Thomas L. Sexton

Family-Based Empirically Supported Interventions

In this article, the authors evaluate family-based counseling interventions from the perspective of the Principles of Empirically Supported Interventions (PESI). At the broadest level of evidence, both the qualitative and meta-analytic reviews provide substantial support for the general efficacy of family-based interventions. At more specific levels of evidence, family-based intervention programs that target at-risk adolescents demonstrate clinical success with a variety of clients and problems, in many locales, when delivered by a range of interventionists. Finally, the authors provide some thoughts on the current state of family-based intervention research and the value of the PESI criteria for identifying and developing effective treatments, as well as guiding future family-based research.

Family-Based Interventions with Older, At-Risk Youth: From Promise to Proof to Practice

The paper reviews a group of family-based interventions, which have received strong empirical support, with respect to intervention with older and more seriously at-risk youth. With such family-focused interventions it is not uncommon for the risk factors experienced by youth who already express clear behavioral problems to exist also for their siblings who may not yet show any of the negative behavior patterns, but nonetheless may be at high risk. Thus, a “treatment” program that effectively changes the ongoing maladaptive family processes surrounding the already dysfunctional youth will at the same time be changing the risk factors for the siblings who is not yet behaving problematically. As such, the program will simultaneously represent a treatment and a primary prevention program.

Validating the Efficacy-Based Change Model.

Abstract The purpose of this paper was to empirically validate the Efficacy-Based Change Model as a theoretical model of change. The model suggests that as participants are involved in an innovation, they move through stages of implementation, in the process expressing different concerns that are related to the efficacy process and are further influenced by ascribed attributions. Data analysis strongly supported the role of self-efficacy as it related to expressed concerns (those with higher efficacy expressed concerns associated with later stages). High efficacy was predicted by success attributions for effort; regression analysis for outcome expectation and value also yielded significant models.

Self-beliefs and behavior: The role of self-efficacy and outcome expectation over time

Abstract The present study investigated a self-efficacy based model of mathematical performance, math self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Unlike other studies, the relationship between those self-beliefs, and behavior was measured over a series of behavioral trials. College females took a series of mathematical word problem tests in which they chose the level of problem difficulty and the amount of effort to expand. A path analysis procedure was used to test the relationships based on Banduras self-efficacy theory. Self-efficacy was, at the beginning of the task, the major contributor to task level choice but it was past behavior that emerged as the primary predictor of future choice. After three trials persistence was related to self-efficacy and previous performance. Implications for further studies and treatment are discussed. A three stage model: transformation, replication and behavioral pattern, was suggested as a means of understanding the dynamic relationship between the beliefs of self-efficacy and outcome expectation, and performance.

Self-believers are self-motivated; self-doubters are not

Abstract The results of seven studies are presented in which college students are classified based on the degree to which they believe in their own capability to perform a specific task and are then given the opportunity to perform that task on a voluntary basis under varying external conditions. Comparisons between self-believers, the self-unsure, and self-doubters showed that self-believers perform the most, outperform even their own self-expectations, and are unaffected by most external conditions while self-doubters perform the least (almost nothing), underperform even their own self-expectations, but perform more in structured, well-defined situations with the opportunity for goal-setting and planning beforehand and feedback afterward. Those with beliefs in the middle (the self-unsure) perform in the middle, close to their own expectations, and are aided by relative scoring and the use of group outcomes. Self-beliefs appear to function as an individual difference that mediates between performance conditions and resulting performance.

The effects of informational feedback and self-beliefs on the motivation to perform a self-regulated task ☆

Abstract College students were given the opportunity to perform a self-regulated task, specifically to voluntarily write test items in return for grade points based on number and type of items written. High-third point-getters received a double grade bonus, middle-third point-getters a single bonus, and low-third point-getters no bonus. One group was given no informational feedback regarding their weekly relative position in points while a second group was given explicit informational feedback. Subjects in the no feedback condition who were high in their belief in their own performance capability outperformed their counterparts in the feedback condition. The reverse was true for subjects of middle and low self-perceived capability where feedback receivers outperformed those receiving no feedback. Student self-competence beliefs moderated the relationship between amount of informational feedback and performance suggesting that different types of students need to be motivated in different ways.

Parental Divorce: The Effect on Sex-role Identification and Perceived Parental Bonding

The present study investigated the effects of divorce on the relationship between parental bonding and sex-role identification. Five hundred and ninety-four adult female volunteers between the ages...