Family Roles Test

Five survival roles from the popular Wegscheider-Cruse framework: the Hero (responsible achiever), the Scapegoat (the blamed one), the Lost Child (the invisible one), the Mascot (the funny one), and the Caretaker/Enabler (the one who manages everyone's problems).

The role model itself is not: it is an influential counselling framework rather than a validated psychological scale, and researchers have criticised its evidence base. That's why this test presents it as a reflection tool, shows all five scores instead of one label, and avoids clinical claims.

Almost everyone is a blend. The percentages show how much of each role runs through you, and you'll often recognise a primary role in your family of origin and a different one in, say, your workplace.

Not necessarily on its own — the framework comes from research on stressed families, and many of these patterns also form in merely busy or ordinary ones. The useful question is not 'was my family dysfunctional?' but 'what did this strategy cost me, and is it still the one I need?'

The family-of-origin test maps the whole system — experiences, parenting, climate, present-day interference. The roles test zooms into one part of that picture: the survival role you grew into. They're designed to be taken together.

Each role is the average of its four statements, shown as a percentage. Your top two roles get highlighted. There is no total score and no bad role — roles are strategies, not defects.