title: Disrupting defensive family interactions in family therapy with delinquent adolescents.
abstract: This study compared the immediate impact of therapist reframing, reflection, and elicit-structure interventions on family-member defensive communications in the initial session of family therapy with a delinquent adolescent. Defensive statements included family-member statements that criticized, blamed, or disagreed with other family members. Sequences of behaviors following defensive family-member statements were examined to determine which therapist interventions were the most effective in disrupting defensive family interactions. Thus, every sequence included a defensive family-member behavior, a therapist intervention, and a family-member response (sequence: family defensive-->therapist intervention-->family response). Results indicated that therapist reframing is more effective than other therapist interventions in reducing family-members' defensive statements. Moreover, adolescents responded more favorably to reframes than did fathers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami School of Medicine, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Alexander
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Turner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012944:Social Support; D014589:Utah