Assessing Family-Level Processes, Lifestyle, Resources, and Social Capital in Primary Care Settings with the Family Health Scale

Primary care is an ideal setting to deliver preventative, family-based interventions. However, until recently a standard instrument to assess family health in clinical settings did not exist. To fill this gap, our interdisciplinary team of public health researchers, family scientists, mental health providers and a primary care physician, developed, validated and published a 10-item Family Health Scale (FHS) in 2020. The FHS measures: 1) Family social and emotional processes, 2) Family healthy lifestyle, 3) Family health resources and 4) Family external social capital. In this webinar, the presenters will discuss the development of the FHS as well as subsequent research and clinical applications in the areas of COVID-19 impact, obesity, couples research and integrated care pediatrics.

Webinar Objectives:

1. Describe the importance of assessing family health in primary care settings

2. Demonstrate the development, validation and screening potential of the Family Health Scale

3. Discuss current and future applications of the Family Health Scale in research and clinical settings