Measures Of Family Satisfaction Research Articles

Family Quality of Life and Family Satisfaction Measures for Use in Slovakia: Confirmatory Factor Analyses

The aim of this study is to provide evidence to support the measurement of psychological concepts of family functioning in Slovakia. The first objective was to verify the psychometric properties of two scales assessing family quality of life and family satisfaction: the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale (BFQOLS) and the Family APGAR in people from a standard population (without disabilities). The second objective was to determine the relationship between family quality of life and family satisfaction with life satisfaction, self-esteem, income, and socio-economic status. The sample of participants comprised 499 adult respondents from Slovakia, 250 men and 249 women aged 18–60 years. In addition to the BFQOLS and the Family APGAR, scales were used to measure socioeconomic status, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life. As the results indicate, the factor structure of scales with acceptable fit indices was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. The scales showed good reliability and further analyses appear to support convergent and discriminatory validity of the scales. Based on the results obtained, the Slovak translation of the scales can be recommended for further verification and use in the standard population (without disabilities).

Importance of patient and family satisfaction in perioperative care

As healthcare systems increasingly shift focus toward providing high-quality and high-value care to patients, there has been a simultaneous growth in assessing the patient's experience through patient-reported outcomes. Along with well-known patient reported outcomes such as health-related quality of life and current health state, patient satisfaction can be a valuable assessment of quality. Patient and family satisfaction measures not only affect a patient’s clinical course and influence overall patient compliance, but are increasingly used to gauge physician performance and guide reimbursement. The paucity of standardized measures and the subjective nature of patient and family satisfaction impairs a surgeon’s ability to internalize this feedback and institute actions to optimize clinical care. This review seeks to identify areas to improve patient and family satisfaction with the perioperative experience.

Factors associated with parent depressive symptoms and family quality of life in parents of adolescents and young adults with and without Spina Bifida.

The purpose of this study was to explore factors related to parental depressive symptoms (PDS) and family quality of life (FQOL) in parents of adolescents and young adults (AYA) with and without a specific chronic health condition (CHC), spina bifida. Two hundred and nine parents of AYA (112 with SB; and 97 without) and their AYA (46% males and 54% females) took part in a multi-site cross-sectional descriptive correlational study. In telephone interviews parents reported on measures of family satisfaction, resources, cohesion, stress, demographic and clinical data. In the multivariate analyses, 38% of the variance of PDS was explained by family income, family resources and parent stress. Having a child with SB was not predictive of PDS. However, having a child with SB, along with family satisfaction, parent stress and PDS explained 49% of the variance of FQOL. PDS partially mediate the relationship of family resources and FQOL. PDS, family stress, and resources should be evaluated routinely, especially for those with low income. Parents of AYA with SB who have elevated PDS are at increased risk of having lower reported FQOL.

The Polish Adaptation of FACES IV-SOR

Abstract My paper describes a Polish adaptation of the family assessment tool called FACES IV. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit of the model to the data with a sample of 499 Polish individuals from 150 families. The reliability measures of the two Balanced scales are similar to those of the American scales. However, the four Unbalanced scales have lower reliability. Reliability measures of Family Satisfaction and Family Communication are even higher than the American ones. A cluster analysis clearly depicted the extreme profiles of the Balanced and Unbalanced scales, with the remaining four profiles also present. Norms were developed for the various scales. Psychometric verification of this instrument showed that FACES IV-SOR is useful for research and clinical work with Polish families.

