The purpose of this research was to offer the field of family therapy a behavioral tool to evaluate the accuracy of existing theory and to assess family change. The developed Role Behavior Inventory (RBI) was based on Wegscheider's (1981) five role typology (i.e., hero, enabler, mascot, scapegoat, and lost child). Subjects were 32 high stressed and 192 normally stressed 9th through 12th grade students attending Florida High School in Tallahassee, Florida. / One hundred and nine items were gathered from the family literature, family therapy experts, and marriage and family doctoral students to establish the content validity of the five roles. Seven statistical analyses were conducted on the RBI items for the sample population (n = 224). The series of exploratory factor analysis reduced the item pool to 12 hero items, 11 mascot items, and 9 enabler, scapegoat and lost child items. Six identifiable factors represented the underlying traits for the five roles. The hero scale with its reported reliability of .80 was defined by the achievement trait; the mascot scale with its reliability of .83 was defined by the entertainment trait; the scapegoat scale with its reliability of.73, was defined by the nonconformity trait; the lost child with its reported reliability of .61 was defined by the behavioral withdrawal trait; and the multidimensional enabler scale with its reliability of .73 was defined by the domestic orientation trait, the emotional sensitivity trait, and the achievement trait. Role scores were related to family functioning such that the lost child and scapegoat role scores negatively correlated with family strengths, family satisfaction, and parent-adolescent communication scale scores. The hero and mascot role scores positively correlated with these three instruments. The lost child and scapegoat roles were statistically more prevalent in the high stressed sample (p < .05). Sex was a moderator variable in the role scores. / Confirmatory factor analysis using the LISREL statistic did not confirm the five, four, or two theoretical role models presented in the study. Four of the five study hypotheses, however, were confirmed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-10, Section: B, page: 4132. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75953 |
| Contributors | VERDIANO, DIANE LYNN., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 206 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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