FAMILY ENVIRONMENTS WITH AND WITHOUT THE PRESENCE OF A YOUNG ADULT CHRONICALLY MENTALLY ILL FAMILY MEMBER (SCHIZOPHRENIA).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 145
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to compare parents' perceptions of family environments with and without the presence of the young adult chronically mentally ill family member. The theoretical framework that guided this descriptive, ex-post facto study was based on systems theory and family environment-behavior interaction (Moos & Insel, 1974). It was hypothesized that family environments would differ along dimensions of relationships, personal growth, and system maintenance.

Data collection instruments included a demographic questionnaire and the Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1981). The Family Environment Scale was used to measure social-environment characteristics of families with young adult chronically mentally ill family members.

Data were obtained from 93 families through a non-probability sample of subjects from randomly chosen chapters of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill in a midwestern state. Two groups of parents--those with and without a young adult mentally ill family member present in the home--were surveyed to discover perceptions of family environments.

The hypotheses related to differences between the study groups were not supported when subjected to multivariate analysis of variance. Independent t-tests indicated families with the young adult at home scored significantly higher than families with the young adult living away from home on the cohesion subscale, in the dimension of relationships. This difference, however, was not in the direction hypothesized. Families did not differ on relationship dimension subscales of expressiveness and conflict; personal growth dimension subscales of independence, achievement, intellectual-cultural orientation, active-recreational orientation, and moral-religious emphasis; or system maintenance dimension subscales of organization and control.

The major conclusion of this study was that family environments with and without the presence of a young adult chronically mentally ill family member did not differ significantly when Family Environment Scale scores were compared. Lack of support for the hypotheses may indicate a need to re-evaluate negative generalizations about populations of families with a chronically mentally ill family member.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-12, Section: B, page: 4827.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1986.

School code: 0227.