Family Environment Scale Subscales Research Articles

Family environment of youth with first episode Mania.

The purpose is to compare youth- and caregiver-reported characteristics of family environment, within and between families with a child experiencing a first manic episode of bipolar disorder (BPD), and families without a child with BPD or familial history of psychiatric disorders (HF). Family environment of 61 families with a child with BPD and 44 HF were assessed with Family Environment Scale (FES). We compared FES subscale scores between families with BPD and HF, and caregiver- and youth-rated scores. Families with BPD differed significantly from HF on 8/10 FES subscales scores. Youth differed significantly from their caregivers on 7/10 subscales. An interaction effect was observed such that youth with BPD reported lower cohesion and organization, and higher conflict than their caregivers; however, HF did not differ significantly on these domains. Our results suggest that families with BPD have higher conflict and lower cohesion and organization compared to HF. Results also indicate differences between youth and caregiver perspectives in both groups, which may contribute to family discord. Interventions targeting areas of cohesion, organization, and conflict may be beneficial for youth with BPD and their families, specifically those that identify and bridge perceptual divides.

FAMILY ENVIRONMENT: THE ADAPTATION OF IDEAL FORM OF FAMILY ENVIRONMENT SCALE IN THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT OF LATVIA

The tool for research the family environment, Family Environment Scale (FES) which is created by Moos and Moos in Latvia wasn’t adopted, that why is important to adopt this tool in environment of Latvia, because this will be chance for specialists to use good and multidimensional tool for research of family environment. The main goal of this article is to show the results of FES - R scale adaptation, this is why author in this article shows Family Environment Scale’s (Moos & Moos, 2009) Real form of scale adaptation in the environment of Latvia, the way of adaptation and comparative data for adapted and original version. FES - R had been adopted by using linguistic adaptation and statistical analysis for getting the general psychometric data which are necessary for process of the test adaptation and providing of validity for adaptation version of the test. At the result of process of adaptation with some insignificant changes in items of subscales of FES – R form, but with effort keep similarity with original version, finally was gotten adaptation version the FES – R form, which is usable for research in future.

Family Environment and Pediatric Major Depressive Disorder

Background: The risks for depression broadly include biological and environmental factors. Furthermore, having a family member suffering from major depression is also likely to have consequences for the family environment. Further research aimed at understanding the effects of having a child with major depression on family interaction patterns is warranted. Methods: We studied 31 families with an 8- to 17-year-old child (mean age ± SD = 12.9 ± 2.7 years) who met the DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) and 34 families with no mentally ill children (mean age ± SD = 12.6 ± 2.9 years) or parents. Children and their parents were assessed with the K-SADS-PL (Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia – Present and Lifetime Version) interview. Parents completed the Moos Family Environment Scale (FES) to assess their perceptions of current family functioning. Data were analyzed using the nonparametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Results: Families of MDD children showed significantly different patterns of family functioning on FES subscales representing relationships and personal growth dimensions. The families with MDD children showed higher levels of conflict (p < 0.001) and lower levels of cohesion (p < 0.001), expressiveness (p = 0.003) and active-recreational orientation (p = 0.02) compared to the families without mentally ill children. Conclusion: Families with MDD children show a lower degree of commitment, provide less support to one another, provide less encouragement to express feelings and have more conflicts compared to families with no mentally ill children or parents. Interventions aimed at improving family dynamics may be beneficial to MDD children and their families.

Relationship between parental emotional states, family environment and the behavioural adjustment of pediatric burn survivors

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between psychosocial adjustment of the burned child and characteristics of the child's family. It hypothesized that parents who perceived their children without major behavioural problems would possess supportive family values and would, themselves, be better adjusted psychologically than those parents who perceived their children as possessing multiple behavioural problems. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 35 (29 boys, 6 girls) paediatric burn survivors, ages 9 to 18, 1–5 years post-burn, with burn sizes ranging from 3 to 92% burn. Subjects' parents were administered the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL), the Family Environment Scale (FES), the Impact of Events Scale (IES), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The subjects were divided into two groups on the basis of the total problem CBCL scores, i.e. troubled ( T ≥ 60) or untroubled ( T < 60). One-way ANOVA tests revealed no significant differences between the two groups in the way parents reacted to trauma (IES) and parental depression (BDI). Significant differences ( p < 0.01) were revealed between the two groups on FES subscales. The parents of the untroubled group scored higher on ‘Cohesion’ and ‘Organization’ and lower on ‘Conflict’. These parents also scored higher ( p ≤ 0.05) on ‘Achievement Orientation’. The results indicate that work with the family to promote cohesion, to decrease conflict, to enhance stability and to promote expectation of positive achievement must be a part of the rehabilitation of the burned child.

