Hamilton I. McCubbin

The impact of family functioning on health changes in children with cystic fibrosis

Family stress, family and personal resources, and parental coping were operationalized from self-report questionnaires completed by mothers and fathers in 72 two-parent families who had a child with cystic fibrosis (CF). Three-month and 15-month changes in clinically recorded measures of the CF childs height and weight data and pulmonary functioning were correlated with the family functioning variables. Each of the four criterion indices of CF child health changes were regressed separately on the significant family functioning variables. Twenty-two percent of the variance in 15-month height and weight changes were explained by family stress, family resources, and parental coping. Family functioning variables also explained 17% of the variance in 3-month pulmonary functioning changes and 15% of the variance in 3-month height and weight changes. These findings suggest that the way in which the family functions has indirect effects on critical indices of a CF childs health. These data lend support to an increased focus by physicians and other medical professionals on the health of the total family system as a way to enhance outcomes for children with CF.

Strengthening army families: A family life cycle stage perspective

Abstract The Armed Forces have made a commitment to strengthening families in an effort to reduce the risk for families and to facilitate family adaptation to the strains and hardships of military life. However, research on enlisted families needed to guide the development of family programs is limited. Assuming critical family strengths may be observed in the context of family transitions, this study of 1,000 Army families faced with the crisis of family relocation to West Germany revealed the importance of Stressors and strains, family and personal strengths, and community supports — which varied across stages of the family life cycle. The findings highlight the importance of developing family programs tailored to meet the needs of families at the couple, preschool and schoolage, adolescent and launching, and empty nest stages of the family life cycle. Specific family strengths and community supports relative to family life cycle stages are identified.

Monitoring Family System Functioning, Family, and Adolescent Coping in the Context of Residential Treatment: Implications for Program Management, Practice Innovation, and Research

The basic research value of an agency-based information system is a function of its ability to examine and test social science theories, propositions, and hypotheses. This paper employs BOMIS data to test a set of hypotheses regarding the effects of youth coping patterns and family system types on successful program completion and post-release outcomes. The findings have implications for treatment change as well as for family and adolescent development research.