Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test Research Articles

The Reliability, Validity and Normative Scores of the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test for Use With Arab Children.

Background: The Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test (BAFRT) is one of the most widely used measures of family dynamics seen from a child’s perspective. However, the most common issue surrounding this test is the lack of accurate normative scores for use with non-white ethnic groups. The purpose of this study was to examine the BAFRT’s reliability and validity for use with Arab children, as well as to provide normative data for this group. Methods: The BAFRT was translated into Arabic and back-translated to ensure accuracy. The test was administered to a cohort of 394 Arab children, consisting of both cognitively normal children (n = 269) and children diagnosed with a psychological disorder (n = 125), all aged 5–8 years old. Test-retest reliability was assessed using a sub-set of children and validity was tested against clinical status as well as CBCL and SDQ measures. Normative measures were calculated after examining the impact of influencing variables such as age and gender. Results: Statistical analyses showed that in our cohort of Arab children the BAFRT has good test-retest reliability, correlates well with measures of emotional and behavioral adjustment, and discriminates accurately between clinical and non-clinical children. Age, gender, and clinical status all significantly impacted upon BAFRT scores and therefore normative values are presented from our cohort when considering these variables. Conclusion: The normative scores we present will provide researchers and clinicians an appropriate reference point for the comparison of scores from Arab children and a starting point for future research into this area.

Psychosocial development of full term singletons, born after preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) at preschool age and family functioning: a prospective case-controlled study and multi-informant approach.

Do full term singletons born after preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) differ in their psychosocial functioning from children born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and spontaneous conceived controls (SC)? The psychosocial maturation process of 5-6-year-old PGD children is comparable between the three conception groups (PGD, ICSI and SC). In general, a lot of research has been published regarding follow-up of children born after artificial reproductive technologies (ART), which mainly is reassuring. But the ART population itself is marked by broad diversity [IVF, ICSI, gamete donation, preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) or PGD] which complicates comparisons. Some literature concerning the socio-emotional development of PGD/PGS children is available and it suggests a normal maturation process. However, the complex reality of PGD families (e.g. safety of the technique and psychological burden of genetic histories) asks for an exclusive PGD sample with matched control groups and a multi-informant approach. Between April 2011 and May 2013, the psychosocial wellbeing of preschoolers and their families born after PGD was assessed in a prospective case-controlled, matched follow-up study, with a multi-informant approach. A group of 47 PGD, 50 ICSI and 55 SC 5-6-year-old children participated in a follow-up study performed at the Centre for Medical Genetics of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (UZ Brussel). Assessments took place in the hospital and in kindergartens. Children performed the Bene-Anthony family relations test (FRT), yielding their perceptions upon family relationships. Parents and teachers completed the child behaviour checklist (CBCL) and Caregiver Teacher Report Form (C-/TRF), respectively. Parental and family functioning were measured by the NEO-FFi, the parenting stress index (PSI), the Greenberger Work-Parenting Investment Questionnaire and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS). Statistical analysis was performed by using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). No differences were detected between the psychosocial development of PGD children and the control groups. Parents did not differ in reporting problem behaviour and they were stricter than teachers. Concerning family functioning the ART parents scored comparable with each other. PGD and ICSI mothers were emotionally more stable [NEO-FFi Neuroticism/emotionality: P = 0.013, η(2) = 0.066; 95% confidence interval (CI) 95% (0.003;0.148)]. They experienced less parental stress in general [PSI, Total stress: P = 0.001, η(2) = 0.102, 95% CI (0.02;0.192)] and on different sublevels opposed to their SC counterparts. Yet ART mothers presented higher ratings on the NEO-FFi Conscientiousness [P = 0.011, η(2) = 0.064; 95% CI (0.003;0.144)] indicating a higher feeling of competence and goal directedness. Mediation analysis confirmed: PGD and ICSI mothers who experienced less family stress were emotionally more stable. A power analysis indicated that a sample with 152 children is sufficient to detect a medium size effect with 80% power using ANCOVA. The current sample comprised only Dutch speaking Caucasians, hence conclusions should be drawn cautiously. Future research should include larger groups, prematures, multiples and children from different cultural backgrounds. This current research is the first to compare PGD preschoolers with matched controls. Concerns about the behavioural effects on the offspring should not inhibit the use of PGD. Furthermore, our findings suggest that on the long run ART procedures might enhance personal resources of women to cope with family stress. These findings are reassuring for women who might feel insecure and anxious during their ART trajectory. This research project gained funding from the OZR (a grant by the Research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel), the FWO (Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) and the Wetenschappelijk Fonds Willy Gepts. The UZ Brussel and the Centre of Medical Genetics received funding from pharmaceutical firms for data collection. UZ Brussel and the Centre for Medical Genetics have received many educational grants for organizing the data collection, from IBSA, Ferring, Organon, Shering-Plough, Merck and Merck Belgium. M.B. has received consultancy and speaker's fees from Organon, Serono Symposia and Merck. The other authors have no competing interests. not applicable.

