FAML 360

Family Stress and Coping

Assessment Packet

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Questions to ask the family:

(These are questions that you feel will assess family functioning in a helpful way)

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

What is the context of this family? (Bronfenbrenner)

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Context (Boss):
What is the External Context of the family?
! Culture
! History
! Economy
! Development
! Heredity
What is the Internal Context of the Family?
! Structural
! Psychological
! Philosophical
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Boss, P. (2002). Family stress management: A contextual

approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Family Systems Theory:

Homeostasis
Negative feedback
Positive feedback
Calibration
Information processing
Subsystems
Boundary
Open system
Closed system
Entropy
Negentropy

Source: Goldenberg, I., and Goldenberg, H. (2004). Family therapy: An

th
overview, (6 Ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Thompson Learning.

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Which stage in the family in now? What are they experiencing?

CLOSUREOUTWARD
FOCUSING

calm

energy

renewed

behavior

unresolved

selfloss,

dormant
isolation,

tears,

GRIEF
DENIAL

or

IMPACT
STAGES

anxietyfainting,
nausea,
anxietenseness

Table
2.

Crisis
muscle
Stages
changes
diarrhea,
controlled
shock:
SENSATION
of physiological
Over

ty
or

feelings
AFFECT
despair,
feelings
between
alternating shock
of
avoidance
of and
Characteristics
hope,
anxiety of

physical
symptoms,
fatigue
anxiety-related

helpless-

or
self
guilt,
relief,
sense sense
anger,
revival
ness,
doubt,
of
of of pity,
feelings
confidence

in
or
due
with ing,
child
spurts
crisis needs ness
crisisgoing
where
to changes crying,
family,
new
slow
lethargy,
returning
of
shopping
motions
agitation,
increased
lethargy,
of beginning
and
fidgeting;
in alternating
appearing
BEHAVIOR
information
to
of
care
to others
for
or
through
of
with sleeplessness,
behavior
behavior
possible
pre- child
premotion,
movingpacing,
activity
seekdazed
friendlimeet contact
cures
diagnoses,
and

cal
relaxed
decrease
in
symptoms
muscles,
physi-

or
Modalities
of of
loss
port
talk;
sonal
agree
those
of
drawalothers,
seeking
seeking
those
avoidance
who
isolation,
problem
RELATIONS
need
of current
who
warmth
interper-dissupport
and
to
withINTERPERSONAL
viewcompany
of
sup-

will
and
that
ized
death
child ness
child
tions,
future
reliving
found,
circular
of options, bethoughts
"reason as
appears
disbelief,
problem
increased
situation
solution,
and
confusion,
notdistorted situation
acceptance
formulating like
might wishquestioning
of
or
COGNITION
"why?"
reconsideringfor prior
disof
in
punishment,"
disorientation,
be
reality,
thinking
cure where
fictionalwhatthis
plansawarepossible
toward hearing
explanations,
it
expectais
imagining
events
"how?"

ily
who over
ness work edge
talking
others goals
seeking
increased
havewith
with
emergence
out
toward
solidarity
of
begins,
options
close- as
others,
those
similarnew fam- knowl-

Fortier, L. M. & Wanlass, R. L. (1984). Family crisis following the diagnosis of a handicapped child.
Family Relations, 33(1), 13-24.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/584585
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

What types of social pollution are they experiencing?

What attributes does this family exemplify?

Attributes of Successful Families (Krysan):
! Communication
! Encouragement of individuals
! Expressing appreciation
! Commitment to family

Affective
Involvement

External
Resources
Social
Connectedness

! Religious/Spiritual Orientation
! Social connectedness
! Ability to adapt
! Clear roles

Effective
Communication

! Time together
Source: Krysan, M., Moore, K. A., & Zill, N. (May 10, 1990). Research on successful families. A report
on a conference sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; US
Department of Health and Human Services. Child Trends, Washington-DC.
FAML360
Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Adaptability

Clear DeJinition
of Roles

Individual Factors:
Peace of Conscience, Peace of Mind (Elder Scott)
Model of Individual Functioning (Higgins):

What are the individual factors at play?

