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This study compared the immediate impact of therapist reframing, reflection, and elicit-structure interventions on family-member defensive communications in the initial session of family therapy with a delinquent adolescent. Defensive statements included family-member statements that criticized, blamed, or disagreed with other family members. Sequences of behaviors following defensive family-member statements were examined to determine which therapist interventions were the most effective in disrupting defensive family interactions. Thus, every sequence included a defensive family-member behavior, a therapist intervention, and a family-member response (sequence: family defensive-->therapist intervention-->family response). Results indicated that therapist reframing is more effective than other therapist interventions in reducing family-members' defensive statements. Moreover, adolescents responded more favorably to reframes than did fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observationally based coding systems represent one major source of information regarding the process of family therapy, the nature of change mechanisms, and the necessary components of intervention manuals. In this article, the authors introduce a two-dimensional framework for organizing the diverse approaches to observational coding that currently exist. These dimensions focus on the information used in identifying the coding unit and the degree of inference involved in assigning a code (i.e., meaning) to that unit. The goal in developing this framework is to provide a common basis on which observationally based family therapy process research initiatives can be developed, compared, and integrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little empirical support exists for the effectiveness of reattribution techniques (e.g., reframing) in family therapy, although these techniques are often recommended as ways to reduce blame. One hundred twenty undergraduate subjects were randomly assigned to the conditions of an experimental procedure designed to elicit blaming attributions similar to those found in distressed families. Results showed that an experimental reattribution similar to a therapeutic reframe/relabel significantly reduced the intensity of blaming attributions. Although not obtained in an actual clinical context, the findings strengthen the empirical underpinnings of therapies that use a reattributional approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research examined the effects of therapist and client sex roles on the behaviors of participants in family therapy. Two-parent families (n = 34) received treatment from male (n = 17) or female (11 = 17) therapist trainees. The trainees were members of Functional Family Therapy practica at a university clinical setting. Therapist and client behaviors during the first phase of therapy were transcribed and divided into thought units. Each thought unit was classified as being either a supportive, structuring, pejorative, or non-therapy-related act. Although an initial analysis of base rates revealed no significant gender effects, a contingency analysis detected different gender-linked sequential dependencies o[ therapist and client behaviors. This analysis indicated that family members respond differently to male and female therapist behaviors. The findings also suggest that female and male therapists respond differently to client behaviors. The findings were interpreted in the context of gender and therapist role conflicts, which may be especially important in a training context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined attributions and defensive communication behaviors in high- or low-level conflict families of a delinquent adolescent. Family members' attributions and communication behaviors were examined in two contrasting priming conditions in which families focused on either dissatisfying or satisfying family events. The results replicated past parent-child attribution studies in that family members from low-conflict families made fewer dispositional (blaming) attributions about other family members' dissatisfying versus satisfying behaviors, whereas family members from high-conflict families made equivalent amounts of dispositional attributions about others' dissatisfying versus satisfying behaviors. As expected, family members from high-conflict families behaved significantly more defensively than did those from low-conflict families. Attributions and subsequent defensive behaviors did not covary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between alliance and retention in family therapy. Alliance was examined at the individual (parent and adolescent) and family levels (withinfamily differences). Participants were 34 families who received functional family therapy for the treatment of adolescent (aged 12-18 years) behavior problems. Families were classified as treatment dropouts (n = 14) or completers (n = 20). Videotapes of the first sessions were rated to identify parent and adolescent alliances with the therapist. Results demonstrated that individual parent and adolescent alliances did not predict retention. However, as hypothesized, dropout cases had significantly higher unbalanced alliances (parent minus adolescent) than did completer cases. These findings highlight the importance of alliances in functional family therapy and suggest that how the alliance operates in conjoint family therapy may be a function of systemic rather than of individual processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Defensive and Supportive Communication (DSC) Interaction Coding System has been used frequently in the study of interactions in families with a juvenile delinquent. One limitation of the DSC system has been the lack of research examining the psycho- metric properties of the coding system. Discriminant analyses were used to examine the communication behaviors of members of 18 normal and 20 delinquent families and to determine the use of subcategories by different family members. Convergence among the subcategories for each of the main categories, defensiveness and supportiveness, was found. Moreover, each subcategory, with the exception of equality, discriminated between adaptive and dysfunctional families. The strongest discriminations were made on the basis of mothers' and adolescents' ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]