Examining the Categorization System of the Family System Test (FAST):

The Association with the Response of the Interview and Mental Health

Abstract

　　Previous studies using the Family System Test (FAST) in Japan indicated that a majority of the Japanese families were categorized as “Unbalanced” type, which is characterized with low cohesion and/or low hierarchy, and considered as an unhealthy family. Therefore, the FAST is not considered as suitable for measuring Japanese family structure. The FAST procedure includes a semi-structured interview, however; few studies in Japan have examined the response to the interview. In the present study, we analyzed the response to the interview and administered the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) in order to examine the validity of the FAST categorization in Japan. Participants were 78 university students. According to the original categorization system, the participants were categorized into “Balanced,” “Liable-balanced,” and “Unbalance” types. Originally, each type consisted of 3 groups, but since there was no high hierarchy group, each type consisted of 2 groups in the present study. The analysis of the interview responses and the scores of the GHQ indicated that one group of the “Unbalanced” type with high cohesion and low hierarchy was very similar to the “Balanced” type. Two groups of “Liable-balanced” showed different characteristics from each other, but they were different from the “Balanced” type. Based on the above results, we arranged the original 3 types into 2 types: a “Balanced” type, which consisted of the original balanced type and one group of the unbalanced type, and an “Unbalanced” type, which consisted of the original liable-balanced type and one group of the unbalanced type. With this new categorization system, a significant difference in the GHQ scores between two types was found.

　　It seems that since cohesion of the family is very explicit and hierarchy in the family is very implicit for Japanese university students, hierarch is not important as long as cohesion is high. Therefore, there were so many “Unbalanced” typed families in Japan according to the original FAST categorization system. From the results of the present study, we suggest a new categorization of the FAST derived from the original categorization, which consists of “Balanced” and “Unbalanced” types for assessing Japanese families.