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Perceptions of Family Environment Among Psychiatric Patients and Their Wives
Author(s) -
SPIEGEL DAVID,
WISSLER TERRY
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1983.00537.x
Subject(s) - family environment scale , normative , perception , psychology , norm (philosophy) , psychiatry , recreation , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , political science , law
This study compared the perceived family environments of former psychiatric inpatients with thought, affective, and substance abuse disorders to those of normative comparison couples using the Family Environment Scale. Family environment was assessed among patients and wives separately at hospital discharge and at three‐ and twelve‐month follow‐ups. Patients and their wives were consistently more incongruent in their perceptions of their shared environment than normative couples. In addition, low‐functioning patient couples reported less family cohesion, expressiveness, and recreational emphasis than their higher functioning counterparts; the high‐functioning patient couples more closely resembled the norm. The paper discusses possible relationships between positive family contact and better patient functioning.