Causal beliefs amongst families in therapy: Attributions at the group level

Abstract

Whereas attribution has traditionally been regarded as an individual process, we argue that attributions can also be located at a group level. A study of the causal beliefs of 10 families undergoing family therapy is reported, which shows that attributional change can be identified as a family as well as an individual process. Families considered not to have 'changed' following therapy differed from the 'changing' families in attributing negative outcomes to more stable causes, but were similar in their increased use of internal attributions for other people's actions. This pattern is interpreted within family systems theory.

Parental, child-centered attributions and outcome: A meta-analytic review with conceptual and methodological implications

“…With respect to populations, the studies include conduct-disordered children and their mothers (Alexander, Waldron, & Barton, 1989;Baden & Howe, 1992), children with learning problems and their mothers (Compas, Friedland-Bandes, Bastein, & Adelman, 1981;Grace, Kelly, & McCain, 1993), enuretic children and their mothers (Butler, Brewin, & Forsythe, 1986), abused and neglected children and their mothers (Larrance & Twentyman, 1983), families in family therapy (Munton & Antaki, 1988), and public school students and their mothers (Fincham & Bradbury, 1987a). Measures of outcome and adjustment range from a one-item question about mothers' satisfaction with their relationship to their child (Fincham & Bradbury, 1987a), to response to family therapy (Munton & Antaki, 1988). Seven different dimensions of attributional style have been examined (internal, stable, global, controllable, intentional, selfishly motivated, and blameworthy; see Table I).…”

“…With the possible exception of Munton and Antaki's (1988) study of families in therapy, all of the studies we reviewed were cross-sectional. As Baden and Howe (1992, p. 209) pointed out, the possibility that the parental attributions-satisfaction/adjustment relationship is an artifact of a third variable, such as depression or communication skills, must be addressed.…”

“…With the exception of Munton and Antaki (1988), who used observer ratings, all of the studies we reviewed employed variations of self-report measures of attributions. As similar measures in the vulnerability to depression literature (e.g., Metalsky & Joiner, 1992) and the marital attribution literature (e.g., Fincham & Bradbury, 1987b) possess adequate reliability and validity, this is not in and of itself problematic.…”

“…Grace et al's (1993) use of well-validated measures of parent-child issues and conflict represents the most rigorous approach. Munton and Antaki (1988) used observer ratings of degree of positive change in family therapy. Butler et al (1986) assessed maternal tolerance of the specific clinical problem under study (i.e., enuresis).…”

“…With the possible exception of Munton and Antaki (1988), satisfaction on the family level has not been examined, although the instrumentation to do so is clearly in place (e.g., the Family Environment Scale; Moos & Moos, 1981). Because families with a distressed member report less satisfying family environments (e.g., Kaslow, Rehm, & Siegel, 1984), the effects of family-wide attributions about a distressed child on family satisfaction also represent an important area for future work.…”