The use of the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test in the family court context: A new methodology

A new methodology for the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test is presented. The rationale for its use within the Child Protection and Custody context is discussed. Case examples and descriptive statistics are provided. Implications for future research and practice are noted.

The Bene‐Anthony Family Relations Test revisited: Directions in the assessment of children's perceptions of family relations

The Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test is designed to assess the child's perception of family relations using projective techniques. This article describes the test and background to its development. The validity of the test is limited by the content of some items and their categorization, though there is evidence that the test can distinguish between populations that differ on other related variables. A survey of professionals who use the test is described. Despite their enthusiasm for it, the majority of respondents had modified the test in some way, and 86% regularly rephrased at least one item from the test. There were several criticisms of the test, including the positive scoring of 'sexualized items'. The respondents were also inconsistent in their administration and scoring of the test. This test is used less frequently in research, possibly because it is not perceived as a sufficiently robust psychometric instrument. However, there is a danger of 'throwing away the baby with the bath water'. Recommendations are made for the development of a test that reliably assesses the child's perception of the emotional content of relations.

Supplementary (abuse) cards for the family relations test

AbstractThe Bene–Anthony Family Relations Test is a potentially valuable clinical technique in the assessment of young children suspected of having been abused. Fourteen supplementary cards have been developed which offer the possibility of a narrow investigative focus, as their content points more directly to abusive behaviour. Used carefully, it is considered that these cards, within the context of the Family Relations Test, provide a young child with a non‐threatening, non‐directive and age‐appropriate context within which to relate their experiences.

Sex Differences in Affective Responses as Evidenced on the Bene-Anthony Test

This study investigates changes in a child's perception of the relationship with male and female parents during the course of the critical ages of 5, 6, 7, and 8. Correspondingly, since the paper concerns itself with nonpathological normal children, it also provides normative data on the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test. Findings indicate variable gender and age differences in the feelings experienced by children aged 5, 6, 7, and 8 towards male and female parents. There are differences between male and female children in their attitudes toward mother and father, and there are significant changes within the age ranks. Sweeping norms which do not take age and gender into account are inappropriate on the basis of our findings.

Family correlates of male childhood gender disturbance.

In the context of a review of adult cases of gender disturbance, a clinical study was pursued on the status of fathers, father-substitutes, and older male siblings for 46 boys with deviations in male role development. Significantly fewer male role models were found in the family backgrounds of the severely gender-disturbed boys as compared to the mild-to-moderately gender-disturbed boys. Male childhood gender disturbance was also found to be correlated with a high incidence of psychiatric problems in both the mothers and fathers and with atypical patterns of the boys' involvement with their mothers and fathers, as measured by the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test and the Rekers Behavior Checklist for Childhood Gender Problems.

Pre-School Children's Perceptions of Parental Attitudes

The influence of particular parental attitudes on a child's school progress depends not only upon the extent and form of expression of these attitudes but also upon how they are construed by the child. An exploration of the ways in which parent-child relationships are construed was carried out with children attending publicly founded or subsidized playgroups which provided a traditional nursery school programme in urban areas of social need. The emotional relationships within 48 families, as perceived by their pre-school children (24 boys and 24 girls), were examined using the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test. The patternu of the results resembled those for older 'disadvantaged' children receiving a high level of maternal interest. It is suggested that the children who respond to a pre-school programme by displaying accelerated progress are those who not only experience but also perceive a high level of maternal interest, have the support of normal emotional relationships within the family and come from homes in which pre-school provision is viewed with favour.

