Mothers as family change agents.

Studied the impact of a counseling program for mothers on the perceptions and behavior of family members. The mother, father, and 1 8-12 yr old problem child of 13 experimental and 11 control families were evaluated before and after 7 weekly counseling sessions. Pre- and postexperimental measures included the Family Concept Q Sort, a family decision-making task, and a behavioral data chart maintained by the mother. The experimental spouses experienced a significant increase in perceived family integration. The experimental families reflected a significant increase in the number of positive responses and a significant decrease in the number of negative responses used by the 3 family members. The undesirable behaviors of problem children within the experimental families decreased significantly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)