Development and Cross-Cultural Validity of a Brief Measure of Separation-Individuation

Authors

Ching-Chen Chen, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
G. B. Richardson, University of Cincinnati
M. H. C. Lai, University of Cincinnati
C. L. Dai, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
D. G. Hays, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-14-2018

Publication Title

Journal of Child and Family Studies

First page number:

1

Last page number:

14

Abstract

Separation from parents is a key aspect of adolescent development and has been linked to a variety of important mental and behavioral health outcomes. Separation-individuation measures were developed in the United States and have been used in Asian contexts. However, no cross-cultural studies have demonstrated that measures of separation-individuation tap the same domains across Asian and American adolescents. This article describes two studies conducted to develop and initially validate a scale for measuring adolescent separation-individuation. Study 1 (n = 300) developed a Brief Measure of Separation-Individuation (BMSI) using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Item Response Theory. The result was a 32-item BMSI that provided comparable test information to the original 148-item measure. Study 2 examined the BMSI for measurement invariance and convergent validity across U.S. and Taiwanese samples (ns = 231 and 323). Findings suggest that functional independence, attitudinal independence, and emotional independence may be culturally invariant separation-individuation constructs. However, conflictual independence seems to be more culturally dependent in that its items were only partially scalar invariant and it was only loosely related to the other separation-individuation factors. Findings are consistent with previous research that recommended against using total scores for the PSI (i.e., scoring a single separation-individuation dimension). This study suggests the BMSI holds promise as a brief measure of separation-individuation that can be used in cross-cultural research.

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling

File Format

pdf

File Size

193 KB

Language

English

Repository Citation

Chen, C., Richardson, G. B., Lai, M. H., Dai, C., Hays, D. G. (2018). Development and Cross-Cultural Validity of a Brief Measure of Separation-Individuation. Journal of Child and Family Studies 1-14.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1174-5