The Family Journal

Females are disproportionately affected by infertility, and Counselor Education and Supervision (CES) doctoral students are predominantly female. Using phenomenological approach female CES doctoral students with infertility diagnoses were interviewed. Six themes emerged from the interviews: younger is better for conception; familial and societal messages; infertility knowledge; triggers; academics and infertility; something wrong with me, regret, and others don’t understand. Clinical implications and future directions are provided to promote social justice by bringing awareness and amplifying the voices of people suffering from a disability and a disease that is rarely recognized as either.

Grounded theory analysis of data obtained in 10 interviews with Roman Catholic Christian professional counselors identified six themes. Three themes were common to all interviews: the value and beauty of faith; autonomy and obedience; and healing, renewal, and the call. Three other themes, appearing in topics of both religion and counseling within individual interviews, were the integrated whole, relational concerns, and the meshing of theories. Results established that participants’ faith and religious practices influenced their counseling careers and clinical choices, and vice versa. Pragmatic philosophy, foundational to grounded theory, parallels existential/humanistic thought in insisting on the importance of the human agent, such as the counselor, in meaning and decision making. It thus provides a critical framework for considering the significance of the findings for the counseling profession.

Asian Americans (AA) in the United States, and throughout the world, commonly hold a negative connotation or stigma regarding seeking mental health services. Unique cultural stigmas and beliefs of AA play an important role when examining why this population group is less likely to engage in therapy. This article explains why these cultural stigmas and beliefs contribute to the lack of mental health help seeking. Through examining these stigmas, perception of therapy, loss of face, and parental control among AA will allow therapists to have a better understanding when they are working with this population. Also, the consideration is given of how the increase of Anti-Asian racism due to the COVID-19 pandemic affects AA and the challenges it creates. This article includes a case example that provides information on how stigmas impact an AA family who have differing cultural values and expectations while experiencing discrimination from COVID-19.

We examined the relationship between ethnic identity (EI), family ethnic socialization (FES), heritage language ability (HLA), and desire to learn a heritage language (HLD) in a sample of 91 U.S. psychology graduate students. We had four main findings. First, HLD had a significant positive relation with EI (24.9%). Second, FES had a significant positive relation with EI (33.8%). Above and beyond FES, HLD uniquely accounted for 10.9% of the variance of EI. Third, HLA had a significant positive relation with EI (12.3%). Above and beyond HLA, HLD uniquely accounted for 12.7% of the variance of EI. Accounting for the contribution of HLD decreased the beta associated with HLA; a finding that suggests HLD may mediate the relation between HLA and EI. Fourth, the combined contribution of FES and HLA accounted for approximately 36.3% of the variance of EI. HLD had a significant positive relation to ethnic identity after the other the factors in this study were considered, in combination, and uniquely explained 9.0% of the variance of EI. Our results highlight the importance of considering internal factors, such as desire to learn a heritage language, when examining ethnic identity. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The assignment of tasks, or therapeutic homework, by a mental health professional for clients to complete provides clients with an opportunity to practice targeted skills or apply lessons learned in therapy sessions to practical situations. While the assignment of homework by mental health professionals is commonplace, less is known about the content domain of homework, or how homework might be distributed in terms of focus or actor. We present the results of an examination of the gender, focus, and thematic content distributions for individuals of homework tasks in a sample of (n = 66) individuals in heterosexual couples engaged in couple therapy. Findings suggested that most of the between-session activities completed are specific and clear in nature and are focused on skill-building tasks. The outcome of the homework was nearly equally split between couples and individuals, suggesting that participants, while in couple therapy, were also engaged in some personal development. Women reported more self-improvement work compared to men, and men reported more behavioral targeted in-between session activities. Findings provided a preliminary indication that much of the work done by clients between sessions did not seem to have been explicitly assigned by a therapist. Implications for therapists and suggestions for homework provision are discussed.