Unrepented sin?
Internal Pressures?
External Pressures?
(Elder Scott)
Individual Temperament?
Individual Behaviors
Individual thought processes?
Individual Beliefs?
(Higgins)
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

The Functional Family (MacArthur)

What are the attributes of a Functional Family (according to MacArthur)?
How is the family doing with these attributes?
Is there is an inviting comfortable loving atmosphere in the home and the family

Are the parents mostly interested in what they can offer their children and pay less attention to what the children will do with what
they are offered?

Do the parents consciously and intentionally parent?

Are the parents are very aware of the impact they have on their children?

Do the parents understand that the best place to address basic human needs is in the family?

Are relationships of supreme importance?

Are the parents teachers (directly and indirectly)?

Do the parents have clearly defined roles and responsibilities they mutually agree upon?

Do the parents exhibit strong and confident leadership and help to develop a shared vision of the purpose of the family?

Does the family feel the need to be perfect?

Does the family play and have fun together?

It the family the Gospel school?

MarArthur, J.D. (2000). The functional family. Family Expo Conference, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Circumplex Model (Olson):

Where is this family before
the crisis?

During the crisis?

After the crisis?

Figure 1: Circumplex Model: Couple & Family Map

Olsen, D. H. (1993). Family continuity
and change: A family life-cycle
perspective. In Timothy H. Brubaker (Ed.), Family relations: Challenges for the future (1st Ed.) (Ch. 2, pp. 17-40). Newberry Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Marital and Family Flexibility

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Family flexibility is the amount of change in its leadership, role relationships and

Appendix 1: Family Cohesion

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Appendix 2: Family Flexibility

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Appendix 3: Family Communication

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

A Stressor Events
8 Factors:
1. Internal or external?
2. Affects one member or all members?
3. Sudden or gradual?
4. Severity?
5. Time (how long to adjust)?
6. Expected?
7. Natural or human caused?
8. Perception are we able to solve the crisis?

Ingoldsby, B. B., Smith, S. R., & Miller, J. E. (2004).

Exploring family theories. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury
Publishing Co.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Stressors (and type of stressor see next page):

Weber, J. G. (2011). Individual and family stress and crises. Los Angeles: Sage.

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Classification of Stressors (Boss)

Boss, P. (2002). Family stress management: A contextual

approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

B - Resources:
Individual
Example (loss of job)
Level of education
Job experience
Perseverance
Work ethic

Family

Being supportive
Encouraging one another
Making contacts with those you
know in the job market
Helping spouse with resume
Sharing household responsibilities to
allow time for job search

Community

Job relocation services

Headhunters
Having church members pray for you
Having church members make
contacts
Having friends help with tasks to
allow more time to job search

Ingoldsby, B. B., Smith, S. R., & Miller, J. E. (2004). Exploring family theories. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing Co.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Individual Protective Factors/Resilience (Richardson):

Traits of resilience (protective factors):

Being female
Robust
Socially responsible
Adaptable
Tolerant
Achievement Oriented
Good communicator
Good self-esteem
(Werner, 1982)

Easy temperament
Being female
Positive school climate
Self-mastery
Self-efficacy
Planning skills
Warm close personal relationship with an adult
(Rutter, 1979, 1985)

Effectiveness
High expectancies
Positive o utlook
Self-esteem
Internal locus o f control
Self-discipline
Good problem-solving skills
Critical thinking skills
Humor
(Garmezy, et at., 1984, 1991)

Richardson, G. E. (2002). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of Clinical Psychology,
58(3), 307-32

FAML360
Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

External
Receiving support (family, adults, neighborhood,
school)
Feeling a sense of empowerment
Knowing boundaries
Knowing expectations
Finding constructive use of time
Internal
Educational commitment
Positive values ( caring, honesty, responsibility,
integrity)
Social competencies
Positive identity (self-esteem, sense of purpose,
internal control)
(Benson ,1997)

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

McCubbin, H. I., McCubbin, M. A., Thompson, A. I., Sae-Young, H., & Allen, C. T. (1997). Families
under stress: What makes them resilient. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 89(3), 2-11.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218175250?accountid=9817

1.

