Family Assessment

The choice of tasks reflects the purposes of the assessment. A family member's responses to sentences in a questionnaire may provide the necessary and sufficient information about perceptions of a wide spectrum of family dimensions and characteristics. But if the main interest is studying conflict resolution strategies, for example, observation may be necessary. In addition, observing a number of interactions in naturalistic, laboratory, and office settings may allow the assessor to obtain more valid and representative samples of behavior.

There are, of course, significant differences between infants, school-age children, and adolescents. The child's as well as the adult's ages, developmental stages, and cognitive, linguistic, and physical abilities and limitations affect role and task assignments in the family and the ability to complete questionnaires and engage in discussions and tasks.