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Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy pp 220–222Cite as

Beavers Systems Measures, The

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Name and Type of Measure

The Beavers Systems Measures assess family functioning from clinician and client perspectives. The Beavers Interactional Scales (BIS) are a set of rating scales for completion by clinicians or researchers observing family interaction. The Self-Report Family Inventory (SFI) is a questionnaire for completion by literate family members over 11 years.

Introduction

Family competence and family style are the two main dimensions of the Beavers Systems Model of Family Functioning (Beavers and Hampson 1990, 2000). The competence dimension ranges from optimal through adequate, midrange, and borderline to severely dysfunctional. The style dimension ranges from centripetal to centrifugal. When the two dimensions are combined, they define nine distinct family groupings, three of which are relatively functional and six of which are dysfunctional. A family’s status on the competence and style dimensions may be established with the BIS and SFI.

Developers

The BIS and SFI were...

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References

  • Beavers, W. R., & Hampson, R. B. (1990). Successful families: Assessment and intervention. New York: W.W. Norton. (Contains the BIS and SFI).

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  • Beavers, W. R., & Hampson, R. B. (2000). The Beavers Systems Model of family functioning. Journal of Family Therapy, 22(2), 128–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, I. W., Epstein, N. B., Bishop, D. S., & Keitner, G. I. (1985). The McMaster Family Assessment Devise: Reliability and validity. Journal of Marital & Family Therapy, 11, 345–356.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University College Dublin and Clanwilliam Institute Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Alan Carr

Authors
  1. Alan Carr
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan Carr .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jay L. Lebow

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anthony L. Chambers

  3. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Douglas C. Breunlin

Section Editor information

  1. Council for Relationships, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Heather Pederson

  2. Midwestern University, Downers Grove, IL, USA

    Diana Semmelhack

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Carr, A. (2019). Beavers Systems Measures, The. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_390

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