Identifying Successful Families: An Overview of Constructs and Selected Measures

The study of family strengths has been pursued by researchers from a variety of disciplines, including psychiatry, sociology, psychology, and family/marriage counseling. This paper will present an overview of this growing literature, focusing on four topics: the definition of strong families; the characteristics of strong families as identified by various researchers; the operationalization of these characteristics; and the methodological, policy, and intervention issues that the research raises. [30 PDF pages]