Assessment of non-conflict related marital quality from the perspective of Chinese adolescents

An indigenous Chinese measure of non-conflict related marital quality attributes from the perspective of adolescent children was developed. Based on a comprehensive literature review and focus group interviews of social workers and adolescents, 14 categories of themes (i.e., respect, appreciation, responsibility, trust, body touch, togetherness, intimacy, communication, acceptance, concern, criticism, consistency, helping, and response) were identified, and a scale assessing adolescent perception of inter-parental non-conflict related attributes was developed. A panel of experts was formed to determine the relevance, clarity and representativeness of the developed items to assess the content vadlity of the measure, after which the views of the experts were used to further refine the scale. The findings showed that the final 60-item measure had high relevance, clarity and representativeness of the construct of non-conflict related attributes in inter-parental relationships. The developed measure is pioneering in both the Chinese and international contexts.