USING BOWEN FAMILY SYSTEMS THEORY CONCEPTS

TO EXPLORE HOW ADULT INTERACTIONS

MAY INFLUENCE STUDENT FUNCTIONING

Robin S. Shultz, DSW

Family of origin interaction patterns shape both student

functioning and staff perceptions, contributing to each
school developing its own “family” interaction patterns.
These dynamics can inhibit effective problem solving when
schools are not able to shift away from the medicalization of
student difficulties towards a systems view of functioning.
A shift such as this would open doors through which families
may likely enter as they become true partners in their child’s
education. Critical discoveries in science and neuroscience
on anxiety and stress support the idea that interactions with
significant adults, both inside and outside the biological
family, greatly influence children’s mental health. This
article reviews how living systems function and identifies
how individuals’ actions and beliefs can impact the behavior
of others. Results from a small study examining correlations
between parent constructs of Bowen family systems theory
and student social and emotional skills are presented. Results
indicate statistically significant associations between parent
fusion with others, student tendencies to behave anxiously
with others, and emotional cutoff.

Keywords: anxiety, trauma, social/emotional learning,

Bowen family systems theory, fusion with others, emotional
cutoff, systems functioning

As public education searches for ways to implement

meaningful mental health services in schools, an area continu-
ing to escape attention is the impact that adult interactions
have on student functioning. School systems are in some ways
analogous to family systems as educators, parents, and other

Dr. Shultz is a licensed school social worker who is also in private practice at New
Legends Counseling, Coaching, and Consulting, LLC in Geneva, Illinois. She may
be reached at rshultz@newlegendscounseling.com.

© Georgetown Family Center, 2022

133
134 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

students function as members of one large extended unit. Each

has the ability to change the context of student experience
based on the degree to which their actions and words signal to
a student that they or their functioning does not meet others’
expectations. Social, emotional, or academic discrepancies
between students are often viewed as difficulties in need of
fixing rather than as variation in a student’s ability to adapt.
Adults have little control over the day-to-day influence of a
student’s peers, but they can provide a significant stabilizing
factor to children as they learn to cope with difficult situations
on their own. Recent attention given to childhood trauma has
provided insight for educators into the emotional function-
ing of students and spurred the development of many direct,
adult-led interventions. At the same time, children’s innate
abilities to self-heal through adaptivity, resilience, and engage-
ment in at least one relationship with a significant adult who
believes in them (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard
University 2016, 8), has often been glossed over.
Parents and educators have differing experiences with
students due to knowing them in separate contexts. Discrepan-
cies in perception of a child’s ability can emerge when higher
or lower skill performance is demonstrated at home than at
school. A conflict between parents and educators may arise
when students, having shown through standardized testing
or direct observation in the school environment to be capable
of performing an academic or social task, do not consistently
carry this task out or perform it when at home with their
parents. Such inconsistencies can cause tension and impact
home/school partnerships as both parties believe they are
doing what is best for the child. Parents may seek to secure
more support for the student in the school environment while
educators’ foci may be on fostering student growth and inde-
pendent functioning.
Problems deemed significant enough by either teachers or
parents to warrant attention are typically addressed in schools
through one of three processes: (1) Response to Intervention,
(RTI), (2) Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), or (3)
evaluation for special education services. These pathways to
problem solving build upon each other, with educators seek-
ing solutions that are least restrictive to the student’s ability to
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 135

function independently. As parent involvement in each of the

processes is encouraged but not required (with the exception
of students being evaluated for special education services),
level of parental input can vary from not at all to exceedingly
involved. Some parents engage eagerly in working with school
staff to address problems at school while others allow educa-
tors to handle them.
Although a general consensus in education is that
increased parental involvement always leads to better student
outcomes, this is not reliably the case. It is sometimes observed
that an increased level of positive parent involvement coin-
cides with improvement, while at other times it coincides with
further decline. For example, a common assumption is that
when parents become more involved in attempting to help
resolve problems at school and outcomes deteriorate, that this
decline is due to increased parental punitiveness. In fact, there
may be a great deal of positive support at home but, for a
variety of reasons, the child reacts to this encouragement in
unexpected ways, one of which might be to maintain homeo-
stasis within the established family system.
The remainder of this paper will address three topics
related to adult interactions with students and how they may
influence student functioning. They are:

1. An exploration of why an unexpected outcome such as

described above might occur given what is currently
known about systems functioning, family interaction
patterns, and the ways in which schools collabo-
rate to solve student problems and deliver mental
health services;
2. A discussion of the results of a small research
study conducted by the author examining relation-
ships between family of origin interactions patterns
and student social/emotional functioning will
be shared; and,
3. The author’s thinking about the importance for school
social workers and practicing clinicians to understand
family systems concepts when working with all clients
and constituents, not only those in school settings.
136 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

Family Interaction Patterns

Papero characterized family systems functioning by,
among other things, “the roles and postures [family] members
take in response to one another in reciprocal and dynamic
sequences of interconnected behavior or patterns” (2017, 585).
Bowen further suggested that within living systems, individu-
als naturally develop functioning positions in relation to each
other that can, over time, develop into clearly defined inter-
action patterns, more accurately described as “processes”
([1971] 1978, 204). Processes that can develop within fami-
lies include but are not limited to: (a) differentiation of self
([1976] 1978, 362); (b) emotional cutoff ([1976] 1978, 382); (c)
emotional reactivity ([1976] 1978, 363); (d) fusion with others
(Kerr and Bowen 1988, 65); (e) I position ([1971a]1978, 252-254);
(f) over-and underfunctioning ([1971] 1978, 204); and (g) the
child-focus projection process (Kerr and Bowen 1988, 129-130).
In schools, staff members also develop functioning positions
in their relationships to others. When administrators leading a
school are placed in the difficult position of having to reverse
or disagree with decisions made by teachers or other profes-
sionals, they are often viewed as parents by both themselves
and staff members and can assume roles similar to those of
parents. Taking on the role of parent can be based on function-
ing roles held in their own families of origin. Similarly, staff
members can over-rely on administrators or others to make
decisions when they have held a reciprocal functioning posi-
tion within their families of origin.

FAMILY PROCESSES AND FUNCTIONING

POSITIONS DEFINED IN BOWEN THEORY
The descriptions of the concepts of Bowen theory
constructs described below are, for the purpose of this paper,
highly abbreviated. Within the theory, each of these ideas is
fastidiously described in terms of human functioning and
represents only a fragment of a larger integration which
comprises the theory as a whole.

Differentiation of Self
Bowen theory defines differentiation of self as the vari-
ation in the degree to which people are able to maintain a
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 137

separate self from others, especially under conditions of

heightened anxiety. For this to occur, an individual must be
able to manage their internal emotional reactivity in response
to an anxiety-producing situation or person by cognitively
separating their intellectual functioning from their emotional
response, and then acting from this “thinking” position. The
individual facet of differentiation—separating thinking from
feeling—interlocks with the relational component of differ-
entiation such that progress in each ability contributes to the
efficacy of the other.

Emotional Cutoff
Emotional cutoff is a mechanism used for avoiding feel-
ings of anxiety when contemplating being with, or needing to
be with, a person whose presence is, in fact, too intense. Bowen
theory suggests that young adults may use emotional cutoff to
“separate themselves from the past in order to start their lives
in the present generation” (Bowen [1976] 1978, 382). Emotional
cutoff can involve either decreasing over time or completely
ceasing interaction with a person, with the underlying motive
being to avoid situations that result in an anxiousness about
losing “self” when in the presence of the person. Losing “self”
might be best understood as the degree to which emotional
reactivity to the other person governs one’s response to them.

Emotional Reactivity
Emotional reactivity is an autonomic nervous system
change that occurs outside an individual’s awareness as a
result of a personal perception of stress. This experience leads
to a compromised ability to appropriately manage emotional
responses during stressful situations (Skowron et al. 2013). In
Bowen theory, emotional reactivity is closely associated with
chronic (ongoing) anxiety and an individual’s level of matu-
rity. The development of emotional reactivity is hypothesized
to be a learned response manifesting from disturbances in the
balance of individuality and togetherness (Bowen 1978).

Fusion with Others

Fusion, as defined in Bowen theory, occurs on a contin-
uum. On one end of this continuum are individuals who
view themselves as knowing each other so well that they can
138 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

anticipate the others’ thoughts. On the other end of the contin-

uum are individuals who believe themselves to be so mentally
merged with one another that they can not only read each
other’s minds, but also have permission to speak and/or act
for the other. These relationships extend beyond a psychologi-
cal process or communication malfunction in that both parties
experience what could be described as an emotional “oneness”
that ignores the fact that they are two separate individuals
with differing thoughts, feelings, experiences, and preferences.
Fused relationships do not allow for individual differences
as these “feel” too personally threatening to those involved.
When a person in a fused relationship moves towards individ-
uality, the other can take steps to re-engage them to re-establish
the emotional merger. This effort can create tension within the
relationship and result in the other yearning more feverishly
for independence.

I Position
Bowen theory suggests that individuals seeking to
strengthen their individuality must first learn to develop what
is called an “I position.” The I position expresses a personal
decision to live as a clearly defined self that has “the ability
to thoughtfully adhere to one’s own convictions when pres-
sured to do otherwise” (Skowron and Schmitt 2003, 212).
Behavioral changes associated with the I position include (1)
calming oneself in situations that trigger an automatic inter-
nal emotional reactivity, (2) working to become comfortable
stating one’s own opinions and convictions in a nonaggres-
sive manner and following this behavior up with congruent
action, even when important others disagree with the position,
and (3) developing the capacity to “de-triangle” from anxiety-
ridden three-way relationships which exist in the person’s
family (Bowen [1971a] 1978, 250) or other important group.
The process of taking an I position requires people to be
able to recognize triangled relationships in their lives and
determine the extent to which they participate in them. Indi-
viduals must then decide whether to continue participating
or make changes in their own behavior that allows for more
independent functioning outside of the triangle (Bowen 1978).
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 139

Over / Underfunctioning
Kerr (2019) defines overfunctioning-underfunctioning
reciprocity as an anxiety-driven relationship process whereby
one person, typically more dominant in the relationship and
seemingly more capable than the other, overfunctions for them
(p. 29). The other, generally more deferential within the rela-
tionship, appears to be relatively less capable, and tends to
underfunction. Both parties unconsciously participate in this
reciprocal interaction pattern and shape the attitudes, feelings,
and behavior of the other through their actions. The overfunc-
tioning individual often feels responsible for the emotional
wellbeing of the other and works to compensate for what is
believed to be deficits in their functioning. These deficits can
be true incapabilities or they can be imagined to exist by the
overfunctioner (Kerr and Bowen 1988, 55-56).
In schools, this pattern may present itself when a student
is the recipient of excessive worry or concern from an adult
when, in fact, the child is capable of functioning at the same
level as peers. An underfunctioning-overfunctioning reciproc-
ity can develop when a child, perceived by an overly concerned
adult to have a specific problem or issue, becomes the recipi-
ent of focused attention by the adult for the perceived deficit.
Children in this situation can begin to direct their attention
back towards the concerned adult contributing to a calmness
developing in the adult as he or she feels they are doing some-
thing to solve the perceived problem. This increasing shared
focus on the child’s perceived deficit can lead to adults doing
things for children that they are capable of doing for them-
selves and the perception that the child is less capable than he
or she really is (Kerr and Bowen 1988, 85).

The Child-Focused Projection Process

A “child-focused family,” as defined in Bowen theory
(Bowen [1974a] 1978, 297), is one in which parents have the
ability to project their feelings of anxiety onto a child with-
out knowing they are doing so. The child plays a part in this
process by unconsciously attempting to stabilize their parent’s
relationship. These two mechanisms work together, as both
parents and the child play active roles in transmitting the
140 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

parental anxiety to the child. The child may, at times, also initi-
ate the process by attempting to convince parents that he or she
is the “problem” in order to provide them a focus for anxiety
that currently exists in their relationship. In many cases, the
child does not, in reality, have a problem but senses a decrease
in one or both parents’ anxiety level when he or she experi-
ences difficulty. General phases of anxiety transmission in a
child-focused family include (a) one of the parents having a
gut “feeling” about a problem they fear their child might have,
(b) the parent then seeking and receiving a diagnosis for the
perceived problem from a medical or mental health provider
that matches their feeling, (c) the parent begins to interact with
the child in a way that confirms the diagnosed or labeled prob-
lem, and (d) the child begins to view him or herself as having,
or in some cases, being, the identified problem.

PROBLEMATIC INTERACTION PATTERNS THAT

CAN EMERGE IN SCHOOLS
Given that interaction processes exist in all families to
some degree (Bowen 1978), it is reasonable that learned inter-
actional patterns would accompany individuals into their
places of employment, including school systems. The intercon-
nected manner in which educators do their jobs, particularly in
larger, more complex schools and districts, predisposes them
to the development of their own “family-like” interaction
patterns. Staff and students become invisibly submersed in
systems functioning with little awareness of how their think-
ing, behavior, and communication has the ability to impact not
only other people, but the learning environment as a whole.
To this end, two systemic initiatives undertaken by
multiteam schools have the potential to improve student
outcomes. (1) The way in which patterned, reciprocal inter-
actions emerge when people are under stress could be better
understood. Increasing staff members’ skills and awareness in
several facets of communication might be helpful in increas-
ing problem-solving effectiveness in teams where members
have differing histories, perspectives, and perceptions. Under-
standing how the environment affects student functioning is
likely to result in the development of more targeted student
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 141

interventions. (2) The development of strong and durable one-

on-one relationships between school personnel and parents
could be undertaken. This much-needed step would encour-
age the development of trust between parents and educators,
particularly in situations where parents worry that when their
child has problems at school, it is viewed by the school as a
parenting problem.
Teachers, service providers (such as speech patholo-
gists, occupational and physical therapists, psychologists,
and social workers) and administrators all participate in
remediating student problems. Given this team approach,
competing goals can emerge based on individual perspec-
tives, philosophies, and family of origin histories. Ingrained
family processes brought into the workplace can become road-
blocks to change when people become entrenched in their
own unique positions. These often uncomfortable dynamics
highlight differences and can influence whether people will
approach the challenge through direct interaction with each
other or by talking to others outside the situation to cultivate
support for their own stance.
Learned communication patterns and transmission of
family processes into the workplace are inevitable. Unfor-
tunately, this occurrence in schools can contribute to the
demonstration of behavior that, if unchecked, can negatively
impact student functioning. The multitiered problem-solving
process described above is undertaken when a student deficit
is brought to the attention of problem-solving teams by either
parents or teachers. Three common difficulties that may arise
from the transmission of family processes into the workplace
include (1) misidentifying problems, (2) triangled communi-
cation, and (3) underestimating student ability. Each of these
patterns has the potential to impede effective problem-solving
for student difficulties.

Misidentified Problems
Student problems can be misidentified in situations where
staff members disagree not only about how to solve the prob-
lem but whether a problem even exists. Viewing problems
using “cause and effect” thinking is common in schools, as
part of educator training is to teach students to follow rules
142 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

and operate within parameters placed on them. It is not typi-

cal to interpret student misbehavior as a product of both
situational context and reciprocal interaction with others.
Undesirable behavior in students is often referred to the
school social worker or psychologist for resolution, often with
the expectation that some form of change will follow which
will alleviate the potential for the behavior to reoccur in the
future. Attempts by systems-oriented practitioners to involve
adults in conversations about context and person-environ-
ment interaction when seeking to solve student problems can
be challenging, as these notions are generally not familiar to
“cause and effect” problem-solvers.
Mental health staff working with student problems from a
systems perspective can, at times, be perceived by educators as
remiss in addressing problems because, in their view, mental
health staff are not doing anything to change the student.
Functional behavior analysis—an observational data collec-
tion process used in schools to identify contextual factors in
the environment that are contributing to a problem behav-
ior and rewards from the environment that are maintaining
the behavior—is sometimes criticized by nonmental health
staff for taking too long to conduct when quicker change in
a student’s irritating behavior is desired. Yet it is exactly this
type of assessment that uncovers the often missed metames-
sages occurring beneath communication between adults and
students. These subtle, reciprocal interactions, while not easily
observed, can continuously influence the behavior of both
educator and student.

Triangled Communication
Due to the way in which teams are organized in large
school systems—by grade level, subject area, or staff role or
function—indirect interaction can be common, resulting in
the development of ineffective communication patterns. An
example of this breakdown occurs when teachers elicit help
from an administrator in dealing with a student’s problem
behavior after having already sought and received support
from the school’s problem-solving team. Teachers, who are
responsible for the learning of all students in their class, can
understandably become overwhelmed when problem behav-
iors continuously disrupt daily instruction. Suggestions given
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 143

by problem-solving teams to withhold attention from the

undesirable behavior while focusing instead on the student’s
positive actions can result in skepticism or be viewed as “doing
nothing” to solve the problem. While having the adminis-
trator’s ear may help relieve a teacher’s immediate anxiety,
this action can contribute to triangled communication and
inconsistent follow-through with the suggested intervention,
reinforcing the problem behavior over the long run. Addition-
ally, larger complications can develop if administrators circle
back to the problem-solving team and suggest implementation
of new interventions based on meeting the needs of the teacher
rather than those of the student. This paradoxical dilemma in
administrators’ jobs requires constant balancing, as indirect
involvement in difficult conversations between staff members
can lead to both triangled communication in the school and
reinforcement of the original problematic behaviors being
demonstrated by students.

Conflicting Perceptions of Student Ability

Differences in perception regarding a student’s capabili-
ties may occur amongst educators or between educators and
the student’s parents. These discrepancies can arise when a
student is observed in one setting as unable to perform a task
but, in another, able to do so independently. Also, at times,
students perform a task with one educator but not another.
Inconsistencies like these occur around academic or social/
emotional tasks and can lead to a special education evalua-
tion being conducted to determine whether the incongruence
is the result of a skill or a performance deficit.
In some instances, it can be difficult for parents to accept
that their child is able to perform a specific task at school when
this performance has not been observed at home. Sometimes,
parents contact educators at the beginning of the school year
to prewarn them that their child will struggle in a specific
area, providing suggestions about how to best work with the
student. Parents may insist that the student receive special
education services based on home performance, even when
the identified behavior is adequately demonstrated at school.
Educators—legally mandated to provide services to strug-
gling students in what is considered the “least restrictive
environment” by the Individuals with Disabilities Education
144 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

Act (IDEA) (U.S. Department of Education 2020, https://sites.

ed.gov/idea/)—seek to find the appropriate balance between
the level of support needed for students to be successful and
that which allows them to develop internal confidence in their
own abilities. Given this, the degree of support provided to
a student can become contentious when school personnel
seek to encourage and capitalize on students’ growing inde-
pendence and parents seek extra support that may, when not
actually needed for success, hinder self-confidence. A long-
term concern for educators in this situation is that the student
will, over time, come to depend emotionally on unnecessary
support, possibly developing a sense of learned helplessness.

The Delivery of Mental Health Services in Schools Today

Currently, many schools utilize social/emotional learn-
ing standards to address students’ mental health needs.
Standards developed by the Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL 2017) teach students
skills believed necessary to facilitate maturity, citizenship,
and social/emotional development. Direct skill teaching in
specific, targeted areas is used to facilitate remediation of iden-
tified deficits and to therefore shape student behavior. While
teaching social/emotional skills in this way is well-aligned
with the traditional role of schools, the demands of today’s
world require nontraditional teaching methods to address the
complex needs of students, families, and teachers.
If schools are going to change in the ways necessary to
transform how student mental health is addressed, this work
needs to begin with the adults who work collaboratively with
the students as they seek systemic change together. Valenzu-
ela (2021) suggests that the task of systems change in schools
requires educators to first understand how systems function
and, second, to be willing to engage in the difficult conversa-
tions necessary to allow for innovative practices to be carried
out. To achieve this goal, a theoretical understanding of Bowen
theory concepts might be useful in moving both the field of
education and individual districts or schools forward, much
like the work being carried out in other organizational settings.
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 145

A SMALL STUDY
A project examining constructs of Bowen theory as they
relate to interactions with parents and behavior of children at
school was conducted in an academic setting in a midwestern
region in the United States. A sample of twenty-five parents
and twenty-five teachers from elementary and/or middle
schools participated in the study. Students themselves did
not participate. The study explored whether parents’ ratings
of themselves within Bowen theory constructs generated
statistically significant measurements that correlated with
their own or teacher ratings of their child’s social/emotional
skills. Variables examined included (a) parent self-ratings
of differentiation of self, emotional cutoff, emotional reac-
tivity, fusion with others, and the ability to assume an I
position, (b) parent ratings of their child’s social/emotional
skills in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness,
relationship-building, and responsible decision-making,
and (c) teacher ratings of the student’s skills in these same
areas in addition to perceptions of the student’s abilities in
math and reading.
Three instruments were used in the study. They were: (1)
the Differentiation of Self Inventory-Revised (DSI-R, Skowron
and Schmitt 2003), (2) the Social Skills Intervention System,
Social/Emotional Learning Edition (SSIS SEL, Gresham
and Elliott 2017), and (3) the Curriculum-Based Measure-
ment scores (CBM, Shinn et al. 2016) from AIMSWEB Plus
(Pearson 2017).
CBM is a monitoring method used by schools across the
United States for measuring and tracking student reading
and math progress on a quarterly basis. Short assessments
are administered three times a year to determine a student’s
proficiency in each area (Shinn et al. 2016). The assessments
also determine whether a student is functioning at, above,
or below levels of other students in their grade level. The
DSI-R measured parents’ perceptions of their relationships
with significant others in their own lives and provided a score
in each of the subdomains listed above as well as an overall
146 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

differentiation of self score. The SSIS SEL measured forty-six

individual students’ social/emotional skills rated by both
parents and teachers as well as the teacher’s perception of each
student’s abilities in reading and math (as opposed to actual
proficiency levels determined by CBM scores). The social/
emotional skill areas assessed included:
Self-Awareness Skills measuring abilities to accurately recog-
nize one’s own thoughts and feelings and each’s influence on
one’s own behavior, to accurately assess one’s own interests,
strengths, and limitations, and the tendency for the student
to have a well-grounded sense of self-efficacy and optimism;
Self-Management Skills measuring abilities to regulat-
ing emotions, cognitions, and behaviors, to set and achieve
personal and educational goals, and to persevere in address-
ing challenges;
Social Awareness Skills measuring abilities to respect, take
the perspective of, and empathize with others, to appreciate
diversity, persevere in meeting challenges, and recognize the
importance of community resources;
Relationship Skills measuring abilities to establish and
maintain healthy, rewarding relationships, to communicate
clearly, resist inappropriate social pressure, seek and offer
help when it is needed, and to negotiate conflict construc-
tively by following a systematic approach to its resolution
that achieves mutually satisfactory outcomes addressing the
needs of all concerned;
Responsible Decision-Making Skills measuring abilities to
make constructive choices guided by safety and ethics, to
develop values of honesty, reliability, and accountability, and
to possess shared social norms based on the position that
others should be treated as the student would like to be treated
in decision-making situations (Collaborative for Academic,
Social, and Emotional Learning 2017).

Population Sample, Purpose, and Procedures

The school district was composed of families from
numerous and diverse language, nationalities, and cultural
backgrounds. Approximately 50% were Caucasian, 25% Asian,
11% Hispanic, 9% African American, 4% Multiracial, .1%
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 147

Native American, and .1% Pacific Islander. Families partici-

pated on a volunteer basis, learning about the study from
school district employees, social media, or word of mouth.
The study sample was composed of twenty-five families, each
represented by a parent, a child, and one of the child’s teach-
ers at school. Half of the students assessed were male and half
were female, and they ranged in age from eight to fourteen.
The study sought to determine whether the perceptions
of student social/emotional functioning was (a) experienced
differently by parents and teachers, and (b) statistically
significantly associated with parent DSI-R ratings on any
of the subscales or overall differentiation of self tabulation.
The DSI-R was completed by parents regarding their own
emotional functioning, CBM assessments were used to deter-
mine actual student reading and math functioning, and the
academic competence portion of the SSIS SEL was completed
by teachers to explore their perceptions of student functioning
and effort. Data regarding students’ social skill functioning
was collected from both parents and teachers using the SSIS
SEL. A bivariate correlational analysis was then conducted
between all variables to identify possible statistically signif-
icant correlations. Once completed, two stepwise linear
regressions were calculated (one for parent ratings and one
for teacher ratings) to determine whether any of the statis-
tically significant associations found could be predicted by
parent scores in any subscale on the DSI-R.

