Family Stereotypes Card Sort

S. A. Graham-Bermann (1995)

Graham-Bermann, S. A. & Brescoll, V. (2000). Gender, power, and violence: Assessing the family stereotypes of the children of batterers. Journal of Family Psychology, 14 (4), 600-612.

Background:
The Family Stereotypes Card Sort (FSCS) was developed and refined using descriptions of the family derived from the family stories and discussions about families with more than 300 school-age children who participated in a community-based clinical intervention program for children of battered women from 1992 to 1996. Many children held beliefs about the family that included the acceptability of violence, of the abuse of power by the father, and of secrecy and the seclusion of the family. The FSCS was created to assess such stereotyped beliefs about the family that the child may adhere to and also the extent to which the child believes the stereotypes to be true. The measure consists of 36 cards. Each card contains a statement about stereotyped family roles, culled from the stories and descriptions of families originally generated by children of battered women.

Four general areas are measured: Male Power, Female Power, Violence Privilege and Family Autonomy. Male Power consists of items that emphasize the father’s inherent importance and superiority in the family (e.g., "the man is the king of the castle, he is in charge of the whole family"). Conversely, items that emphasize the mother’s privilege in the family represent the second factor, Female Power (e.g., "the woman makes most of the major decisions in the family"). The third factor, called Violence Privilege, covers items showing approval of the use of physical violence in the family (e.g., "fathers have a right to hit their kids whenever they want to"). The fourth factor, Family Autonomy, consists of items that emphasize the belief that families are private, isolated units (e.g "Families have a lot of secrets; The school can’t tell mothers what to do").

Administration and Scoring:
Following assent to participate by the child and parental permission, the interviewer introduces the card sort by explaining that these cards represent ideas that some people may have about the family. The child is asked to tell how much he or she agrees that the statement is true, on a four point scale. The four possible answers are presented and a practice item, such as "Children like ice cream" is given to ensure that the child understands the task and all of the response options. Each point on the answer scale of one to four is shown by a separate card with a picture of a glass beaker either totally empty, almost empty, almost full, or totally full. This visual aid was created to facilitate younger children’s understanding of the four possible response categories. Once the child understands the task, the child is then asked to sort the 36 cards into the four choices by placing each card in front of one of the four pictures to indicate how much he or she disagrees a lot (1), disagrees a little (2), agrees a little (3), and agrees a lot (4) with the statement. A score for each of the four factors or scales is created by summing the items and dividing by the number of items in that factor.

Scoring Sheet:

Response (1-4) Statement

_______ 1. The man is the king of the castle.

_______ 2. The woman is queen of the castle.

_______ 3. The man makes most of major decisions.

_______ 4. The woman makes most of major decisions.

_______ 5. The man’s word is unquestioned.

_______ 6. The woman’s word is unquestioned.

_______ 7. No one can tell a father what to do.

_______ 8. No one can tell a mother what to do.

_______ 9. The woman & children belong to man.

_______ 10. The man/children belong to woman.

_______ 11. The married woman belongs to man.

_______ 12. The married man belongs to his wife.

_______ 13. The man owns the children.

_______ 14. The woman owns the children.

_______ 15. The things in house belong to man.

_______ 16. The things in house belong to woman.

_______ 17. Hitting is part of mother’s role.

_______ 18. Fathers can hit their kids whenever they want to.

_______ 19. Mothers can hit their kids whenever they want to.

_______ 20. Husbands can hit their wives whenever they want to.

_______ 21. Wives can hit husbands.

_______ 22. Fathers have to hit children.

_______ 23. Mothers have to hit children.

_______ 24. It is wrong w/out a man in the family.

_______ 25. The man should work/woman stay home.

_______ 26. The woman should work.

_______ 27. The man should make more $ than woman.

_______ 28. The woman should make more $ than man.

_______ 29. The man should be older than woman.

_______ 30. The woman should be older than man.

_______ 31. Fighting is not talked about outside family.

_______ 32. Families have a lot of secrets.

_______ 33. The school can’t tell fathers what to do.

_______ 34. The school can’t tell mothers what to do.

_______ 35. The police can’t tell fathers what to do.

_______ 36. Children should not talk to police.

Reliability and Results:
Two hundred twenty one children, ages 6-to-12, in families with varying levels of family violence rated how much they agreed with the 40 original items concerning stereotyped beliefs about gender, power and violence in the family. Varimax analyses yielded four factors for 36 items; Male Power, Female Power, Violence Privilege, and Family Autonomy. Internal reliability and construct validity for the Family Stereotypes Card Sort also were evaluated. Cronbach’s alpha was .85 for Male Power, .82 for Female Power, .80 for Violence Privilege, and .70 for Family Autonomy, respectively. The four factors accounted for 41% of the total variance (see Journal of Family Psychology reference above for additional details). One-week test–retest reliability of the FSCS was established for 30 children of batterers. Correlations were significant at .87 for boys and .81 for girls.

Significant positive associations were found among physical violence and emotional abuse reported by the mother and family-role stereotyping in the child. Results show that family-role stereotyping and beliefs in the acceptability of family violence differed by gender and ethnic minority status, and varied by age and income but not by the level of adjustment problems in the child.

N=221, **p<.01.