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Patterns of Adjustment to Violence in Families of the Mentally Ill

Tulane University

MELISSA LAVITT

Tulane University

Violent behavior of the psychologically handicapped individual and its effect on the family was studied using a large national sample (N = 1,156). Subjects answered a questionnaire concerning their relatives' behavior and their own reactions to aggressive and destructive acts. Approximately 38% of the sample was classified as violent. The variables that best discriminated between violent and nonviolent individuals were education, compliance with medication, alcohol abuse, employment, number of hospitalizations, income, and age. Resources and violence were inversely related. It was found that the higher the income, the better the self-reported level of family adjustment. Living in or out of the family home had no effect on adjustment. Families of nonviolent relatives reported a higher level of adjustment both in the first year of illness and at present. When families were asked how they altered their behavior in response to violence, five categories of response were reported: no alteration, self-restriction, distancing from relative, assertion of limits, and calming the patient. A significant difference in adjustment was found between the families using distancing and calming with the latter perceiving the best degree of adjustment.

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