Thanks for your interest Patrick. At this stage we are not working with a specific conceptualization, but my literature review describes that cohesion, communication, support, organization and supervision have been found as problematic dimensions in substance abusing families. I think that it it's a starting point to identify relevant instruments.

Patrick, I'll be glad to get your advice about your area of research. As I wrote previously we are in a preliminary stage of the research process.

Thanks

Consider the Family Assessment Measure http://www.mhs.com/product.aspx?gr=edu&id=overview&prod=famiii - especially if you're interested in some sort of congruence between the adolescent and other family members, or the Moos Family Environment Scale http://archive.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/ehs/perf_measures/reports/resources_measuring/res_meas_phik.html.

You may want to look at the ICCS Scale (Rubin & Martin 1994). This communication scale has shown correlation to couples satisfaction in a current study I am working on (family preservation). Hope this helps, would love to see the results of your first study.

Thanks

Hi Juan,

One scale that I have used in the past is called the FACES III scale, which I believe stands for the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales. This measures family cohesion and adaptability (i.e., flexibility in roles). Another that you may consider is the parenting practices scale that is part of the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs Collateral Version, which is available at www.chestnut.org, or if you contact [email protected]. This scale was used in the largest outpatient adolescent treatment trial for adolescent marijuana users, called the Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) study (Dennis et al., 2004). However, I'm not sure that they ever used the data on these scales beyond my dissertation. I was interested in whether family treatments increased parental warmth and monitoring moreso that non-family treatments. It turns out that parents did not have higher warmth or monitoring if they were assigned to family treatments.

Good luck!

Doug

Thanks

Hi Juan,

For use in larger scale research, we have found that relevant items of the Communities That Care Youth Survey are valid and reliable.  There are a small number of scales (family cohesion, family conflict, family management), with each scale containing 3-4 items).  The full questionnaire is available at;

http://www.rch.org.au/uploadedFiles/Main/Content/ctc/Communities_That_Care_Youth_Survey.pdf

I attach a couple of publications that have used these scales to predict adolescent substance abuse. 

Hope this is helpful.  Best wishes

Adrian

Thanks Adrian. That is a very good suggestion.