Psychometric properties of the Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families-Parent Scale in Chinese Americans

Abstract

The study described in this article tested the psychometric properties of the Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families--Parent Scale (ICIF-PS), an instrument developed to assess intergenerational conflict in immigrant families and evaluate interventions to ameliorate the conflict. ICIF-PS's psychometric properties were tested in a sample of 787 Chinese American immigrant parents selected from a subset of participants in the Chinese American Psychiatric Epidemiologic Study, a strata cluster survey using a probability design. The ICIF-PS was shown to be a unidimensional measure of intergenerational-intercultural congruence with good psychometric properties. Key words: Chinese Americans; immigrant families; Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families--Parent Scale; intergenerational relationship ********** More than two decades ago, Sluzki (1979) identified intergenerational-intercultural conflict as a challenge for immigrant families that needs the attention of social services providers. This conflict arises when parents continue to espouse their culture of origin and minimally adopt mainstream U.S. values and their children embrace mainstream cultural attitudes and behaviors. Other scholars have reiterated this anecdotal observation (for example, Drachman, Kwon-Ahn, & Paulino, 1996; Huang & Ying, 1998; Portes, 1997; Thomas, 1995; Yao, 1985), but only a few studies have empirically assessed the presence and degree of intergenerational-intercultural congruence in immigrant families (Ying & Chao, 1996; Ying, 1999a, 1999b). This may be partly attributed to the limited number of psychometrically sound measures of intergenerational relationship in immigrant families. The Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families-Parent Scale (ICIF-PS) was constructed to assess intergenerational understanding and satisfaction from the immigrant parent's perspective and may be used with different ethnic groups. This article examines its psychometric properties with immigrant Chinese American parents. Another study assessed a companion measure, the Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families-Child Scale (ICIF-CS), which targets the perspective of immigrants' children (Ying, Lee, & Tsai, in press). INTERGENERATIONAL CONFLICT IN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES Each year, the United States receives more than 1 million immigrants, more than any other country in the world (Fix & Passel, 1994; Passel & Edmonston, 1992). Currently, immigrants are 11.5% of the U.S. population, and are expected to increase to 14% by 2030 (Edmonston & Passel, 1994; Schmidley, 2003). Thus, more and more parents and children may experience intergenerational conflict secondary to migration. Today's immigrant is likely to come from a culture that differs significantly from the mainstream culture in the United States, thereby increasing the likelihood that conflict will occur. The majority of immigrants to the United States originate in non-European nations; about one-half come from Latin America and 26% come from Asia (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). Whereas mainstream U.S. culture values independence and individual uniqueness, Asian and Latin cultures emphasize interdependence and interpersonal harmony (Ho, 1993; Sandoval, & De La Roza, 1986; Triandis, Bontempo, Villareal, Asai, & Lucca, 1988). In Latin and Asian cultures, parents are authority figures who expect more obedience and respect from their children than do U.S. parents. Furthermore, the intimate parent-child bond is hierarchical and lifelong in Latin and Asian families and more egalitarian in mainstream U.S. families, from which children are expected to separate and individuate during adolescence (Drachman, et al., 1996; Shon & Ja, 1982; Ying, Coombs, & Lee, 1999). Intergenerational or intercultural conflict may be a risk factor for psychological distress in both immigrant parents and their children. …