Assessment of Supportive, Conflicted, and Controlling Dimensions of Family Functioning: A Principal Components Analysis of Family Environment Scale Subscales in a College Sample

A principal components analysis of the Family Environment Scale (FES) was performed on a sample of 113 university undergraduates. Although the FES is extensively used to assess family environment, little research has investigated the empirical combination of FES subscales into composites. Results supported three broad components encompassing the 10 FES subscales; these components replicated previous findings in other samples. The similarity of results across these groups supports generalization of the FES components to college samples.

Parent‐child mediation: An empirical assessment

AbstractThe relationship among preintervention family functioning, conflict characteristics, and mediation outcome and subsequent family functioning was assessed in seventy parent‐child disputes. The Family Environment Scale (FES) profiles indicated that families were distressed, with high levels of dysfunction. Parents and adolescents had divergent perceptions of the conflict. Parental perception, especially that of mothers, was of greater seriousness of the problem related to positive mediation outcome. Positive changes on several FES subscales and overall client satisfaction with the process suggest that parent‐child mediation is an effective intervention modality for helping distressed families in conflict. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Perceived Family Environment of Black Adolescent Alcohol Users and Nonusers

The purpose of this study was to examine Black American adolescents' substance use (alcohol) and their perceptions of their family environments. Eighty-six participants between ages 12 and 19 from a large mid-Atlantic medical facility who reported exposure to alcohol use were asked to complete Moos' Family Environment Scale (FES). The participants were divided into users and nonusers. Users were described as those who drank at least once a week and used at least medium amounts per occasion. Nonusers were defined as those who did not drink or used less than once a year. Substance users were hypothesized to perceive family environment less favorably than nonusers. A t-test was conducted to compare means of groups on each subscale of the FES. The independent variable was alcohol use (yes/no). Dependent variables were the scores on the FES subscales. Analyses of the data indicated that users and nonusers differed significantly (p&lt;.05) on five of the ten subscales, specifically Cohesion, Conflict, Achievement, Intellectual, and Moral Religious Emphasis.

Correlations between Family Environment and Relationships of Young Adult Siblings

Factors which influence the nature of relationships among young adult siblings were examined. 107 undergraduate students completed a questionnaire about their current relationships with siblings and the Family Environment Scale. Variables which affected these relationships included sex of the respondent, the sex of each of the siblings in the family and whether the family was intact or blended. The Family Environment Scale subscales of Cohesion, Expressiveness, Intellectual-Cultural Orientation and Active-Recreational Orientation were correlated with the relationships of adult siblings. Differences were noted in how these variables affected the relationship with the closest/only sibling versus all the siblings in the family.

Psychosocial and Life Stress Characteristics of Navy Families: Family Environment Scale and Life Experiences Scale Findings

This study examined the combined responses of husbands and wives within 785 Navy families on five subscales from the Moos and Moos (1981) Family Environment Scale (FES) and from the Life Experiences Scale (LES), a measure of life stress developed by Sarason, Johnson, and Siege1 (1978). Respondents were from the U.S. Navy Atlantic Submarine Fleet, Surface Fleet, Air Wing, and Shore Duty Commands. Major findings indicated that FES subscale means for Navy families compared favorably with national normative data reported by Moos and Moos (1981), and FES scores were not affected by the sailors' point in the deployment cycle or type of command assignment. In contrast, LES scores were significantly related to command assignment and point in the deployment cycle, with significantly lower levels of life stress reported for those sailors and wives assigned to shore duty. Finally, level of life stress was significantly related to family environment characteristics, with higher life stress families reporting lower levels on FES subscales of Cohesiveness, Expressiveness, and Organization, and higher levels on Family Conflict.

Conceptual and Empirical Approaches to Developing Family‐Based Assessment Procedures: Resolving the Case of the Family Environment Scale

This article focuses on the reliability and validity of the Family Environment Scale (FES). The FES subscales generally show adequate internal consistency reliability and stability over time when applied in samples that are diverse; the items also have good content and face validity. An extensive body of research supports the construct, concurrent, and predictive validity of the FES. More generally, reliability and validity are a joint function of scale items and response formats and of the characteristics and diversity of specific samples. To contribute to further advances in family assessment, researchers need to use both conceptual and psychometric criteria rather than rely too heavily on the pursuit of internal consistency reliability and factor analytic approaches to scale construction and validation.

