Family Relations Test: Children’s Version

Purpose: To assess the child's subjective experience of family relationships

Age: 3-15

Time: 20-25 minutes

The Family Relations Test: Children’s Version (FRTC) provides a quick and objective indication of the direction and intensity of the feelings and emotions (both positive and negative) that a child has towards each member of their family, as well as the child’s estimate of their reciprocal regard for them.

The FRTC consists of 21 figures, which represent people of various ages, shapes and sizes, from which the child is asked to choose to represent their family members and significant individuals.

The figures each contain a “posting box” device. The child is given a number of cards or “messages”, which express an emotion or behaviour describing the relation between the child and another person. Each message is defined by valency (positive or negative), strength (mild or strong) and direction (outgoing or incoming). The child is then asked to post each message “into the person” whom the message it conveys fits best.

Key Features

• Useful in examining a child’s attachments to family members and others, rather than relying on adult observations alone
• Items measure both incoming and outgoing feelings, highlighting relationships that may need further investigation
• The test can be used in assessments of child welfare, protection and placement
• Evidence can be used in cases of possible abuse (including sexual abuse) and in preparation of parenting capacity reports
• Results can reveal extreme and unsuspected emotional feelings on the part of the child that may have otherwise been undetected.

Due to its unique construction, the FRTC can facilitate the collection of subjective information from children who are either developmentally or clinically incapable of completing an objective self-report measure, or are reticent to share such information. As such, it can be used as a helpful “way in” to the assessment of children who find it difficult to express themselves verbally.