospital patients consecutively referred for psychiatric consultation were scrutinized for extant delirium. The data indicated that a greater likelihood of a missed diagnosis was associated with younger age; referrals outside of family practice service; orientation as to person, place, and time; and a history of bipolar affective disorder or psychosis. The ramifications of failure to diagnose existing delirium include increased morbidity and mortality, longer length of hospital stay, and increased healthcare costs.

OBJECTIVE: Given the marginalization of couples and family therapy in psychiatric residency programs over the past two decades, the authors propose a rationale for the reintegration of these important psychosocial treatments into the mainstream of general psychiatric residency education. METHODS: After reviewing recent trends in the field that call for a more prominent role for couples and family therapy in residency training, the authors summarize the literature on family therapy training in psychiatry over the past four decades. RESULTS: Because biopsychosocial systemic thinking provides a powerful framework for looking at multiple levels of systems and their interrelationships, developing a strong family-systems perspective and acquiring basic "family skills" represent the minimum requirement for general psychiatric training. The authors argue for the addition of couples and family therapy to the five required psychotherapy competencies defined by the residency review committee in psychiatry. CONCLUSION: A rationale for a family-systems training model is proposed with the objective of encouraging residency programs to integrate the family-systems model more fully into their curricula.

OBJECTIVE: The authors propose a family-systems training model for general residency training programs in psychiatry based on the couples and family therapy training program in Stanford’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.METHODS: The authors review key elements in couples and family therapy training. Examples are drawn from the family therapy training curriculum in a general psychiatric residency program. RESULTS: Conceptual and practical skills taught over the span of a psychiatric residency training program are described, focusing on: joining with the couple or family; seeing systemic patterns, recognizing the family’s developmental stage, history, and culture; identifying family structure; and intervening systemically. CONCLUSION: This family-systems training model can serve as a resource for residency programs interested in integrating the couples and family therapy model more fully into their curricula.

OBJECTIVE: Because family oriented patient care improves patient outcome and reduces family burden, clinical family skills of communication, assessment, alliance, and support are part of core competencies required of all residents. Teaching residents to "think family" as part of core competencies and to reach out to families requires change in the teaching environment. METHODS: This article advocates teaching residents family skills throughout the training years as an integrated part of routine patient care rather than in isolated family clinics or a course in "family therapy." It reviews family skills required of residents in all treatment settings and family skills that are specific to inpatient, emergency room, outpatient, and consultation-liaison services. RESULTS: Families can be seen in multiple treatment settings throughout resident training using recent research to support appropriate interventions for patients and caregivers. CONCLUSION: The process of establishing change in the training environment requires a commitment on the part of the training faculty to include families, but is possible within the current training framework.

OBJECTIVE: This descriptive study explored the extent that medical education curriculum guidelines contained content about the experiences and needs of family members of people with serious mental illness. METHODS: Key family-focused-literature themes about the experiences and needs of families of individuals with mental illness were drawn from a review of over 6,000 sources in the mental health practice literature that were identified within a systematic search and thematic development process. The study identified the extent and nature of family-focused key literature themes as reflected in medical education curriculum guidelines for psychiatry and primary care practice specialties of family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics. An iterative process was used to retrieve and analyze text data drawn from the curriculum guidelines of national accrediting organizations for undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. RESULTS: The key family-focused themes, as drawn from the mental health practice research literature, were: mental illness stigma; family caregiver burden; information exchange and referral; family stress, coping, and adaptation; family support; crisis response; and family psychoeducation. Two of these seven themes appeared in medical education curriculum guidelines: information exchange and caregiver burden. The most frequently appearing family-focused key literature theme was information exchange. Psychiatry and undergraduate medical education reflected the most family content. CONCLUSION: It appears that medical education curriculum guidelines have insufficient content about families of people with mental illness. The educational experiences of psychiatrists and primary care physicians may not adequately prepare them for working with family members of their patients. It is recommended that medical education curriculum guidelines incorporate information about family stigma; family/caregiver burden; information exchange; family stress, coping, and adaptation; family support; crisis response; and multiple family group psychoeducation.