Research related to military spouses accessing community-based mental health care is limited. Evaluations identifying outcomes of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and resilience are scant. In this study, 71 military partners and spouses (age M = 39.79, SD = 11.32; 97.2% women) receiving counseling services at a nonprofit agency completed self-report measures of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and resilience pre–post a 6-week intervention. Less depressive symptoms predicted higher resilience at intake of services, with medium statistical significance. In pre–post analysis, no statistically significant changes were noted to anxiety, depressive symptoms, or resilience, with small to medium effect sizes and unimproved conditions with no clinical significance. This study represents an evaluation of services from a single site utilizing individual counseling services.

In this study, we explored how psychological violence within a partner relationship relates to resilience and alcohol abuse of Portuguese women, particularly, testing the mediating role of resilience. A cross-sectional sample of 464 Portuguese women with a partner relationship was screened for psychological violence, alcohol abuse, and resilience. Results showed differences in terms of age, marital status, and current employment situation. Psychological violence was negatively related to resilience and positively related to alcohol consumption. Resilience also showed a negative relationship with alcohol consumption. A partial mediation was found between psychological violence and alcohol consumption through resilience, supporting the crucial role of resilience to break the negative “chain” between psychological violence and alcohol consumption.

Purpose: To examine the association between childhood violence and spousal violence within the culture of women visiting primary health care centers. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, participants were approached in waiting areas of health care centers. Data about five types of childhood violence and four types of spousal violence were investigated. Chi square was implemented to study the association between spousal violence and women's demographic characteristics. Further, logistic regression associated with 95% CI was implemented to study the risk of spousal violence based on women's exposure to childhood abuse. Results: It was found that women in general were subjects to domestic violence in childhood and during adulthood. Emotional and physical types of childhood violence were the most prevalent in our participants. Regarding spousal violence experience, two-thirds of the women reported control by the spouse. In addition, half of them reported being physically victimized using different violence tactics. Except for sexual abuse, all other types of childhood violence were, generally, significant risk factors for spousal violence victimization. Conclusion: Experiencing childhood violence, witnessing parental violence, tendency to compensate for the deprivation in childhood, and inherited beliefs about spousal violence were factors expected to explain the association between childhood violence and spousal violence in women. Traumatic events in childhood are under-recognized factors in the development of spousal violence in the current population. Therefore, efforts to prevent these forms of violence need to be emphasized by health professionals who are in direct contact with women in different health care facilities.

Background: COVID-19 has changed family life, including employment status, financial security, the mental health of individual family members, children's education, family well-being, and family resilience. The aim of this study is to analyze the previous studies in relation to family well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A literature review was conducted on PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus for studies using a cross-sectional or quasi-experimental design published from their inception to October 15, 2020, using the keywords “COVID-19,” “pandemic,” “coronavirus,” “family,” “welfare,” “well-being,” and “resilience.” A manual search on Google Scholar was used to find relevant articles based on the eligibility criteria in this study. The presented conceptual framework is based on the family stress model to link the inherent pandemic hardships and the family well-being. Results: The results show that family income loss/economic difficulties, job loss, worsening mental health, and illness were reported in some families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Family life has been influenced since the early stage of the pandemic by the implementation of physical distancing, quarantine, and staying at home to curb the spread of coronavirus. During the pandemic, it is important to maintain family well-being by staying connected with communication, managing conflict, and making quality time within family. Conclusion: The government should take action to mitigate the social, economic, and health impacts of the pandemic on families, especially those who are vulnerable to losing household income. Promoting family resilience through shared beliefs and close relationships within families is needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parental stress caused by monthlong school closures was measured as early as spring and summer of 2020. The present study investigated parental resilience during the second lockdown in Germany in January/February 2021 (n = 2,804). Based on an online questionnaire, parental stress, resilience, self-efficacy, children’s school abilities, and the perceived quality of lesson design in distance teaching were queried. Multiple linear regression analysis identified significant relationships between the experienced stress perception and the time spent supporting children in distance learning. We identified parental resilience as a predictor of stress experiences. It was possible to demonstrate the considerable influence of child variables and perceived lesson design on parental stress levels.

