CHILD FUNCTIONING AND THE FAMILY: BETWEEN FAMILY VARIATION.

This article presents a fifteen-year quantitative study of the associations between family systems variables and overall child functioning in a sibling group. Bowen family systems theory provided the framework for the research hypotheses and questions. The study found the annual degree of child symptomology in the family units over fifteen years correlated with the following variables: multigenerational stress, marital and adult symptomology, lack of participant self-direction, emotional cutoff, primary triangle reactivity, and child symptomology in the multigenerational family. These associations supported the family systems’ hypotheses in Bowen theory related to child functioning. This article expands on a companion article, "Child Focus and the Family Unit: A Comparison of Families with Higher and Lower Child Symptomology," published in Family Systems 19.2 by examining contextual family factors that associated with child functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]