Introduction Children and youth who are at-risk for behavioral problems can have a negative impact on how well the family functions. African American youth who live in poverty are thought to be at-risk for several behavioral problems such as dropping out of school, conduct problems, fighting, criminal involvement, and substance abuse (Nebbitt et al, 2014, Wilson, Foster, Anderson, & Mance, 2009). They are often exposed to violence in their neighborhoods and families, and many of the schools that they attend have fewer resources, all of which help to increase the likelihood of acting out or behavior problems. Parents and families who live in poverty often do not have the education, knowledge or access to intervention or treatment that …show more content…
These researchers believe that intensive intervention approaches are needed for youth who display antisocial behaviors because such behaviors put them at even greater risk for abusing substances. They also state that when youth engage in antisocial behaviors, the parents tend to be less accepting of them, show less affection, support and attachment to them. The parents may also have harsher attitudes and discipline with such youth. In addition, according to Santisteban et al (1997), research has shown that parents of youth with antisocial behaviors often use reinforcement inappropriately, use inconsistent parenting styles, and have a lot of family conflict and poor attachment to their children. Family therapy and intervention can be useful in helping parents to become a protective factor to help youth deal with stressors they are facing and to prevent their abuse of substances. However, if families do not receive interventions or help, youth with antisocial behaviors are more likely to be influenced by antisocial peers, drug use, and criminal activity in their neighborhoods. Also, if the parents force their problematic youth out of the home too soon, then they will be more easily influenced by …show more content…
Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) in particular, has been found to be useful in helping to improve family functioning for those who are at risk for substance abuse. According to these researchers, BSFT is rooted in Structural Family Therapy, which was developed by Salvador Minuchin. They state that this approach was developed to help urban minority families living in poverty, and that it operates on the assumption that the therapy will be brief, provides flexibility in its use, and the major goal is to change the family system (e.g. based on the specific needs of the family). There are three major components of BSFT, which include: joining, family pattern diagnosis, and restructuring. In the study conducted by Santisteban et al (1997), African American and Hispanic American youth ages 12 to 14 and their parents participated in a BFST intervention program. The youth were given both pre-tests and post-tests to measure their behavior problems, conduct, anxiety, family functioning, and substance use. The researchers found that BFST was effective in improving conduct disorder, socialized aggression, as well as overall family functioning. They also found each of these factors were predictive of the likelihood of substance abuse initiation in the future (Santisteban et al,
Dysfunctional families play a huge role in many African-American communities and they affect the children as they mature. When people do not have a job or cannot access one, that leads them to poverty. When individuals are in poverty, it is hard to provide for a family or themselves. Many adverse outcomes can happen when a child is living in poverty that will impact their future. Many African-American males are incarcerated which affects their connection with their children. Not having a father in a child’s life can negatively impact them. When parents are not vigilant and have dysfunction happening that allows an opening for sexual abuse to take place whether it is a family member or someone outside of the
Alex is a nine year old boy who was referred to the school psychologist to be evaluated. Alex has been displaying difficult behaviors in school and at home. These behaviors are affecting his social and school life. Alex has been defiant towards teachers and has frequent confrontations with other students. Alex became fussy about the food that he eats, lost interest in after school activities, and stopped playing soccer. It was noted that Alex has trouble sleeping and he wakes up as much as four times a day. It was also noted by his parents that Alex used to be very social, and outgoing until his parents separated. Alex is often irritable and has been having frequent stomach aches and headaches but, doctors did not find a cause for his physical
In our society families are the foundation of all human relationships. Therefore learning to maintain and develop healthy families are the goals of family therapist. Counselors can use the Structural Family Therapy approach in counseling hurting families. The pioneer of structural family therapy is Salvador Minuchin (Hammond & Nichols, 2014).
Family therapy is a branch of psychotherapy which involves working with family and couples in order to facilitate positive change and development. Family therapy emphasizes the role of family relationships on psychological health. There are various schools of thought in family therapy but they all agree that irrespective of the origin of the problem and notwithstanding if the clients consider the problem a family-related one, family therapy can often prove quite beneficial to the clients. Modern family therapy expands the definition of family to include not only parents and children but all the people who have forged long term roles and relationships and may not necessarily share any relationship by blood or marriage (1).
The counselor’s role with the family and client is to stay professional at all times and make sure the counselor does not agree or disagree with her client. The counselor is there to help the family as one and not her client. Murdock (2013) states “The role of the counselor in Structural Family Therapy is that of expert. The therapist joins the family, but maintains a stance as a leader in the counseling process.” (pg.,426) Therefore, the role of the counselor is to stay present and professional at all times. According to All Psychology Careers “The strategic therapist becomes actively involved and responsible in helping clients turn their lives around, in helping them strategically plan, execute, and measure game winning outcomes” So, the counselor role is to help the family be structure.
The earlier children begin to experience adversity the more detrimental and long-term the psychological, physical, emotional, and behavioral effects will be; exposure to multiple adversities increases the likelihood of children developing psychological and behavioral issues. Researchers in this study first collected data from previous research done on the relationship between ACEs, delinquency, and substance abuse from Wave I of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW II), which is a national longitudinal study of a number of children from the ages of birth to 18 years. Investigations performed by child welfare agencies in the US determined whether these children were victims of child abuse and/or neglect. NSCAW officials collected data by having in-person interviews with guardians, teachers, caseworkers, and the children who were the subjects of the
This family consists of BJ (65), Jing (40), Paige (16), and Sunny (14). BJ is Jing’s father, and he recently moved in with Jing and her two children. Initially, Jing came in for individual therapy; however, because her stress and depression seemed so related to difficulties going on at home, her therapist recommended that the whole family start therapy together. The intake mentioned that BJ’s wife died eight months ago, and that he moved in with Jing and her children six weeks ago. It also mentioned that Paige and Sunny are both acting out, and that it has recently gotten much worse. Paige is dating tons of boys and smoking weed, and Sunny is refusing to attend school. Paige and Sunny do not get along with BJ, and fighting has increased since they all began living together.
My theoretical approach to family therapy is very integrative as I believe families cannot be described nor treated from a single-school approach. I view humans through a humanistic and existential lens but am more technically structural and solution-based. With this integrative approach, I believe I will be the most effective in helping families grow and reach their goals.
Many adolescents drop out of school because they have to help work to help support their family, pregnancy, or these schools are not easily accessible. Poverty also affects a child’s social-emotional development. Children living in poverty are often times living in households that are noisy, overcrowded, or unsafe. Many children do not know how to deal with these stressors and can cause emotional issues within the child. High stress, anxiety, depression, and negative behaviors are among the issues that emerge from these stressors. (Aber Morris & Raver, 2012) In addition, families are often unable to afford or have the time to take their children to socially enhancing programs. These programs could include clubs, sports, libraries, parks, etc. These programs are great outlets of the stress they are facing at home and in their day-to-day life, when children do not have these they typically will turn to their friends or peers. In low-income neighborhoods, there is a lot of crime and violence; many children who turn to their friends or peers can become involved with delinquent
Cloe Madanes once said psychotherapy is the art of finding the angel of hope in the midst of terror, despair and madness.
Structural Family Therapy offers a framework that provides order and meaning within the family connections (Nichols, 2013). Divorce for a family is considered a significant transition for all parties involved. When counseling a family going through divorce the structural family therapist’s job is to build an alliance with the family and obtain information about the structure. The structure of the family consists of the roles, interactions, organization, and hierarchy. Family therapy yields the belief that changing the organization of the family leads to change in the individual members. The structural family therapist often will try to become part of the family to gain a perspective of their issues as whole so not to place the focus on one individual. Joining is an empathetic approach in helping families explain and break down their individual stories without uncomfortable challenge or unnecessary confrontation (Nichols, 2013). It is important to note that family dysfunction that often leads to divorce is not attributed to one individual, but the entire family system. In structural family therapy, part of dealing with the issue of divorce in the family is to focus on the interactions between all the family members both positive and negative. Through these interactions the therapist can discover where the conflicts arise, which will in turn help the therapist understand how these negative interaction affect the family. Family therapy in these cases allows for repair of long-standing interactional patterns in which divorce is just one of a series of ongoing transactions that are disruptive to the child’s development (Kaplan, 1977, p.75). The structural family therapist often has the family play out these family interactions via enactments so that he can get a firsthand look at maladaptive patterns, roles, and
In today’s society, a dysfunctional family is a concept that is taken lightly, because our society has been desensitized to it, and we have become so numbed by the idea. There are children who suffer greatly because of the families (or parents) who raised them. A dysfunctional family is defined as a family that encounters “problems that tend to be chronic and children [who] do not consistently get their needs met” (Benton). This includes negative, abusive, addicted, and neglectful parents. Individuals who are raised in a dysfunctional family can be impacted psychologically in many ways, such as participating in crimes, alcohol abuse, and drug abuse.
Bowen theory is one of human behavior. The theory views family as an emotional unit, and uses systems theory to describe interactions within the family. Bowen believed that humans are dependent and reactive to others. Family members may feel distant or disconnected from each other; this is not a fact, but merely a feeling. Family members profoundly affect each other’s feelings, actions, and thoughts, no matter how distant they may be feeling ("Bowen Center," n.d.). Bowen describes the family as a multigenerational network of relationships ("Bowen Center," n.d.). The multigenerational process describes how differences in levels of differentiation between parents and their children lead to marked differences in differentiation in a multigenerational family ("Bowen Center," n.d.).
Families serve as one of the strongest socializing forces in a person's life. They help teach children to control unacceptable behavior, to delay gratification, and to respect the rights of others. Conversely, families can also teach children aggressive, antisocial, and violent behavior. In adults' lives, family responsibilities may provide an important stabilizing force. Given these possibilities, family life may directly contribute to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Parental conflict and child abuse correlate with delinquency. Though not all children who grow up in conflictive or violent homes become delinquent, however, being exposed to conflict and violence appears to increase the risk of delinquency. At this point, researchers have not pin pointed what factors exactly push some at-risk youth into delinquency. A child with criminal parents faces a greater likelihood of becoming a delinquent than children with law-abiding parents. However, the influence appears not to be directly related to criminality but possibly to poor supervision.
This study, "The Effects of Race/Ethnicity, Income, and Family Structure on Adolescent Risk Behaviors", by Robert Blum, MD. has important implications for all parents and adults who work with youth. The study examines the extent to which race and ethnicity (white, black, or Hispanics), income (6 categories, ranging from $10,000 or less to $61,000 or more), and single-parent homes (i.e., family structure) predict several specific problem behaviors among middle school students and among high school students: