In Hill's ABC-X model of family crisis, "C" stands for:

The meaning or perception the family gives to the stressor

The family's financial resources only

The meaning or perception the family gives to the stressor

Which statements about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are correct? Select all that apply.

The best interests of the child is one of its guiding principles

Assertion (A): Carl Rogers's client-centred counselling relies on the counsellor's empathy, unconditional positive regard and genuineness. Reason (R): Directive counselling, associated with Williamson, gives the counsellor the leading role in diagnosing the problem and advising the client. Choose the correct option.

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Family Studies II: Families in Crisis and Family Therapy, Human Rights and the Rights of Children and Women, Guidance and Counselling across the Life Span, Health and Well-being, and Data Processing with Descriptive and Inferential Statistics

This chapter completes Unit VIII with items 6 to 10. It begins with families in crisis, Hill's ABC-X model and the schools of family therapy, with the national initiatives for child development; turns to human rights and the rights and status of women and children, with the conventions, constitutional provisions and laws that secure them; covers guidance and counselling across the life span and for caregivers; and considers health and well-being at every age. It ends with the Unit VIII research slice: collecting, editing, classifying, coding and tabulating data, and the descriptive and inferential statistics that summarise it and draw conclusions from it, with every calculation worked. Chapter 20 builds its parametric and non-parametric tests on these statistics.

1. Families in crisis, family therapy and initiatives for child development

Reuben Hill's ABC-X model (1949) explains why the same event breaks one family and not another: A, the stressor event, interacting with B, the family's resources for meeting it, and C, the meaning the family gives to it, produces X, the crisis. McCubbin and Patterson's Double ABC-X model extends it past the crisis, adding the pile-up of further stressors, new adaptive resources, the family's revised perception and coping, ending in adaptation that may be good or poor. Hill classified crises as dismemberment (loss of a member, as by death), accession (an unexpected addition, as a returning relative or an unplanned child), demoralisation (loss of morale and unity, as through infidelity or delinquency) and combinations of these (desertion, imprisonment, suicide).

School of family therapy	Key figure	Focus
Structural	Salvador Minuchin	Boundaries, subsystems and hierarchy; enmeshed and disengaged families; restructuring through enactment
Bowenian (family systems)	Murray Bowen	Differentiation of self, triangles, intergenerational patterns traced through the genogram
Strategic	Jay Haley	Specific problems solved by directives, including paradoxical ones
Experiential	Virginia Satir	Communication patterns and self-esteem; roles such as placater and blamer
Narrative	Michael White and David Epston	Externalising the problem and re-authoring the family's story
Solution-focused brief therapy	Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg	Exceptions to the problem, the miracle question, scaling

National initiatives for child development work through families: ICDS within Mission Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0; Mission Vatsalya for child protection; Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (launched at Panipat in January 2015) against the declining child sex ratio; the Sukanya Samriddhi savings account for girls; the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana maternity benefit; the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram for child health screening; Mission Indradhanush (from December 2014) to complete immunisation; and crèches for the children of working mothers.

2. Human rights, rights of children and women, status of women and gender roles

Human rights are the rights inherent in every person by virtue of being human. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948 (now Human Rights Day), sets out 30 articles of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, made binding through the two International Covenants of 1966. India's Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 set up the National Human Rights Commission and state commissions.

Instrument or body	Key points
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)	54 articles; ratified by India in 1992; four guiding principles (non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development, and respect for the child's views); rights often grouped as survival, development, protection and participation
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights	Set up under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005; monitors child rights laws including RTE and POCSO
CEDAW (1979)	The international bill of rights for women; ratified by India in 1993
Constitution of India	Equality (Article 14), no discrimination on grounds of sex with special provisions for women and children allowed (Article 15(3)), equal opportunity in public employment (16), equal pay for equal work (39(d)), maternity relief (42), renouncing practices derogatory to women (51A(e)); one-third reservation for women in panchayats and municipalities (73rd and 74th Amendments), and in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies under the Constitution (106th Amendment) Act 2023, to take effect after the delimitation that follows the next census
Laws for women	Maternity Benefit Act (26 weeks of paid leave since the 2017 amendment), the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013 (following the Vishaka guidelines of 1997), the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005; the National Commission for Women (1992)

