Family Assessment Measure (FAM) and Process Model of Family Functioning

TLDR

The Process Model outlines a framework for family assessment across seven dimensions—task accomplishment, role performance, communication, affective expression, involvement, control, and values and norms. This paper reviews twenty years of work developing the Family Assessment Measure (FAM) grounded in the Process Model of Family Functioning. FAM assesses these dimensions at three levels—whole family, dyadic relationships, and individual—using general, dyadic, and self‑rating scales (50, 42, and 42 items respectively), includes social desirability and defensiveness measures, and offers brief 14‑item versions for each scale. Across clinical and non‑clinical settings, FAM demonstrates strong reliability and validity, effectively and efficiently assessing family functioning with robust explanatory and predictive utility, corroborating clinicians’ experience of its rich informational value.

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of twenty years' work in the development of the Family Assessment Measure (FAM), based on the Process Model of Family Functioning. The Process Model describes a conceptual framework for conducting family assessments according to seven key dimensions: task accomplishment, role performance, communication, affective expression, involvement, control, values and norms. The FAM provides measures of these dimensions at three levels: whole family system (general scale, fifty items), various dyadic relationships (dyadic scale, forty‐two items) and individual functioning (self‐rating scale, forty‐two items). In addition, the general scale includes social desirability and defensiveness response style measures. Brief FAMs (fourteen items) are available for each scale as well. The measurement properties of FAM have been evaluated in a variety of clinical and non‐clinical settings. Reliability estimates are very good in most contexts. FAM's validity has been supported using a number of techniques. Overall, the weight of the evidence is that FAM's effectively and efficiently assess family functioning and provide strong explanatory and predictive utility. This empirical evidence reinforces experiences of clinicians, indicating that FAM provides a rich source of information on family functioning.