Family ProcessPub Date : 2026-05-16DOI: 10.1111/famp.70152
Kaitlin M. Lord, HaLi Boyce, Michelle A. Fortier, Ohad Szepsenwol, Osnat Zamir, Patricia Tan, Nastassia Hajal, Catherine Mogil, Jessica L. Borelli
{"title":"Increasing Parental Well-Being After the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Through Relational Savoring","authors":"Kaitlin M. Lord, HaLi Boyce, Michelle A. Fortier, Ohad Szepsenwol, Osnat Zamir, Patricia Tan, Nastassia Hajal, Catherine Mogil, Jessica L. Borelli","doi":"10.1111/famp.70152","DOIUrl":"10.1111/famp.70152","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Despite abundant evidence that the admission of an infant to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a highly stressful and potentially traumatic experience for both infants and parents, few psychosocial interventions target the needs of parents of NICU infants. In particular, interventions supporting parents beyond the initial medical crisis are notably lacking. Relational savoring (RS) is a brief, positive psychology intervention that attunes one's focus to moments of positive connectedness within their relationships, including parent–child relationships. While the benefits of RS for parent–child dyads are well documented, its efficacy has not been evaluated in parent–child dyads facing significant relational stressors, such as those experienced in post-NICU contexts. Using a randomized controlled design, this study tests the effects of RS compared to a neutral control in 240 post-NICU parents in the United States. Parents reported on their closeness to their child, parental emotional well-being, and parental satisfaction before and after the intervention, as well as their history of perinatal loss and stress. Results of multilevel models suggest that, relative to a neutral control task, parents assigned to the RS intervention group exhibited significantly greater increases in feelings of closeness to their child, parenting satisfaction, and parental emotional well-being. Interestingly, the reduction in negative affect pre- to post-intervention was more pronounced for parents with a history of miscarriage, stillbirth, child loss, and/or fertility difficulties. These findings suggest that RS may represent a scalable intervention to support parent–child relationships and parental well-being in the post-NICU period, particularly for parents with prior perinatal loss and stress.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51396,"journal":{"name":"Family Process","volume":"65 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147950231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Family ProcessPub Date : 2026-05-14DOI: 10.1111/famp.70154
Aaron S. Cohn
{"title":"Therapy as the Ethical Resolution of Doubt: Bringing Pragmatism and Reflexive Sociology to Systemic Practice","authors":"Aaron S. Cohn","doi":"10.1111/famp.70154","DOIUrl":"10.1111/famp.70154","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>What do therapists do? The question seems obvious, yet systemic therapy has struggled to answer it with the philosophical rigor that both professional identity and ethical practice require. This paper proposes a reflexive scientific practice grounded in two theoretical traditions rarely brought into dialogue with systemic therapy: the pragmatist philosophy of C.S. Peirce and the reflexive sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Drawing on Peirce, therapy is defined not as the treatment of dysfunction but as the professional resolution of <i>doubt</i>—the state arising when a client's habits of mind fail to navigate new social contexts. Drawing on Bourdieu, large-scale social forces are seen to produce the specific form of doubt Bourdieu calls <i>hysteresis</i>, and how unexamined therapeutic interventions risk enacting <i>symbolic violence</i> by imposing the therapist's habitus under the guise of clinical expertise. Together, Peirce and Bourdieu provide what systemic therapy has long needed: a framework that simultaneously grounds clinical authority in empirical, self-correcting practice and constrains that authority through systematic interrogation of the therapist's social position. Integrative Systemic Therapy (IST) is presented as the operationalization of this synthesis, demonstrating how its problem-centered, cost-effectiveness, and failure-driven guidelines function not merely as pragmatic efficiency measures but as ethical safeguards against symbolic violence. This framework responds to recent calls for theoretical rigor in systemic practice while addressing a dimension those calls do not fully reach: the risk that theoretical authority enacts iatrogenic harm when deployed without reflexive discipline.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51396,"journal":{"name":"Family Process","volume":"65 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147943722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Family ProcessPub Date : 2026-05-14DOI: 10.1111/famp.70155
Tara Santens, Chen Chu-Chun, Suzanne Levy, Guy Diamond, Guy Bosmans
{"title":"Anatomy of the Relational Reframe in Attachment-Based Family Therapy","authors":"Tara Santens, Chen Chu-Chun, Suzanne Levy, Guy Diamond, Guy Bosmans","doi":"10.1111/famp.70155","DOIUrl":"10.1111/famp.70155","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In attachment-based family therapy (ABFT), shifting the treatment goal from the adolescent as the problem to strengthening family relationships as the solution is the critical first task. No research has explored whether this “relational reframe” works, how it works, and for whom it works. We evaluated the relational reframe for 47 families receiving ABFT for depressed and suicidal adolescents. We coded markers to identify the reframing and contracting phases of the reframe intervention. We coded two key process elements: content and affect. We evaluated whether the degree to which family members discussed the themes of the reframe phase (relational ruptures and softer emotions) were associated with acceptance of the contracting goal. We explored if attachment style and self-reported parental depression and adolescent-reported family conflict were