Each year, the British Journal of Family Therapy offers a lengthy review of worldwide family therapy journals. In his abstract this year, Alan Carr promises to refer ...
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Feedback for ANZJFT Alan Carr
Each year, the British Journal of Family Therapy offers a lengthy review of worldwide family therapy journals. In his abstract this year, Alan Carr promises to refer not only to ‘particularly significant papers but also to the less significant but representative articles…(2008: [296]). The ANZJFT attracted some welcome attention under the headings of: Risk Management of Adolescents in Crisis
Systemic practice with families of adolescents who are a danger to themselves or to others is challenging. With a complex case example, Bickerton et al. (2007) illustrated the hierarchical Safety First Model for working with such high-risk young people in crisis. With this approach, family therapy and multi-systemic interagency intervention are used to create a safe context for the young person. The approach empowers families, facilitates connections with other relevant agencies, and minimizes the need for hospitalization (2008: 298). Mother–Infant Attachment
In a study of 51 mother–child dyads, 38 of whom had experienced child abuse or neglect, Crittenden et al. (2007) found that the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (Crittenden, 1992) differentiated securely attached versus insecurely attached children on maltreatment status, maternal sensitivity, child’s development quotient and maternal attachment strategy. The Preschool Assessment of Attachment was also correlated with other family relationship variables in meaningful ways. In contrast, Crittenden et al. (2007) found that two other methods for assessing attachment — the Ainsworthextended method (Ainsworth et al., 1978) and the Cassidy-Marvin (Cassidy et al., 1992) method — were not as good at classifying cases. These findings suggest that the Preschool Assessment of Attachment be used in preference to other methods when assessing risk of abuse or neglect in families with preschool children (2008: 304). International Professional Developments
Two international issues in 2007 deserving mention… the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy … Crago and Crago (2007) presented an overview of the twenty-five year history of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT). They also provide a bibliometric survey of the journal. Darracott (2007) reviewed key themes in the past 25 years of Australian family therapy (2008: 310–311).
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Congratulations to Annemaree Bickerton and her team, and to Pat Crittenden and her co-authors; we hope that Alan Carr’s publicising of their work in this way will provoke more people to read these papers. Congratulations to Robin Darracott, whose close analysis of the local scene tells us so much about family therapy locally, its strength and its blind spots. And lastly, congratulations to Susan Morwood. Diversity
Morwood (2007) gave an account of developing systemic parenting programmes in a Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon … sensitivity to cultural diversity in systemic practice was an important concern within the field in 2007 (2008: 303).
References Bickerton, Annemaree, Tiffany Hense, Agnes Benstock, Julie Ward & Lyn Wallace, 2007. Safety First: A Model of Care for Working Systemically with High Risk Young People and their Families in an Acute Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, ANZJFT, 28, 3: 121–129. Carr, Alan, 2008. Thematic Review of Family Therapy Journals in 2007, Journal of Family Therapy, 30, 3: 296–319. Cassidy, J., Marvin, R. S., and the MacArthur Consortium on Attachment in the Preschool Years, 1989–1992. Attachment Organization in Three- and Four-year Olds: Coding Guidelines. Unpublished manuscript, University of Virginia. Crago, Hugh & Maureen, 2007. The ANZJFT: Snapshots from the History of an Evolving Journal, ANZJFT, 28, 1: 11–20. Crittenden, P. M., 1992. The Preschool Assessment of Attachment. Coding Manual. Unpublished manuscript. Available from the author. Crittenden, Patricia McKinsey, Angelika Hartl Claussen & Kasia Kozlowska, 2007. Choosing a Valid Assessment of Attachment for Clinical Use: A Comparative Study, ANZJFT, 28, 2: 78–87. Darracott, Robin, 2007. Australian Family Therapy: Have We Lived Up To Our Mission Statement? ANZJFT, 28, 1: 1–10. Morwood, Susan, 2007. A Family Therapist at Work in a Refugee Camp [Letter from Lebanon], ANZJFT, 28, 3: 171–172.
ANZJFT Volume 29 Number 4 2008 p. 234