Children residing in chaotic homes exhibit greater behavior and adjustment problems. Proximal factors, such as interparental conflict, may play a role, although the ways in which these factors interplay in predicting adjustment problems is unclear. We explored different models for how chaos and conflict work together to predict child adjustment. We hypothesized that chaos would both moderate and mediate the relationship between interparental conflict and preschooler adjustment and that there would be a stronger pattern of associations for fathers than mothers. A community sample of 70 families with preschoolers participated in the current study. Parents engaged in a conflict resolution task during which their child was present. Interparental conflict was coded assessing for specific positive and negative conflict expressions, intensity of emotional expressions, and degree of resolution. Conflict codes were sorted into three categories: positive, angry, and depressive conflict. Parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) assessing child adjustment and the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS) assessing levels of chaos and disruption in the home. Path analyses revealed evidence for mediation in the father: fathers’ angry conflict was significantly predictive of greater chaos, which was in turn predictive of greater child peer problems. No evidence of mediation was found for mothers. Chaos also moderated associations between conflict and child adjustment for both mothers and fathers, such that dimensions of conflict were significantly associated with child adjustment in high chaos, but not low chaos homes. Clinical implications are discussed.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), with symptoms beyond 3 months, may be more common than previously believed, but is poorly understood. This has resulted in contradictory and confused information for service users, which has had an impact on those with mTBI and their families. This qualitative study aimed to improve understanding of the lived experiences of families of people with mTBI, with symptoms beyond 3 months. It extends a previous study, which focussed on all degrees of traumatic brain injury (TBI) (mild, moderate, and severe). Four individuals participated in semi-structured, virtual interviews. Following an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), three superordinate themes were identified: (1) Going round in circles, (2) The second secondary impact, and (3) Dialogue with myself. Findings indicate that families of people with mTBI, with symptoms beyond 3 months, may experience many of the same challenges as families of people with moderate or severe TBI, albeit at a lesser intensity. This includes difficulty making sense of TBI and challenges to their identity, both of which mirror the comparator TBI study findings. However, findings also indicated that this group may experience different challenges to families of people with moderate or severe TBI, aspects of which have not previously been reported. Feelings of ambiguous loss may be increased by incongruity between information provided and families’ experiences, and by the varied availability and content of information. Implications for service providers are that consistent, transparent, and realistic information and education may aid adjustment and assist families to support people with mTBI.

Almost one-fifth of women living in Ireland remain childless. While this trend reflects changing views towards mothering and womanhood, inquiry to date has predominantly concerned itself with the “why” of choosing to be childless, leading to a dearth of research on the lived experience of this phenomenon. The aim of this research study was to address this imbalance and to explore the lived experience of women living in Ireland who choose to be childless. To do this, a hermeneutic phenomenological research approach was taken. The evocative lived experiences of 15 voluntarily childless women living in Ireland were borrowed. Data analysis identified the common yet divergent human experiences of being fearful, being decisive, being judged, and being free. The original findings of this study consider fear as a positive factor in influencing the decision-making process around procreation for the participants of this study. While voluntarily childless women are often portrayed as wishing to avoid responsibility, the participants in this study experienced a sense of moral responsibility as well as freedom and self-expansion in choosing to forego motherhood. Consideration is also given to how best to respond psychotherapeutically to women who choose to be childless.

This article is written to help counselors as they work with grieving mothers in their efforts to guide their children through the grief process while grieving themselves. It begins with a self-evaluation for counselors followed by an overview of the variances in grief between children, adolescents, and adults. Particular attention is paid to a newer aspect of grief study, which is thanatechnology. Following this overview, the article narrows in on the experiences of grieving mothers, leading to a discussion on specific counseling interventions as well as examples. Finally, a brief case study is provided for application purposes.