Kevin P. Lyness

Body Image and Sexual Satisfaction

Abstract This study explored the relationships between body image and sexual satisfaction and between reflected appraisal and sexual satisfaction, by gender. Participants were male (N= 44) and female (N= 130) college students. There was a significant positive linear relationship between both body image and reflected appraisal and sexual satisfaction. The correlation between body image and sexual satisfaction was significant for both genders. There was no statistical difference between males versus females. These findings support the idea that body image concerns are not strictly a female problem and extend previous research by incorporating the outcome variable of sexual satisfaction.

Therapeutic Implications for Adolescent Deaf Identity and Self-Concept

Abstract This study explored the interrelationship between Deaf identity and self-concept. Very little research has explored Deaf identity and none has explored how perceptions of fit with the Deaf culture and Hearing culture influence self-concept. Conceptually, this study looks at cultural identification as falling along two dimensions-identification with the Deaf culture and identification with the Hearing (majority) culture, resulting in four categorical descriptorsculturally hearing, marginal, immersed, and bicultural. It was hypothesized that those who identify with both the hearing and Deaf culture (bicultural individuals) would have the best self-concept while those who identified as marginal would have the worst self-concept. The participants consisted of 46 students enrolled in a transitional program for the deaf and deaf and hard of hearing university students. Results supported the hypotheses (bicultural individuals had the highest self-concept and marginal individuals had the lowest). Additional tentative and exploratory hypotheses are also discussed. Clinical implications for family therapists of this research are presented.

Family Functioning, Coping, and Distress in Families With Serious Mental Illness

It is well documented that mental illness impacts not only the person diagnosed but also the family; however, not much is known about family functioning, coping, and distress in the family of the person with the mental illness. Utilizing online surveys of members of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the following study explored these factors in families with at least one person diagnosed with a mental illness, in order to get a closer look at how counselors and family therapists might assist these families’ unique needs. Family variables such as coping style, family functioning, and distress were tested. Other factors such as race/ethnicity, type and severity of mental illness, time and energy spent caregiving, emotional closeness, and amount of and satisfaction with mental health treatment were examined. Relationships among coping, stress and functioning were found, and meditational models were explored. A key finding was the importance of passive appraisal coping to positive family communication, functioning, and satisfaction. Families with higher levels of distress were less likely to report better family functioning, communication, or satisfaction. Mental health treatment satisfaction was related to higher levels of family support and reframing coping and lower levels of overall distress, which were then linked to more balanced family flexibility and higher family satisfaction.

Parents’ Experiences of Intergenerational Value Transmission in Turkey’s Changing Society: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study

Intergenerational value transmission is a systemic phenomenon that affects parent-child relationships. However, there is a dearth of information about bidirectional value transmission processes from the perspectives of the parents. Based on an eco-systemic perspective, the researcher aimed to understand the parents’ experience of transmission of values with their adolescent children. This process included: What they chose to transmit, how they had tried to transmit, and the ways they negotiated value differences. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews in Istanbul, Turkey with 6 upper-middle class parents who had children between the ages of 13 and 19. Interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed 6 main themes that described parents’ experiences: (a) family connectedness, (b) transfer strategies, (c) transformations, (d) a changing world, (e) reflecting on parenting, and (f) process between the parents. The researcher then discusses the implications for clinicians and researchers.

Experiences of Families Transmitting Values in a Rapidly Changing Society: Implications for Family Therapists

Intergenerational value transmission affects parent-child relationships and necessitates constant negotiation in families. Families with adolescents from rapidly changing societies face unique challenges in balancing the traditional collectivistic family values that promote harmony with emerging values that promote autonomy. Using modern Turkey as an example of such a culture, the authors examine the transmission process in families that hold more traditional and collectivistic values than their adolescent children. Special consideration is given to generational and cultural differences in the autonomy and relatedness dimensions.

Mones, A.G. (2014). Transforming troubled children, teens, and their families: An internal family systems model for healing. New York, NY: Routledge, 154 pp.,

ingly, this book’s practice guidelines and the instructions are simple, yet pragmatic, extracted into a set of principles that are essential to conducting effective couples therapy. Thus, the book 10 Principles for Doing Effective Couples Therapy, serves the general audience of couples therapists well in its ability to connect, guide and promote high-quality work with couples. Although the book may serve the majority of couples therapists well, there are parts of the book that may feel redundant to readers who are already familiar with the authors’ previous books and with the neurobiological underpinnings of their current work. For example, concepts like the Four Horsemen, the Sound Relationship House, and Gentle Start-Up are essential to understanding the book, yet are not terribly insightful or refreshing, considering that the neurobiological underpinnings of the concepts are not unique or new. However, the authors’ effectiveness in the formulation and application of these concepts is both unique and irrefutable. For more seasoned and theoretically integrated couples therapists, the book may serve to refresh and reevaluate their existing knowledge with more research-based methods. Readers with an advanced understanding of MFT concepts and models, which are apparent throughout the book, may benefit more from learning the research methodologies and the integration process behind the synthesis of the ten principles. However, this book does not expand on these topics and therefore it may be most appealing to providers who are relatively new to couples therapy and who are seeking readily available and tangible guidelines. Overall, 10 Principles for Doing Effective Couples Therapy provides valuable foundational concepts that can be helpful in the integration of clinical and theoretical practice.

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This study retrospectively investigated the relationship between internalising/externalising behaviours, coping behaviours and substance use in adolescent girls using data from 91 mother–daughter dyads. Participants filled out self- or parent questionnaires that incorporated Achenbachs [Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the youth self-report and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont] Young Adult Behavior Checklist (YABCL) and Young Adult Self-Report Form (YASR) to measure internalising/externalising and drug use, as well as additional questions on coping behaviours. Data analysis included exploratory factor analysis, linear regression and structural equation modelling utilising a common fate model for the analysis of dyadic data. The results demonstrated a significant positive relationship between escape/avoidance coping and internalising/externalising and a significant positive relationship between externalising and drug use. Implications for the use of dyadic data and future research are also discussed.