The basic argument in this paper is that the older family, as it faces certain recurrent issues in family life and as it faces unique issues of its own aging, is placed in a highly vulnerable position. The result may be a weakening of the family's competence and an increased likelihood of family breakdown. Special attention is given to the natural changes in family dynamics as the family ages. It is argued that specific interventions aimed at promoting family competence must account for these unique features of older family life.

Over the past fifteen years, there have been recommendations in the field of psychotherapy and specifically in the field of family therapy to develop an ecological approach to the delivery of mental health services. Auerswald (1968) and Hoffman and Long (1969) graphically anecdoted the problems encountered by families “being helped” by several different agencies, each of which was working at cross purposes to the other. To avoid such splintering of services, an integrated approach has been advocated but as yet there exist few models of how to actually achieve this integration in a system which is already splintered. Such a system may exist when adolescents live outside their families and receive therapy from multiple sources. For example, if a teenager is in residential care it is not unusual to find representatives from the probation, school and social services systems all involved in delivering treatment. This is in addition to the services provided by the residential care staff. With so many helpers involved, there is a high potential for therapy to be fragmented. The focus of this paper, therefore, is to discuss an ecological approach to treating families who have a teenager living in residential care. The assumption is made that adolescents can best be treated in a family systems context. Initially, the ecological approach will be presented and attention will be given to the potential problems involved in working with multiple helpers. How specific family and individual developmental issues influence treatment planning will be discussed. Therapeutic issues to consider when implementing the ecological approach will be raised and practical suggestions will be given to facilitate effective work with multiple helpers.

A support program was offered to elderly individuals and their family during the admission period in a nursing home. Based on crises intervention and theoretical notions of family functioning, the program consists of two sessions before admission, one, the day of admission and two others, following the admission. The first and third sessions were held with the aged person and the family, the second and fourth with the family alone and the fifth was a session with a group of admitted elderly individuals. Nineteen aged persons and a family member of each of the nineteen families were part of the experimental and control groups.

This paper reviews published North American studies related to marital satisfaction, the influence of children on marital satisfaction, the effects of working wives on satisfaction, personality traits, companionship, communication, and power related to marital satisfaction. Following this a survey of existing studies related to lasting families is summarized. The paper concludes with a study of 129 couples living in lasting marriages for at lest 15 years with at least one child in the family in Metropolitan Toronto. This was a self-selected sample, who were middle class and lived in an urban area. The highlights of the findings are presented, and implications for family practitioners are listed.

Many mentally retarded people want to marry and have children. However, unsupported assumptions about their fitness for parenthood, and prejudicial attitudes, have caused them to be denied these activities. Research shows that some retarded persons make good parents, particularly with the aid of parent training courses and early stimulation programs for their children. Unfortunately, these supports are not widely available. Equal treatment of mentally handicapped parents under child protection laws will require reforms in law and in practices of children's services agencies. Recommendations are made to ensure that the option of keeping the family together is fully considered.

As many as one third of all women have experienced sexual victimization as juveniles, and a range of emotional, inter-personal, and sexual problems appear to be frequent among these victims. On the current evidence, it is not possible to determine the extent to which these problems are a direct result of the exploitive sexual encounter or of other circumstances in the victims' lives. Nor can the incidence rates for various problems among victimized and non-victimized women be stated with any certainty, the samples on which estimates are made being biased and limited in many ways. Emotionally, the problems of guilt, low self-esteem, and depression, are extremely common among victims, especially those who seek treatment. The interpersonal relationships of many victims are characterized by feelings of isolation, alienation, and difference from other people, together with much mistrust and insecurity. There is some conflict of evidence over the prevalence of hostile or fearful attitudes towards men. Some victims do appear to avoid a lasting relationship with a man and many engage in a series of more transient and casual relationships. Prostitution also seems to be associated with sexual victimization in childhood. Among victims there appear to be tendencies to oversexualize all relationships with men, to engage repeatedly in ill-matched and punitive partnerships, and to exhibit a fear of intimacy. The evidence is contradictory on the incidence of homosexuality among women victims. Sexual problems, and more particularly sexual dysfunctions, appear to be more frequent among victimized compared to non-victimized women, The dysfunctions exhibited include lack of motivation, sexual phobias, vaginismus, impaired arousal, difficulty in reaching climax, dyspareunia, and sexual dissatisfaction. There is wide variation in adjustment between women victims, and among the factors that may contribute to these individual differences are the age of the child victim, the duration of the victimization, the nature of the sexual activity involve, and the perception of the woman concerning her feelings at the time of the victimization and its effects on her.

This exploratory clinical study examines the circumstances surrounding the departure of a family member at the time of marriage. An in-depth analysis of 10 case studies of parents suggests that marriage is an excellent rite of passage for the delineation of parent-child separation. Cohabitation fosters a progressive detachment but remains a period of transition. The choice of the rituals for the marriage ceremony provides an index of the fluctuations occurring in the family system.

The Family Assessment Measure (FAM) is a self-report instrument that provides quantitative indices of family strengths and weaknesses. FAM is based on a process model of family functioning that integrates different approaches to family therapy and research. The basic concepts assessed by FAM include: task accomplishment, role performance, communication, affective expression, involvement, control, values and norms. FAM consists of three components: (1) a General Scale which focuses on the family as a system, (2) a Dyadic Relationships Scale which examines relationships between specific pairs, and (3) a Self-Rating Scale which taps the individual's perception of his/her functioning in the family. Each scale provides a different perspective on family functioning. FAM takes about 20-30 minutes to administer, and may be used as a clinical diagnostic tool, as a measure of therapy outcome, or as an instrument for basic research on family processes. This article reviews the theoretical model of family functioning, presents data on the reliability and discriminating power of FAM, and describes a case study as an illustration of information provided by FAM.

This paper presents topographical analysis of marital interaction as an alternative research strategy to those more traditional techniques of interviews and questionnaire measurement. The paper sketches the basic assumptions, problems and advantages to this form of naturalistic observation. The current coding schemes for analyzing verbal and non-verbal behavior are reviewed. A step by step approach is presented for doing this type of research. As well, the data analysis and interpretation of data in this form is discussed.