This interview with Dr. Szapocznik reveals the importance of building an intervention on the foundation of empirical evidence and family systems theory. Szapocznik is the director of the Center for Family Studies and professor at the University of Miami. He is a chair of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse. Szapocznik is also the founder of brief strategic family therapy (BSFT). BSFT is a family-based model for adolescent problem behaviors, such as conduct problems and substance abuse. Throughout the research on BSFT, Szapocznik has been able to show that BSFT is effective and that it can be used with historically difficult populations. Finally, Szapocznik's research has shown that family approaches to adolescent problems are more efficacious than individual and group models of therapy.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how theory and particularly the theoretical perspective of social constructionism can influence the ways in which scholars conduct qualitative research studies in the area of family systems. The authors argue for the importance of theory in qualitative research projects and promote researchers' clear and conscious articulation of epistemological and theoretical commitments taken during the research projects. Therefore, this article exemplifies some of these theoretical connections and elaborates on selected concepts embedded in social constructionism (e.g., socialization in context, dialogue, identity) and discusses how these concepts can be applied to qualitative family systems research. The authors address and exemplify the role of subjectivity in social constructionist research design and propose the use of focus groups as a suitable methodology for this type of research.

Multiple models of therapy are available in the mental health profession to help couples cope with the psychological and interpersonal difficulties associated with marriage. Internal Family Systems (IFS) is one such theoretical paradigm that juxtaposes concepts of healing broken attachments and counseling premarital couples within a preventative context to bolster marital satisfaction. IFS therapy is an approach that treats couples, partners, and intimates by exposing vulnerable emotions between individuals and providing a dynamic method of communicating interpersonal wounds with the ultimate therapeutic goal of reparation. Marriage and family therapists are uniquely positioned to assist couples in the inherent struggles associated with matrimony by using IFS therapy. This article explores the application of IFS therapy to individuals by providing a case study to highlight its impact on repairing a conflictual marriage.

In response to the charge by "collaborative" therapies, such as solution focused and narrative, that structural family therapy is an aggressive, confrontational, and impositional approach, this investigation examines the role of therapist empathy in creating a collaborative partnership in structural family therapy. Twenty-four videotaped therapy sessions were used to correlate therapists' empathic response to family members and in-session change in the family's core problem dynamic. Findings suggest that empathy is not only evident in structural family therapy, but may be an essential ingredient in establishing a collaborative relationship and facilitating within-session change.

This article describes the three-stage protocol employed in development and validation of the Inventory of Family Protective Factors (IFPF), a brief-form formal instrument intended to assess the primary protective factors that contribute to family resilience. Following construction of the instrument, data collections and analyses of a total sample of 410 participants were conducted for the purpose of establishing validity and reliability and conducting a factor analysis. In each, the four scales composing the IFPF were compared to established measures, each scale and measure assessing one of the primary family protective factors composing the IFPF. The third stage was a field trial to establish the practical value of the IFPF as a clinical assessment for discerning differences between a clinical and a nonclinical group of 102 clients presenting for counseling relative to their perceptions of the primary protective factors present in their family milieu.

A serious illness often creates suffering and precipitates a search for spiritual meaning. The purpose of this hermeneutic inquiry was to explore the meaning of spirituality and spiritual care practices in family systems nursing. The videotapes of 12 therapeutic conversations with three families living with serious illness were the primary data for the inquiry. Findings suggest that suffering embodies an invitation to respond to the spiritual. Identified spiritual care practices included gathering stories of illness and faith, opening space to reinterpret experiences from a spiritual perspective, drawing on imagination and metaphor, and listening with an opening silence. The therapeutic work with one family is highlighted. This inquiry revealed that spiritual care requires literacy in reading the spiritual, a willingness to respond to the particular and the unpredictable, and a belief that good care demands a wise and thoughtful response to the suffering other.

