Case Scenario:
Jarvis and Nelly Macintyre are a couple in their early 30’s with three children: Rachel 9, Artie 6, and Howie who is 28 months. Jarvis comes from a family of coal miners but he was laid off two years ago due to the falling demand for coal. He is currently receiving unemployment benefits but they will expire soon. At the time of Jarvis’s layoff, Nelly was working as a part-time bank teller. She was able to move up to a full-time loan officer to allowing her to support her family. Now, however, she resents not being able to spend as much time with her children, which depresses her. Jarvis has taken on the role of the stay-at-home parent, which he dislikes, and his own family members tease him and call him Mr. Mom. He is waiting to be called back to work at the mines but that is not likely, and he has not worked very hard to find any other kind of work or retraining, something that Nelly has repeatedly asked him to do.

When Rachel is not in school, her father expects her to take care of Howie, telling her that it’s her job to learn how to be a parent. Nelly sometimes arrives home from work, hoping to spend time with the children, and Howie stays away from her and Artie is defiant and non-compliant. Instead she finds that chores need to be done that she thinks Jarvis should be doing. Jarvis and Nelly argue, sometime loudly, over who is responsible for household tasks. Divorce has been mentioned in the arguments, which are sometimes overheard by the children. The Macintyre’s made this appointment at the recommendation of Artie’s first grade teacher. Prior to starting school Artie had seemed well-adjusted and prepared for school but in kindergarten he had been a loner and now he is having more anger outbursts and fights with classmates. He has fallen behind his classmates in overall learning, particularly reading and writing. Making the appointment was a conflict at home since Jarvis believes Artie is just going through a phase and he will outgrow it. He wants Artie to grow up tough enough to handle conflict and bullies, something that he is familiar with, since he grew up in a rough and abusive family.

a. what is shown by the case above