Family Process最新文献

Our clinical experience in psychoanalytic family therapy with families where one member has anorexic symptoms has shown that the therapy space is often invaded by the deathly dimension, by an absence of family historicity, and by a lack of autonomy. These different elements appear as "voids," missing pieces of a family puzzle, and reflect a psychic container damaged by the weight of inherited intergenerational trauma. Rather than disappear, these elements are passed down from one generation to the next, their effects weakening the current group whose psychic envelope develops "holes" and becomes "elastic." This paper will focus on the changes in this psychic container, which shift according to the rhythm of family functioning, oscillating between activation of the deathly toxic function within the group, on the one hand, and tension between the isomorphic and homomorphic mode, on the other. We will show how this clinical identification around the quality of the psychic envelope and its changes is valuable for family therapy.

Discrepancies between parent and youth perceptions of their relationship are a common aspect of generational acculturation gaps influencing immigrant families. Programs designed to strengthen parenting practices among immigrant Latino families commonly address immigration stresses, including differences between parent and youth perceptions, but little is known about discrepancies in their appraisals of program effects on parenting behavior. A randomized trial was conducted examining effects on parent behavior of a program for immigrant families with youth aged 10–14, developed through community-based participatory research principles. Families (346 parents and youth) were recruited by organizations serving Latino families in a Midwestern metropolitan area and randomly assigned to the eight-session psychoeducation and skill-building program or a waitlist control. Parents and youth completed self-report measures at pre-intervention, post-intervention (4 months), and a 6-month follow-up regarding parents' expression of acceptance, efforts to solicit information about the child's experiences, and consistency of discipline, key foci of the program. Based on social cognition theory, the study focused on possible differences in parents' and youths' perceptions of change in parenting behavior. Parents in the treatment group reported pre-post improved acceptance, consistent discipline, and solicitation, whereas youth reported improvement only in parental solicitation, a pattern maintained at follow-up. In the control group, the only change was youth-reported reduction in parental acceptance. Parents' perceptions of improvement are encouraging, but overall lack of improvements from the youth perspective poses a potential problem for impact on parent–child relations. Interventions may need to target both parent and youth cognitions about behavior changes directly.

Recognizing the various negative consequences of overparenting for the child such as poor mental health and relationship quality and delayed transition to full adulthood, this study examined to what extent parents of emerging adults were being responsive and tailoring their parenting practices to meet their child's characteristics, such as need for autonomy and trait autonomy. Survey data from 256 parent-emerging adult child dyads were used for analyses. The results showed that parent-reported overparenting was not associated with child-reported autonomy features. Nevertheless, parents engaged in lower levels of tangible assistance and higher levels of advice/affect management if they perceived their child as high in autonomy need or trait autonomy. Collectively, these findings suggest that parents might practice overparenting out of their own desires and needs rather than taking into account their child's developmental needs and traits. Practical recommendations for family therapists are offered.

A new measure for assessing an individual's perception of the dyadic difficulties in emotion regulation with a romantic partner is tested. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Dyadic (DERS-D) was obtained by adapting some items of the previous Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) to the dyadic context. The scale was administered both to a sample of university students (N = 835) to explore its factorial structure and to a convenience sample (N = 833) together with the DERS, the DERS-Positive, the Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) to confirm the factorial structure and to explore its construct validity. Results highlight that DERS-D measures two distinct features, namely the lack of dyadic awareness and the lack of dyadic clarity, and that configural invariance across genders was met. DERS-D subscales' internal consistency was high. The correlations between the DERS-D and the other measures demonstrated its construct and criterion validity. The promising nature of these results is discussed in light of the potential clinical and empirical uses of the DERS-D.

How Black Americans in the United States (U.S.) make sense of a sociopolitical climate marked by racist imagery, tensions, and police violence is important to understand given the numerously documented detrimental effects of racism-related stress on the well-being of Black parents and children. Informed by Racism-Related Stress Theory, the current study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods design to better understand the ways racism-related stressors in the sociopolitical climate impacted the daily lives and mental health of a sample of Black families with low income. Seventy-eight Black American preadolescents (M_age = 11.0; 43.6% girls) and their parents (79% mothers; 76% living below the U.S. federal poverty level [FPL]) from the southwestern U.S. reported their symptoms of depression and how they had been affected by racial stressors in the sociopolitical climate between Fall 2018 and Summer 2019. A nested sample of 10 parents (80% mothers; 80% living below the FPL) from the quantitative sample also participated in a semi-structured interview. Meta-inferences across methods were drawn pertaining to the influence of child gender on parents' interpretation of effects for children, the toll racism-related stress in the sociopolitical climate takes on Black families, and the transferal of effects on parents to children through parenting and parental depressive symptoms. Findings spotlight the need for policies and family-centered programming that address the racism-related stress faced by many Black youth and their families. Providing families with opportunities and tools that can potentially mitigate harmful effects and foster empowerment could promote positive and lasting change.

