Incest, and the problems arising from it, have increasingly come under the scrutiny of therapists and researchers. All family members are affected by incest and all have been studied. Victims are particularly devastated by sexual abuse by a family member but it is a commonly held belief that having a supportive mother can mitigate the trauma a victim experiences. In this study, girls between the ages of ten and eighteen who were the victims of sexual abuse by a father-figure were compared to a group of girls not thought to be incest victims. The incest victims were divided into two groups, those with supportive mothers and those with non-supportive mothers, with support being defined as belief that sexual abuse occurred and action taken to have the offender leave the home. The Family Concept Inventory was the basis of comparison. Family Effectiveness, the degree to which a test taker's ratings of his or her real and ideal families match professional therapists' ratings of the ideal family, and Family Satisfaction, the comparison of the Real and Ideal Family Effectiveness scores, are obtained from the Inventory. There was no statistically significant difference across the three groups 2 on any of the three measures. However, incest victims with nonsupportive mothers had significantly lower Real Family Effectiveness scores than did incest victims with supportive mothers and the control group. On Family Satisfaction the scores of incest victims with non-supportive mothers were lower than the scores of incest victims with supportive mothers, but this difference was not statistically significant. Incest victims with non-supportive mothers clearly view their families as less effective than do incest victims with non-supportive mothers and non-incest victims. However, they remain attached to their families and in need of them and cannot bear the thought of losing their families. This may explain, in part, the reason there was not a statistically significant difference in Family Satisfaction between the two groups of incest victims.

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Black mothers socialize their daughters to embody the strong Black woman (SBW) schema to help them navigate gendered racist oppression. While research indicates that ascribing to the SBW schema offers Black women psychosocial benefits (e.g., increased self-esteem), identifying with the SBW schema has been linked to several negative psychological outcomes (e.g., anxiety, depression, and stress). Considering the evidenced negative implications associated with identifying with the SBW schema on Black women's mental health, the current study had three aims: (1) investigate the socialization messages Black women received about strong Black womanhood, (2) explore the extent to which they identified with these messages, and (3) assess the implications of this socialization on Black women's functioning. To address these aims researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 Black college women (Mage = 20.09; SD = 1.04). For this manuscript, we extracted data pertaining to aim one and analyzed this data using a consensual qualitative research (CQR) data approach. Findings revealed messages Black women were given about strong Black womanhood (i.e., know your worth, depend on yourself, overcome societal barriers, little to no messages about strong Black womanhood, and additional responses) and illuminated behaviors mothers modeled that exemplified strength (i.e., self-sufficient, preserving, caretaking, and additional responses). Findings derived from this study have the potential to inform clinical intervention with Black women and, more specifically, provide insight as to how clinicians may work with Black women to mitigate the impact of the SBW schema on their mental health.

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An examination was made of the internal boundaries of families in treatment for father-daughter incest and families in treatment for other concerns. Family boundaries are described as the internal rules that define when and how family members participate within the family. Information was gathered through the use of individual in depth interviews with mothers and daughters from both groups of clinical families. A descriptive narrative about family boundaries was developed using the core category of family rules, with subsidiary categories that included family organization and family communication. Three major themes of awareness, control, and consistency emerged from the data as clinically useful concepts for describing perceptions of family rules. One important finding was that mothers and daughters from both clinical groups were found to be similar in their perceptions of family rules. A major difference between the groups related to marital power and control, with mothers in the incest treatment group reporting less control over family rules prior to the disclosure of abuse and the initiation of treatment than mothers in the control treatment group. The results of the research suggest therapists should avoid stereotyping families who are in treatment for father-daughter incest and focus instead on assessing the unique factors that contribute to a family's vulnerability to incest. The importance of providing emotional and social support for individual family members following the disclosure of father-daughter sexual abuse is also highlighted. / Ph. D.

Until recently, most parent-child research has focused on the mother-child dyad or the father-infant or young child relationship. The present study investigated strengths of the father-young adult relationship with respect to the following variables: individuation, intimacy, intimidation, age, marital status, gender and birth order. College students at a large mid-Atlantic university and their fathers completed instruments regarding the above aspects of their relationship. The instruments administered were the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS-Q) and the Family Assessment Measure (FAM-III). Correlation, analysis of variance, and step-wise multiple regression were used for statistical analysis. Results indicated that fathers and young-adult children had significantly different perceptions of the dyadic relationship strength. There was a strong relationship between intergenerational individuation and intimacy with relationship strength. Birth order proved to be a significant factor in the assessment of intimacy, intimidation and relationship strength. Individuation and intimacy were the only variables that explained a Significant percentage of variance in dyadic relationship strength. Explanations for the findings, therapeutic implications, and suggestions for future research were explored. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-114) Also available in print.