FACES IV and the Circumplex Model: Validation Study

Abstract

Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES) IV was developed to tap the full continuum of the cohesion and flexibility dimensions from the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. Six scales were developed, with two balanced scales and four unbalanced scales designed to tap low and high cohesion (disengaged and enmeshed) and flexibility (rigid and chaotic). The six scales in FACES IV were found to be reliable and valid. High levels of concurrent, construct, and discriminant validity were found and new ratio scores measure the balanced and unbalanced level of cohesion and flexibility. A clinical example on the use of FACES IV scores to assess family dynamics, plan the treatment, and determine the impact of family therapy is provided.

Family functioning and disability: a study on Italian parents with disabled children

“…instrument that yields two orthogonal dimensions, cohesion and adaptability (Olson, 2011;Visani et al, 2015). The cohesion dimension ranges from extremely low levels of cohesion (disengaged) to extremely high levels (enmeshed).…”

“…The research involved 50 parent couples (age: M=50.84; S.D=7.23), who have 100 disabled children. They completed: Family Assessment Device (Epstein, Baldwin, & Bishop, 1983) to assess specific aspects of family functioning, such as problem solving, communication, roles, affective response and involvement, behavioral control and general functioning; Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (Olson, 2011), to measure family adaptability and cohesion. The parents of disabled daughters showed significantly higher on following scales: cohesion, communication and satisfaction.…”

Family resources and promotion of development of children with cerebral palsy

“…Items are answered on a five-point Likert scale. The result is calculated from the combination of the scores of the balanced and unbalanced scales and allows differentiating between healthy and unhealthy families 12 . The Brazilian version was used, provided by the authors of the scale 13 .…”

The distinction of ‘psychosomatogenic family types’ based on parents’ self reported questionnaire information: A cluster analysis.

“…Few previous studies have applied data driven classification methods in order to validate the family types. Olson and Gorall (2006) collected self-report data on family interaction in general population families. By means of cluster analysis, they distinguished six types of family functioning (balanced, rigidly cohesive, midrange, flexibly unbalanced, chaotically disengaged, and unbalanced).…”