Pant-legs and pathology: The marriage of individual and family assessment

Bowen family systems theory suggests that individuals who report high levels of individual pathology will also report having been raised in families characterized by high conflict and low adaptability. Combining individual and family assessment measures, or using one type of measure to understand the results of the other may be possible through the application of systems theory. Therapeutic implications of the study reported here indicate that practitioners should consider the value of focusing on family of origin processes before a primary focus on isolated traumatic events guides the direction of therapy.