The status of women is read from indicators of survival, education, health, work, income, decision making and political participation. The 2011 Census recorded a sex ratio of 943 females per 1,000 males, a child sex ratio (0 to 6 years) of 918, and female literacy of 65.5 per cent against 82.1 per cent for men; NFHS-5 (2019-21) recorded an overall sex ratio of 1,020 and a sex ratio at birth of 929. Sex refers to biological difference; gender to the socially constructed roles, behaviours and expectations attached to being male or female, learned through socialisation in the family, school, media and religion. Gender roles assign most unpaid care and domestic work to women, which limits their paid work and leisure; gender analysis, gender budgeting (in India's Union Budget since 2005-06) and gender-sensitive programmes aim to correct this.

3. Guidance and counselling across the life span and for caregivers

Guidance is the broader process of helping individuals understand themselves and their opportunities and make choices, in educational, vocational and personal-social areas; counselling is a more intensive, confidential, one-to-one or small-group helping relationship focused on the client's concerns. The main approaches are directive (counsellor-centred, trait-factor, associated with E. G. Williamson), non-directive or client-centred (Carl Rogers, built on the counsellor's empathy, unconditional positive regard and genuineness) and eclectic (drawing on several approaches to suit the client), with cognitive-behavioural methods (Ellis's rational emotive behaviour therapy with its ABC model, and Beck's cognitive therapy) widely used. The process moves through rapport, exploration and assessment, goal setting, intervention, and termination with follow-up. Basic skills are attending (Egan's SOLER: face the client squarely, open posture, lean forward, eye contact, relaxed), active listening, paraphrasing, reflecting feelings, questioning and summarising.

Life stage or group	Typical counselling concerns
Children	Behaviour, learning difficulties, abuse, family change; play therapy and work with parents
Adolescents	Career choice, academic stress, identity, relationships, sexuality, substance use, mental health
Adults	Premarital and marital counselling, parenting, career change, work-life balance, stress
Older adults	Retirement, loneliness, chronic illness, bereavement, preparation for death
Caregivers	Caregiver burden and burnout among those caring for a person with disability, dementia or chronic illness; respite care, support groups, information and self-care

ℹ️ Grief and mental health support

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described five stages of response to dying and loss (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance), which counsellors now treat as common reactions rather than a fixed sequence. India's Mental Healthcare Act 2017 frames mental health care as a right, and the Tele-MANAS helpline (14416), launched in 2022, gives round-the-clock tele-counselling.

4. Health and well-being across the life span

The WHO constitution (1948) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Well-being is studied in two traditions: hedonic (happiness, positive feeling, life satisfaction) and eudaimonic (meaning and self-realisation), as in Carol Ryff's six dimensions of psychological well-being (self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth) and Martin Seligman's PERMA model (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment). A life-course approach recognises that health at each age builds on earlier ones, so prevention begins before birth.

Levels of prevention: primordial (preventing risk factors from arising, such as healthy lifestyles in childhood), primary (preventing disease, by immunisation or iodised salt), secondary (early diagnosis and treatment, by screening) and tertiary (limiting disability and rehabilitating).
The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) set five action areas: build healthy public policy, create supportive environments, strengthen community action, develop personal skills and reorient health services.
Across the life span: antenatal care and immunisation in infancy; nutrition, play and safety in childhood; life skills (the WHO lists ten, from decision making and problem solving to coping with stress and emotions), reproductive and mental health in adolescence; prevention of non-communicable disease, occupational health and stress management in adulthood; and active ageing, fall prevention and palliative care in old age.
Programmes: Ayushman Bharat (2018), with primary care centres now called Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and PM-JAY health cover of 5 lakh rupees per family per year; the Fit India Movement (2019); and the national programmes for non-communicable diseases, mental health and elderly care.