The Use of a Brief Five-Item Measure of Family Satisfaction as a Critical Quality Indicator in Advanced Cancer Care (FR467-B)

rarely practiced despite an emphasis on the importance of family input and support for caregivers in advanced care for those with cancer and other serious illnesses. Measurement burden may be one barrier to widespread use of family satisfaction measures. Research Objectives: To use a brief measure of family satisfaction to assess differences across sites. Methods: We used data from the Palliative Care for Cancer Patients (PC4C) study, a multisite observational study of the effect of inpatient palliative care on patient health outcomes and health service use among patients with advanced cancer. Using Item Response Theory (IRT), we developed a shortened five-item version on the FAMCARE scale to measure family satisfaction with care. We used multivariate regression analysis to detect significant differences across five treatment sites controlling for patient demographics, cancer type, family relationship to patient, and use of inpatient palliative care Results: Family satisfaction data were available on 1,979 patients. The most common cancer type was gastrointestinal (28%) followed by lung (13%). Mean FAMCARE-5 score across sites ranged from 5.54-6.89 out of a possible score of 10 (highest level of satisfaction). Family members of patients at site five (n=783) were significantly (p<.01) less satisfied with their care than family members at other care sites. Conclusions: Variability in family satisfaction with advanced cancer care across sites can be detected using a brief five-item

Use of an Item Bank to Develop Two Short-Form FAMCARE Scales to Measure Family Satisfaction With Care in the Setting of Serious Illness

ContextFamily satisfaction is an important and commonly used research measure. Yet current measures of family satisfaction are lengthy and may be unnecessarily burdensome—particularly in the setting of serious illness. ObjectivesTo use an item bank to develop short forms of the Family Satisfaction with End-of-Life Care (FAMCARE) scale, which measures family satisfaction with care. MethodsTo shorten the existing 20-item FAMCARE measure, item response theory parameters from an item bank were used to select the most informative items. The psychometric properties of the new short-form scales were examined. The item bank was based on data from family members from an ethnically diverse sample of 1983 patients with advanced cancer. ResultsEvidence for the new short-form scales supported essential unidimensionality. Reliability estimates from several methods were relatively high, ranging from 0.84 for the five-item scale to 0.94 for the 10-item scale across different age, gender, education, ethnic, and relationship groups. ConclusionThe FAMCARE-10 and FAMCARE-5 short-form scales evidenced high reliability across sociodemographic subgroups and are potentially less burdensome and time-consuming scales for monitoring family satisfaction among seriously ill patients.

Multidisciplinary Team Training to Enhance Family Communication in the ICU*

Current guidelines from the U.S. Society for Critical Care Medicine state that training in "good communication skills...should become a standard component of medical education and ... available for all ICU caregivers". We sought to train multidisciplinary teams of ICU caregivers in communicating with the families of critically ill patients to improve staff confidence in communicating with families, as well as family satisfaction with their experiences in the ICU. Pre- and postintervention design. Community hospital medical and surgical ICUs. All patients admitted to ICU during the two time periods. Ninety-eight caregivers in multidisciplinary teams of five to eight individuals trained in a standardized approach to communicating with families of ICU patients using the Setup, Perception, Invitation, Knowledge, Emotions, Strategy (or Subsequent) (SPIKES) protocol followed by participation in a simulated family conference. Staff confidence in communicating with family members of critically ill patients was measured immediately before and 6-8 weeks after training sessions using a validated tool. Family satisfaction using seven items measuring effectiveness of communication from the Family Satisfaction in the ICU (24) tool in surveys received from family members of 121 patients admitted to the ICU before and 121 patients admitted to the ICU after trainings was completed. Using 46 matched pre- and postsurveys, staff confidence in communicating with family members of critically ill patients increased significantly (p < 0.001) in each of 21 separate measures. Family satisfaction with communication showed significant (p < 0.05 or better) improvement in three of seven individual items compared with those same items pretraining. There was no decline in any individual item. A simple intervention resulted in improvement in staff confidence, as well as in multiple measures of family satisfaction with communication. This intervention is easily reproduced.

