The Family Assessment Device: A Clinimetric Analysis

The Family Assessment Device (FAD) is a widely used 60-item self-report questionnaire measuring the ability of the family to work together to satisfy the basic needs of its members according to the McMaster Model of Family Functioning (MMFF). It has six subscales and a General Functioning Scale which assesses the overall health/pathology of the family. The FAD has shown an adequate internal consistency and moderate correlations with other self-report family assessment questionnaires. Its discriminant validity between families of medical patients and families of controls has been studied with heterogeneous results [7] while the discriminant validity among families of different groups of psychiatric patients and normal samples is good [7]. The test-retest reliability has been evaluated only for the General Functioning subscale (correlation coefficient 0.60 after 12 weeks; 0.76 after 6 months) while the FAD responsiveness in detecting changes in the family functioning subsequent to a therapeutic intervention was found acceptable. The FAD factor structure is debated. Some authors found a substantial subscales overlap and suggested to use only the General Functioning subscale; other authors proposed a factor solution different from the original one (e.g., 3 factors; 5 factors; 7 factors]).