HEALTHY FAMILY FUNCTIONING SCALE: FAMILY MEMBERS' PERCEPTIONS OF COHESION, ADAPTABILITY, AND COMMUNICATION
Abstract
This was a two-phase study involving the development and testing of a new self-report instrument called the Healthy Family Functioning Scale. The HFFS was designed to assess individual family members' perceptions of healthy family functioning. The major dimensions chosen for the instrument were cohesion, adaptability, and communication which had been identified in both the theoretical and the empirical literature as important characteristics of healthy family functioning. It was hypothesized that reliability, construct validity, and lack of correlation with social desirability would be established for the HFFS. After being screened for face validity by two groups of professionals, the HFFS was then administered to a sample of college students (N = 210) on two occasions. Internal consistency was measured using the split-half test and Cronbach's Alpha. Stability was assessed using the test-retest method. Degree of association with social desirability was evaluated using the Pearson Correlation procedure. The results indicated that the HFFS showed exceptional internal consistency at the level of .97. The stability score for the test as a whole was relatively high at .72. The results of the factor analysis were such that construct validity could not be confirmed. One reason for this is that the adaptability dimension showed primary item loadings that overlapped with primary loadings for the other two dimensions. In addition, the HFFS was highly correlated with social desirability (.82). Whether this latter effect was due to a religious bias against reporting negatives about one's family, an "idealizing" of one's family due to not living with one's family at the time of testing, or due to the items themselves is not known at this time. Implications for the HFFS are that the instrument has demonstrated sufficient reliability to justify further research to determine whether validity can be established for the instrument.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
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