Level validity of self-report whole-family measures |
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| Authors: | Willeke A Manders William L Cook Johan H L Oud Ron H J Scholte Jan M A M Janssens Eric E J De Bruyn |
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| Institution: | Institute of Family and Child Care Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. w.a.manders@hetnet.nl |
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| Abstract: | This article introduces an approach to testing the level validity of family assessment instruments (i.e., whether a family instrument measures family functioning at the level of the system it purports to assess). Two parents and 2 adolescents in 69 families rated the warmth in each of their family relationships and in the family as a whole. Family members' ratings of whole-family warmth assessed family functioning not only at the family level (i.e., characteristics of the family as a whole) but also at the individual level of analysis (i.e., characteristics of family members as raters), indicating a lack of level validity. Evidence was provided for the level validity of a latent variable based on family members' ratings of whole-family warmth. The findings underscore the importance of assessing the level validity of individual ratings of whole-family functioning. |
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