Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Philip Wong

Committee Chair and Members

Philip Wong, Chair

Sara Haden

Joan Duncan

Keywords

Chinese-American, Family functioning, Filial modes, Filial piety, Hierarchical cluster analysis, Second-generation

Abstract

Due to the global trend of population aging and the growing issue of elder care, research on filial norms are being conducted around the world (e.g., Lowenstein & Daatland, 2006). The current study is the first to examine filial piety in a sample of second-generation Chinese-Americans and added to the filial piety literature in four ways. First, the study confirmed both the two-factor structure of the Dual Filial Piety Scale (DFPS) with second-generation Chinese-Americans using a confirmatory factor analysis, with four items representing Reciprocal Filial Piety (RFP) and four items representing Authoritarian Filial Piety (AFP). Second, the study confirmed the identified four modes of filial interaction as conceptualized by Yeh and Bedford (2004): Absolute/Balanced (high RFP and AFP), Reciprocal (high RFP and low AFP), Authoritarian (low RFP and high AFP), and Non-Filial (low RFP and AFP). However, the study did not replicate Yeh and Bedford’s (2004) findings regarding differences in the four types of parent-child conflict amongst the four identified filial modes, where the Non-Filial mode did not have significantly different Demands Conflict with Desires (DCD) and Unreasonable Behavior (UB) type of parent-child conflict when compared to the other filial modes; the Balanced mode did not have significantly different DCD and UB types of parent-child conflict than the Reciprocal mode; and the Balanced mode did not report the lowest level of all four parent-child conflicts. Third, the study found significant differences in family functioning among the four identified filial modes. Fourth, this study found that a person’s mode of filial interaction and family functioning can be captured by their early memories. These findings highlight the importance of considering the concurrent influence of RFP and AFP to assess an individual’s overall family functioning.

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