associated with accepting the contract for a relational focused therapy. Markers for the beginning of the reframe and contracting phase could be reliably identified. The degree to which adolescents and parents engaged in discussion about the reframe themes was associated with parents' acceptance of the contracting goal. Adolescents' dismissive attachment style was not associated with engagement in the reframe themes, but was associated with adolescents' reduced acceptance of the contract goal. Adolescents' preoccupied attachment style was associated with greater engagement in the reframing themes, but not associated with acceptance of the contract goals. Parental depression and adolescent- reported family conflict were not linked with acceptance of the relational reframe. This study should help therapist understand specific strategies for creating a relational repair frame for therapy and encourage researchers to study the subtle processes involved in effective therapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":51396,"journal":{"name":"Family Process","volume":"65 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13175747/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147943677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Family ProcessPub Date : 2026-05-14DOI: 10.1111/famp.70153
Mariana K. Falconier, Hannah C. Williamson, Zeinab Azizi, Martha Yumiseva-L
{"title":"Evaluation of the Individual, Relationship, and Financial Benefits of Juntos en Pareja for Spanish-Speaking Latine Couples","authors":"Mariana K. Falconier, Hannah C. Williamson, Zeinab Azizi, Martha Yumiseva-L","doi":"10.1111/famp.70153","DOIUrl":"10.1111/famp.70153","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Latine couples often face high levels of financial stress, which can significantly strain romantic relationships. Yet few programs are designed to address both financial and relational distress for this population. Juntos en Pareja (<i>JEP</i>) is a socio-culturally responsive program designed to address these challenges by providing relationship and financial education to Spanish-speaking Latine couples. <i>JEP</i> is a cultural and linguistic adaptation of the evidence-based program TOGETHER. This study evaluates <i>JEP'</i>s effectiveness by comparing pre- and post-workshop outcomes among Latine couples in <i>JEP</i> with a comparison group of non-Latine couples in the TOGETHER program. We examined three domains: psychological well-being, relationship quality, and financial stability. The analytic sample included 284 couples (568 individuals) in <i>JEP</i> and 266 couples (532 individuals) in TOGETHER, all residing in the United States. Using linear mixed models, we assessed changes from pre- to post-test across key indicators. Similar to TOGETHER, <i>JEP</i> participants showed significant declines in psychological distress, negative conflict management, and psychological aggression toward the partner and by the partner, and significant increases in time spent with the partner. Additionally, <i>JEP</i> couples also reported reduced difficulty in paying bills. These results provide support for <i>JEP</i> as a beneficial program for Spanish-speaking Latine couples, but they should be considered with caution as they represent the experience of program completers with high attendance and immediately upon program completion. Further studies should assess the sustainability of changes over time. Nonetheless, these initial findings underscore the need for accessible, socio-culturally attuned interventions to promote resilience and stability in underserved immigrant communities.</p>","PeriodicalId":51396,"journal":{"name":"Family Process","volume":"65 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13175748/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147943703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Family ProcessPub Date : 2026-04-29DOI: 10.1111/famp.70148
Jennie M. Boulus, Katherine Edler, Kristin Valentino
{"title":"Indirect Effect of Maltreatment on Child Cooperation and Exploration Through Maternal Sensitive Guidance","authors":"Jennie M. Boulus, Katherine Edler, Kristin Valentino","doi":"10.1111/famp.70148","DOIUrl":"10.1111/famp.70148","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Child maltreatment is a pathogenic relational experience that has deleterious effects on child functioning. Mothers who have engaged in child maltreatment have difficulties with emotion socialization (i.e., maternal sensitive guidance) while reminiscing with their children about past emotional experiences. Difficulties in maternal sensitive guidance are associated with child emotional maladjustment and decreased emotion regulation; however, the quality of children's contributions to reminiscing (i.e., child cooperation and exploration) has not been examined in the context of maltreatment. The present study aimed to assess the indirect effect of maltreatment on child cooperation and exploration during reminiscing via maternal sensitive guidance during reminiscing. We also evaluated child sex as a moderator. Participants were 159 maltreating and 81 nonmaltreating mother–child dyads with 3- to 6-year-old children. Mother–child dyads reminisced about four past, everyday times that the child felt different emotions. Maltreatment was negatively associated with maternal sensitive guidance (<i>b</i> = −0.26, <i>p</i> < 0.05), and maternal sensitive guidance was positively associated with child cooperation and exploration (<i>b</i> = 0.81, <i>p</i> < 0.01). The indirect effect was significant. Multigroup analyses indicated that this indirect effect did not differ as a function of child sex. Findings demonstrate how lower levels of maternal sensitive guidance may be a process through which maltreatment negatively impacts children's cooperative and exploration while reminiscing about their past, everyday emotional experiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":51396,"journal":{"name":"Family Process","volume":"65 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13127240/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147788923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}