MAC Family Counseling 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT) for alcohol use disorder is primarily designed to:
- Treat co-occurring depression in both partners
- Improve relationship functioning while supporting abstinence (Correct answer)
- Separate unhealthy relationship dynamics from substance treatment
- Teach partners to conduct home-based interventions
Correct answer: Improve relationship functioning while supporting abstinence
BCT integrates relationship skill-building with substance use treatment, as relationship quality is both a predictor and outcome of recovery.
Question 2: According to the family disease model, addiction affects the family system by:
- Causing only the addicted member to develop maladaptive coping patterns
- Creating predictable, dysfunctional roles and rules within the entire family (Correct answer)
- Strengthening family cohesion through shared adversity
- Primarily disrupting financial and legal stability
Correct answer: Creating predictable, dysfunctional roles and rules within the entire family
The family disease model posits that addiction produces characteristic dysfunctional patterns—such as the enabler, hero, scapegoat, and lost child roles—across the entire family.
Question 3: When conducting a family assessment in addiction treatment, which instrument is specifically designed to evaluate family functioning?
- ASI (Addiction Severity Index)
- FACES-IV (Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales) (Correct answer)
- AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test)
- DAST-10 (Drug Abuse Screening Test)
Correct answer: FACES-IV (Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales)
FACES-IV measures family cohesion and flexibility based on Olson's Circumplex Model, making it appropriate for family functioning assessment.
Question 4: A key principle of Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) is that:
- Adolescent substance use is best treated individually without family involvement
- Adolescent drug problems are maintained by multiple, interacting risk factors within the family and social ecology (Correct answer)
- Parents should be excluded from sessions until the adolescent achieves 30 days of sobriety
- Family therapy is less effective than CBT for adolescent substance use
Correct answer: Adolescent drug problems are maintained by multiple, interacting risk factors within the family and social ecology
MDFT addresses adolescent substance use through simultaneous intervention in multiple domains: adolescent, parent, family interaction, and extrafamilial systems.
Question 5: In family recovery, the concept of 'homeostasis' explains why families may resist change because:
- Family members are unwilling to attend treatment sessions
- Families unconsciously maintain familiar patterns to preserve system stability, even unhealthy ones (Correct answer)
- The addicted member refuses to accept help from relatives
- Family therapy is less financially accessible than individual therapy
Correct answer: Families unconsciously maintain familiar patterns to preserve system stability, even unhealthy ones
Homeostasis refers to the family system's tendency to return to familiar equilibrium, making change feel threatening even when current patterns are dysfunctional.
Question 6: Which of the following is a documented risk factor for children growing up in households with parental substance use disorder?
- Increased academic performance due to heightened self-reliance
- Elevated risk for developing their own substance use disorder (Correct answer)
- Stronger peer relationships due to independence
- Lower rates of anxiety compared to general population
Correct answer: Elevated risk for developing their own substance use disorder
Children of parents with substance use disorders are at significantly increased biological and environmental risk for developing their own substance use disorders.
Question 7: In Strategic Family Therapy, 'paradoxical intervention' refers to:
- Prescribing the symptom or the resistance to promote change (Correct answer)
- Simultaneously validating and challenging family members
- Using contradictory assessments from two different therapists
- Conducting sessions without the identified patient present
Correct answer: Prescribing the symptom or the resistance to promote change
Paradoxical interventions prescribe the symptom (e.g., 'keep doing the problem behavior deliberately') to disrupt the family's resistance and create change.
MAC Family Counseling 3
Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT) for alcohol use disorder is primarily designed to: