Systemic Family Therapy-Invariant Prescription involves

• A. An unchanging prescription given to all families that have symptomatic children, asking that parents spend time with each other, not with the children.
• B. Focus on the child alone.
• C. Aimed to create stricter parental control.
• D. A therapy that ignores generational boundaries.

Answer: (A)

Invariant prescription in systemic family therapy is a universal directive a therapist gives to families when a child is symptomatic. It stays the same for all families and is applied as a concrete task designed to shift how family members interact. The typical aim is to disrupt triangles and reinforce healthier boundaries by having the parents spend time together and interact without the child, for a defined period. This helps reestablish the parental alliance and reduce the child’s role as the focal point of family attention, which often maintains the symptoms.

So this option captures the essence: an unchanging prescription applied to all families with a symptomatic child, directing parents to spend time with each other rather than with the children. The other approaches focus more narrowly on the child, seek to tighten control, or ignore generational boundaries, which doesn’t align with how invariant prescriptions operate within systemic work.