This is an important issue from many aspects when considering non-traditional families where the gender-based concepts may not exist at all. That would apply to single parent families, children adopted by same-sex partners, children living with their biological parent who has same-sex partner, families with no children regardless gender of spouses. I am interested in that field from two different perspectives: 1) I was involved in legislating same-sex partnership and also allowing them to take mutual care for one's biological or adopted child and 2) I was legislating the Family Law in the area of guardianship for adults with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities. In both cases, gender based and disability based issues appeared to be involved when it comes to the fact "who is the boss" in the family. But I have to say that with the change of traditional perspectives, more equality is taken into account, especially when it comes to share life-long obligations coming from mutual living.

Dear Kristijan Grdan,

Thanks for your reply. I primarily focus on leadership in a family. In this respect it is not important who is the leader but how the leader (mother, father or children in a nuclear family) leads the family and towards which way leads the leader the family. I and my research fellow (Nuri Baloğlu) developed the family leadership concept. We defined family leadership concept as follows:

‘The process of influencing a family or a family member towards certain goals by family or a family member.’

Only the theoretical conceptualization is not enough, with this idea in mind we developed family leadership tendency scale. This scale consists of 28 items and 4 factors. The fourth factor has three sub factors. These factors are called; economical, social, political and cultural family leadership tendency. This scale measures in which way the family leader influences the family members.

If you are interested in this scale and if you want to use it, I can send it. This scale is developed in Turkish language. We also have English version of this scale. In English version only the language validity is performed. Therefore, we are wondering if it is a valid instrument in other cultures.

Kind Regards,

Meryem

I am quite interested in the subject of family leadership. I would I love to have a copy of the measures in English. In today's climate of transitional transformation of the way we define "family" as well as redefining what constitutes family leadership, and the cultural differences in the construct of families;  a way to quantify or qualify the concept would be invaluable.

Hello Meryem.

 I also interested in  the concept and the scale. If you send me the the scale by email I would appreiated. I have anoher question do you only get the answers from parents or from the children or both? [email protected]

This an important and complex issue that in many interviews with parents of children with chronicle diseases is a major topic. The problem is that the dynamics of it has many implicit and axplici dimensions (ex. coping, sense of coherence, family paradigm). I'm curious if you find any form of 'liquid' leadership in a family, dependent of the aim or task or resources that are needed to lead the family? I'm interested in the scale to see if you can use it to discover issues in communication with non-parental adults. Leadership can possibly be linked with agency and agency is major issue in rol and position of a parent.

Linda De Mey

specialization year Family and Orthopedagogical Studies KUL

Geachte mevrouw De Mey,

Bedankt voor uw reactie. Wij hebben studenten van universiteit als 'sample'. Onze leiderschap had vier factoren. Deze factoren zijn; economisch, sociaal, politisch en cultureel. Ik kan de scale aan u sturen.

Met vriendelijke groeten,

Meryem

In doing some searching for my own school work, I have noticed there is an extreme lack of information on the topic of siblings in the care-giving role, even though it is relatively common in the US, from what I understand. This means there is also likely a lack of appropriate services and resources available for families in this situation. They have very unique challenges, that often get overlooked. Something to look into, if you are interested. 

Dear Meryem,

I would be very happy ıf you send family leadership tendency scale, in Turkish. Family leadership sounds innovative on family issues and concerns...

Dear Brittany Saggau,

We focused especially on families in general. It means that we are in this situation not interested in 'WHO is the leader in a family?'

Although family leadership is a very essential subject, there is a lack of literature. Hope to have a useful contribution to this shortcoming..

The focus is in which way or direction the family leads the family members.. It can be economic, social, cultural or political.

Kind Regards,

Meryem

Dear all,

I am very glad to read your answers. They are very useful for my future research. 'Family Leadership Tendency Scale' or in Turkish 'Aile Liderlik Eğilimi Ölçeği' will be published on 28th February 2016. As soon as it is published, I will share it with you.

Thanks all for your interest !!

Have a good day!

Meryem

Hello all,

Family Leadership Orientation Scale (FLOS), in Turkish Aile Liderlik Yönelimi Ölçeği (ALYÖ) is already published. Both Turkish and English versions of the scale is available. Please see my profile for the scale (the scale is in the last page of the article).

Looking forward to get your commands about our scale.

Kind Regards,

Meryem

 I would like to have a copy of the family leadership tendency scale in English, please!

Dear Christina,

Please see the attachment (last page).

Meryem

 Are you familiar with Galbraith's work?

 Galbraith, K. A. and Schvaneveldt, J. D. (2005), Family Leadership Styles and Family Well-Being. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 33: 220–239. doi:10.1177/1077727X04272362

Yes we used Galbraith and Schvaneveldt (2005) in our previous study. For the detailed information, please see the attachment.