Validity of Family Satisfaction Measures

Children’s Hospital of Michigan Detroit, MI Wayne State University Detroit, MI * See also p. e350. Drs. Meert and Templin have received grants from NICHD R03HD048487 Spiritual Needs of Bereaved Parents and have received funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Wireless Telephone Systems and the Impact on Patient Satisfaction Scoring: A Pilot Study

A review of patient and family satisfaction measures on one pediatric acute care inpatient unit of 27 beds rated the nurses' promptness in responding to patient call bells in the 40%-50% excellence range. As a process improvement initiative, a wireless telephone system was implemented on the unit for enhancing communications between caregivers. During this 6-week trial, each registered nurse (RN) and patient care technician (PCT) was assigned a wireless telephone at the beginning of their shift, thus becoming their communication vehicle for 12 hours. As patient requests came to the nurses' station via the current nurse call system, the health unit coordinator was instructed to call either the RN or PCT on his or her wireless telephone, depending on the patient request. After the 6-week trial, data revealed an increase of 10% to 60% excellence. Both patient and families revealed a faster response time to their need with the implementation of the wireless telephone system pilot.

Implementation and Case-Study Results of Potentially Better Practices for Family-Centered Care: The Family-Centered Care Map

The objective of this study was to enhance the ability to coordinate and deliver care in a holistic manner, through a family-centered care map, so that the developmental, physical, and psychosocial needs of the infant and family are met. A Web-based map was based on 7 distinct clinical phases with 3 variations of an infant's course through a NICU. Sixty-three potentially better practices were identified and 7 potentially better practices were implemented through case studies. Measures of family satisfaction revealed improvements in delivery of family-centered care. Increases in discharge growth parameters for extremely low birth weight infants were demonstrated. Length of stay for very low birth weight infants decreased from 73 to 60 days in Vermont. The collaborative process enhances identification of potentially better practices and results in both qualitative and quantitative improvements in family-centered care.

Social integration and life and family satisfaction in survivors of injury at 5 years postinjury.

This study assessed the relationship of social integration (SI) to life satisfaction and family satisfaction among survivors 5 years after injury. Thirty-four matched pairs of injured patients were interviewed by telephone 60 months after initial discharge from the acute care setting. Respondents were matched according to sex, race, education, injury severity, and employment status before comparing high and low socially integrated persons on measures of family and life satisfaction. High and low SI groups were formed based on the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART) SI Scale. The former consisted of patients scoring 100; the latter consisted of patients scoring 50 or less. Analyses of covariance, with age and injury type as covariates, were used to test for group differences. The high and low SI groups differed on both the life and the family satisfaction measures, with the high SI group reporting greater life and family satisfaction.

Psychometric Properties of a New Family Life Satisfaction Scale

Summary: A scale of bipolar adjectives, the Family Satisfaction by Adjectives Scale (F.S.A.S.), is presented, consisting of 27 items designed to measure family satisfaction, mainly related to the affective connotation derived from family interaction. After applying the scale to a sample of 274 subjects and 16 patients in family therapy, we obtained (a) acceptable indicators of internal consistency (α = .976) and temporal stability (rxx = 0.758), (b) clear evidence of unidimensionality, (c) significant linear correlations with other measures of family satisfaction (Family Satisfaction, Olson &amp; Wilson, 1982 ; Family Satisfaction Scale, Carver, &amp; Jones, 1992 ), and (d) significant differences between a normal sample and a clinical one.

Stress and family satisfaction in parents of children with facial port-wine stains.

A cross-sectional survey was employed to assess parenting stress, family satisfaction, and parental concerns and to determine predictors of stress in parents of children with port-wine stains (PWSs). The participants were 46 parents of 24 children receiving treatment with pulsed dye laser photocoagulation for facial PWS at an outpatient dermatology clinic based at a university medical center. Outcome measures used were self-report instruments assessing psychosocial adjustment (Parenting Stress Index, Family Satisfaction Scale, and Parental Concerns Questionnaire). As a group, parents scored in the average range on the stress and family satisfaction measures when compared with a normative sample; five parents (11%) scored in the clinical range for stress. Forty-nine percent of the variance in parenting stress was accounted for by four variables: the child's age (beta = 0.34; p = 0.031), the parents' degree of family satisfaction (beta = -0.27; p = 0.077), the level of parental concern regarding the child's facial PWS (beta = 0.45; p = 0.005), and the parents' satisfaction with staff communication (beta = -0. 51; p = 0.002). The data suggest that while, as a group, parents of children with a facial PWS report to be in the average range for psychological stress, some do not fare as well as others. Factors associated with lower stress include younger children, more family cohesion and adaptation, fewer parental concerns, and greater satisfaction with parent-staff communication. The potential for the development of medical complications and psychological problems over time suggests the need for treatment of the PWS at an early age. Health care providers should be prepared to screen for clinical levels of distress and to refer parents for psychological intervention when needed.

