The present study evaluated the relative effectiveness of behavioral and reflective group parent counseling. Subjects were SI mothers of mentally retarded children who were assigned to behavioral, reflective, or waiting-list control groups. Six success criteria, including direct observations, attitudinal scales, maternal reports, and frequency counts, were used to measure outcome. Results indicated that both types of counseling had a beneficial effect relative to the untreated controls but that the behavioral method resulted in a significantly greater magnitude of improvement. The consistency of these results across measures strongly suggests that the behavioral technique was the treatment of choice for counseling parents of the retarded. It provided them with an understandable, consistent, and effective way to deal with the specific problems they were facing in raising their retarded children.Requests for reprints should be sent to J.

The study evaluated the psychosocial functioning levels of a group of chronically ill (diabetic, asthmatic, cystic fibrotic, and hearing-impaired) children across a battery of standardized personality instruments. The assessments were performed to provide a rigorous test of the popular hypothesis that chronically ill children are especially vulnerable to psychopatholgy. In contrast to this sterotype, results across measures demonstrated the normalcy rather than the deviance of these children. Although exceptions were noted, the children's functional strengths and coping abilities noticeably outweighed their weaknesses.

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The interaction patterns of 64 well-adjusted family triads, divided into eight equal groups by race, social class, and sex of adolescent, were assessed across observational and self-report measures of family affect, conflict, and dominance. Any social class or race differences similar to those of prior research could not be described as deficits since all families met extensive criteria to assure favorable psychosocial adjustment. However, in contrast to much extant literature, statistical analyses revealed few social class or race effects. In light of the present strict methodological controls, it is suggested that previous findings of race and social class differences might have resulted from uncontrolled sampling, procedural, or measurement factors.