Suchergebnisse

An essay competition among persons 14-17 years of age was organised by the Victorian Family Council to obtain the views on the "Family of the Future." Two hundred and forty-five youngsters (210 females, 35 males) mostly from Catholic schools took part in the competition. Almost everybody agreed that the family will stay; that the extended family is on its wane, and that families will be smaller than they were in the past. There was a universal belief that family roles will change towards a more egalitarian family and that the women will be more and more involved in different aspects of life, including work outside the home. Family planning and use of contraceptives were accepted as facts of life. In terms of values and attitudes all authors supported the family as a basic unit of society. They felt that love and mutual understanding should be the basis of a marriage (legal or otherwise), and that relations between parents and children should be closer and more open. However, there were many areas where there was a polarization both of predictions and attitudes.

To evaluate specific community attitudes toward psychiatric conditions and the ability to identify particular psychiatric syndromes, selected respondents associated and/or involved with Wingrove Cottage Community Clinic (N = 49) were asked to complete questionnaires in relation
to five hypothetical characters, each with recognized psychological conditions of: Hypomanic Personality, Manic Episode, Depressive Episode, Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder and Schizoid Personality. Respondents clearly recognized traits of psychiatric illness and were able to understand/evaluate
the need for psychological/psychiatric interventions. Further, the hypomanic person was perceived to be least liked when compared with other syndromes including manic episode. In contrast, the schizoid personality was perceived to be most liked and socially acceptable.

Conflict in relationships caused Wingrove Cottage Community Clinic to use in couple therapy and then further develop, the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS; Edwards, 1959). The development addressed the length of the original questions and the limitations of self-reporting
tests by creating a comparison of personal, partner, ideal and remake of partner perceptions. This obvious and concise inventory was called the Marital Synchrony Inventory (MSI) which allowed for comparison of discrepancies between subjects self, partner, ideal and remake perceptions by using
the 15 personality variables of the EPPS with a written description of what each word meant. A significant correlation between both instruments provided the impetus to further improve and condense the MSI through factorizing the 15 items. This was effected and 3 factors emerged and were called
Authoritativeness, Empathy and Compliance. This condensed version of the MSI was called the Partner Synchrony Inventory (PSI) to be used for both diagnostic and therapeutic benefit of the client. This instrument will be usable by therapists for all heterosexual, homosexual and relational couples.
The PSI is now available as a userfriendly computer-aided test for use by therapists.

A prospective study of youth suicide was carried out to determine the causes of the dramatic increase of suicide rates in males 15 to 25 years of age. Comprehensive information was collected through coronial enquiries on all 148 cases of completed youth suicide in Victoria during a 16 month period. Similar data were obtained through in‐depth interviews of 105 hospitalised and 101 non‐hospitalised attempters. In this paper only social and familial aspects of youth suicide are covered. Whilst the family setting of youth who attempted or completed suicide was similar to that of the general population, a higher proportion were homeless or living alone. Contrary to common assumptions, family relationships were much closer among completed than among attempted suicides. The unemployment rates were not higher than in all young people, and few subjects named unemployment as cause, but a relatively high number of them were neither studying nor looking for work. A high proportion of those who completed suicide had prior contact with the police. In conclusion, social factors do not significantly affect suicidal behaviour in young people.