A SCALE TO MEASURE BOWEN'S CONCEPT OF EMOTIONAL CUTOFF

Eric E. McCollum

ABSTRACT: This paper describes the Emotional Cut-off Scale (ECS), an instrument designed to measure Bowen's concept of emotional cutoff. The development of the scale and psychometric data from its use in three later studies are presented. The concept of emotional cut-off is critical to Bowen's broader theory. It is hoped that the ECS will allow researchers to begin to empirically examine propositions derived from Bowen's theory. This paper reports the results of a preliminary attempt to construct an instrument to measure Bowen's (1978) concept of emotional cut-off. The concept of emotional cut-off is part of a theory of human functioning which Bowen developed on the basis of his experiences observing and treating families in which one or more members were symptomatic. The broad theory takes the emotional system in which an individual is situated as a primary influence in determining how that individual functions. The concept of emotional cut-off refers to the way many people use physical or emotional distance to regulate their unresolved attachment to their parents. Kerr (1980) describes it this way: ". . . cutoff can be accomplished by physical distance, keeping contacts with family brief and infrequent and/or through internal mechanisms such as withdrawal and avoidance of emotionally charged areas while in the presence of the family" (p. 249). The critical point seems to be that cut-off involves avoiding any type of interaction with one's parEric E. McCollum, PhD is an assistant professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Purdue University, 525 Russell Street, West Lafayette, IN, 47907. Reprint requests should be sent to the author at that address.
Contemporary Family Therapy, 13(3), June 1991 1991 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 247

248 CONTEMPORARY FAMILY THERAPY

ents which might threaten to reactivate the unresolved emotional intensity in that relationship. While emotional cut-off has the positive function of increasing immediate comfort, Bowen hypothesizes that it is not functional in the long-run. When an individual manages the emotional attachment to parents by emotional cut-off, the intensity of marital and parentchild relationships increases. Bowen sees this transfer of unresolved emotional issues from the previous generation into the present as one of the prime causes of emotional disturbance. Cut-off represents one of the most common ways that unresolved emotional issues are dealt with and thus is a cornerstone in Bowen's understanding of the genesis of emotional problems. Unfortunately, there has been little empirical investigation of this theory because there have been no instruments available to measure Bowen's concepts. The importance of this concept to Bowen's theory and the lack of empirical measures constitute the rationale for attempting to develop an emotional cut-off scale.

SCALE DEVELOPMENT
The following definition of emotional cut-off was selected from a paper by Kerr (1981) to form the basis for generating instrument items: "Emotional cut-off describes the way one generation cuts off emotional contact with the previous generation in order to avoid potential relationship problems" (p. 273). Items were generated which were aimed at assessing the cognitive component of emotional cutoff. Implicit in this strategy is the assumption that there is a meaningful relationship between attitude and behavior. Initial attempts to formulate items that would measure behavior proved to be clumsy and limited in applicability. The items were given to a panel of six judges familiar with the Bowen approach to family therapy. The judges were also given the definition used in preparing the items. Each judge was asked to rate each item on a 1 to 5 scale based on how well the item fit the concept of emotional cut-off. Five judges returned their materials in time to be used in this study. One judge's materials were discarded because she indicated a low degree of agreement with the definition of the concept and because she failed to rate four of the items. Following judging, the five highest rated items were used to construct the Emotional Cut-off Scale (ECS; see Appendix A). Each item is answered twice. One version of each item asks about the subject's

249 ERIC E. MCCOLLUM

relationship with their father. The second asks about the subject's relationship with their mother (e.g. "I sometimes discuss my personal problems with my MOTHER." and "I sometimes discuss my personal problems with my FATHER.") Therefore, the scale score is the sum of 10 responses, each on a five-point scale where 1 = Strongly Agree and 5 = Strongly Disagree.

PILOT STUDY
The instrument was first administered to 48 members of an undergraduate class in family studies. The sample was 83% female with ages ranging from 20-41 years. The typical student was 21 years old (42%) and never married (73%). The internal consistency of the instrument was high with an alpha of .90. It was hypothesized that answers to the questions about mothers and answers about fathers would constitute two separate components of the scale. To test this hypothesis, the pilot data were factor analyzed (principal components analysis with varimax rotation), admittedly with a small sample. The factor analysis program was instructed to extract two factors. Indeed, one factor consisted of all items relating to mothers and the other factor included all items relating to fathers. (See Table 1) Table 1 Emotional Cut-off Scale Factor Loadings Item#
1 3 5 7 9 2 4 6 8 10

Factor 1 (Fathers) .065 (.015)* .074 (.141) -.051 (.108) - .022 (.306) .144 (.206) .822 (.573) .903 (.692) .805 (.606) .657 (.821) .535 (.634)

Factor 2 (Mothers) .765 (.801) .558 (.603) .732 (.779) .748 (.574) .796 (.777) - .084 (.259) -.121 (-.070) .098 (.364) .130 (.057) .416 (.367)

*First figure is from the pilot study, figure in parentheses fi-om McCollum (1986).

250 CONTEMPORARY FAMILY THERAPY

LATER STUDIES
The ECS has been used in three survey studies. McCollum (1986) used it in a survey aimed at assessing the relationship of stress, family relationships, and physical health. Day (1987) used it in a study of the number and severity of life difficulties experienced by people at various levels of emotional cut-off from their parents. Weiner (1990) used it in a study of health and emotional cut-off in a population of divorced people. In each of these three studies, the psychometric properties of the scale were assessed and attempts were made to assess its validity. This paper, however, represents the first thorough description of the scale, its development, and what is known about its psychometric properties.

Reliability
The internal consistency of the ECS was similar in all three studies. McCollum found a Cronbach's alpha of .82 (n = 145). Day found an alpha of .88 (n = 74) and Weiner found an alpha of .86 (n = 104). In McCollum's study, the distribution of scores did not differ from normal when tested by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Goodness of Fit Test (z = .902, n = 145, p = .390, two-tailed). The other two studies did not report tests of the normality of the score distribution.

Validity
McCollum (1986) factor analyzed (principal components analysis with varimax rotation) the ECS scores in his sample, again with the instruction that two factors be extracted. This analysis confirmed the two factors found in the pilot study. These data are also presented in Table 1. A subscale of the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (Bray, Williamson, & Malone, 1984) which measures intergenerational intimacy, was administered as part of all three studies. This subscale measures the degree of intimacy between adults and their parents from the theoretical perspective of Williamson (1981). The ECS was strongly correlated with the Intergenerational Intimacy subscale as would be predicted; those who were more cut-off reported less intimacy with their parents (McCollum, r = - .82, n = 134, p = .000; Day, r = - . 8 5 , n = 74, p = .000; Weiner, r = - . 8 6 , n = 104, p = .000). This finding lends some credibility to the claim of construct validity for the scale.

251 ERIC E. MCCOLLUM

In each of the three survey studies, other measures of family variables were administered which should be related theoretically to emotional cut-off. McCollum (1986) administered the Kansas Family Life Satisfaction Scale (McCollum, Schumm, & Russell, 1988) in his study. The Kansas Family Life Satisfaction Scale (KFLSS) is a measure of satisfaction with nuclear family relationships. An inverse relationship was found between scores on the ECS and the KFLSS (r = - .35, n = 128, p = .001, one-tailed). This finding fits with Bowen's theory that those who cut-off from the parental generation experience difficulties in their marital and parent-child relationships. Day (1987) used a four-item scale written specifically for her study to assess her subjects' attitudes toward geographical distance from their parents. Day called her scale the "Willingness to Relocate Scale" and asked questions such as: "If conditions allowed, I would be happy to interact more with my parents," where higher scores suggest less willingness to be geographically close to parents. Day's scale and the ECS were positively correlated (r = .61, n = 74, p = . 000, one-tailed). Bowen theory would predict that those who handle their relationships with their parents through cut-off would be less likely to want to move physically closer to them. This was, in fact, the finding in Day's study. Weiner (1990) used two measures in his work that are linked by theory to emotional cut-off. Weiner used the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale (Wyler, Masuda, & Holmes, 1968) to assess his subjects physical well-being. There was a low but significant correlation between this measure and the ECS (r = .21, n = 104, p = .016, onetailed). This finding is consistent with Kerr's (1981) use of Bowen theory to investigate physical illness which suggests that those who are more cut-off from the parental generation are more likely to have health problems. Besides assessing physical well-being, Weiner also used a scale he developed to ask his divorced subjects if they or their former spouse made the actual decision to separate. This measure was also correlated to the ECS ( r = - . 2 1 , n = 104, p = .016, one-tailed). Since lower scores on Weiner's measure suggest that the subject responding to the questionnaire, not his or her spouse, made the decision to separate, those who reported more cut-off were also more likely to report making the decision to separate. This fits with Bowen's assertion that those who use cut-off in the parental relationships will also use it in future relationships when emotional intensity rises.

