ABSTRACT
The Family-of-Origin Scale (FOS) is a 40 item, ten subscale self-report instrument designed to assess perceptions of family health. The scale, based on the dimensions of Autonomy and Intimacy, has demonstrated reliability and validity with adolescents. The FOS was administered to 100 adolescent psychiatric inpatients concurrently with the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) to examine the scale's discriminant and construct validity. When compared with 100 non-clinical adolescents, the psychiatric inpatients perceived their family as less healthy on all FOS dimensions. Perceived family health on the FOS was negatively and moderately correlated with the BSI dimensions. The findings provide psychometric and clinical support for the FOS with adolescents.
Subject(s)
Family/psychology , Mental Disorders/psychology , Personality Development , Personality Inventory/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Female , Humans , Male , Patient Admission , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Social EnvironmentABSTRACT
This study examined two contrasting views of how parental marital status relates to the long-term adjustment of children. The physical wholeness position views divorce and subsequent remarriage and the blending of families as salient explanatory variables that adversely affect children's later adjustment through the physical dissolution of the nuclear family; the psychological wholeness position views perceived current family conflict as the critical variable that influences adjustment, regardless of parental marital status. Results of analyses on White adolescents (N = 917) fail to support the physical wholeness position; rather, results support the psychological wholeness position. Adolescents' adjustment was related to level of perceived family conflict.
