The Family Unpredictability Scale: Reliability and Validity

We developed the Family Unpredictability Scale (FUS) to better understand the factors that underlie the presence and consequences of family dysfunction. Familial unpredictability is defined as a lack of consistency in family behaviors and regulatory systems. Family researchers and therapists generated and evaluated items, which were self‐administered by married parents who had children aged 2 to 18 (N= 314 ). Principal‐components analysis yielded four subscales (discipline, nurturance, meals, and money; 22 items total) that were internally consistent; confirmatory factor analysis based on a separate subsample yielded an adequate preliminary representation of this factor structure. The FUS related significantly to known measures of family and individual functioning but not to social desirability. The present study provides preliminary reliability, construct validity, and concurrent validity for this new multidimensional, self‐report assessment of family unpredictability. Research and clinical implications are discussed.     

Reliability and Validity of the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF) in a Psychiatric Family Therapy Clinic

The reliability and validity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF) was evaluated in consenting participants presenting to a family therapy training clinic. The purpose of this study was to (a) assess whether the GARF could be administered quickly in a marriage and family therapy training clinic, (b) assess the inter-rater and internal reliability of GARF ratings of intake sessions, (c) examine the relationship of GARF ratings to established measures of relationship functioning, and (d) compare GARF ratings to a measure of depressive symptoms. Study participants completed the General Functioning Subscale of the Family Assessment Device (GFS/FAD), the Quality of Marriage Index (QMI), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale (CES-D). After intake sessions were conducted with study participants, GARF ratings were made by an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Approved Supervisor or Supervisor-in-Training, a therapist trainee, and two observing trainees who had observed the session from behind a one-way mirror. Cronbach’s coefficient alphas and the average intraclass correlation coefficients were both .82 when ratings of the supervisor and two observers were compared and .78 and .79, respectively, when ratings of the supervisor, two observers, and therapist were evaluated. There was significant agreement between GARF ratings made by the supervisor and therapist (but not observers) and scores on the GFS/FAD, QMI, and CES-D. Results suggest that GARF ratings can be made quickly and reliably, especially among raters with greater clinical experience, and are related to measures of relational functioning and depression. Implications for research and marriage and family therapy training are discussed.     

Court Ordered Multiple Offender Drunk Drivers: Validity and Reliability of Rapid Assessment

ABSTRACT

The Alcohol Use Disorders and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedules' (AUDADIS) DSM-IV related items are used to evaluate the convergent validity of the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SAD-Q), the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) with persons convicted for multiple offences of driving under the influence. A total of 187 participants underwent semi-structured interviewing; of these 84% were alcohol dependent. The instruments exhibit acceptable internal consistency (all alphas > .85) as well as test/re-test reliability (all r = s ≥ .85). The MAST converged most closely with a DSM-IV diagnosis. Implications for rapid assessment instrument research as well as practice in public agencies are discussed.     

Homosexuality and Family Relations:

No abstract available for this article.     

School,Family and Neighborhood: The Theory and Practice of School-Community Relations

This paper reports on the findings of a survey of the first five graduating classes of students from a newly developed specialization in social policy. The survey was undertaken to ascertain students' work affiliations after graduation along a number of dimensions and to compare their situations before and after graduation. We also were interested in assessing whether students were doing in practice what they had been prepared for educationally. The survey findings clearly indicated differences in work affiliations and experiences before and after graduation, and the emergence of a social work-social policy practitioner.     

Family Loyalty and Adolescent Problem Behavior: The Validity of the Family Group Effect

Erratum . Journal of Law and Society Volume 32 Issue 3 The present study examined the relation between perceived justice and trust within family relationships and adolescent internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. Data were gathered from the father, the mother, and two of their adolescent children in 288 families. The social relations model was used to assess perceived justice and trust at the family level and the individual level. Adolescent internalizing and externalizing problem behavior turned out to be best predicted at the family level. Adolescents from families with less just or trustworthy climates showed more of these problem behaviors. Also associations between adolescent problem behavior and individual characteristics of the adolescents were found: adolescents who were generally viewed as less just/trustworthy were reported to have more problems. Our findings suggest that processes at different levels of family functioning (i.e., individual, whole‐family) should be taken into account when investigating associations between family characteristics and children's outcomes.     