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

analysis with oblique (5 = 0) rotation, using the 13 PCS items. Kaiser's

(1974) measure of sampling adequacy (MSA = .93) was high. An examination of the eigenvalues suggested a two-factor solution. Factor I
accounted for 55.2% of the common variance and consisted of seven items
(relating to helplessness and magnification), and Factor II accounted for
7.7% of the common variance
and consisted of sixNo
items
(relating to rumiAction
Action
nation). Using the original item-retention cutoff value of .30 or greater, we
What do they believe about the situation?
!
!
found that Item 5 and
Item 12 had secondary
loadings on Factor I. The
!
!
two factors were substantially
correlated (r != -.66). The factor structure
!
of the Control
PCS is presented inFulfillment
Table
I.
!
!Avoidance
Next, when we respecified three factors, the factor structure and itemfactor compositions were similar to findings presented in Sullivan et al.
What do they believe about pain?
(1995). However, only
two of the eigenvalues

" (Factor I = 7.18, Factor II

"
"
= 1.00, Factor III = 0.90) were 1.0 or greater,
suggesting that two factors
"Frustration
"Acceptance
should
be
extracted
using
the
eigenvalue
criterion.
The failure to replicate
No Control "
the three factors in "a similar undergraduate sample raises questions about
the
stability of the three-factor solution for the PCS. Sullivan and colAre they trying to control things that they have no control over?
leagues have raised similar concerns (personal communication, August 7,
God the
grant
me the serenity
to accept
the things
1996) about
replicability
of the PCS
factor structure.
OurI findings, howcannot change, courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference. - AA
Is this a catastrophe?

C Definition of the Situation

Table I. Factor Analysis of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale

Do they believe that they can get through this?

Factor
Item No.

Abbreviated description

Factor I

Do they accept the pain? (acceptance of pain predicted better

adjustment on all other measures of patient function, independent
of perceived pain intensity)
Optimism - Is this a challenge or threat?

2
3
7
1
13
4
6

Can't go on
Never get any better
Think painful experiences
Worry whether pain will end
Something serious may happen
It's awful
Afraid pain may get worse

Factor II

8
11
9

Want pain to go away

Want pain to stop
Can't keep out of mind
Thinking how much it hurts
Nothing I can do
Can't stand it

Self-fulfilling prophecy (a prediction of behavior which biases people

to act as though the prediction was already true)

10
12
5

Cano, A., Leonard, M. T., and Franz, A.(2005). The significant other version of the
Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS-S): Preliminary validation. Pain, 119 (13), 26-37.
FAML360
Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Eigenvalue
Variance (%)

.85

.72
.71
.71
.62
.61
Ml

-.14
-.01

.13
.15

.30
.35
7.182
55.2

II

h2

.13

.59
.57
.45
.62
.45
.63
.63

-.05

.06

-.11
-.06
-.25
-.25

-.95

-.92
-.80
-.78
-.49
-.48
1.002

7.7

Note, h2 = communality. Rotated factor loadings .30 are underlined.

.75
.82
.79
.79
.52
.57

Crisis Orientation (Crisis Addiction Covey):

!
!
!
!

Is this a crisis-oriented family?

Do they anticipate potential crises?
Do they spend too much time in Quadrant IV?
Do they spend enough time in Quadrant II?

Covey, S. R., Merrill, A. R., & Merrill, R. R. (1994).

First things first. New York, NY: Fireside. (Chapter 2)
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

X Crisis

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

What is the crisis?

How is the family doing over time?

FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Burr, W.R., Klein, S.R., et al. (1994). Reexamining Family Stress: New theory and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Burr, W.R., Klein, S.R., et al. (1994). Reexamining Family Stress: New theory and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

What patterns are you observing?

Burr, W.R., Klein, S.R., et al. (1994). Reexamining Family Stress: New theory and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Other Tools:
Helping the Family After the Crisis - Teaching Resilence

Ways to help families:

! Help clients see that they have the choice of personal growth in the wake of their disruptions.
! Disruption = immediate hurt, lost, guilt, or fear And an opportunity to connect with ones spiritual source of strength
! Enrich planned disruptions opportunities for resilient reintegration (growth)
! Help clients become more process oriented by looking for the silver lining as they work through disruptions and reintegrations.
! Finding meaning and purpose and disruptions help value experiences.
Richardson, G. E. (2002). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(3), 307-321.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

Family Profile II (Lee & Burr, 1997)

Family Attrubutes: Lee, T. R., & Burr, W. R. (1997). The Family Profile II: A self-scored, brief family assessment tool. Psychological Reports, 81(2), 467.
KEY AREAS
Kindness
1. We do nice things for each other.
14. We give each other compliments.
27. Family members sacrifice for each other.
52. We are compassionate.

Unkindness
2. Some family members are rude to others.
15. Some family members are very critical of
others.
28. Some family members are cruel to one
another.
41. Some family members ridicule others.
53. Some family members are verbally abusive
with one another.

Communication
3. Some members of our family have difficulty
expressing themselves.
16. Some members of our family are poor
communicators.
29. Some members of our family have difficulty
understanding others.
42. Some members can't put their thoughts into
words very well.

Disengagement
4. When we are at home family members usually
do their own thing.
17. Family members lead very separate lives.
30. In our family, everyone is on their own.
43. We do things as separate individuals rather
than as a family unit.

Enmeshed
5. Some members of the family want more
individuality than our family allows.
18. Individuals in our family are not given enough
freedom.
FAML360 Higgins - Assessment Guide and Worksheets

31. The family puts too much pressure on us to

conform to the family's way of doing things.
44. The family discourages independence.

Bridging
6. Our family is uncomfortable socializing with
others.
19. Our family avoids social situations.
32. In times of need, our family has a network of
people we can count on for help.
45. Helpful neighbors are unavailable to our
family in times of need. 54. When serious
problems arise, our family is on its own.

Financial Management
7. We live within our income.
20. We are in debt for many things that are not
necessary.
33. We pay our bills on time.
46. Being in debt is a serious problem for our
family.

Self-reliance
8. As a family, we take the responsibility to
provide for ourselves.
21. We try to be self-supporting.
34. We try to be independent financially.
47. We accept the challenge to provide for
ourselves.

Work Orientation
9. We are taught that work is a key to success.
22. We avoid hard work.
35. Work is an important value taught in our
family.

Daily Chores
10. The quality of our work on family chores is
poor.
23. Everyday tasks are left undone in our family.

36. Some family members do not do their fair

share of the family chores.
48. Our family is good about getting daily chores
done. 55. Some family members fail to do their
share of work.

Sacred Orientation
11. Faith in religious things are important to our
family.
24. We pay attention to the spiritual part of life.
37. Faith in God, or a higher power, is important to
our family.
49. We attend worship services.
56. We rely on a supreme being.

Rituals
12. We participate in valued traditions that are
unique to our family.
25. Our family should give more emphasis to
celebrating special events.
38. We give the right amount of emphasis to
special events like holidays, birthdays, and
anniversaries.
50. We have some valued traditions that are
unique to our family.
57. We enjoy the celebration of special holidays in
our family.

Quality of the Family Relationships

13. The overall quality of our family life is very
good.
26. We are satisfied with how we get along in our
family.
39. The overall quality of our family life is very
poor.
51. Our family is about the way we want it to be.
58. Overall the family gets along well.