Predictors of African American Well-Being

This study examines panel data from the National Survey of Black Americans with regard to the predictors of African American quality of life between 1980 and 1992. Objective measures (such as health, education, and income) indicate that the situation for African Americans has either stagnated or declined during this period. Regression analyses found: (a) measures of general life satisfaction, happiness, and family satisfaction to be interrelated across time; (b) global well-being measures of general life satisfaction and happiness to be the strongest predictors of each other; and (c) variation in general life satisfaction to be consistently accounted for by domain well-being measures of family satisfaction and health satisfaction. Implications for further research are discussed.

Adolescents' perceptions of communication with parents relative to specific aspects of relationships with parents and personal development

Adolescents' views of communication with their parents are examined in relation to measures of family satisfaction, adolescent decision-making and disagreement with parents (Study I), and to measures of self-esteem, well-being and coping (Study II). The results provide some support for the psychometric qualities of the Parent–Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS) and suggest that good family communication is associated with satisfaction with the family and with lack of disagreement between adolescents and parents. They also indicate a positive association between family communication and adolescent self-esteem, certain aspects of adolescent well-being and type of coping strategy employed.

ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale: A brief research and clinical tool.

This article presents reliability and validity data for the 15-item ENRICH (evaluation and nurturing relationship issues, communication and happiness) Marital Satisfaction (EMS) Scale. The scale was found to be reliable and to have strong correlations with other measures of marital satisfaction and moderate relationships with measures of family satisfaction and consideration of divorce. The EMS Scale offers an important alternative to researchers who require a brief but, nevertheless, valid and reliable measure of marital quality. It provides a means to obtain both dyadic and individual satisfaction scores. Ten of the scale’s items survey 10 domains of marital quality. The other 5 items compose a marital conventionalization scale to correct for the tendency to endorse unrealistically positive descriptions of the marriage. National norms based on 2,112 couples are presented for the EMS Scale.

Classification and validation of family climate subtypes in Kibbutz fathers of disabled and nondisabled children

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of disabled children on their fathers. Perceptions of family climate, sense of coherence, and satisfaction from family life were measured among 66 fathers of disabled children and among 74 fathers with nondisabled children in an Israeli kibbutz. The fathers of disabled children showed lower sense of coherence, derived less satisfaction from family life, and viewed their families as less encouraging of personal growth among family members. Four subtypes of family climate patterns, perceived by fathers of disabled children, were identified by cluster analysis and validated by the sense of coherence and global family satisfaction measures. Cluster analysis for the fathers of nondisabled children replicated the subtypes identified. The four subtypes were conceptualized as families with a (a) personal growth orientation, (b) conflict orientation, (c) conflict avoidance orientation, and (d) recreation avoidance orientation. Significant differences were found between the subtypes with regard to the family climate variables and satisfaction and coherence measures. Results demonstrated that different patterns of family climate characterized the two groups of fathers: In almost every cluster the measures of personal growth were lower for the fathers of disabled children.

The effectiveness of a child psychiatric unit: a follow-up study.

This follow-up study to determine the effectiveness of a child psychiatric unit found evidence to support a program emphasizing a predetermined period of hospitalization. Most measures of family satisfaction, behaviour and social function improved significantly. The unit appears to treat older children as well as those less than 9, children from fighting families as well as those with less fighting, and sexually abused children as well as physically abused children. The program includes: 2 weeks of preadmission evaluations, 5 weeks hospitalization and 5 weeks of follow-up, placement decisions made before admission, primary responsibility for front line staff and treatment programs composed of various combinations of techniques from a list of 65 possible techniques.