William J. Doherty

Family FIRO Model: An Application to Family Business

This study applies the Family FIRO model, one of interpersonal dynamics and change, to family businesses (specifically, to family farming couples). It empirically tests the developmental sequence of three dimensions of the model: inclusion, control, and integration. Findings indicate that both a sense of inclusion in a family business and the manner in which control issues are managed have important influences on family business integration. Because inclusion predicts control dynamics, effective control may not be diminished without adequate levels of inclusion. The study offers practitioners a theory-based approach to working with the complex dynamics within family businesses. Family businesses will remain more resilient in times of change if the leaders understand and reassess patterns of inclusion when change is initiated.

Familial, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal Correlates of Drug Use: A Longitudinal Comparison of Adolescents in Treatment, Drug-Using Adolescents Not in Treatment, and Non-Drug-Using Adolescents

This study examined familial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal factors associated with adolescent drug use from both developmental and etiological perspectives. Retrospective case-control and prospective longitudinal designs were used. A multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures design was conducted to examine changes over time and differences between groups of adolescents in treatment for alcohol and drug problems, drug-using adolescents not in treatment, and non-drug-using adolescents, on 16 measures of familial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal variables. Significant differences were found between adolescents using drugs (clinical or nonclinical) and those not using drugs and alcohol. No differences were found in any of the variables between clinical adolescents and those using drugs but not in treatment.

Cognitive processes in intimate conflict: II. efficacy and learned helplessness

Abstract This paper, in presenting the second part of a cognitive model of family conflict, discusses the influence of efficacy expectations on conflict attitudes and behavior. It proposes (a) that high efficacy enhances persistence in family problem solving, while low efficacy inhibits such efforts, and (b) that chronic low efficacy may lead to learned helplessness responses in family members. Drawing together the cognitive model of family conflict, the author discusses the joint impact of causal attributions and efficacy expectations on family conflict, then describes the two relevant research studies and discusses several implications of the model for family research and family therapy.

Marital Disruption and Psychological Well-Being A Panel Study

This study offers prospective data on the psychological well-being of men and women before and after a marital separation, in comparison with a control group who remained married during the same period. Data were gathered as part of the Minnesota Family Health Study on a primarily middle-class White sample. Primary variables were current psychological well-being, self-esteem, mastery, substance use, and family income. Findings were quite different for men and women. Prior to separation, men in the disrupted group had lower psychological well-being scores than the continuously married group had, but showed no declines in any of the measures in the follow-up period. Separated women scored lower than did women from continuing marriages on psychological well-being prior to the separation, and they declined further afterwards. Separated women also increased their use of alcohol and other substances, and experienced a decline in family income. Findings are discussed in terms of the social causation hypothesis and the social selection hypothesis for understanding the relationship between divorce and mental health in adults.

Citizen Health Care: A Model for Engaging Patients, Families, and Communities as Coproducers of Health

Citizen health care is a way to engage patients, families, and communities as coproducers of health and health care. It goes beyond the activated patient to the activated community, with professionals acquiring community organizing skills for working with individuals and families who see themselves as citizens of health care— builders of health in the clinic and community—rather than merely as consumers of medical services. Over the past 7 years, the authors and their colleagues have developed and field-tested a structured process for implementing this model into everyday practice settings. In this article, we describe the origins of the model, its core tenets and practices, and examples of its implementation in community settings. We discuss how citizen health care differs from other models of collaborative and community-based work, and we outline research and training directions.

Locus of Control, Interpersonal Trust, and Assertive Behavior Among Newlyweds

This study related two cognitive personality characteristics—locus of control and interpersonal trust—to assertive behavior in a sample of recently married couples. Assertive behavior was measured by the Inventory of Marital Conflicts, an observational procedure in which couples resolve disagreements about hypothetical marital problems. Hypotheses were formulated in terms of individual locus of control as well as two combinations of locus of control and interpersonal trust—internal low trust and external high trust. Results showed that internal husbands were more assertive than external husbands in the marital conflict situation, that external high trust husbands were least assertive, and that internal-low trust wives were highly assertive. These findings are interpreted in light of previous locus-of-control and trust research, as well as in terms of unconventional marital role behavior.

Developmental trajectories of marital happiness in continuously married individuals: a group-based modeling approach.

Most contemporary studies of change in marital quality over time have used growth curve modeling to describe continuously declining mean curves. However, there is some evidence that different trajectories of marital quality exist for different subpopulations. Group-based trajectory modeling provides the opportunity to conduct an empirical investigation of the variance in marital quality trajectories. We applied this method to analyze data from continuously married individuals from the Marital Instability over the Life Course Study (N = 706). Instead of a single continuously declining trajectory of marital happiness, we found 5 distinct trajectories. Nearly two thirds of participants reported high and stable levels of happiness over time, and the other one third showed either a pattern of continuous low happiness, low happiness that subsequently declined, or a curvilinear pattern of high happiness, decline, and recovery. Marital problems, time spent in shared activities, and (to a lesser degree) economic hardship were able to distinguish trajectory group membership. Our results suggest that marital happiness may have multiple distinct trajectories across reasonably diverse populations. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Medical family therapy with couples facing infertility

Abstract “Medical family therapy” is an approach to psychotherapy with patients and families experiencing a medical illness or disability such as infertility. It assumes that no biomedical event occurs without psychosocial repercussions, and that no psychosocial event occurs without some biological marker. Medical family therapy interweaves the biomedical and the psychosocial by utilizing a biopsychosocial/systems theory, with collaboration between medical providers and family therapists as a centerpiece of the approach. This paper illustrates medical family therapy with couples experiencing infertility and facing the challenges of infertility treatment. Strategies are described that enhance the patients sense of agency and the familys sense of communion during what tends to be a lengthy medical crisis.

Impact of divorce on locus of control orientation in adult women: A longitudinal study

Using longitudinal data for adult women from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience, this study examined the relation between getting divorced and changes in the individuals locus of control orientation. The sample contained 1,814 white women ages 32-46 years who were in their first marriage in 1969. Marital status and locus of control (an 11-item abbreviated version of Rotters Internal-External Locus of Control Scale) were measured in 1969, 1972, and 1977. Based on previous literature on locus of control and life events and on divorce, stress, and mental health, the author hypothesized that divorced people, in comparison with those who remained married, would show a short-term increase in externality from 1969-1972, followed by a return over the next 5 years to levels of locus of control comparable to that of the group who remained married. It was also hypothesized that locus of control scores would not predict the likelihood of becoming divorced over the 8-year period. All three hypotheses were confirmed. The findings were discussed in the context of two larger theoretical issues: the influence of important life events on locus of control and the causal direction in the well-documented association between divorce and mental health.

Reasons for Divorce and Openness to Marital Reconciliation

This study explores the factors that divorcing couples say contributed to the breakdown of their marriage and how those factors are related to thoughts and interest in reconciliation. A sample of 886 individual divorcing parents in Hennepin County, Minnesota, in 2008 responded to a brief survey after mandated parenting classes. The two most common reasons given for seeking a divorce were “growing apart” (55%) and “not able to talk together” (53%). Growing apart, differences in tastes, and money problems were negatively associated with interest in reconciliation; abuse and adultery were not associated with interest in reconciliation.