Results
Analyses found only one statistically significant rela-
tionship between any of the DSI-R constructs and students’
performance in reading or math. This relationship, while
considered weak (having a rho value falling between .20 and
.39, [Leard Statistics 2017]), existed between parent emotional
cutoff and actual math performance as measured by CBM
probes. The bivariate correlational analysis examining
relationships between social skill competencies and DSI-R
subscales however, found fifteen statistically significant asso-
ciations between student social/emotional skills and parent
DSI-R ratings. Of these, only one behavioral expression, “acts
anxious with others,” was identified by both parents and
148 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

teachers as being statistically significantly correlated, finding

higher parent fusion with others to be statistically significantly
associated with higher tendencies in students/children to act
anxious with others. The other fourteen items found to be
statistically significantly correlated by either parents or teach-
ers were not observed across home and school settings.
As acting anxious with others was the only correlation
where a statistically significant association by both parents
and teachers was found, it was selected for further analysis
to determine whether any of the parent scores on the DSI-R in
the areas of differentiation of self, emotional cutoff, emotional
reactivity, fusion with others, or the ability to assume an I
position, predicted the tendency to act anxious with others.
A stepwise regression examining parent ratings of the child’s
social/emotional competencies found parent fusion with
others to be the most significant predictor of children’s tenden-
cies to act anxious with others, accounting for approximately
22% of the variation in the ratings of the variable that repre-
sented this tendency. Further, fusion with others was the only
subscale score of all constructs that added statistically signifi-
cantly to the prediction, p < .05.
In a second regression, teachers’ perceptions of students’
tendencies to act anxious with others was examined. Find-
ings indicated that two parent DSI-R constructs, (a) fusion
with others and (b) emotional cutoff, both predicted teacher-
reported tendencies for children to act anxious with others.
These two variables were the only two that added statisti-
cal significance to the prediction, p < .05 and when taken
together, the two variables accounted for 29.2% of the vari-
ability in teacher’s ratings for students’ tendencies to act
anxious with others.

DISCUSSION
This study, while producing some intriguing associations,
was not without its limitations. For one, the small sample size
(n=25) limits the generalization of results, and the manner
in which the sample population was gathered (via word
of mouth) resulted in participants including themselves in
the study based on personal interest in the topic rather than
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 149

via randomized selection. Second, the instrument used for

assessing parent functioning (the DSI-R) does not assess bidi-
rectional, reciprocal processes occurring between parents and
children—a major element of systems theories. Third, chil-
dren’s experiences and perceptions of their relationships with
parents were not sought for the study, making any findings of
statistically significant associations likely to have occurred by
chance. Finally, the challenges involved in conducting process
research should not be underestimated, as family processes
such as fusion with others, emotional cutoff, and the child
focus process will always be nonquantifiable due to the fluid-
ity of bidirectional interactions and the specificity of situational
context. Given these and other shortcomings of the study,
results of the research should be interpreted with caution.
The author’s professional background has exposed her to
a variety of people, problems, and contexts. While the observa-
tion of similarities in interaction patterns between individuals
from one setting to the next has been both illuminating and
intriguing to the author, the most convincing evidence indi-
cating that these patterns do in fact, develop and maintain
themselves over time is the personal experience of growing
up in her own family system and, later, formally studying
the phenomena.
The author better understood this “hands on” learning
when she entered a Bowen theory postgraduate training
program during her doctoral studies and had the opportunity
to make connections between knowledge, theory, observa-
tion, and practice. Comprehending the study’s limitations
from the onset, the investigation was initially undertaken
solely for the purpose of understanding under-functioning
patterns observed in students in schools. It was not until the
result indicating student anxiety to be associated with parent
fusion was produced, that the author’s interest in the impact
of adult interaction patterns on children’s functioning and
performance increased.
The significance of this finding has strong implications
for clinicians working with students, families, and individu-
als experiencing problems with anxiety. Although narrowly
targeted in the current study, the finding represents a broad-
ened understanding of how anxiety might develop and be
150 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

