Tag Archives: relationships

Family-Like Environment Better for Troubled Children and Teens

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The Teaching-Family Model changes bad behavior through straight talk and loving relationships.
Findings

In the late 1960′s, psychologists Elaine Phillips, Elery Phillips, Dean Fixsen, and Montrose Wolf developed an empirically tested treatment program to help troubled children and juvenile offenders who had been assigned to residential group homes. These researchers combined the successful components of their studies into the Teaching-Family Model, which offers a structured treatment regimen in a family-like environment. The model is built around a married couple (teaching-parents) that lives with children in a group home and teaches them essential interpersonal and living skills. Not only have teaching parents’ behaviors and techniques been assessed for their effectiveness, but they have also been empirically tested for whether children like them. Teaching-parents also work with the children’s parents, teachers, employers, and peers to ensure support for the children’s positive changes. Although more research is needed, preliminary results suggest that, compared to children in other residential treatment programs, children in Teaching-Family Model centers have fewer contacts with police and courts, lower dropout rates, and improved school grades and attendance.

Couples are selected to be teaching-parents based on their ability to provide individualized and affirming care. Teaching-parents then undergo an intensive year-long training process. In order to maintain their certification, teaching-parents and Teaching-Family Model organizations are evaluated every year, and must meet the rigorous standards set by the Teaching-Family Association.
Significance
The Teaching-Family Model is one of the few evidence-based residential treatment programs for troubled children. In the past, many treatment programs viewed delinquency as an illness, and therefore placed children in institutions for medical treatment. The Teaching-Family Model, in contrast, views children’s behavior problems as stemming from their lack of essential interpersonal relationships and skills. Accordingly, the Teaching-Family Model provides children with these relationships and teaches them these skills, using empirically validated methods. With its novel view of problem behavior and its carefully tested and disseminated treatment program, the Teaching-Family Model has helped to transform the treatment of behavioral problems from impersonal interventions at large institutions to caring relationships in home and community settings. The Teaching-Family Model has also demonstrated how well-researched treatment programs can be implemented on a large scale. Most importantly, the Teaching-Family Model has given hope that young people with even the most difficult problems or behaviors can improve the quality of their lives and make contributions to society.
Practical Application
In recent years, the Teaching-Family Model has been expanded to include foster care facilities, home treatment settings, and even schools. The Teaching-Family Model has also been adapted to accommodate the needs of physically, emotionally, and sexually abused children; emotionally disturbed and autistic children and adults; medically fragile children; and adults with disabilities. Successful centers that have been active for over 30 years include the Bringing it All Back Home Study Center in North Carolina, the Houston Achievement Place in Texas, and the Girls and Boys Town in Nebraska. Other Teaching-Family Model organizations are in Alberta (Canada), Arkansas, Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Can Rebound Relationships Work?

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Have you ever asked yourself “can rebound relationships work?” You are not alone. Many people are skeptical when it comes to rebound relationships. A rebound relationship is when you begin a relationship right after a breakup. Critics of rebound relationships say that they do not work because the person who is rebounding is often just looking for what he or she had with their prior partner. They say that most people feel very lonely when they get out of a relationship and quickly seek someone new. They do not believe that rebound relationships work.Can rebound relationships work? That is the question that a lot of people who find themselves falling for someone after a breakup wonder. Those who give love advice often advise people to wait and give themselves time to heal before embarking on another relationship. But these type of relationships often do work.A person who is just coming out of a relationship is much more prone to starting a new relationship than someone who is comfortable being alone. Relationships are very tricky things – they can come in bunches or it can be a long period of time between relationships.Rebound relationships can work if both parties become committed to one another and are willing to put the past in the past. If one party is still longing for his or her lost love well into the relationship, then the relationship will experience problems. But that does not mean that someone cannot be longing for someone else upon entering a relationship and not grow to love the person with whom they embarked on a rebound relationship.If you have been asking yourself “can rebound relationships work” you are probably thinking of entering into a new relationship with someone or are in a relationship with a person who is on the rebound. You may be surprised to learn that this relationship stands as much of a chance of working out as any other relationship.Think of it this way – if someone is entering into a relationship because they miss being in a relationship, they are more likely to commit than someone who has been out of a relationship for a while and is perfectly happy on his or her own.If you are entering into a new relationship after a break up, you may feel lonely and scared. You may be looking to cling on to someone, anyone, so that you do not have to be alone. People will state that you are entering into the relationship for “all the wrong reasons.” But if being lonely is not a reason to be in a relationship, what is?Most people who are not in relationship long for companionship with another person. Human beings are not meant to live alone and are social creatures. While the degree of loneliness may be different for someone who is on the rebound than for someone who has been on their own for a while, it is still basically the same thing. Can rebound relationships work? Yes, if you give them time to develop and flourish.