Construction of the Asian American Family Conflicts Scale.

• DOI: 10.1037/0022-0167.47.2.211
• Publication Date: 2005-10-05T20:09:06Z
• Authors: Richard M. Lee; Jennifer Choe; Gina Kim; Vicky Ngo
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences

This study describes the construction and initial validation of the Asian American Family Conflicts Scale (FCS) with 3 samples of Asian American college students. The scale consists of 10 typical Asian American family conflicts that are rated for likelihood of occurrence (FCS-Likelihood) and seriousness of conflict (FCS-Seriousness). In Study 1, FCS-Likelihood and FCS-Seriousness had sound internal reliability, stability, and construct validity. In Study 2, FCS-Likelihood correlated with socioeconomic and cultural orientation variables. Ethnic, generation, and language differences, as well as the parent-child acculturation gap hypothesis, also were confirmed for FCS-Likelihood. In Study 3, FCS-Likelihood correlated with measures of family cohesion, adaptability, and parent-child communication. Although further validation is necessary, FCS-Likelihood in particular is a potentially useful research and clinical instrument for assessing the quality of Asian American parent-child relationships.