maintained in people over time. Contemporary science and

neuroscience suggest that assuming a wider systems lens,
such as conceptualized in Bowen theory, can provide not only
school social workers but also practicing clinicians with a solid
framework from which to understand and effectively treat
anxiety in both children and adults.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
History shows that for decades researchers have attempted
to better understand anxiety using cross-sectional studies
(Rapee 2012). These investigations, while ambitious, have
produced little more than a series of isolated variables that
may or may not contribute to anxiety’s development without
increasing understanding of the etiological mechanisms that
contribute to it (Lester et al. 2010). The closest most researchers
have come to understanding children’s anxiety as a recipro-
cal process is the finding that an association exists between
anxiety and parental insecure attachment patterns as parents
model and transmit their own apprehension to their children
in the next generation (Bogels and Brechman-Toussaint 2006,
Muris 2007, Wei and Kendall 2014).
To this end, the National Institute of Mental Health
(NIMH) has adopted a broadened platform from which to
more accurately understand mental health. This effort includes
development of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) frame-
work, which is designed to encourage and promote research
studies that utilize a variety of approaches to more fully
understand complex human behavior. NIMH stresses that
when conducting research using the framework, no single
correct way exists as behavioral constructs are best examined
“across multiple units of analysis from genes to circuits to
behavior or self-reports” (National Institute of Mental Health,
2020) in order to provide an integrative understanding of
human behavior.
Because correlational analyses and cross-sectional stud-
ies fall short in producing conclusive evidence of causation
between variables, direct observation can provide support for
findings, particularly when one or more of the variables stud-
ied represents a multidimensional process such as reciprocal
 Using Bowen Family Systems Theory Concepts in Schools | 151

interaction. Clinical experience and theoretical acumen can

contribute to the knowledge base on human functioning when
they are combined with observation of behavioral patterns and
an understanding of the ways in which environmental factors
and neurobiological processes interact.
Given the nonmedicalized approach to human function-
ing provided by RDoC, the work of Murray Bowen is well
positioned to contribute to NIMH’s endeavor and the way
in which children’s anxiety is understood. Recent litera-
ture emerging from the fields of science and neuroscience
have also begun to take the study of anxiety in new direc-
tions. Research in epigenetics and social genomics have
highlighted the roles that genes, physiology, and the envi-
ronment all play in an individual’s physical, neurological,
and behavioral functioning, including how anxiety devel-
ops and is transmitted from one generation to the next.
Contemporary works supporting these new ideas include:

• “Sensitive periods” of development (Crews and Noone

2015), which can impact gene expression and how indi-
viduals will respond to experiences occurring later in
life, as well as the ways in which later life experiences
can modify adverse effects experienced in earlier life
(Champagne 2008; Champagne and Curley 2015).

• The impact of factors in the social environment on

individuals’ perception of threat, DNA activation, and
RNA expression (Cole 2014; Slavich and Cole 2013); the
impact of threat perception over actual threat on gene
expression (Cole 2014); and the propensity for two-way
interactions to impact both parties’ gene expression
in a reciprocal and fluid way (Cole 2013; Cole 2014).

• Interactions between mother and child during preg-

nancy which have the ability to influence both gene
expression and the physiological and psychological
health of the child (Champagne 2008), the regulation
of the endocrine system’s stress response (Meaney
2001), and children’s abilities to self-regulate during
times of social engagement (Skowron et al. 2013).
152 | Family Systems 2022 16.2

• The impact of children’s perceptions of the quality

of their social interactions on their physiological
reactions (Ponzi et al. 2015).

• The idea that fear and anxiety are separate processes

emerging from two different sets of brain circuitry,
the amygdala (automatic and out of conscious-
ness) and the cortical (conscious) regions of the
brain allowing the two processes to be separated;
higher level cognitive processes related to atten-
tion and working memory are therefore able
to manage one’s fear (LeDoux and Pine 2016).

The delivery of school mental health services is ripe for

change. Acquiring the abilities necessary for enabling systems
change requires educators to understand how systems func-
tion at multiple levels (as part of the school system, as part
of society, and at the level of self) and then apply knowledge
to coach educators and parents in ways to develop meaning-
ful and potentially, life-changing relationships with students.
Bowen theory can provide a lens through which this transfor-
mation occurs as educators shift from a focus on how students
are functioning to one of self-functioning. A change such as
this would help school systems meet the challenges of the
moment as a science of human behavior and discoveries in
neuroscience intersect to transform how we, as a society, think
about mental health for students and families. ❖

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FURTHER READING
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