Multidimensional Family Resilience Assessment: The Individual,Family, and Community Resilience (IFCR) Profile

The goal of this study was to develop a broad, multidimensional assessment of individual, family, and community resilience for use in evaluating socioeconomic mobility programs. The Individual, Family, and Community Resilience Profile (IFCR) is a broad, multidimensional measure that evaluates multiple ecological levels of resilience. Based on a sample of 650 low-income families, this study demonstrates the initial reliability of the 75-item IFCR. This evaluation tool assesses 20 separate dimensions of constructs often associated with resilience. The IFCR provided strong reliability with interitem reliability coefficients ranging from α = .71 to.93. The IFCR also showed strong predictive abilities for education levels, employment, and mental health. We also present benchmark scaling of the IFCR for use in practice and future research.     

Structural and Dynamic Process Family Risk Factors: Consequences for Holistic Adolescent Functioning

This study utilized a dynamic cumulative family risk model to explain changes in adolescent functioning. We used a person‐centered approach to detect patterns of academic, emotional, and behavioral functioning and the stability of these patterns using two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N= 10,173). Four adjustment profiles emerged at both time points. Although most (91%) adolescents remained in the same classifications at both waves, some experienced shifts in functioning. Changes in family process risk factors predicted these shifts in adjustment, whereas changes in structural risk factors predicted stable adjustment. We concluded that even short‐term changes in family processes are significant sources of risk for some adolescents.     

A Self-Image Inventory: Its Theoretical Background,Reliability and Validity*

Wylie (1974) points out that there is a lack of adequate theoretical development in the investigation of the self-concept. The result is a proliferation of operational definitions with no clear understanding of the relationship between operations, between constructs, and between the constructs and their operationalizations. In this article we make explicit the theoretical component of self to which this Self-image Inventory relates. The article presents the inventory and twenty years of research experience with it. The inventory is found to be both reliable and valid for measuring the self-image as a role specific component of self.     

Honoring Diversity: The Reliability,Validity, and Utility of a Scale to Measure Native American Resiliency

SUMMARY

A history of oppression and deficit orientation by the majority culture has resulted in pervasive negative stereotypes of Native Americans and has led to an undervaluing of the positive aspects of Native American culture. In looking forward to an increasingly multicultural society, it is crucial that social workers develop a greater awareness and appreciation of cultural factors that contribute to resiliency among oppressed minorities. This article discusses the “Ethnic, Culture, Religion/Spirituality” (ECR) scale designed to measure levels of identification and involvement with Native American culture based on a relational rather than a linear world view and sources of strength and resiliency rather than problems or risk factors. Cronbach's Alpha exceeded .70 and factor analysis supported the internal consistency of the instrument. Convergent and discriminant validity and differences in the utility of the instrument for both Native American (n = 73) and non-native (n = 74) samples are explored.     

The Family Floor Plan: A Tool for Training,Assessment and Intervention in Family Therapy*

The family therapy field has produced a number of expressive modalities for use in training and therapy. The family floor plan, as a tool for training, teaches systems concepts while involving trainees in an examination of their family-of-origin. In family therapy, the floor plan can be used to assess family interaction patterns and to intervene. The floor plan tool and its applications are described, including short case vignettes.     

Developing a Family Risk Assessment Tool in Adolescent Offenders: An Exploratory Study

The quality of family relations it is a relevant risk or protective factor in the adolescent criminal involvement, being the interplay between family and adolescent individual features, fundamental issues in the understanding of the adolescent risk and strengths assessment. This study aims to contribute to the validation of the Structured Interview of Family Assessment Risk (SIFAR) tool for the adolescent offenders’ family, based in nine family living items as risk factors and four protective factors. In an exploratory design, the structural consistency of SIFAR was analyzed using Cronbach’s alpha, mean inter-item correlation and exploratory factor analysis over risk items, because of the protective items dichotomous scale. The participants were a sample of 130 male adolescent delinquents detained in Portuguese facilities of the Directorate-general of Social Rehabilitation and Imprisonment, and their parents, paired analyzed. The SIFAR presents a structured professional judgment design for adolescent offender’s family protective and risk assessment. A reliability value of .75 was obtained for the risk items education, employment, housing/transport, legal problems, social dissonance, poverty, social net, social security and parenting, and an .79 was registered to the protective items family involvement, high discipline, low physical punishment and low parental stress. The risk items revealed a two-factor structure (social-economics and social conformity factors) explaining 48.15 % of the total variance. Results show the potential usefulness of SIFAR in the assessment the family protective and risk factors of adolescent offenders, presenting adequate structural reliability and construct validity. However further investigation it is necessary to the validation process of this tool.     

Conflicts in Family Relations,Children's Emotions and Agency

What kind of conflicts and tensions do children experience with other children and adults in the family? Content analysis of 32 thematic interviews with 10‐ to 13‐year‐old children revealed that while conflicts often concern daily actions, tasks and routines, they also relate to decision‐making and fair treatment or to matters threatening the child's sense of emotional security. Parental conflicts and conflicts in child–parent relationships often arouse negative emotions that lead children to suppress their agency. However, conflicts, particularly those between siblings, may also open up possibilities for negotiation and agency.     

Risk Taking in Late Adolescence: Relations Between Sociomoral Reasoning,Risk Stance,and Behavior

This study explored relations among late adolescents' sociomoral reasoning about risk taking, risk stance, and behavior. One‐hundred and thirty‐two participants (18–20‐year‐olds) were surveyed about their own risk stance (Avoidant, Opportunistic, Curious, Risk Seeking) and behavior in three realms (Alcohol Use, Drug Use, Reckless Driving), and sociomoral reasoning about hypothetical risk taking in a baseline scenario with no social domain information and a final scenario that highlighted the moral (i.e., harmful consequences for others), conventional (i.e., sociolegal consequences), personal (i.e., personal prerogative), and prudential (i.e., harmful consequences for self) domains bearing on risk taking. The complex relations among sociomoral reasoning about risk taking, risk stance, and behavior are discussed in terms of social domain theory and dual‐process theories of risk taking.     

Multidimensional Resilience: Predictive and Construct Validity of the Individual,Family, and Community Resilience Profile

Few measures parallel the robust depth offered in the existing multidimensional and ecologically informed theories of resilience. This study sought to evaluate the test–retest reliability, construct, and predictive validity of the individual, family, and community resilience resource profile (IFCR-R). The IFCR-R measures a family’s access to resilience resources and protective factors across multiple ecological levels. Confirmatory factor analysis was used with a sample of n?=?810 low-income families. And 159 families completed multiple time point measures for test–retest reliability and predictive validity evaluation. Results of this study support the proposed multidimensional ecological structure of the IFCR-R and found that the IFCR-R offers an acceptable test–retest reliability and predictive validity for outcomes of mental and physical health.     

The Social Relations Model in Family Studies: A Systematic Review

The Social Relations Model (SRM) allows for examination of family relations on three different levels: the individual level (actor and partner effects), the dyadic level (relationship effects), and the family level (family effect). The aim of this study was to present a systematic review of SRM family studies and identify general patterns in the results. Results of reanalyses of 17 data sets showed that characteristics of the person who reports on the relationship and the unique characteristics of the relationship were most important explanations of differences in family relationships. The present systematic review contributes to a better understanding of who is driving relationship outcomes in families and provides suggestions concerning the application of the SRM to family data.     

Examining the Reliability and Validity of the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale: The Persian Version

This study was an attempt to determine the factor structure, reliability, validity, and adaptation of the Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale (FDAS) for Iranian divorced individuals. The primary rationale for this study was the lack of such an instrument in an Iranian context to help researchers and therapists determine postdivorce adjustment and distinguish those in need of receiving psychological help. Participants of this study were 486 individuals (49.5% men, 50.5% women) who were divorced and were selected from the available population. Participants were asked to complete a sociodemographic questionnaire, the FDAS (Fisher, 1978), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ; Ghanbarnejad & Turki, 2013). The results showed that the internal consistency of FDAS using Cronbach’s alpha was .93 and the split-half coefficient was .89, indicating fine consistency. Also, the internal consistency of FDAS subscales measuring self-worth, disentanglement from the ex-partner, anger, grief, social trust, and social self-worth was .81, .86, .89, .88, .86, and .69, respectively, using Cronbach’s alpha. Data analysis shows an adequate convergent validity with the SWLS and GHQ. It can be concluded that the FDAS has an acceptable factor structure, reliability, and validity, and can be used in Iran and other Persian-speaking countries.     

Parenting Style and Dimensions Questionnaire: A Review of Reliability and Validity

Increasing interest in measuring parenting styles, especially with the Parenting Style and Dimensions Questionnaire, has emerged in the last 17 years. However, a critical review of studies using this instrument to assess parenting styles has not been done. The present article proposes an extensive review of studies that applied the instrument, focusing in particular on the different uses of the scale, its psychometric properties, and its association with other constructs. A discussion about the applicability, measurement reliability and validity of the instrument is provided.