Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Publication Title
Journal of Family Theory & Review
Keywords
equifinality, family systems theory, health, person-centered analysis, positive youth development
Abstract
Early general systems theorists proposed a key difference between living systems and physical systems is the widespread presence of equifinality and multifinality among living organisms. That is, in living systems, there are often variable pathways to the same outcomes (equifinality), or the same starting conditions can lead to disparate outcomes (multifinality). Family scientists, however, frequently use methods (adapted from the physical sciences) that fail to reflect these characteristics within their statistical models. In this paper, we propose and provide a preliminary proof-of-concept of how an outcome-partitioned set of person-centered analyses might be used to develop alternative models that more comprehensively capture equifinality and multifinality in living systems. This approach balances the needs for parsimony and utility in family theories and models of human development, relationships, and family systems while recognizing the diversity within which individuals and families navigate many pathways to success, difficulty, or something in-between.
Funding Source
This research uses data from Add Health, funded by grant P01 HD31921 (Harris) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Add Health is currently directed by Robert A. Hummer and funded by the National Institute on Aging cooperative agreements U01 AG071448 (Hummer) and U01AG071450 (Aiello and Hummer) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Add Health was designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This article was published Open Access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Wiley.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
DOI
10.1111/jftr.70003
Recommended Citation
Russell, L. T., Jensen, T. M., Beckmeyer, J. J., & Su-Russell, C. (2025). Examining equifinality and multifinality using outcome-partitioned person-centered analyses: A proof-of-concept with youth developmental assets and health. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.70003
Comments
First published in Journal of Family Theory & Review: https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.70003