Construction of the Asian American family conflicts scale

This study describes the construction and initial validation of the Asian A merican Family Conflicts Scale (FCS) with 3 samples of Asian American colle ge students. The scale consists of 10 typical Asian American family conflic ts that are rated for likelihood of occurrence (FCS-Likelihood) and serious ness of conflict (FCS-Seriousness). In Study 1, FCS-Likelihood and FCS-Seri ousness had sound internal reliability, stability, and construct validity. In Study 2, FCS-Likelihood correlated with socioeconomic and cultural orien tation 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 c ohesion, adaptability, and parent-child communication. Although further val idation is necessary, FCS-Likelihood in particular is a potentially useful research and clinical instrument for assessing the quality of Asian America n parent-child relationships.