This descriptive study with quantitative aspects examined the phenomenon of elder abuse through the systematic review of 60 cases of elder abuse. Cases were randomly selected from the files of an Adult Protective Services agency in the North Central Texas area. Research questions examined the characteristics of the victims and abusers, types and duration of abuse, descriptions of abusive situations, the reporting and verification of abuse, case management strategies utilized by caseworkers, and the consequences of those strategies. The results of this study point to the probability of the elderly abuse victim being 75 years of age or older, female, white, and widowed. There did appear to be some connection between race and type of abuse with white victims more likely to experience physical and financial abuse. Approximately half of the elderly abuse victims had severe limitations in physical and/or mental functioning leading to some degree of dependence upon their abusers. However, eighty percent of the elderly victims resided in their own homes and half of these individuals were functionally independent. This study provided descriptions of the various types of abuse that were observed: physical, financial, emotional, passive neglect, and active neglect. Financial abuse was noted most frequently, and multiple …

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of the use of parents as therapeutic agents. The purpose of this study was twofold. The first was to determine the effect of filial therapy on parental acceptance, self-esteem, parent-child relationship, and family environment. A second was to analyze the results and make recommendations concerning the effectiveness of filial therapy as a treatment modality for parents and their children. The experimental design of the study was a nonrandomized, pretest-posttest, control group design.The sample (N=47) consisted of the experimental group (parents N=15, children N=9) who received filial therapy and the control group (parents N=12, children N=ll) who did not. The treatment included ten, two hour weekly parent training sessions. During these sessions the parents were taught the principles of client-centered play therapy and were instructed to conduct weekly one-half hour play sessions at home with their own children. Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1) Filial therapy does significantly increase the parents' feeling of unconditional love for their children and 2) Filial therapy does significantly increase the parents' perception of expressed conflict in their family. In addition to the statistically significant results, there were some …

This study sought to determine the influence of pretherapy religious value information upon potential clients' (a) perceptions of a counselor, (b) willingness to see a counselor and (c) confidence of counselor helpfulness. Two hundred and ten undergraduate college students volunteered for the study. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups and given varying amounts and types of written information about a counselor. Group 1 received just the counselor's credentials. Group 2 received the same information plus statements about the counselor's beliefs about counseling and his therapeutic approach. Group 3 received the same information as group 2 plus a statement of the counselor's religious values. Subjects then viewed a short video tape of the counselor in a counseling session. Results of statistical treatment of dependent variables indicated that subjects' perceptions of the counselor, willingness to see the counselor, and confidence of counselor helpfulness were not influenced by the written information, including the statement of religious values that the subjects received before viewing the video tape of the counselor. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed.