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 EnvironmentSubject(s)
Eidetic Imagery , Reading , Students/psychology , Child , Female , Humans , Learning , MaleABSTRACT
The Family-of-Origin Scale for adolescents (FOS) is a 40-item ten subscale instrument designed to assess perceived psychological health in the respondent's family. To date, the FOS has been used exclusively with white adolescents. The FOS was administered concurrently with the Langner Symptom Survey (LSS), a measure of adjustment, to 135 African-American adolescents. The LSS exhibited moderate, yet significant, correlations with the FOS: A total score, two superordinate dimensions, and six subscales. The results lend modest support for the construct validity of the FOS.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Black or African American/psychology , Family , Psychology, Adolescent , Adolescent , Female , Humans , Male , Personality Assessment/standards , Personality Assessment/statistics & numerical data , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
The Family-of-Origin Scale (FOS), a 40-item, ten-subscale measure of family processes, exhibits promise for assessing adolescents' perceptions of family health. While initial research has suggested that the instrument demonstrates factorial validity, the reliability of the FOS for adolescents has not been established. The present study involved administering the FOS to 88 adolescents on two occasions, with a two-week interval between testings. The global FOS index and ten subscale scores demonstrated high test-retest reliability. Internal consistency reliability for the instrument was also high. When taken together with previous research, the current study's results suggest that the FOS for adolescents is psychometrically sound.
