Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Association for Family Therapy 2000. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley
Road, Oxford, OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
Journal of Family Therapy (2000) 22: 128–143
0163–4445
Family competence and family style are the two main dimensions of the
Beavers Systems Model of Family Functioning. The competence dimen-
sion ranges from optimal through adequate, midrange and borderline to
severely dysfunctional. The style dimension ranges from centripetal to
centrifugal. When the two dimensions are combined, they diagramatically
define nine distinct family groupings, three of which are relatively func-
tional and six of which are thought to be sufficiently problematic to
require clinical intervention. A family’s status on the competence and style
dimensions may be established with the Beavers interactional scales. The
self-report family inventory may be used to evaluate family members’
perceptions of their status on the competence dimension. The reliability
and validity of the self-report instrument and observational rating scales
have been documented in over thirty papers and books published by the
Beavers research team since 1970. The model has proved useful in train-
ing, research and clinical work.
Overview
The Beavers Systems Model offers a cross-sectional perspective on
family functioning. Family competence is conceptualized as falling
along one dimension and family style is viewed as falling along a
second orthogonal dimension. Figure 1 is a diagram of this model.
The horizontal axis – family competence – relates to the struc-
ture, available information and adaptive flexibility of the system. In
systems terms, this may be called a negentropic continuum, since
the more negentropic (flexible and adaptive) a family, the more the
family can negotiate, function and deal effectively with stressful situ-
ations. High competence requires both structure and the ability to
change structures. There is a complex interaction of morphogenic
Summary of research
Our research programme has shed light on the distribution of fami-
lies in terms of the main dimensions of the Beavers Model; the rela-
tionship between the Self-report Family Inventory, the Beavers
Interactional Scales and instruments derived from other models of
family functioning; and the relationship between the dimensions of
the model and treatment process and outcome. A summary of the
results of this research follows.
Normative data
Since the 1970s we have accumulated Beavers Interactional Scales
data on over 1,800 families from both clinical and non-clinical
populations. From these data we have found that 5% of the families
studied fell into the optimal range; 38% fell into the adequate
range; 38% fell into the mid-range; 16% fell into the borderline
range; and 3% fell into the severely dysfunctional range on the
Beavers Interactional Competence Scale (Beavers and Hampson,
1993). We accept that our data are not drawn from a normative
stratified random sample, but believe that they provide an approxi-
mate indication of the distribution of families along the central
dimension of our model. These results have confirmed our expec-
tation that adequate and mid-range levels of competence are rela-
tively common, while optimal and dysfunctional levels of
functioning are relatively rare.
Clinical implications
Family assessment and goal specification lays a solid foundation for
effective family therapy. If there are not goals which require assess-
ment, preferably goals determined by negotiation with family
members, therapy can add to, rather than subtract from family
Note
Copies of the Beavers Interactional Scales and the Self-report Family
Inventory are contained in W.R. Beavers and R.B. Hampson (1990)
Successful Families: Assessment and Intervention. New York: W.W. Norton.
References
Beavers, W.R. (1977) Psychotherapy and Growth: A Family Systems Perspective. New
York: Brunner/Mazel.
Beavers, W.R. (1981a) A systems model of family for family therapists. Journal of
Marital and Family Therapy, 7: 299-307.
Beavers, W.R. (1981b) Un modello sistemico di famiglia per terapisti familiari.
Terapia Familiare, 9: 42-57.
Beavers, W.R. (1982) Healthy, midrange and severely dysfunctional families. In F.
Walsh (ed.) Normal Family Processes. New York: Guilford Press.
Beavers, W.R. (1985) Successful Marriage: A Family Systems Approach to Marital
Therapy. New York: W.W. Norton.
Beavers, W.R. (1989) The Beavers Systems Model of Family Assessment. In C.N.
Ramsey (ed.) Family Systems in Medicine. New York: Guilford Press.
Beavers, W.R. and Hampson, R.B. (1990) Successful Families: Assessment and
Intervention. New York: W.W. Norton.
Beavers, W.R. and Hampson, R.B. (1993) Measuring family competence: the
Beavers Systems Model. In F. Walsh (ed.) Normal Family Processes (2nd edn). New
York: Guilford Press.