Informants' Experience with the Kvebæk Family Sculpture Technique: A Comparison between a Clinical and an Epidemiological Sample

Abstract

We measured the informants' experience with the Kvebæk Family Sculpture Technique (KFST), a symbolic figure placement technique, by administering a questionnaire to 28 adolescent inpatient families and 35 adolescent families participating in an epidemiological study of mental health in the general population. We asked whether configurations reflected feelings between family members, whether informants were significantly influenced by the situation in which the technique was administered, and whether the configurations were stable in terms of showing typical family relationships. The findings support the impression that the KFST is reliable in its use with both clinical and normal population samples. In general, informants in both samples confirmed that the instrument reflected feelings between family members. However, the differences between the samples show that subjects probably behave differently in a test situation, depending on the amount of psychiatric problems. Further research is warranted, to address the influence of context in relation to individual and family psychiatric factors.

Key Words:

• Adolescent psychiatry
• Family research
• Kvebæk Family Sculpture Technique