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Accurate assessment of family relationships and functioning is an important issue in evaluating and treating couples and families ( Bray, 1995a, 1995b ; Bray & Frugé, 2000 ; Heffer, Lane, & Snyder, 2003 ; Mash & Foster, 2001 ). In family interventions, just like in individual psychotherapy, the success of a treatment plan often depends on accurate assessment of the nature of the problem and the potential for solutions ( Heffer et al., 2003 ). This chapter discusses issues and methods for assessing couples and families. Efforts to capture the complexity of family relationships, their natural processes, and the influences on family members over time have led to a variety of assessment strategies ( Bray, 1995b ; Bray & Frugé, 2000 ; Grotevant & Carlson, 1989 ; Jacob & Tennenbaum, 1988 ; Olson, 2000 ; Snyder, Heyman, & Haynes, 2005 ). There are no gold-standard measures for couple and family assessments. A diversity of perspectives is useful to reflect the uniqueness of each family and variety of family dynamics. There are six types of family characteristics that are frequently assessed in research and clinical evaluation of families: family structure and composition, family process, relationship patterns, family affect, family organization, and family diversity. These characteristics come from couple and family research and are useful in treatment ... log in or subscribe to read full text