While he was Director of the Philadelphia Child
In Families of the Slums, Minuchin and his
colleagues (1967) described the structural
characteristics of low socioeconomic families
and demonstrated the effectiveness of family
therapy with this population. Prior to treat-
ment, mothers in patient families were found to
be either over- or undercontrolling; either way
their children were more disruptive than those
in control families. After treatment mothers
used less coercive control, yet were clearer and
more firm. In this study, seven of eleven fami-
lies were judged to be improved after six months
to a year of family therapy. Although no con-
trol group was used, the authors compared