Family Environment and Family Day Care

Forty-four family day-care providers participated in a study of the relationships between the of the day-care program, the level of cognitive stimulation in the caregivers' home, and the social-emotional climate of the caregiver's own family life. Data were collected using Caldwell and Bradley's (1979) Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Scale; Moos's (1986) Family Environment Scale (FES); and Harms, Clifford, and Padan-Belkin's (1983) Day Care Home Environment Rating Scale (DCHERS). HOME and DCHERS scores were highly correlated and yielded a total quality score in subsequent factor analyses. HOME, DCHERS, and the Quality scores all correlated highly with FES subscales on Organization, Independence, Active-Recreational, and Intellectual-Cultural orientations. The implications of these findings for day-care providers, trainers, and consultants to caregivers and parents are discussed. Family day care is the most widely used and least researched form of child care in North America. Within this narrow research base, studies have focused on either the programmatic of the day-care experience, or selected aspects of the family day-care provider's own family life. There have been few attempts, however, to systematically examine the relationship between the program and the family life of the provider. In this article a research study is reported which examined (a) the level of cognitive stimulation available to children in the family day-care home, (b) aspects of the social and emotional dynamics of the caregiver's own family, and (c) the of the day-care program. The article discusses the implications of these findings for family day-care providers; professionals involved in training, licensing, and consulting with family day-care providers; and parents in their search for and selection of family day-care homes for their children. As an ecological niche, family day care occupies a unique and ambiguous position. As a home environment it represents a setting reflecting the needs and uses of family life. The members of the family are involved in a system of relationships with one another; the system itself must accommodate the demands of time, logistics, work, play, study, and all of the other features and pressures of family life. In addition, the home is expected to meet the needs of up to six unrelated children who are cared for, in the vast majority of cases, by the mother in the family. The day-care function places additional demands upon the family: Space must be organized in specific ways, certain age-appropriate materials must be present, the day-care provider's time must be organized around the, at times, competing demands of family life and day care. Until now, quality in family day care has almost always been defined in the literature as referring to the quality of the day-care program itself, with little reference to the variability and vagaries of family life within which the day-care function is situated. A major question addressed in this study, then, is how to reconceptualize in family day care to include the relationships between the day-care program and the cognitive and social dimensions of family life. There is far more information in the research literature on the effects of the cognitive and social environments of children's own-home environments than on the cognitive and social environments of family day-care environments. Level of cognitive stimulation is generally defined as both the availability of certain materials in the home environment, such as children's books, toys, and puzzles, and the frequency of certain kinds of activities and interactions, such as adult-child

Relationship Between Perceived Family Climate and Adolescent Adjustment

Determined, for each subscale of the Family Environment Scale (FES), whether cutoff scores exist that are related to adolescent distress. TWO epidemiological measures, the Langner Symptom Survey and the General Health Questionnaire, assessed adjustment. We employed a conservative definition of adolescent distress. Analyses revealed that three FES subscales (Cohesion, Conflict, and Active-Recreational Orientation) were related to adolescent distress, regardless of age and sex, and that one FES subscale (Expressiveness) was related to distress in male adolescents but not in female adolescents. We established cutoff scores for each FES subscale found to be related to adolescent distress.

Physical Disability, Acculturation, and Family Interaction Among Mexican Americans

This study focused on providing a descriptive analysis of patterns of family interaction among bilingual, bicultural Mexican Americans, as provided by the disabled family member. Through a six month follow-up of subjects the study explored the predictive relationship between scores on the Family Environment Scale (FES), and a criterion variable: counselor 6 month rating of progress toward vocational potential. Results were compared with those provided in the original normative study by Moos and Moos (1981), showing statistically significant mean differences (p.05) on 9 of the 10 FES subscales. Correlational analyses also indicated a significant relationship between 6 month rating of progress toward vocational potential and Expressiveness (r=.38, p =.01).

