STUDIES ON THE VALIDITY OF THE FAMILY FUNCTIONING SCALE (ASSESSMENT, SELF-REPORT)

This study reviewed existing self-report family assessment scales and presented evidence for the internal and external validity of the Family Functioning Scale (FFS), a self-report family instrument measuring five salient aspects of general family functioning: Positive Family Affect, Family Worries, Family Conflicts, Family Communication, and Family Rituals. In Study I, a series of principal components analyses was performed on the responses of 343 subjects to the FFS, and final version was 42-item inventory measuring five components which correspond exactly to the salient components in the original study. Original component pattern was cross-validated in the present study. Cronbach alpha reliability estimates and scale intercorrelations were computed and were within acceptable limits. In Study II, multivariate and univariate analyses of variance on two clinical groups and comparison group of normals were significant (p \u3c .01). Tukey-HSD follow-up tests indicated that the FFS differentiated between the two clinical groups (alcohol-troubled group and schizophrenic group) and the comparison group on the Positive Family Affect, Family Communication, and Family Rituals scales. It further distinguished the alcohol-troubled group from the other two groups on the Family Conflicts scale and the alcohol-troubled group from the comparison group on the Family Worries scale. Discriminant function analysis was performed to provide more information regarding the separation between the three groups. Implications of these results are discussed along with suggestions for future research