Davies, Kathleen
(2013)
A Typology of Family Functioning in a Child and Adolescent Outpatient Community Mental Health Treatment Facility.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Current estimates suggest that 16% to 22% of children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with mental health disorders, and nearly six million children and adolescents experience symptoms that interrupt their daily functioning (Chung, Edgar-Smith, Palmer, Bartholomew, & Delambo, 2008). Understanding the functioning of families seeking mental health services is imperative to tailoring services in order to meet their needs. The purpose of the present study was to explore and describe the functioning of families as they initiate outpatient community mental health services in an effort to better understand their needs and ultimately to tailor the services to meet these needs. Two research questions were posed in the present study: 1) What typology of family functioning exists for families initiating outpatient services from a community mental health treatment facility, and 2) In what specific areas of family functioning are families obtaining unhealthy scores most frequently? This study utilized an exploratory analysis, specifically a k-means cluster analysis, in order to identify and describe a typology of family functioning as perceived by families initiating outpatient mental health services. The findings suggest that three clusters emerged from the data including: 1) families who obtained healthy scores on all of the subscales on the measurement used, 2) families who obtained unhealthy scores on all of the subscales, and 3) families who obtained healthy scores on some of the subscales and unhealthy scores on others. Given that this study is a first in the field, the results have both pertinent research and clinical implications.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
10 January 2013 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
17 October 2012 |
| Approval Date: |
10 January 2013 |
| Submission Date: |
18 November 2012 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
129 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
School of Education > Psychology in Education |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Family Functioning
Mental Health
Outpatient
Family Therapy
Developmental Psychology
Family Assessment |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Jan 2013 15:26 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 14:07 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16466 |
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