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

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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Adolescent Research Review (2021) 6:437–455
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-020-00148-9
QUANTITATIVE REVIEW
Upholding Familism Among Asian American Youth: Measures
ofFamilism Among Filipino andKorean American Youth
YoonsunChoi1 · TaeYeunKim2· JeanetteParkLee1· KevinPohHiongTan3· SamuelNoh4· DavidTakeuchi5
Received: 28 April 2020 / Accepted: 28 December 2020 / Published online: 16 January 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature 2021
Abstract
Although it is one of the core cultural values of Asian American families and an influential determinant of youth devel-
opment, 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 sub-
scales 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 con-
struct) 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.
Keywords Filipino American youth· Korean American youth· Culture· Family process· Familism
Introduction
Familism, broadly defined as family-centered over indi-
vidualist values, is regarded as a core trait of many non-
Western immigrant families in the U.S. and an influential
factor that may facilitate positive adolescent development
(Fuligni and Masten 2010). Despite its distinct presence and
critical implications for Asian American youth development,
familism remain under-investigated among Asian Ameri-
can families. Because familism has come to be most closely
associated with Latinx families (e.g., Schwartz etal. 2010),
the prevailing conceptualization of familism may not be
entirely applicable to Asian American families. Moreover,
Asian Americans, like other communities subsumed in broad
racial and ethnic categorizations, are highly heterogeneous,
and its subgroups may ascribe to different subdomains of
familism (Choi etal. 2018a), which may further contribute
to inconsistent findings. Without an enhanced conceptual-
ization of and appropriate measures for assessing endorse-
ment of familism specific to Asian Americans and their sub-
groups, research efforts are hampered in understanding how
familism operates in Asian American families. Addressing
these gaps in the current literature, this study develops a
model of familism specific to two major subgroups of Asian
Americans, i.e., Filipino American and Korean American
* Yoonsun Choi
yoonsun@uchicago.edu
1 School ofSocial Service Administration, University
ofChicago, 969 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL60637, USA
2 Department ofSocial Welfare, Chungnam National
University, Daejun, SouthKorea
3 School ofSocial Work, University ofIllinois,
UrbanaChampaign, IL, USA
4 Department ofPsychiatry, University ofToronto, Toronto,
ON, Canada
5 School ofSocial Work, University ofWashington, Seattle,
USA
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