The Family Survey as a Diagnostic Instrument
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to document analyses done to make refinements in an instrument previously used for a May 1983 survey of 1,036 Army couples in the U. S. Army in Europe. The analyses were performed to determine strengths and weaknesses of the instrument, as well as to examine implications for use of data obtained from such an instrument. Sections of the instrument were assessed to determine whether the sections constituted actual scales. Results include reliability coefficients and relationships among the scales determined by factor analysis, intercorrelation, and step-wise regression. Results were examined in light of suggested refinements for the instrument, if it or sections of it are used in such research in the future. Recommendations include 1) future use of scales to analyze family bonding, strengths or weaknesses which have literature giving us the psychometric properties, and known relationships to other constructs, 2) revising items from the Family Index of Coherence to form a commitment to the Army scale, 3) using the literature on the psychological sense of community to develop scales for this variable, 4) using a known scale for job satisfaction, and %) designing the next survey instrument so that multivariate scores can be more easily applied to groups of items or composite scores. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA167288
Entities
People
- Karol Girdler
Organizations
- U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences