ABSTRACT
This chapter explores addressing issues pertaining to data collection and identifying strategies to advance the validity and reliability of the family diagram as an assessment instrument in empirical research. The family diagram is a theory-driven assessment procedure based on Bowen family systems theory. The data collection method is designed to systematically collect family historical data that provide a multigenerational diagrammatic description of interactional patterns and emotional dependencies in the nuclear and extended family system. Bowen family systems theory focuses on multigenerational family data. The details of family data have immense possibilities, especially where family dynamics define different levels of functioning among family members in three or more generations. The family diagram was the assessment tool used in the initial and subsequent contacts with the families for history-taking of three or more generations. Mignonette N. Keller designed a multigenerational study to identify and evaluate factors influencing family functioning.