252 CONTEMPORARY FAMILY THERAPY

Social Desirability McCollum (1986) used Edmonds' (1967) measure of marital conventionalization to examine the influence of social desirability on responses to the ECS. There was a low but significant correlation between the ECS and the Edmonds scale (r = -.26, n = 113, p = .003, one-tailed). Day (1987) formulated her own scale, based on the Edmonds' instrument, to measure the amount of conventionalization in parent-adult child relationships. She found a stronger relationship between her measure of social desirability and the ECS (r = - .56, n = 97, p = .000). Weiner (1990) does not report the relationship between the ECS and a measure of social desirability used in his study. DISCUSSION The Emotional Cutoff Scale is in the early stages of development. It appears to have adequate reliability as shown in three studies. Evidence for its validity comes from its construction by an expert panel, its consistent and predicted relationship with a measure of Williamson's concept of intergenerational intimacy, and its correlation with other measures of functioning that are consistent with theoretical models. Factor analysis in two samples found the same two factors. The degree to which responses to the ECS are influenced by social desirability is less clear. Further development of the scale should continue to address the validity of this instrument. Such efforts can take several paths. First, the ECS needs to be used in further survey research to examine its relationship to other measures of family variables. In addition, since emotional cutoff is primarily a clinically defined concept, some assessment needs to be made of the ECS's ability to correspond to clinician's ratings of emotional cutoff. Although the ECS is intended to be a research instrument, not a clinical assessment tool, its agreement with clinician's ratings would add to the evidence for its validity.

REFERENCES
Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: Aronson. Bray, J. H., Williamson, D. S., & Malone, P. E. (1984) Development of a questionnaire to measure personal authority in intergenerational family processes. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 10, 167-178.

253 ERIC E. MCCOLLUM

Day, L. H. (1987). Intergenerational distancing and its relationship to individual, family and occupational functioning: A partial test of Bowen theory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. Edmonds, V. (1967). Marital conventionalization: Definition and measurement. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 29, 681-688. Kerr, M. E. (1980). Family systems theory and therapy. In A. S. Gurman & D. P. Kniskem (Eds.). Handbook of family therapy (pp. 226-264). New York: Brunner/ Mazel. Kerr, M. E. (1981). Cancer and the family emotional system. In J. G. Goldberg (Ed.). Psychotherapeutic treatment of cancer patients (pp. 273-315). New York: Free Press. McCollum, E. E. (1986). Bowen's concept of emotional connectedness to spouse and family of origin as a moderator of the relationship between stress and individual wellbeing. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. McCollum, E. E., Schumm, W. R., & Russell, C. S. (1988). Reliability and validity of the Kansas family life satisfaction scale in a predominantly middle-aged sample. Psychological Reports, 62, 95-98. Weiner, E. L. (1990). Bowen's concept of emotional connectedness to former spouse and family of origin as a moderator ofliealth in a divorced population: A partial test of Bowen theory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. Williamson, D. S. (1981). Personal authority via the termination of the intergenerational boundary: A new stage in the family life cycle. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 7, 441-452. Wyler, A., Masuda, M., & Holmes, T. (1968). Seriousness of illness rating scale. Journal of'Psychosomatic Research, 48, 869-874.

APPENDIX A The Emotional Cutoff Scale 1. I would prefer not to have much contact with my MOTHER if I could avoid it. (R) 2. I would prefer not to have much contact with my FATHER if I could avoid it. (R) 3. I have contact with my MOTHER more out of a sense of enjojrment than out of a sense of obligation. 4. I have contact with my FATHER more out of a sense of enjo3mient than out of a sense of obligation. 5. My mood is better if I don't spend too much time around my MOTHER. (R) 6. My mood is better if I don't spend too much time around my FATHER. (R) 7. I sometimes discuss my personal problems with my MOTHER. 8. I sometimes discuss my personal problems with my FATHER.

254 CONTEMPORARY FAMILY THERAPY

9. I can openly share feelings of love with my MOTHER. 10. I can openly share feelings of love with my FATHER. Subjects respond to each item on a 5-point scale: 1 = Strongly Agree to 5 = Strongly Disagree. Items marked (R) are reverse-scored.

Copyright 1986 by Eric E. McCollum. May not be used without permission