Assessing the Family Functioning of Inner-City African-American Families Living With Schizophrenia With the McMaster Family Assessment Device

The Greek version of the McMaster Family Assessment Device

“…Theorists and researchers have explored the different models of family functioning (Meyers, Varkey, & Aguirre, 2002) and have developed a great number of family assessment tools vital to the researcher, the clinician, and generally to the health‐care practitioner. A considerable number of family assessment scales based on the systemic/holistic approach to families have contributed immensely to our understanding of the variety and relevance of different factors affecting family functioning, including the family's social context (Guada, Brekke, Floyd, & Barbour, ), processes (Day et al, ), qualitative characteristics (Olson, ), and different conditions (e.g., medical and psychiatric; Kazarian, ; Miller, Kabacoff, Keitner, Epstein, & Bishop, ). Family functioning has been related to the risk, course, and prognosis of many mental health conditions, as well as to medical problems, so it has been widely studied in different conditions, such as in relation to depression outcomes (Keitner et al, ; Wang, Mansfield, Zhao, & Keitner, ); children with ADHD (Ghanizadeh & Shams, ); the symptomatology of anxiety (Chapman & Woodruff‐Borden, ); caregivers’ stress related to brain injury (Kreutzer, Gervasio, & Camplair, ); alcohol‐related problems (McKay, Maisto, Beattie, Longabaugh, & Noel, ); risk of obesity (Wen, Simpson, Baur, Rissel, & Flood, ); chronic illness in children and adolescents, such as cancer and type 1 diabetes (Kazak, ; Leonard, Jang, Savik, & Plumbo, ); and in adults with stroke (Clark, Rubenach, & Winsor, ) or brain injury (Schönberger, Ponsford, Olver, & Ponsford, ).…”

“…Although its validity has been questioned in samples of families of single parents with young children (Williamson, Skrypnek, & de Los Santos, ), other studies with single‐parent families reported good psychometric properties (Bihum, Wamboldt, Gavin, & Wamboldt, ; Byles, Byrne, Boyle, & Offord, ; Kabacoff et al, ) and, at the same time, the FAD has been applied successfully in polygamous families (Al‐Krenawi, ; Al‐Krenawi & Graham, ). This criticism has invoked further examination that has contributed to the accumulation of information regarding its psychometric properties (Guada et al, ).…”

“…The FAD has been translated into around 25 languages (Staccini, Tomba, Grandi, & Keitner, ), including French (Speranza et al, ), Dutch (Wenniger, Hageman, & Arrindell, ), Italian (Roncone et al, ), Spanish (Barroilhet, Cano‐Prous, Cervera‐Enguix, Forjaz, & Guillén‐Grima, ), Hungarian (Keitner et al, ), Icelandic (Juliusdottir & Olafsdottir, ), Armenian (Kazarian, ), Chinese (Shek, ), Japanese (Saeki, Asukai, Miyake, Miguchi, & Yamawaki, 1997), and Turkish (Güdek, Durukan, Abalı, & Tüzün, ). Furthermore, the FAD has been administered with confidence in research with families of different ethnocultural origins and has been used in several cross‐cultural studies involving samples from many different ethnicities, such as Arab (Al‐Krenawi & Graham, ), Arab‐Israeli (Al‐Krenawi, Graham, & Slonim‐Nevo, ), Asian (Chen et al, ; Kennedy et al, ), African American (Alston & Turner, ; Guada et al, ; Hines & Boyd‐Franklin, ; Petrocelli, Calhoun, & Glaser, ), North Americans and Hungarians (Keitner et al, ), Hawaiian Americans, and Japanese Americans (Morris, ).…”

The Family Assessment Device: An Update

“…It has been used to discriminate between mentally ill and nonclinical samples, between physically ill and well samples (Friedmann et al., ; McFarlane, Bellissimo, & Norman, ; Miller, Kabacoff, Keitner, & Epstein, ), to evaluate family functioning in the context of a variety of physical and mental illnesses (Keitner et al., ; Leonard, Jang, Savik, & Plumbo, ; McFarlane et al., ; McKay, Maisto, Beattie, & Longabaugh, ; Miller et al., ; Sarmiento & Cardemil, ; Uebelacker et al., ; Weinstock & Miller, ), has been used in both adolescent and adult samples (Bihun, Wamboldt, Gavin, & Wamboldt, ; Byles, Byrne, Boyle, & Offord, ; Herzer et al., ; Leonard et al., ), and is tied to a comprehensive model of family assessment and treatment (Bishop, Epstein, & Baldwin, ; Epstein et al., ; Keitner, Heru, & Glick, ; Ryan, Epstein, Keitner, Miller, & Bishop, ; Stevenson‐Hinde & Akister, ). The FAD continues to be used to evaluate perceived family functioning in samples both large and small ( Growing Up in Canada: National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, ; Guada, Brekke, Floyd, & Barbour, ; Sarmiento & Cardemil, ).…”

Exploring experiences of informal carers of mental health: Developing community intervention in social work in Jordan

“…Mental health disorders engender a burden that impacts individuals, families and societies (World Health Organization (WHO), 2001). Recent studies focused on best practice in the provision of mental health and psychosocial care reveal that informal carers (families) are likely to develop mental health problems as a result of the burden of caregiving (Gray et al, 2010; Guada et al, 2010).…”