Source(s)

Counts, J., Buffington, J., Chang-Rios, K., Rasmussen, H., & Preacher, K. (2010). The development and validation of the protective factors survey: A self-report measure of protective factors against child maltreatment. Child Abuse and Neglect, 34, 762-772. Retrieved from: http://www.quantpsy.org/pubs/counts_buffington_chang-rios_rasmussen_preacher_2010.pdf

Family Environment Scale. (2010). Mind Garden. Retrieved from: http://www.mindgarden.com/products/fescs.htm#ms

Friese, B. & Davenport, P. (2005). One size does not fit all: How a model program can be adapted to work for different populations. Persistently Safe Schools 2005. Retrieved from: http://gwired.gwu.edu/hamfish/merlin-cgi/p/downloadFile/d/16893/n/off/other/1/name/FrieseandDavenport9507Paperpdf/

Galea, M. (2010). Does child maltreatment mediate family environment and psychological well-being? Psychology, 1, 143-150. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=family%20environment%20scale%20(fes)%20child%20maltreatment%20program%20evaluation&source=web&cd=16&ved=0CEIQFjAFOAo&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scirp.org%2Fjournal%2FPaperDownload.aspx%3FpaperID%3D2122&ei=07dGT6anEsS00AGTysj_DQ&usg=AFQjCNEUbdFyqN7FYQfwPLbxYu-9lYthhQ

Measure Profile: Family Environment Scale (FES). (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.excellenceforchildandyouth.ca/about-learning-organizations/measure-profile?id=121

Parenting Instruments. (n.d.).Family Environment Scale (FES), 1994.Retrieved from: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/perf_measures/reports/resources_measuring/res_meas_phik.html

Evaluation Methodology

“This measure may be used to diagnose family problems, to monitor changes over time, to evaluate and improve parenting, to identify risks, to assess the effectiveness/impact of treatment/intervention programs, or as a teaching tool for clinicians and family therapists” (Measure Profile, 2012)

Measurement Characteristics

Description

90 self-reported items, with dichotomous responses (True or False) (Measure Profile, 2012)

(sub) Scales

'Relationship dimension: Cohesion, Expressiveness, and Conflict.
“Personal Growth dimension: Independence (assesses the extent to which family members are assertive, self-sufficient and make their own decisions), Achievement Orientation (reflects how much activities (such as school and work) are cast into an achievement-oriented or competitive framework), Intellectual-Cultural Orientation (measures the level of interest in political, intellectual, and cultural activities), Active-Recreational Orientation (measures the amount of participation in social and recreational activities ), and Moral-Religious Emphasis (assesses the emphasis on ethical and religious issues and values)
“System Maintenance dimension: Organization and Control' (Family Environment Scale, 2010)

'The Relationship dimension consisted of Cohesion, the degree of commitment, help, and support family members provide for one another (e.g., “Family members re-ally help and support one another”); Expressiveness, the extent to which family members are encouraged to ex-press their feelings directly (e.g., “We say anything we want to around home”); and Conflict, the amount of openly expressed anger and conflict among family members (e.g., “We fight a lot in our family”).
'The Personal Growth dimension consisted of Independence, the extent to which family members are assertive and self-sufficient, (e.g., “We think things out for ourselves in our family”); Achievement orientation, how much activities are cast into an achievement-oriented or competitive framework (e.g., “We feel it is important to be the best at whatever you do”); Intellectual-Cultural orientation, the level of interest in political, intellectual, and cultural activities (e.g., “We often talk about political and social problems”); Active-Recreational orientation, the amount of participation in social and recreational activities (e.g., “Friends often come over for dinner or to visit”); and Moral-Religious emphasis, the emphasis on ethical and religious values (e.g., “We don’t say prayers in our family”). The System Maintenance dimension consisted of Organization, the degree of importance of clear organization and structure in planning family activities and responsibilities (e.g., “We are generally very neat and orderly”); and Control, how much set rules and procedures are used to run family life (e.g., “There are very few rules to follow in our family”)' (Galea, 2010).

Target Population

'Children, adolescents, and adults (ages 5 and up.)' (Measure Profile, 2012)

'Child (11 years or older) and parent report on family environment' (Parenting Instruments, n.d.)

Psychometric Properties

'Sample for development for norms:
Form R and Form E: 2200 families. The sample was diverse with respect to geography, family type, race, and age. Form I: 591 participants from a variety of family types' (Measure Profile, 2012)

'The authors report internal consistency reliabilities (alphas) of 0.61-0.78, and test-retest reliabilities of 0.54-0.86. Further studies have reported alphas of 0.20-0.87 and test-retest reliabilities of 0.68-0.99' (Measure Profile, 2012).

'The authors report evidence of extensive concurrent/convergent/divergent validities. Further studies have found evidence of discriminative validity and moderate convergent validity' (Measure Profile, 2012).

Administration Factors

'15 to 20 minutes to complete each of the three forms' (Parenting Instruments, n.d.)

Languages

Arabic, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish(Measure Profile, 2012).

Availability of Measure

Available from: http://www.mindgarden.com/products/fescs.htm#ms

Pros

'The expressiveness scale of the FES measures the extent to which family members are encouraged to act openly and to express their feelings directly. The higher this score, the better in terms of family communication. Distressed families score lower than normal families. The conflict scale of the FES measures the amount of openly expressed anger, aggression, and conflict among family members. The higher this score, the more common the level of disturbance in the family' (Friese & Davenport, 2005).

Cons

'Family Functioning. Used mainly for therapeutic decision making. Must be knowledgeable in family systems theory to use. Internal consistency in the borderline range' (Counts et al., 2010).

Listed as a limitation: 'The internal reliability of the FES, a key variable measure in this research, which was used to measure family environment, was another limitation, despite opting to use only the best and highest dimension, that of Relationship, which ranged from 0.63 to 0.74' (Galea, 2010).