5. Research methods VIII: data processing, and descriptive and inferential statistics

Data are primary (collected first-hand by the researcher with the tools of chapter 14) or secondary (already collected by others, such as NFHS or census data). Processing turns raw responses into analysable form. Editing checks completeness, consistency and accuracy, in the field and centrally. Classification groups data by attributes (qualitative: sex, religion), by class intervals (quantitative: age, income), in time (chronological) or by place (geographical). Coding assigns numbers or symbols to responses according to a codebook, so that "vegetarian" might become 1 and "non-vegetarian" 2. Tabulation arranges the coded data in tables, simple (one variable) or complex (two or more); a table has a number, a title, a stub (row headings), a caption or box head (column headings), the body, footnotes and the source. A frequency distribution groups values into classes; Sturges's rule suggests k = 1 + 3.322 log₁₀ N classes, about 8 for 100 observations.

Descriptive statistic	Definition	Worked on the scores 4, 6, 8, 10, 12
Mean	Sum of values / number of values	40 / 5 = 8
Median	Middle value of the ordered data	8 (third of five)
Range	Highest − lowest	12 − 4 = 8
Variance	Mean of squared deviations from the mean (divide by n; for a sample estimate divide by n − 1)	Deviations −4, −2, 0, 2, 4; squares sum to 40; 40 / 5 = 8 (or 40 / 4 = 10)
Standard deviation	Square root of the variance	√8 = 2.83 (or √10 = 3.16)
Coefficient of variation	SD / mean × 100, for comparing variability across different scales	A mean of 50 with an SD of 10 gives 20 per cent

Correlation describes the strength and direction of association between two variables, from −1 through 0 to +1. Pearson's r suits interval or ratio data; Spearman's rank correlation, ρ = 1 − 6Σd² / (n(n² − 1)), suits ranks: for 5 pairs of ranks whose squared differences sum to 4, ρ = 1 − 24 / (5 × 24) = 1 − 0.2 = 0.8. In a normal distribution, about 68.26 per cent of values lie within 1 SD of the mean, 95.44 per cent within 2 SD and 99.73 per cent within 3 SD. Inferential statistics generalise from a sample to its population: estimation gives a point estimate and a confidence interval (a 95 per cent interval is the mean ± 1.96 standard errors, where the standard error is SD / √n; a sample of 100 with mean 50 and SD 10 gives 50 ± 1.96, from 48.04 to 51.96), and hypothesis testing, whose logic was set out in chapter 10, decides whether a difference or relationship is larger than chance would produce. The tests themselves follow in chapter 20.

🧠 Which average?

The mean uses every value but is pulled by extremes, so household income, which has a long upper tail, is better summarised by the median. The mode suits nominal data (the most common cooking fuel). In a positively skewed distribution the mean lies above the median, which lies above the mode.

Key takeaways

Hill's ABC-X model: stressor (A) with resources (B) and perception (C) yields crisis (X); crises are dismemberment, accession, demoralisation or combinations; family therapies include structural, Bowenian, strategic, experiential, narrative and solution-focused.
The UDHR (1948) has 30 articles; the UNCRC (1989, 54 articles) was ratified by India in 1992 and CEDAW (1979) in 1993; women's reservation in legislatures comes from the 106th Amendment Act of 2023.
Counselling approaches are directive, client-centred (empathy, unconditional positive regard, genuineness) and eclectic; SOLER summarises attending; caregivers need support against burden and burnout.
Health is complete physical, mental and social well-being (WHO 1948); well-being is hedonic and eudaimonic (Ryff, PERMA); prevention is primordial, primary, secondary and tertiary.
Processing runs editing, classification, coding and tabulation; mean, median, mode, SD and CV describe data; Spearman's ρ = 1 − 6Σd² / n(n² − 1); a 95 per cent confidence interval is the mean ± 1.96 SE.

