Environmental assessment of a group foster home

The purpose of this study was to assess the social environment in terms of "press'', at The Family Home. The Family Home is a group foster home in North Hollywood, California, where this writer was employed. Nine basic aspects of the environment were .assessed, including involvement, support, expressiveness, autonomy, etc. The findings were to serve as objective data indicating changes desired within the program, on the part of both staff and residents. It was the intention of the author to use the instrument described in the following pages as a stimulus for implementing the changes reflected in the findings. The instrument used was the Correctional Institutions Environment Scale (CIES). Based on the environmental press concepts of Murray (1938) and Stern (1970) the CIES was developed by Rudolph Moos (1968a) to give a readirig of the social environment in the nine areas or subscales previously mentioned. Two forms of the CIES were used; Form R (Real Form), assessing the real or actual situation and Form I (Ideal Form), assessing the ideal setting. Both forms consisted of 90 true-false statements. Staff and residents answered exactly the sa6e items. Ten residents and eight staff members of The Family Home were included in the sample. Residents were males ranging in age from 15 to 18. Results indicated there was general agreement among staff and residents over the social climate as it is, as they would like it and the direction and extent of changes desired. The present study suggests that self-monitoring and "quality control" are important checks on social systems which have complex and obscure environmental factors.