While BPD families enter treatment with more impaired children and more extensive treatment histories, both BPD and MDD/DD families benefit from intervention. The clinical issues concerning combining families of children with bipolar and depressive spectrum illnesses in groups are discussed. Clinical impressions suggest that such combinations are clinically feasible and potentially beneficial.

This study examined the impact of adjunctive multi-family psychoeducation groups (MFPG) on mood-disordered children aged 8 to 11 and their families. Participants were 35 children and 47 parents from families randomly assigned to either immediate MFPG plus treatment as usual (n = 18) or a 6-month wait-list condition plus treatment as usual (n = 17). At the 6 month follow up, immediate treatment families reported: Increased parental knowledge about childhood mood symptoms; increased positive family interactions as reported by the parent; increased perceptions of parental support as reported by children; and increased utilization of appropriate services by families. Expected impact on decreasing negative family interactions was not found. Results are largely consistent with hypothesized findings and support the need to further investigate the adjunctive role of psychoeducation in the treatment of childhood mood disorders.

Growing evidence regarding the gender-specific nature of risk/needs factors in girls coming to the attention of the juvenile court is contrasted with the limited availability of gender-sensitive assessment instruments designed to measure risk/needs. In the present study, data are gathered from a sample of male and female youth assessed at a juvenile court detention facility. As hypothesized, analyses revealed significantly higher scores for males on prior offenses and significantly higher scores for females on family/parenting, mental health, traumatic events, and health-related risks. Unexpectedly, females also scored significantly higher than males in domains associated with psychopathy, accountability, and peer relationships. Female and male youth also differed in type of offense that brought them to the attention of the detention facility. In turn, type of offense was a predictor of risk/needs levels in the family/parenting domain, underscoring the particularly salient role family factors play in the lives of court-involved youth.

Measures of family system patterns of interaction and the individuation process were examined as mediators of psychosocial development in a sample of college students. Included is an initial exploration into the construction and development of self-report, paper-and-pencil instruments designed to measure the two exceedingly complex constructs of differentiation and individuation. Indicators of family conflict, parental intrusiveness, and psychological interconnectedness were found to be significant predictors of psychosocial maturity, supporting the theoretical expectation that distance regulation patterns indicative of well differentiated families and age-appropriate manifestations of the individuation process would be independently and interactively related to psychosocial adaptation. Also, the exploration of gender-related differences revealed that males were significantly more financially and psychologically independent from family members than were females but did not differ on any of the other family system and individual variables explored.

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This is a study of the relationships among family system dynamics, peer network characteristics and adolescent personal adjustment. Specific characteristics of both the family system and the peer network are thought to have a significant impact on the adolescent's ability to master certain developmental tasks and therefore contribute to the adolescent's ongoing growth and development. Apart from the separate influences of these factors, the study attempts to explore the combined influence offamily system and peer network characteristics through the use of interaction terms. Results indicate that adolescents 'psychosocial maturity levels are significantly predicted by both family support and peer conformity pressure, as well as the interaction term of Family Support x Peer Support. The results also indicate that severity levels of adolescents 'problematic behaviors are significantly predicted by family support and parental intrusiveness, as well as the interaction term of Parental Intrusiveness x Peer Support.

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 Journal of Marriage and Family.A sample of 102 married men were interviewed and physically assessed in an attempt to develop a biopsychosocial model of male domestic violence. Because the dependent variable, domestic violence, was censored, Tobit analysis was used to identify significant predictors. When analyzed separately, each domain was significantly related to male domestic violence. However, when all domains were considered together, only the biological and social domains yielded independent effects. Significant independent variables included alcohol, family income, and relationship quality, with testosterone approaching significance. It is widely accepted that the etiology of family violence is a multifaceted phenomenon that canKey Words: biopsychosocial, domestic violence, spouse abuse. From the standpoint of a physician, Engel (1977) wrote: Journal of Marriage and the Family 57 (May 1995): 307-320 307 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.82.206 on Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:51:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Journal of Marriage and the FamilyThe boundaries between health and disease, between well and sick, are far from clear and never will be clear, for they are diffused by cultural, social, and psychological considerations.... By evaluating all of the factors contributing to both illness and patienthood, rather than giving primacy to biological factors alone, a biopsychosocial model would make it possible to explain why some individuals experience as "illness" conditions that others would regard merely as "problems of living," be they emotional reactions to life circumstances or somatic symptoms (pp. 132-133).A more recent formulation of this perspective is presented by McDaniel, Hepworth, and Doherty (1992), who utilized the term biopsychosocial systems model to highlight the interactive nature of biological, psychological, and social phenomena regarding health and illness. According to this model, such phenomena are seen as not only existing in an arranged hierarchical ordering, but also as having a consistent and reciprocal impact on one another. Here, biological system factors are thought to exist in and interact with psychological system factors, both of which are hypothesized to exist in and interact with family and other social system factors. Hence, descriptions that result within this framework are not simply summative but rather assert multiplicative relationships among these factors.From this perspective, all theoretical, empirical, and clinical efforts must account for the complex interplay of biological, psychologic...