This study used longitudinal data from 307 mothers with firstborn infants participating in a home-visitation, child-abuse prevention program. A self-report measure of specific constructs the program hoped to affect showed that the retrospective pretest methodology produced a more legitimate assessment of program outcomes than did the traditional pretest-posttest methodology. Results showed that when response shift bias was present, traditional pretest-posttest comparisons resulted in an underestimation of program effects that could easily be avoided by the retrospective pretest methodology. With demands for documenting program outcomes increasing, retrospective pretest designs are shown to be a simple, convenient, and expeditious method for assessing program effects in responsive interventions. The limits of retrospective pretests, and methods for strengthening their use, are discussed.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. National Council on Family Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Family Relations.The investigators of this project examined several coping strategies used by caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients and the relationship of those strategies to the caregivers' subjective sense of burden. Two hundred forty subjects were surveyed. Differences in burden scores were not significantly affected by caregivers' age, sex, income, education, or patient residence (i.e., community dwellings, institutions). However, burden scores were significantly related to caregivers' health status. Also burden scores were not significantly related to presence of confidant or support group membership. Three internal coping strategies (confidence in problem-solving, reframing the problem, and passivity) and two external coping strategies (spiritual support and extended family) were found to be significantly related to caregiver burden scores. Implications for future research and intervention programs are discussed.Alzheimer's disease is a degenerative process in the brain that produces intellectual impairment in over 1.5 million American adults. It is the most common cause of senile dementia which is the severe, irreversible intellectual impairment in older adults (Gwyther & Matteson, 1983). There is no known cause or cure for Alzheimer's disease. The incidence of the illness increases with age and it is estimated that 20% of people over 80 have this disease (Gwyther & Matteson, 1983) although many will have relatively mild cases. Because the population over age 75 is the fastest growing segment of the aging population, increasing numbers of older adults are at risk (Schneck, Reisberg, & Ferris, 1982).Alzheimer's patients suffer progressive cognitive deficits and memory loss which are asso-

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