Hawthorne Patient Profile Study
Principal Clinical Investigators:
Robert Abramovitz, MD (JBFCS); Bruce Grellong, PhD (JBFCS)
Principal Research Investigator: Mark Mattaini, PhD,
(CUSSW)
The population of youth seen at Hawthorne Cedar Knolls School, while
almost universally experiencing serious psychosocial difficulties is not
homogenous, according to preliminary results of a HCKS Patient Profile
Study released by Drs. Robert Abramovitz, Bruce Grellong, and Mark Mattaini.
This study identified five relatively distinct clusters of patients receiving
services at HCKS.
While every cluster is characterized by a high level of problems in
relationships with parents, one group is characterized by a particularly
high level of violent and anti-social behavior. A second cluster
have a particularly high level of substance abuse problems at admission,
accompanied by severe depression and school problems. A third small
cluster appears to be suffering from the results of parental loss.
The largest cluster is a group with particularly severe school problems
including learning disabilities, conduct disorders, problems with peers
and emotional difficulties. For the final cluster, the primary difficulties
revolve around severe family problems.
Five distinct clusters of families, based on dimensions of family functioning
like communication and affective involvement, as well as on positives and
negatives exchanged with the environment, were also identified. Substance
abuse has been present in almost half of the families, physical violence
in almost as many, and the rates of separation and divorce, death, and
physical illness or disability were also high.
The study was described in the 1990
issue of
Practice & Research.