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Upholding Familism Among Asian American Youth: Measures of Familism Among Filipino and Korean American Youth

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Abstract

Although it is one of the core cultural values of Asian American families and an influential determinant of youth development, familism remains under-studied among Asian Americans and, despite crucial within-group heterogeneity, lacks subgroup specificity. This study describes the ways in which two major Asian American subgroups of youth, i.e., Filipino Americans and Korean Americans, maintain traditional familism. Specifically, this study constructed six self-report subscales of familism utilizing underused and new survey items and tested their psychometric properties. Using data collected from Filipino American (n = 150) and Korean American (n = 188) adolescents living in a Midwest metropolitan area, the measures were examined for validity and reliability for each group and, when appropriate, for measurement invariance across the groups. The main findings are that the finalized scales demonstrated solid reliability and validity (e.g., content and construct) in each group and some invariance and that core traditions, in the form of familism values and behaviors, persevere among second-generation Asian Americans, although familism was more evident among Filipino American youth than in Korean American youth. In both groups, subdomains of familism were not as discrete as found among their parents, who were predominantly foreign-born first-generation immigrants. The finalized familism scales were associated differently with several correlates including acculturation variables and youth outcomes. The findings are discussed with a call for further empirical research of diverse ethnic groups and immigrant generations to more accurately account for how family process interacts with cultural origin and acculturation.

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Data Availability

The datasets analyzed in the current study are not publicly available but can be available from the corresponding author if certain conditions are met.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, R01 HD073200, PI: Yoonsun Choi) to the first author. The research team would like to acknowledge the study participants and thank them for their participation.

Funding

This study was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, R01 HD073200, PI: Yoonsun Choi) to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, 969 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Yoonsun Choi & Jeanette Park Lee

  2. Department of Social Welfare, Chungnam National University, Daejun, South Korea

    Tae Yeun Kim

  3. School of Social Work, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, IL, USA

    Kevin Poh Hiong Tan

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Samuel Noh

  5. School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, USA

    David Takeuchi

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  1. Yoonsun Choi
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  5. Samuel Noh
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  6. David Takeuchi
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Contributions

YC conceived, designed and directed the study, including data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, and writing the manuscript; TK performed statistical analyses and assisted with writing the method section; JL assisted with literature review and manuscript writing; KT assisted in managing and analyzing the data; and SN and DT participated in interpretation of results and their significance to the literature. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yoonsun Choi.

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This study was conducted in compliance with ethical standards. All procedures of the study including data collection and analyses were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Chicago to ensure the proper protection of human subjects, including confidentiality of the data.

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Choi, Y., Kim, T.Y., Lee, J.P. et al. Upholding Familism Among Asian American Youth: Measures of Familism Among Filipino and Korean American Youth. Adolescent Res Rev 6, 437–455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-020-00148-9

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