Prevention in family services : approaches to family wellness / edited by David R. Mace.
- Date:
- [1983], ©1983
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: Prevention in family services : approaches to family wellness / edited by David R. Mace. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[224] FAMIL Y WELLNESS THROUGH EDUCATION tioning in the parent role. Among the most widely known are Gordon's, Dinkmeyer's, and Patterson's programs. Courses oriented around film strips and tapes also have proliferated. Some programs are affec¬ tively oriented, some reinforcement-oriented, and some (e.g., Guerney's) include elements of both orientations. Another type of programming permits the schools to serve a normalizing function for students struggling with the building of complex familial relationships beyond those of the nuclear, intact family. Among these are programs for pregnant teenagers or teenage parents. These courses sometimes include content reaching far beyond pregnancy and childcare per se, covering areas such as under¬ standing of self, employment planning, relationships with the baby's father and grandparents, and peer and community relationships for the teenage mothers. Some include skill-training components. DESIRABLE DIRECTIONS While it is clear that many schools are moving in appropriate directions, it would serve the cause of family wellness to vastly increase the number of schools that include in the curriculum all of the types of programs described above on a regular basis. New programs also should be added that increase self-discipline, habit control, rational psychosocial thinking, and other new individual and relationship-enhancing skills. We think it is very important that such programs not merely teach concepts and principles. Better, but still not sufficient, is the type of experiential learning that makes the principles emotionally meaningful through various tasks and exercises. We believe that to be long- lasting in its impact, such instruction needs to concentrate mainly on skill training as such. The concepts and principles taught need to be translated into behavioral terms, and the students should perfect and incorporate the skilled behaviors through practice with specific corrective and supportive feedback from the instructor. In addition, we believe that in every area of such instruction, the ways in which such skills can be used to improve present and future family life should be brought clearly into focus and emphasized. Unfortunately, skills do not generalize readily from one life arena to another. Relationships with peers, superiors, subordinates, and family members need to become the targets of specific training separately as](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b18037604_0227.JP2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
