Nontechnique Variables in Marriage and family Therapy he field of marriage and family therapy (MFT) has been slow to consider the common factors. This is ironic as most of these important factors for change are highly relational in nature. While keeping in mind a few exceptions-the work of Duncan and his colleagues (Duncan, 1992; Duncan, Hubble, 6 Miller, 1997; Duncan, Solovey, 6 Rusk, 1992) and the attention given within MFT research to the therapeutic alliance-we agree with Wampler's ( 1997) conclusion: "Outcome research in marriage and family therapy has largely ignored the research literature on common factors underlying effective psychotherapy" (p. 10).The neglect of the common factors becomes understandable once the history of the profession is examined. In the first three decades of MFT's existence, distinctiveness was strongly emphasized over commonality. Family therapy began as a maverick discipline. It was oppositional, even defiant to the prevailing psychotherapy zeitgeist. In addition, perhaps because they were rebels of a sort, many of the discipline's founders were feisty and dynamic. They drew attention to their uniqueness and created theories matching their personalities. Carl Whitaker's experiential family therapy, for example, stressing spontaneity, creativity, and the benefits of "craziness," flowed from his "right-brained," iconoclastic style. Minuchin's structural family therapy, positing family problems as flaws in family organization, fit T I
This article reports on 2 studies designed to develop and validate a set of measures for use in evaluating processes of child and family interventions. In Study 1 responses from 187 families attending an outpatient clinic for child behavior problems were factor analyzed to identify scales, consistent across sources: Alliance (Satisfactory Relationship with Interventionist and Program Satisfaction), Parenting Skill Attainment, Child Cooperation During Session, Child Prosocial Behavior, and Child Aggressive Behavior. Study 2 focused on patterns of scale scores among 78 families taking part in a 22-week preventive intervention designed to affect family relationships, parenting, and child antisocial and prosocial behaviors. The factor structure identified in Study 1 was replicated. Scale construct validity was demonstrated through across-source convergence, sensitivity to intervention change, and ability to discriminate individual differences. Path analysis validated the scales' utility in explaining key aspects of the intervention process. Implications for evaluating processes in family interventions are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.