Interaction Patterns of Parents and Hospitalized Sons Diagnosed as Schizophrenic or Nonschizophrenic.

Abstract

Ss of the present study were 74 sets of parents and their biological sons. All offspring were hospitalized for psychiatric reasons with 24 bearing a nonschizophrenic diagnosis and SO diagnosed as schizophrenic. Dominant and conflictful behavior was elicited by asking each of the 3 family members individually how they would resolve 6 hypothetical problem situations, and then bringing all 3 together and asking them how they would resolve the same 6 problems as a family. With regard to dominance, the only differences found were that poor premorbid schizophrenic patients were less dominant than were the control sons. Several indexes indicated that parents of poor premorbid schizophrenic patients experienced more conflict in interacting with each other than did parents of controls.

An Evaluative Review of Family Interaction Research

“…(See Hetherington, et al [107] and Goldstein, et al [91] for evidence against a unitary concept of delinquency.) And, of course, by 1971 it is common for "schizophrenic" families to be at least divided into "good premorbids" and "poor premorbids" (e.g., Mishler and Waxler [155] and Farina and Holzberg [67]). It seems to us that the traditional dichotomy of "schizophrenic" families versus "nonschizophrenic" families is increasingly difficult to justify.…”

Confusions and Conclusions: A Response to Doane

“…For example, she selected the measures of “support” (41), “acts of support” (52), and “support given and received” (51) to assess, respectively, the separate dimensions of parental conflict, support , and coalitions. Likewise, “disagreement” (10) was used as an index of parental conflict and “disagreement” (53) and “agree” (13) as measures of coalitions , whereas “parental hostility” (10, 16) was a measure of parental conflict although “parent to child hostility” (53) was a measure of support.…”

“…Doane cites four studies to support her hypothesis of greater parental conflict in disturbed versus normal families (10, 16, 41, 55). Once again, however, there are significant problems in her reporting of these findings.…”

“…Once again, however, there are significant problems in her reporting of these findings. First, Farina and Holzberg (16), who compared a nonschizophrenic disturbed group with good and poor premorbid schizophrenic groups (not normal versus disturbed as Doane reports), found significant group differences only on a measure of father disagreement with mother, whereas other parental conflict measures (i.e. M ↔ F “simultaneous speech,” M ↔ F “interruptions,” F ↔ M “aggressions”) were only suggestive of certain trends.…”

The Stress of School Entry: Parental Coping Behaviors and Children's Adjustment to School

“…(3) Parental co-operation is commonly viewed as a sign of a well-functioning family. STRESS OF SCHOOL ENTRY 627 The relationship between parents with a disturbed child was found to be more hostile (Farina & Holzberg, 1968) and less supportive (Murrell & Stackiowak, 1967;Schuham, 1970) in comparison with parents of normal children. The parental interactions of" this latter group were characterized by a greater degree of spontaneous agreement, consensus and mutual satisfaction (Ferreira & Winter, 1965;Kotler & Hammond, 1981).…”