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| McMaster Family Assessment× | Social Support Assessment× | |
|---|---|---|
| Field | Social Work | Social Work |
| Family | Process / pipeline | Process / pipeline |
| Year of origin≠ | 1983 | 1988 |
| Originator≠ | Nathan B. Epstein, Duane S. Bishop & colleagues (McMaster University) | Multiple traditions; perceived-support scale by Zimet et al., buffering theory by Cohen & Wills |
| Type≠ | Theory-based assessment of family functioning across defined dimensions | Assessment of the structure, function, and perceived adequacy of a client's social support |
| Seminal source≠ | Epstein, N. B., Baldwin, L. M., & Bishop, D. S. (1983). The McMaster Family Assessment Device. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 9(2), 171–180. DOI ↗ | Zimet, G. D., Dahlem, N. W., Zimet, S. G., & Farley, G. K. (1988). The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52(1), 30–41. DOI ↗ |
| Aliases | McMaster Model of Family Functioning, McMaster Family Assessment Device, MMFF, McMaster Approach to Family Assessment | Social Support Measurement, Perceived Social Support Assessment, Social Support Network Assessment, Social Support Inventory |
| Related | 4 | 4 |
| Summary≠ | McMaster family assessment is a theory-driven approach to evaluating how a family functions, organized around the McMaster Model of Family Functioning and operationalized in the widely used Family Assessment Device. Developed by Nathan Epstein, Duane Bishop, and colleagues at McMaster University, it assesses families on six dimensions — problem solving, communication, roles, affective responsiveness, affective involvement, and behavior control — plus an overall general-functioning scale, each scored from family-member self-report against clinical cutoffs that distinguish healthy from unhealthy functioning. | Social support assessment is the systematic appraisal of the people and resources a client can draw on, the kinds of support they provide, and how adequate that support feels relative to the client's needs. Drawing on the structural-functional theory of support and on validated instruments such as the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, it gives social workers a structured way to map who is in a client's network, what emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support those ties offer, and where gaps leave the client vulnerable — information that is central to strengths-based intervention and care planning. |
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