Andrew I. Schwebel

Parents as Therapists A Review of the Behavior Therapy Parent Training Literature-1975 to 1981

The present article reviews the behavioral parent training literature from 1975 to 1981. Both case studies and group investigations are included. The content and training methods of the parent intervention literature for children and adolescents are summarized. Methodological and clinical concerns are addressed, most notably generalization issues, the lack of parental observational data, the obtrusiveness of behavioral observation measures, and the need to identify critical characteristics of parents of clinic-referred children. The present status of this area is summarized and future research directions are suggested.

Black Americans' and White Americans' views of the etiology and treatment of mental health problems

Black Americans, in contrast to White Americans, use the mental health system in different ways. For example, Blacks tend to terminate treatment earlier than Whites. One explanation for the racial differences is that members of the two groups hold different views about mental health problems and their treatment. To test this explanation, subjects read and responded to questions about vignettes describing individuals encountering personal difficulties that ranged from adjustment challenges to severe psychiatric illness. Black American respondents rated spiritual factors as more important in the etiology and treatment of the difficulties than did Whites. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Chronically ill children and their mothers: predictors of resilience and vulnerability to hospitalization and surgical stress.

Although the responses of normal children to hospitalization and surgery are well documented, an understanding of base rates of upset, the mediating factors involved, and the efficacy of interventions with chronically ill children has not yet been achieved. Using self-report and observational measures, we investigated the effects of hospitalization and surgery on 40 physically handicapped children and their mothers. The results suggest that, compared with normal children, chronically ill children as a group are not more likely to become disturbed. With regard to individuals, extremely high and low parenting stress, over-involved parent-child relationships, fewer previous surgeries, and younger age predicted greater disturbance. Mothers of developmentally delayed children reported feeling more anxious than mothers of children with normal mental ages, but no differences were found on child vulnerability. J Dev Behav Pediatr 8:83–89, 1987. Index terms: children, mothers, chronic illness, hospitalization/surgical stress.

The Effects of World View on Adaptation to Single Parenthood Among Middle-Class Adult Women:

The nature of the relationship between middle-class adult womens world view and their report of the quality of their adjustment to being single mothers was explored. Single mothers and those from two-parent families completed five instruments assessing their world view and emotional adjustment to being mothers. The many statistically significant findings indicated that, although there was considerable person-to-person variation, single mothers who advocated a more Afrocentric world view—defined as more spiritual, communal, and interpersonal and less achievement-oriented, materialistic, and individualistic than the alternate Eurocentric perspective—had higher self-esteem, less depression and anxiety, and were more satisfied with being mothers. The results also indicated that single mothers were less well adjusted than those from two-parent families.

Relationship Beliefs and Expectations of Satisfaction in Marital Relationships: Implications for Family Practitioners

Cognitive-behavioral models suggest that the beliefs and expectations individuals bring into relationships affect their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and satisfaction in them. This article presents the findings of two studies that measured the relationship expectations of young adults, their level of irrational relationship-related beliefs, and their satisfaction in their current relationships. Some results included the following: Participants expected their own relationship satisfaction, when dating, engaged, and married, to exceed their perception of the average Americans; and participants expected their relationships to progress from dating through marriage with ever-increasing levels of satisfaction (an outcome contrary to what couples typically experience). Those participants who had lower levels of irrational relationship beliefs than did their peers found their current dating relationships more satisfyzng. The zmplications of these findings for practice are discussed in this article.

Understanding Family Role Reallocation following a Death: A Theoretical Framework

Families in which a parent has died will show a variety of reactions and recovery patterns. This article examines several factors which contribute to this variance. Within the framework of a developmental role analysis of the family system, the influence of the stage of the family life cycle, the roles of the deceased, previous patterns of role allocation, and the type of death are discussed. It is suggested that “person oriented” families, characterized by achieved roles, open communication, and flexible power structures, will more effectively reallocate family roles following the death of a spouse/parent. On contrast, “position oriented” families, characterized by ascribed roles, closed communication, and relatively inflexible power structures, will be too dependent on cultural norms and will lack the role-reallocating mechanisms necessary to ensure adequate family functioning following such a death.

The Parent-Child Relationship Survey: An Examination of its Psychometric Properties

The psychometric properties of the Father and Mother Scales of the Parent-Child Relationship Survey were examined. 149 undergraduate students in psychology from divorced families and 155 students from continuously intact families completed the instrument which was designed to assess the perceived quality of older childrens relationships with their parents. Results suggest that the Father and Mother Scales each assess primarily a unidimensional positive affective component of perceived parent-child relationships. Normative, reliability, and validity data are also presented. These findings support the research and clinical utility of the instrument.

The transfer of laboratory training: Some issues explored.

The use of human relations training to teach personal and interpersonal dynamics has spread widely in the past two decades. Such disciplines as education, social work, law, and medicine have borrowed heavily from the laboratory approach to train their professionals in leadership, decisionmaking, and problem-solving skills. Industry has also made large financial and manpower commitments to laboratory training. In fact, firms throughout the world have adopted this method of human relations training as a large part of their management and organizational development programs (McKonnel, 1971). One question that has been continually asked during the burgeoning expansion of laboratory education is that of the transfer of training: specifically, can what is learned in the

Understanding Cognitive Changes in Intimacy in Long-Term Romantic Relationships:

Individuals in Western societies generally look to their romantic partner to meet most of their intimacy needs. However, the level and the nature of the intimacy that partners share varies over the years and over the significant events they experience. Drawing from the literature, this is a review that integrates two approaches to understanding the cognitive changes in intimacy that occur over the course of long-term romantic relationships. It may be helpful for practitioners to teach partners how to identify their relationship-related cognitions and how to translate this greater awareness into the acquisition of new behavioral skills.

Factors of the Rotter Internal-External Scale

Previous investigators have reported that the Rotter I-E scale (1966) may measure many dimensions rather than a unidimensional trait. Following Collins (1974), each of the 23 forced-choice internal and external alternatives of the I-E scale were separated and administered as 46 Likert-scale items. The Likert-format administration was equivalent to the original method. Principal factors analysis and varimax rotation yielded five factors: belief in a nonrational world, belief in a politically unresponsive world, belief in a predictable world, belief in a just world, and belief in the meaningfulness of personal effort. These factors are similar to those reported by Collins.