Although research has increasingly recognized that parents benefit from parent empowerment programs, studies on the outcomes of the capacity-building of practitioners of such programs are generally lacking. Using the results of a non-randomized controlled trial, this study examined the possible outcomes of a related capacity-building program. A total of 56 practitioners were recruited from 10 social service agencies in Hong Kong to participate. Most of them were females with more than 10 years of social work experience. Of these, 28 participated in a 15-session capacity-building program on parent empowerment (serving as the experimental group), while the others did not participate in the capacity-building program (serving as the control group). MANCOVAs were performed to identify any differences between the two groups at different time points. The post-test assessment showed that the level of attitudes around parent empowerment of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group with a large effect size, but no difference was found in their self-perceived competence. Furthermore, the follow-up test revealed that the level of self-perceived competence of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group, with a large effect size. A serial mediation of the levels of favorable attitudes at the post-test and follow-up test on the association between the capacity-building program and self-perceived competence at the follow-up test was also found. This study can contribute to the limited body of knowledge on how to equip practitioners with the professional attitudes and skills to implement parent empowerment programs.

Sexual desire discrepancy is one of the most common, and potentially distressing, aspects of couples' sexual health. There are gaps in the literature exploring desire discrepancy specifically in distressed couples, as well as in queer (sexual and/or gender minority) couples. This study sought to gather qualitative data regarding long-term couples' experiences with distressing desire discrepancy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both heterosexual and queer partners of varying gender identities (n = 26) to fill these research gaps. Interviews included couple interviews, as well as individual interviews with partners. Data analysis was conducted with thematic analysis, which yielded four primary themes across the course of relationships: Sexual and relationship satisfaction; Changes in sexual frequency, desire, and behavior; Changes in barriers to sex; and Coping with desire discrepancy. Findings can inform clinical interventions focused on desire discrepancy, as well as future research investigating couple's sexual health.

In contrast to cognitive outcomes, parental success-oriented responses to children's performance enhanced the emotional well-being of children. Conversely, parental failure-oriented responses had the opposite impact. Thus, it remains unclear which response or combination of responses parents should employ to maximize their children's development. This research aimed to examine the combined effect of children's perceptions of parental success- and failure-oriented responses on children's depression, with a focus on the mediating role of resilience. A total of 651 pupils (44.7% female, M_age  = 10.31, range = 8-12) were investigated in China using polynomial regression and response surface analyses. Our findings suggest that when success- and failure-oriented responses are congruent, failure-oriented responses counteract the protective effect of success-oriented responses against children's depression. The two equally matched responses demonstrated a curvilinear main effect on resilience, indicating that higher resilience was associated with the upper-middle range of the two responses. Moreover, children who reported more success-oriented responses than failure-oriented responses showed greater resilience and decreased depression. Resilience acted as a mediator for the combined effects of parental success and failure-oriented responses on children's depression. The study addressed the parenting dilemma, specifically the trade-off between success- and failure-oriented responses in promoting children's optimal development.

Gan, D. Z. Q., Zhou, Y., Abdul Wahab, N. D. B., Ruby, K. and Hoo, E. (2021). Effectiveness of functional family therapy in a non-Western context: Findings from a randomized-controlled evaluation of youth offenders in Singapore. Family Process, 60: 1170–1184. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12630

In the article, there was an error in the description of the treatment groups in the abstract and in main body of the article.

The third sentence of the abstract (page 1170) should appear as follows: “120 youth probationers (Mage = 16.2, SD  = 1.33) were randomly assigned to receive either Treatment-As-Usual (TAU; n = 57) or FFT (n = 63).”

In the “Procedure and Design” section (page 1173), the second sentence of the third paragraph should read as follows: “Participants were then randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups—”Treatment-As-Usual “only (TAU), and FFT—using an online random generator.” The fifth sentence of the same paragraph should read as follows: “In comparison, those in the TAU group received standard probation services and attended programs addressing offense- or family-related needs, as prescribed by their probation officers.”

While recent research has begun to address the effects of family support on transgender and/or nonbinary youth (TNY), almost no studies have directly examined how cisgender siblings in families with TNY navigate their sibling's gender disclosure and affirmation within both their families and their larger communities. We conducted an exploratory secondary analysis of in-person, semi-structured interviews with 15 adolescent and young adult siblings (age 13–24 years) of TNY from the northeastern United States from the baseline wave of the community-based, longitudinal, mixed methods Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project. Interview transcripts were analyzed using immersion/crystallization and template organizing approaches. Analyses yielded three main themes: gender-related beliefs and knowledge, peri- and post-disclosure family dynamics, and assessing responses to their sibling. Subthemes included anticipation of their sibling's TN identity, expectations post-disclosure, participants' level of involvement in gender-related family processes, perceptions of changes in family relationships, concern for their sibling (including a high degree of attunement to gender-affirming name and pronoun usage), and concern for themselves. Findings from this study suggest the need to engage directly with siblings of TNY to further elucidate their intrapersonal, intra-familial, and extra-familial experiences related to having a TN sibling and determine their unique support needs. Implications for families, clinicians, and communities are discussed.