This article presents findings from a qualitative study of family group conferences (FGCs) in Wales, UK. The study examined the process of seventeen FGCs involving twenty-five young people, using semi-structured interviews, analysis of documents and collection of data on welfare outcomes. Young people were re-interviewed after six months. The article focuses on the data concerning reported communications between family members during the family meetings. These data are discussed in relation to similarities and differences between FGCs and family therapy sessions. The authors conclude that each method of intervention presents potential lessons and challenges to the other. FGC co-ordinators might wish to reflect on how to manage and prepare family members for the potential for expressions of emotion and disclosures of confidential information that might arise in a family meeting. Family therapy has a long history of successfully working with such processes. Additionally, family therapists may wish to reflect on the successful management of intra-familiar conflict and disclosure by many families acting without a therapist or other professional present in a FGC.

The relative incidence of childhood-onset bipolar illness in the USA compared with that in Europe is controversial. We examined this issue in more than 500 out-patients (average age 42 years) with bipolar illness who reported age at onset of first episode, family history, and childhood physical or sexual abuse. Childhood or adolescent onset of bipolar illness was reported by 61% of those in the US cohort but by only 30% of those in The Netherlands or Germany. In the USA there was also twice the incidence of childhood adversity and genetic/familial risk for affective disorder. The findings deserve replication and further exploration.

The purpose of this qualitative study of families where a parent has cancer was to explore ways of informing the child of the parent's illness, how the child perceives the parent's emotional state, how the child copes with the parent's illness, and how this coping relates to the parent's coping and concerns for the child. Twenty-one children from 15 families and their parents were interviewed. In 13 families the mother was ill, in two the father. Children were aware of the facts of the illness, but there was limited emotional communication between the generations. The children were very observant of both the ill and the healthy parent's emotional condition. The children's observations and expressions led us to identify five coping strategies the younger generation used: Helping others, parentification, distraction, keeping it in the head, and wishful thinking. Both adaptive and destructive examples of parentification were found. Communication patterns and parental coping seemed to be highly related to the child's coping repertoire. Even though most children seemed to manage rather well, all children were strongly affected by the illness. The `healthiest' adaptation related to factors within the family system, which has implications for the provision of help.

Read more [Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry recent issues] 

The purpose of this qualitative study of families where a parent has cancer was to explore ways of informing the child of the parent's illness, how the child perceives the parent's emotional state, how the child copes with the parent's illness, and how this coping relates to the parent's coping and concerns for the child. Twenty-one children from 15 families and their parents were interviewed. In 13 families the mother was ill, in two the father. Children were aware of the facts of the illness, but there was limited emotional communication between the generations. The children were very observant of both the ill and the healthy parent's emotional condition. The children's observations and expressions led us to identify five coping strategies the younger generation used: Helping others, parentification, distraction, keeping it in the head, and wishful thinking. Both adaptive and destructive examples of parentification were found. Communication patterns and parental coping seemed to be highly related to the child's coping repertoire. Even though most children seemed to manage rather well, all children were strongly affected by the illness. The `healthiest' adaptation related to factors within the family system, which has implications for the provision of help.

Read more [Clinical Chid Psychology And Psychiatry] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 29-53, February 2008.
This article reviews the progress of sixty-eight adults (fifty-two men and sixteen women) on a solution-focused programme aimed at reducing domestic violence. The practice principles are described, using examples of participants' experiences. The ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 110-111, February 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 115-116, February 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 5-28, February 2008.
This exploratory paper aimed to shed light on the experience of first session solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT) for families who have a child with intellectual disabilities (ID). The therapist interviewed the participants, all mothers, two weeks ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 78-95, February 2008.
This article aims to investigate the role of romantic attachment versus the personality dimensions related to self-definition and relatedness for relationship satisfaction. Self-report instruments measuring romantic attachment, self-criticism and ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 113-115, February 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 1-4, February 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 109-110, February 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 96-108, February 2008.
Objective: This paper describes a preliminary randomized control trial that explores the use of parent-to-parent consultations as a potential augmentation to the Maudsley model of family-based treatment for anorexia. Method: Twenty families were ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 54-59, February 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 60-77, February 2008.
Although intervention with Canadian First Nations (FN) clients has been discussed in the literature, the area of couple therapy remains unexplored. Moreover, the specific process of engaging couples in treatment by non-FN therapists has not been ...
Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents] 

Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 111-113, February 2008.

Read more [Journal of Family Therapy: Latest Table of Contents]