How do Runaway Adolescents and their Parents Perceive the Family? Measurement Invariance in the Family Functioning Scale

Abstract

Exploring perceptual discrepancies and how they affect family life may be particularly relevant when household dynamics have broken down to the point that a child runs away or is forced to leave the home. This study explored the sources of differences between parents' and youths' reports of family functioning and, more generally, illustrates how to perform confirmatory factor analysis methods to purge error due to measurement invariance. Basic concepts and methods that are often needed in social work research are described. Creating uni-dimensional and configurable invariant subscales resulted in improved significance for the Conflict subscale over traditional methods. All other subscales remained significantly different between parents and youths at all levels of invariance. Findings highlight the caution required in using any scale to measure the same construct for two different populations, such as parents and children.

Perceptions of family functioning in adolescents who self‐harm

“…This observed disagreement may translate to other areas of agreement, such as the severity of self‐harm, which has been identified as a significant predictor of poor patient outcome (Ferdinand et al ., ). However, caution is required in using any scale to measure the same construct (that is, family functioning) for two different groups, such as parents and adolescents (Thompson, ). It therefore could be argued that the level of disagreement observed between the adolescents and parents in our study reflects naturally occurring differences in perceptions relating to family functioning.…”