This article describes the three-stage protocol employed in development and validation of the Inventory of Family Protective Factors (IFPF), a brief-form formal instrument intended to assess the primary protective factors that contribute to family resilience. Following construction of the instrument, data collections and analyses of a total sample of 410 participants were conducted for the purpose of establishing validity and reliability and conducting a factor analysis. In each, the four scales composing the IFPF were compared to established measures, each scale and measure assessing one of the primary family protective factors composing the IFPF. The third stage was a field trial to establish the practical value of the IFPF as a clinical assessment for discerning differences between a clinical and a nonclinical group of 102 clients presenting for counseling relative to their perceptions of the primary protective factors present in their family milieu.
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