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Testing the validity of an instrument for assessing family of origin history
Author(s) -
Melchert Timothy P.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4679(199811)54:7<863::aid-jclp1>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - psychology , socioeconomic status , family history , test validity , psychometrics , clinical psychology , scale (ratio) , variance (accounting) , developmental psychology , demography , medicine , population , physics , quantum mechanics , sociology , radiology , accounting , business
Abstract Family of origin history information is often gathered for research and clinical purposes in psychology, but there has been relatively little examination of the validity of the data obtained. This report describes several tests of the validity of the recently developed Family Background Questionnaire, a relatively behaviorally specific instrument designed to comprehensively assess characteristics of one's family of origin. Using a sample of 678 nonclinical and clinical participants, it was found that a history of incest, parental chemical dependency, clinical status, socioeconomic status, and birth order all predicted Family Background Questionnaire scores as hypothesized and that 38% of the variance in Total Scale scores was accounted for by these variables. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Clin Psychol 54: 863–875, 1998.