Family environment in anorexia nervosa and Bulimia

The Family Environment Scale (FES), an instrument that evaluates several aspects of family functioning, was given to 114 young women subjects and a parent of each. Twenty subjects had restricting anorexia nervosa (AN), 13 had bulimic AN, and 24 had normal-weight bulimia, whereas 57 were age-matched controls. The score of each subject and her parent was averaged on each FES subscale to derive a family score. One-way analyses of variance, used to compare the 4 subject, 4 parent, and 4 family means, revealed significant differences on 5 of the 10 FES subscales: cohesion, expressiveness, conflict, achievement orientation, and activerecreational orientation. These data, together with those of other investigators, suggest that the family environment in eating disorder families differs in important ways from that of normal families. The possible significance of these findings is discussed.

Genetic and environmental influences on the development of piagetian logico-mathematical concepts and other specific cognitive abilities: a twin study.

The classical twin study method was used to assess the relative contributions of genetic and environmental components to individual variation in several aspects of cognitive functioning. Tests of logico-mathematical concept formation, as well as vocabulary, nonverbal reasoning, and visual memory, were administered to 137 MZ and 72 DZ, same-sex white twin pairs. These children were individually tested on the Piagetian Mathematical Concepts Battery (PMCB), Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (PM), and a Visual Memory (VM) test. The Attitudes Toward Education (ATE) questionnaire and the Moos [63] Family Environment Scale (FES) were used to collect additional data from the parents. Twins were 4 to 8 years old, with a mean age of 71 months, and most were from middle- and upper-middle-class families. Zygosity was determined from dermatoglyphic information and responses to a questionnaire asking mothers about twin similarities and confusion between the twins by others. These data were analyzed by a simple pair concordance procedure and by a discriminant function analysis. In addition, blood typing was done on 32 pairs for whom zygosity was not possible to determine by these methods.Previously reported patterns of intercorrelations among the 10 subscales of the FES, as well as the subscale structure, were verified by factor analysis. A factor analysis of the ATE yielded three factors: Basic Academic Education, Parental Participation, and General Utility of Education. These factors correlated significantly (P &lt; 0.01) with various environmental indices (including father's occupation and education, Achievement Orientation, Expressiveness, etc). A factor analysis of the PMCB tasks gave some support for the existence of Piaget's underlying concepts of conservation of number, seriation, and classification.No sex differences were found for any of the specific cognitive abilities or any of the environmental variables. Correlations with age were substantial: 0.75 for PMCB, 0.70 for PPVT, 0.59 for PM, and 0.43 for VM. Because of the high correlations with age, the effect of age on these variables was partialed out in all further analyses. PMCB correlated most highly with PM (r = 0.41), and with PPVT (r = 0.36). Nonverbal reasoning and vocabulary were relatively independent of each other (r = 0.23). Correlations between visual memory and all other tests were low.MZ and DZ intraclass correlations for height and weight were similar to values reported in other studies. After correcting for test reliability, significant genetic variance (P &lt; 0.01) was found for both PMCB and PPVT, and was suggested for VM. Genetic variance for PM was not significant (P &gt; 0.05). Correction for reliability could not be employed in this case because an accurate estimate of the PM test–retest reliability is not available. There was no significant effect of age on the magnitude of the MZ or DZ intraclass correlations.A stepwise multiple regression on the environmental variables was performed for each cognitive test. The environmental variables considered were number of siblings, parental education and occupation, the 10 FES subscales, and the three ATE factors. Age was entered first in the regression equation for each test, and it accounted for 18% to 57% of the total variance in cognitive performance. Parental education accounted for 3% of the total variance in both PMCB and PPVT performance. This was considered as an environmental influence, but the possible confounding with a genetic element in parental IQ was discussed. Achievement Orientation exhibited a significant negative relationship (R2= 0.02) with PM performance. Cohesion in the Family was positively related to PPVT performance (R2= 0.02). In addition, Intellectual–Cultural Orientation predicted VM performance (R2= 0.02). Overall, those environmental variables found to have a small effect suggest the value of a warm, stimulating, supportive (but not “pushy”) family environment for normal cognitive development in young children.Examination of the genetic and environmental results indicated that 49% of the variance in age-corrected PMCB performance was accounted for by the genetic variance (estimated from twin comparisons) and parental education. Similarly, variables identified in this investigation accounted for 60% of the variance in age-corrected PPVT performance, 29% of the age-corrected PM performance, and 32% of age-corrected VM performance.In conclusion, this was the first large twin study to find both genetic and environmental influences on the development of Piagetian logico-mathematical concepts and other specific cognitive abilities. The results illustrate the feasibility of investigating cognitive development in a theoretical framework such as Piaget's.