Family Assessment Observation Kit
Family Assessment Observation Kit
Assesses parental behaviors and child responses in an observation setting. Designed to be congruent with data-based instruments and mental health research.
The Observation Forms were especially designed to be congruent with the focus of the data-based instruments; they pinpoint not only what a parent says and does, but more importantly, discriminate among the different ways, positive and negative, a child responds to parental communications. Feelings all have valence, the degree to which they feel good to bad.
During observation sessions, parents are observed for emotional tone and positive/negative parenting behaviors, both deemed important in the following research on parenting.
Positive emotional regulation in parents is a common target in neuroscience research. In an observation setting, the mental health professional is instructed to watch carefully for a parent’s emotional tone. A meta-analytic review of 53 studies published between 2000 and 2020, showed that parents with better emotion regulation skill or fewer difficulties are higher in positive parenting behaviors and have children with better emotion regulation and fewer internalizing symptoms. (M. Zimmer-Gembeck, J. Rudolph, & J. Kerin: “Parent emotional regulation: A meta-analytic review of its association with parenting and child adjustment.”)
Based on the parenting literature, four main dimensions of parenting are identified: parental responsiveness, parental positive demandingness, parental negative demandingness, and parental emotion-related coaching. Parental responsiveness, parental emotion-related coaching, and parental positive demandingness are related to children’s higher emotional intelligence, while parental negative demandingness is related to children’s lower emotional intelligence.
The Observation Forms employ an extremely easy to use abbreviation system that allows clinicians to direct their energy toward observing instead of note-taking. Complete directions are included. The Abbreviation System is based on the neuroscience research on feelings. The research reveals that the only biological or innate information in a feeling is its valence, the degree to which it feels some degree of good or bad, and its degree of arousal.
Contains: 48 Observation Forms (24 Child and 24 Adult), clipboard, Manual with full instructions
