In this descriptive study the researcher sought the association between participation in A.A., family stress levels, family member attendance of Al-Anon, family functioning, and abstinence patterns in a convenience sample of 50 A.A. members. Two instruments as well as a demographic form were given to A.A members in eight cities of the states of Florida and Georgia. These were completed by the participants and mailed to the researcher. The two instruments used were: (1) The Index of Family Relations which is a 25 item measure of reported family stress, and (2) The Family Assessment Device which is a 60 item measure of reported family functioning on seven scales (communication, problem solving, roles, affective involvement, affective responsiveness, behavior control, and general functioning). The demographic form was designed to obtain information on basic characteristics of the sample and their participation in A.A. and any family member's participation in Al-Anon. / It was discovered that a family member's duration of attendence in Al-Anon had a significant correlation with lower reported intra-family stress for the A.A. member and the Al-Anon member. The number of months a family member was in Al-Anon was also positively correlated with the number of months the A.A. member had been abstinent, and better reported communication, problem solving, and general functioning scores on the Family Assessment Device. / A.A. attendance appeared to be helping the subjects maintain sobriety. Length of abstinence was significantly correlated with length of continuous attendance of A.A. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: A, page: 1588. / Major Professor: Eileen Earhart. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The purpose of this study was to examine the linkage between the family system and parent-adolescent relationship quality. The basic question was: "Which types of family systems are more and less conducive to high quality parent-adolescent relationships?" Family systems theory suggested the two major dimensions of the family on which this project focused: (1) family cohesion--the degree to which the family binds itself together (i.e., encourages separateness vs. togetherness) and is either open to or isolated from the outside world, (2) family adaptability--the degree to which a family is able (and/or willing) to change its roles, rules, or strategies in response to internal and external needs and goals. / For this study, adolescents' perceptions of family cohesion, family adaptability, and parent-adolescent relationship quality were utilized. Data were extracted from a larger study, the Profile of Today's Youth Project, at the Florida State University. Purposive sub-sampling procedures were used to select out the responses of 541 black and white adolescents who were living with both biological parents. / The major findings of this study were: (1) a positive relationship existed betwen adolescents' perceptions of family cohesion and their evaluations of parent-adolescent relationship quality; (2) a positive relationship existed between adolescents' perceptions of family adaptability and their evaluations of parent-adolescent relationship quality; (3) adolescents did not differ by sex or social class in their perceptions of family cohesion or adaptability; (4) a slight negative relationship existed between adolescents' age and their perceptions of family cohesion and adaptability; (5) adolescents did not differ by race in their perceptions of family cohesion, but black adolescents reported higher levels of family adaptability than did white adolescents. / In essence, adolescents reported the highest quality parent-adolescent relationships when they perceived their families as high in cohesion and adaptability. Family cohesion proved to be the strongest independent variable for predicting parent-adolescent relationship quality. The theoretical and research implications of these findings are outlined. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-08, Section: A, page: 2804. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The Blalock and Wilken social exchange model of decision making guides this research on predictors of wife employment for a random sample of North Carolina women. It was proposed that the three goals influencing wives' employment decisions are (1) sufficiency of income, (2) maternal care of young children, and (3) employment/nonemployment as a source of personal fulfillment. The influence of these goals on employment decisions is based on their importance relative to each other goal; that is, if income level is low, wives are expected to be employed even if they have young children. Similarly, given sufficient income, wives with young children are not expected to be employed even if they have modern sex role attitudes (a proxy for personal fulfillment through employment). It was also proposed that husband's support of wife employment and presence of adult female kin in the household is positively associated with wife employment. Logistic regression equations including these independent variables were run on the dichotomous dependent variable of employment/nonemployment, controlling for wife age and education. It was found that husband's income and husband's support of employment were the strongest predictors of wife employment in all equations. Sex role attitudes and presence of female kin were not related to wife employment in any equation. The hierarchical ordering of the three goals was partially supported in that age of children was not related to employment when income was low, but was positively related to employment when income was high. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0589. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The purpose of this research was to explore the presence of a value paradigm in the family. A consensus of values was defined as a family structure which organizes patterns of daily living for family members and as such serves as a paradigm. This paradigm was examined with three objectives in mind; to determine how much agreement there is between the values of family members, to determine if one family subsystem evidences greater agreement than the other subsystems, and to determine if value agreement influences other family structures. / Rokeach's Value Survey and FACES II were administered to fathers, mothers, and one adolescent of 106 families obtained from an educational research school affiliated with a southern university. The results indicate that there is a value paradigm for both terminal and instrumental values operating in families with adolescents. The terminal value paradigm is not affected by the sex, race, or age of the adolescent, the socioeconomic status, religiosity, or size of the family, the employment of mothers, the ordinal position of the child, or the age differentials between children and their parents. Of these variables, instrumental value agreement was affected by paternal employment. No significant differences between the value agreement of family subsystems were indicated although the consensus within the parental dyad was noticeably higher than between either parent and adolescent with regard to terminal values. The values of family subsystems were significantly correlated indicating that the consensual level of one subsystem affects the consensual level of other subsystems. The value paradigm did not significantly affect the family structures of cohesion and adaptability as evaluated by FACES II. / The findings of this study support the concept of interdependence and interrelatedness of family members which is generated by General Systems Theory. Implications for further research include the development of a family typology using the value paradigm and further exploration of this paradigm and its effect on (1) the family during different phases of the family life cycle and (2) other family structures. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0588. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 30-02, Section: A, page: 0844. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1968.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 32-11, Section: A, page: 6568. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1971.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 32-11, Section: A, page: 6571. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1971.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 30-02, Section: A, page: 0844. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1968.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 30-12, Section: A, page: 5544. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1969.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-09, Section: A, page: 4918. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.