Studies of the effects in middle-aged adults of institutionalization at birth or early childhood are rare. The results of this study show that members of a randomly selected, middle-aged group of orphans, most of whom were institutionalized at birth, were significantly more psychosocially dysfunctional and had significantly more chronic illnesses that could be stress related than a randomly selected, matched community sample.

Less preoccupation with their illness and less poor parenting behavior by sicker mothers may explain why their children seem to fare better then those of not-so-sick mothers. Formulations concerning families of breast cancer patients should include consideration of the effect of the mothers' perception of the severity of their illness.

Forty‐nine coded twenty‐minute transcript segments sampled at six‐week intervals from the conjoint treatment of eleven families were examined. Coding procedures tapped both participation and affective expression (Emergency, Welfare, and Neutral) of family members and the quantity, direction, and quality of therapists' interventions. The families were assigned to two outcome groups on the basis of change scores in four areas (Overall; Affective Involvement; Affective Communication and Affective Expression) derived from the independent ratings of pre and post‐therapy interviews by three judges (73 percent agreement). A two‐way analysis of variance applied to the Good and Poor Outcome group coding data indicated an increase in Welfare feelings, a sharp decrease in Neutral speech paralleled by an initial rise then leveling off of Emergency. For any given therapist‐family unit, therapist's output remained within a unique range, the level of which rose gradually only in the Good Outcome group. Therapists focused increasingly on only one family member, usually a parent, the parent initially most talkative. A Good Outcome resulted when the father was initially the more vocal parent, a Poor Outcome when mother outtalked father. The Drive‐Interpretation ratio decreased as therapy progressed. The initial level of this ratio was positively related to outcome and inversely to drop‐out rate.

Nazi concentration camp survivors are known to continue to suffer the adverse physical and psychological effects of their internment. This is a study of the effects on their children. A clinical sample of mid‐teenage children of survivors was found to have more behavioral and other disturbances and less adequate coping behavior than did a clinical control group. Parental preoccupation is suggested as a contributing factor.