Practice questions (10)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

A group's mean haemoglobin is 10 g/dL with a standard deviation of 2 g/dL. What is the coefficient of variation, in per cent? Type the number.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 20
CV = SD / mean × 100 = 2 / 10 × 100 = 20 per cent. Because it is unit-free, CV lets the variability of haemoglobin be compared with that of, say, body weight.
Five mothers are ranked on nutrition knowledge and on their children's dietary diversity; the squared differences between the pairs of ranks sum to 4. What is Spearman's rank correlation coefficient? Type the answer as a decimal.
Numerical answer — type the value.
Show answer
Answer: 0.8
ρ = 1 − 6Σd² / (n(n² − 1)) = 1 − (6 × 4) / (5 × 24) = 1 − 24 / 120 = 0.8, a strong positive correlation.
In Hill's ABC-X model of family crisis, "C" stands for:
1. The stressor event
2. The crisis itself
3. The family's financial resources only
4. The meaning or perception the family gives to the stressor
Show answer
Answer: D — The meaning or perception the family gives to the stressor
A is the stressor, B the family's resources (all kinds, not only money), C the family's definition of the event, and X the resulting crisis. The same event can be a crisis for one family and not another because B and C differ.
Which approach to family therapy emphasises boundaries, subsystems and hierarchy, and was developed by Salvador Minuchin?
1. Solution-focused brief therapy
2. Rational emotive behaviour therapy
3. Structural family therapy
4. Narrative therapy
Show answer
Answer: C — Structural family therapy
Minuchin's structural therapy maps and restructures boundaries and subsystems. Narrative therapy (White and Epston) re-authors stories, solution-focused therapy (de Shazer and Berg) builds on exceptions, and REBT (Ellis) is an individual cognitive therapy.
Which statements about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are correct? Select all that apply.
1. It has 30 articles
2. India ratified it in 1992
3. It was adopted in 1989
4. The best interests of the child is one of its guiding principles
Show answer
Answer: B — India ratified it in 1992; C — It was adopted in 1989; D — The best interests of the child is one of its guiding principles
The UNCRC was adopted in 1989 and ratified by India in 1992, and the best interests of the child is among its four guiding principles. It has 54 articles; 30 is the number in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Assertion (A): Carl Rogers's client-centred counselling relies on the counsellor's empathy, unconditional positive regard and genuineness. Reason (R): Directive counselling, associated with Williamson, gives the counsellor the leading role in diagnosing the problem and advising the client. Choose the correct option.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: B — Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
Both are true, but R does not explain A. A describes Rogers's core conditions for the non-directive approach; R describes the contrasting directive approach, which cannot be the reason for Rogers's emphasis.
In a normal distribution, approximately what percentage of values lie within one standard deviation of the mean?
1. 99.7 per cent
2. 68 per cent
3. 95 per cent
4. 50 per cent
Show answer
Answer: B — 68 per cent
About 68.26 per cent of a normal distribution lies within ±1 SD, 95.44 per cent within ±2 SD and 99.73 per cent within ±3 SD. Half the values lie above the mean, but that is not the one-SD band.
Monthly household incomes in a village are strongly skewed by a few wealthy families. Which average best represents a typical household?
1. The arithmetic mean
2. The range
3. The standard deviation
4. The median
Show answer
Answer: D — The median
The median is unaffected by the size of extreme values, so it represents the typical household when a few incomes are very high; the mean is pulled upward. Range and standard deviation measure spread, not the average.
Which of the following are steps in processing survey data before analysis? Select all that apply.
1. Selecting the sample
2. Editing
3. Formulating the hypothesis
4. Coding
Show answer
Answer: B — Editing; D — Coding
Editing, classification, coding and tabulation prepare collected data for analysis. Formulating the hypothesis and selecting the sample both happen before data collection, not in processing.
A sample of 100 women has a mean daily iron intake of 50 units with a standard deviation of 10. The 95 per cent confidence interval for the population mean is:
1. 30.4 to 69.6
2. 49 to 51
3. 48.04 to 51.96
4. 40 to 60
Show answer
Answer: C — 48.04 to 51.96
The standard error is 10 / √100 = 1, so the interval is 50 ± 1.96 × 1, from 48.04 to 51.96. Using the SD instead of the standard error (50 ± 19.6) gives the band containing individual intakes, not the interval for the mean.