The Score Family Assessment Questionnaire: A Decade of Progress

Abstract

This paper reviews a decade of research (2006-2016) on a family assessment instrument called the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation (SCORE). The SCORE was developed in Europe to monitor progress and outcome in systemic therapy and has been adopted by the European Family Therapy Association as the main instrument for assessing the outcome in systemic family and couple therapy. There are currently six main versions of this instrument: SCORE-40, SCORE-15, SCORE-28, SCORE-29, Child SCORE-15, and Relational SCORE-15. It has also been translated into a number of European languages. Fifteen empirical studies of the SCORE "family of measures" have been conducted. Most have aimed to establish psychometric properties of these instruments in English and other languages. Others have used the SCORE to document the level of family adjustment in clinical samples or evaluate outcome in treatment trials. There is now sufficient evidence for the reliability and validity of the SCORE to justify the use of brief versions of this instrument to monitor progress and outcome in the routine practice of systemic therapy.

Validation of the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation (SCORE‐15) self‐report questionnaire: index of family functioning and change in Swedish families

“…An overall sum of family adjustment is obtained, as well as results on three factors: "strengths";"We are good at finding new ways to deal with things that are difficult", "difficulties"; "We seem to go from one crisis to another in my family" and "communication"; "It feels risky to disagree in our family". In a recent review (Carr and Stratton, 2017), SCORE-15 was shown to have sound psychometric qualities. It has been used on adolescents and adults in both clinical and non-clinical samples.…”

“…Since SCORE-15 identifies significant questions relating to a family's interactions, the instrument has many potential uses in therapy. It is easy to administer, and it evaluates changes in family function over time (Carr and Stratton, 2017;Hamilton and Carr, 2016). SCORE-15 has shown to be potentially promising in measuring therapy results and therapeutic changes in the family (Stratton et al, 2014).…”

“…The 15-item version, besides being quick and easy to administer, has the additional advantage that it can be used for both children and adults (Jewell et al, 2013). Strengthening it further, the UK Association for Family Therapy (AFT) and the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA) have selected SCORE as the main instrument for measuring therapeutic outcome in systemic family therapy (Carr and Stratton, 2017). SCORE-15 is thus considered a welcome addition to the measurement of outcome in systemic treatment and research.…”

“…Sound psychometric properties are essential if an instrument is to be widely spread. Psychometric research on SCORE is emerging towards this aim, but as Carr and Stratton (2017) pointed out in their recent review, previous studies on SCORE are not without limitations. Examples of such limitations are small samples and large drop-out in outcome measurements.…”

“…The aim of the present study is to investigate the psychometric qualities of a Swedish version of SCORE-15, addressing most of the shortcomings reported by Carr and Stratton (2017). We investigate the reliability and validity of SCORE-15 in a sample of Swedish families.…”