ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the potential contribution of some measures to family program evaluation. It begins with a review of the conceptual bases on which instruments measuring stress and coping behavior. The chapter discusses the impact of the concepts on program development and evaluation. It also discusses the measures that are particularly promising for use in family programs and issues related to their administration. Once a program decides to include measures of stress and coping among its evaluation tools, it may decide to develop its own instrument, modify an existing instrument, or use an existing instrument without modification. The nine scales of family changes are intrafamily strains, marital strains, pregnancy and childbearing strains, finance and business strains, work-family transitions and strains, illness and family care strains, losses, transitions in and out and family legal violations. Programs which have conducted evaluations using measures described previously or similar tools have noted several important implementation issues.
