Four well-known, self-report measures of family functioning were serially examined in order to identify a limited set of reliable concepts for describing families. Following the completion of four separate data collection procedures, a 75-item scale comprising 15 dimensions of family functioning was constructed. The dimensions appear reasonably independent of each other and have satisfactory psychometric properties. An initial effort to validate the scales was undertaken by contrasting scale scores obtained from descriptions of intact families with those obtained from descriptions of families that subsequently were disrupted by separation and divorce. Significant differences in scale scores were obtained on 12 of the 15 dimensions of family functioning. The 15 dimensions of family functioning could be subsumed under the three general headings suggested by Moos, Insel, and Humphrey (14)--relationship dimensions, personal growth or value dimensions, and system maintenance dimensions.

This article describes some of the major demographic trends in the field of marital disruption and provides an analysis of the evidence linking separation and divorce with a wide variety of physical and emotional disorders. Separation and divorce appear to be profoundly stressful life events. Hypotheses that have been advanced to account for the strong associations between marital disruption and emotional disorder are critically examined. Studies of problems faced by persons undergoing marital disruption and studies of remedial programs are reviewed and evaluated, and major unresolved issues are identified and discussed.In 1976, more than 3,000,000 persons in the United States were directly involved in a dissolution of marriage. There were over 1,000,000 divorces, and in each divorce there was an average of 1.08 children. Thus, more than 2,000,000 adults and over 1,000,000 children were affected by divorce in a single year, representing, in 1 year alone, 1.5% of the total United States population (see National Center for Health Statistics, 1974Statistics, , 1976aStatistics, , 1977a; U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1974). These figures might have little interest to any group other than demographers were it not for the fact that there is a growing body of evidence that marital disruption (separation or divorce) constitutes a severe stress and that the consequences of that stress can be seen in a surprisingly wide variety of physical and emotional disorders. More than a century ago, "the slow tortures of connubial disturbance" were cited as being among the causes of psychiatric disorders (Wood, 18S2, p. 708). Continuing interest in marital disruption as a specific stress is now part of the growing general interest in those events that appear to precipitate physical and psychological dis-Brief portions of this article are excerpts or paraphrases of passages in chapter 6 of Bloom's (1977) book.Requests for reprints should be sent to Bernard

Since the initial examination of the scattered literature on single-session psychotherapy, more than 40 papers that address some aspect of this form of very brief psychotherapy have been located in two archival data sets (PsycINFO and MEDLINE). The literature consists of clinical overviews, program descriptions and case presentations, and a few uncontrolled and controlled outcome studies. Single-session psychotherapy has been practiced from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives with no evidence thus far that any specific perspective is superior to any other. Single-session psychotherapy has been found to be somewhat effective for intrapsychic difficulties, interpersonal conflicts, and as an adjunct treatment for medical disorders, and has been shown to be useful for the treatment of children and adolescents as well as adults. Between one-third and one-half of randomly selected clients seen in single-session psychotherapy report being sufficiently helped by the experience so that the therapeutic episode can be terminated.

This paper begins by reviewing the current status of primary prevention. Basic concepts and definitions are introduced, and the existing knowledge base is examined. Recent advances in how primary prevention is viewed are described, and some general issues not yet resolved are identified. In particular, the importance of the growing shift of interest from predisposing factors in emotional disorders to precipitating factors, and the shift from the search for disorder-specific causes to the search for general, nonspecific causes is underlined.

No abstract