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A Family/Systems Approach to Illness‐Maintaining Behaviors in Chronically III Adolescents
Author(s) -
FREY JOSEPH
Publication year - 1984
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.1545-5300.1984.00251.x
Subject(s) - psychodynamics , intervention (counseling) , psychology , family systems , medical illness , psychotherapist , action (physics) , illness behavior , medicine , clinical psychology , psychiatry , developmental psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
A distressingly significant number of chronic, seriously ill adolescents demonstrate poor medical management of their illnesses through “illness‐maintaining behaviors.” These behaviors are defined in this article as any action that compromises chronically ill adolescents' care and prevents them from functioning optimally. Current conceptualizations of illness‐maintaining behaviors offer explanations that view these behaviors as individually focused, using either psychodynamic or behavioral models. This article, however, presents a family systems model of illness‐maintaining behaviors. A therapeutic framework leading to specific intervention strategies is also developed.