The family environment scale: reliability and normative data for an adolescent sample
Abstract
The Family Environment Scale has been used extensively in family research since first being published. However, despite its appeal both conceptually and empirically, doubts have been raised over the scale's reliability. This article presents normative and reliability data for the Family Environment Scale from a large, combined sample of adolescents. Means and standard deviations were generally found to be in line with those reported in the scale's manual; however, estimates of internal consistency for most subscales could be considered inadequate for research purposes.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Overall sample family conflict scores are significantly lower (p < 0.01) than those reported in the Moos and Moos (2009) normative parent sample (mean conflict score 3.18, SD = 1.91), and in the Boyd et al. (1997) normative youth sample of 11-15 year olds (mean = 3.39; SD = 2.27; p < 0.001).
“One is that despite the higher scores among the parents, these overall sample scores are significantly lower (p < 0.01) than those reported both in the Moos and Moos (2009) normative parent sample, where mean conflict score is 3.18 (SD = 1.91), and in the Boyd et al. (1997) normative youth sample of 11–15 year olds (mean = 3.39; SD = 2.27; p < 0.001).”
From Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data (2018) · cites this paper as Boyd et al. (1997)
Cites
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1983) · Cited by 79,888 · see citing works
Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement.
McLemore, D., & Miller, D. C. (1978) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2064762 · Cited by 1,271 · see citing works
Moos, R. H. (1990) · Family Process · doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1990.00199.x · Cited by 356 · see citing works
Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement
Davis, L. L. (1992) · The Nurse Practitioner · doi:10.1097/00006205-199202000-00029 · Cited by 350 · see citing works
Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement
Woodside, A. G., & Miller, D. C. (1993) · Journal of Marketing Research · doi:10.2307/3172834 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Cole, D. A., & McPherson, A. E. (1993) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/0893-3200.7.1.119 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Measurement Issues in Family Assessment: The Case of the Family Environment Scale
Roosa, M. W., & Beals, J. (1990) · Family Process · doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1990.00191.x · Cited by 104 · see citing works
Lambert, R. G., & Lambert, M. J. (1984) · Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/1520-6629(198407)12:3 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Martin, J. M., & Cole, D. A. (1993) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/0893-3200.7.2.186 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
A Final Comment on the Case of the Family Environment Scale
Roosa, M. W., & Beals, J. (1990) · Family Process · doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1990.00209.x · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
DeVille, D. C., Whalen, D., Breslin, F. J., Morris, A. S., Khalsa, S. S., Paulus, M. P., & Barch, D. M. (2020) · JAMA Network Open · doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.20956 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Zucker, R. A., Gonzalez, R., Feldstein Ewing, S. W., Paulus, M. P., Arroyo, J., Fuligni, A., Morris, A. S., Sanchez, M., & Wills, T. (2018) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2018.03.004 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
Skeer, M., McCormick, M. C., Normand, S.-L. T., Buka, S. L., & Gilman, S. E. (2009) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2009.03.017 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
“72) (Boyd et al., 1997), which held true for the PHDCN sample (Cronbach’s α = 0.”
BackgroundInfluentialDanielson, C. K., McCart, M. R., Walsh, K., de Arellano, M. A., White, D., & Resnick, H. S. (2012) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0028862 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
- Authors
- BOYD, C. P., GULLONE, E., NEEDLEMAN, G. L., & BURT, T.
- Affiliations
- Monash University (AU)
- ORCID
- BOYD, CANDICE P.
- Venue
- Family Process
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1997-12
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 369-373
- ISSN
- 0014-7370 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-5300
- OpenAlex
- W2022533091
- Cited by
- 139
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 1.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Family Process (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics
- Keywords
- Family Environment Scale, family environment, adolescents, reference values, scale reliability, internal consistency, psychometric properties, family functioning
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Family, Female, Humans, Male, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Parent-Child Relations, Sampling Studies, Social Environment, Reproducibility of Results
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
