The Co-Parenting Across Family Structures Scale: Replication for Mandarin parents.

Area of Science:

• Cross-cultural psychology
• Family studies
• Sociology

Background:

• Co-parenting is vital for child adjustment in Western contexts.
• Research on co-parenting in non-Western cultures, particularly China, is limited.
• The CoPAFS instrument is a 27-item survey assessing co-parenting in various family structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the cultural sensitivity and psychometric properties of the CoPAFS instrument among Chinese Mandarin-speaking parents.
• To explore the applicability of a Western co-parenting measure in a Chinese cultural context.

Main Methods:

• Data collected from 729 Chinese Mandarin-speaking and 348 English-speaking respondents.
• Factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were employed to assess instrument validity.
• The CoPAFS instrument was translated into Mandarin Chinese for the study.

Main Results:

• The translated CoPAFS measure demonstrated acceptable overall model fit in Mandarin.
• Significant differences were observed across the five CoPAFS subscales (trust, respect, communication, acrimony, value) between cultural groups.
• Chinese couples notably showed low endorsement of the communication subscale.

Conclusions:

• The CoPAFS instrument is a potentially valid tool for measuring co-parenting in Chinese families, with cultural adaptations needed.
• Cultural nuances, particularly regarding communication, impact co-parenting dynamics in Chinese families.
• Further research is needed to understand co-parenting in diverse cultural settings.