The Development and Validation of the FACES-IV-SF

The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale IV (FACES-IV) was developed to capture the balanced and unbalanced levels of cohesion and flexibility in families. Although this measure has been shown to be valid and reliable, its length at 62 items limits utility and uptake in clinical and research settings. This paper details the development of a shorter form of the FACES-IV (the FACES-IV Short Form) using two studies. In the first study, three item-level analyses were used to identify 24 items that provided the best measurement of each of the scales of the FACES-IV. In the second study, the reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the short form was tested. Results suggest that the FACES-IV-SF is a valid and reliable measure that adheres to the theory underlying the original FACES-IV but may be better utilized in clinical and research settings due to its brevity.