Adaptation of siblings to childhood malignancy

To explore the impact of childhood cancer, school-aged patients and their healthy siblings from 71 families were given one or more of the following psychologic tests: the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test, and the Thematic Apperception Test. The siblings showed even more distress than the patients in the areas of perceived social isolation, perception of their parents as overindulgent and overprotective of the sick child, fear of confronting family members with negative feelings, and concern with failure (older siblings only). In other areas, such as anxiety and vulnerability to illness and injury, the patients' and siblings' experience appeared very similar. These results indicate that siblings, like patients, experience severe stress when confronted with a chronic, life-threatening illness such as cancer. In recognizing and attending to their needs, one can practice primary prevention in pediatrics by facilitating their healthy adaptation to a very difficult situation.

Diagnostic value of a psychological test in cases of suspected child abuse.

The use of the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test is described and illustrated by three examples of child abuse. This test should be considered in the investigation of definite or suspected cases of abuse and as part of the preparation of court evidence.

Parents' Predictions of Their Children's Perceptions of Family Relations

Thirty children from 15 families were administered the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test. Their parents then assigned test responses as they imagined their children had. With only two exceptions, both involving first born boys, parents predicted their children's responses beyond chance expectation. However, significant discrepancies were found between children's responses and their parents' predictions. Parents tended to overestimate their own centrality in the family perceptions of their children, particularly perceptions involving negative feelings, and to underestimate children's negative feelings involving their siblings.

Family relations test responses of disturbed and normal boys: additional comparative data.

Summary The Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test was administered to twenty normal, twenty-seven school disordered, and ten institutionalized emotionally disturbed preadolescent boys. Significant differences were obtained between and within groups. The more disturbed children tended to report more positive perceptions of family relationships, particularly their relationships with their oldest siblings. However, institutionalized children tended to perceive themselves more negatively than normal or school disordered children in the context of family relationships. Normal children, but not institutionalized children, tended to perceive their relationships with their oldest siblings as significantly more negative than their relationships to their parents. The data were interpreted as reflecting sibling rivalry and the operation of psychodynamic defenses.

Validity of the Family Relations Test: A Review of Research

Summary The rationale and construction of the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test suggest that it could be a valuable clinical projective technique. Little research involving the instrument has been reported, and most studies have been hampered by failure to report essential information, small sample size, poor design, and inappropriate statistical procedures. Investigations reported to date have yielded equivocal evidence of the test's validity. Additional research, for which specific directions are suggested, is needed to indicate the instrument's validity and usefulness or call for its abandonment or revision.

Family Relations Test: A Normative Study

Summary The Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test was administered to 190 eleven-year-old, sixth grade children (86 boys, 104 girls) by students under the supervision of the author. Means and standard deviations for the outgoing and incoming, positive and negative, categories were calculated for ‘Father’, ‘Mother’, ‘Nobody’, ‘Next Oldest Sibling’ and ‘Next Youngest Sibling’, boys and girls being treated separately. The ‘norms’ for boys are compared with “clinic”, “delinquent” and “non-reading” groups. Some important and statistically significant differences are noted between these groups.

Reactions of children within family groups as measured by the Bene-Anthony Tests

Sixty-nine children in 28 families, 17 American Negroes, 46 Puerto Ricans, 6 Americans of European descent, were tested by the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test. No attempt was made to distinguish between the various national groups, as these were all considered to be living under similar social conditions ; that is, in the same metropolitan slum sub-culture. The Bene-Anthony Test provides a paradigm of each child tested in terms of the child's feelings in regard to himself and to members of his family as these feelings are brought out in the test situation. Whether a different pattern of relationships can be discerned under special conditions of family life was the question asked by the writers of this paper. The comparison of the test scores achieved by the children as these were rated high or low on six qualitative variables in family life did bring out significant patterns in boys and girls of different age groups and in the group, as a whole.

Reactions of children within family groups as measured by the Bene-Anthony tests.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the results obtained when the Bene-Anthony Family Relations Test was administered to 69 children in 28 families and to relate these results to the health and social characteristics of this group. These children, 17 American Negroes, 46 Puerto Ricans and 6 Americans of European descent receive out-patient paediatric care from two paediatricians and a public health nurse, in a small family neighbourhood clinic located in a Manhattan slum area. The parents of these children also receive out-patient treatment from the two internists associated with this clinic.