Citation

Wahler RG, Hann DM. Educ. Treat. Child. 1984; 7(4): 335-350.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, West Virginia University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Forty-two mothers were referred for psychological help with their children. Half (21) of these mothers were classified as multistressed on the basis of demographic and social contact measures and the other half were considered singularly distressed on the basis of these same criteria. Following a course of therapy involving parent training and a new intervention called "mand review", the mothers' summary report descriptions of their child relationship problems were tape recorded during conversations between the mothers and their therapists, kinfolk, and friends. The summary reports and listener responses were then analysed through observer codes reflecting the complexity of these reports and the proportion of listener responses called "Redirects".

RESULTS showed that the multistressed mothers produced less complex reports than did the singularly distressed mothers when conversing with therapists, kinfolk, and friends. In addition, the kinfolk and friend listeners of these latter mothers used a greater proportion of "Redirects" than did the same listener groups for multidistressed mothers, These findings were taken to mean that multistressed mothers do not engage their kinfolk and friends in "problem solving" discussions and these listeners do not encourage such discussions. Because these mothers do not fare well in parent training therapy, the present findings were also thought to indicate reasons for this poor prognosis.

Language: en