Understanding relationships within cultural contexts: Developing an early childhood sibling relationship questionnaire in China

Abstract Objective Combining the cultural‐comparative approach and the indigenous approach, the current studies aimed to develop a questionnaire for measuring sibling relationship qualities in early childhood for Chinese children. Background In China, the number of families with more than one child is growing, calling for more research on sibling interactions in the context of contemporary Chinese culture. Method To ensure cultural validity in this study, 40 Chinese mothers of young children were interviewed to generate specific behavioral manifestations of dimensions related to the conceptual structure of sibling relationships found in well‐established theoretical and empirical work in the literature (i.e., including the dimensions of warmth, conflict, and rivalry). These behaviors were then aggregated and developed into 22 Likert‐scale items for the Chinese questionnaire. The new questionnaire was administered to 324 parents for exploratory factor analyses, 540 parents for confirmatory factor analyses, and 50 parents to estimate test–retest reliability. Results Comparing the 22 items with items developed in similar U.S.‐based questionnaires, we found that Chinese parents emphasized qian rang (courteous compromising among siblings) while paying little attention to respect of personal space and emotional sharing among siblings. Validity and reliability checks yielded supportive results for this new questionnaire. Conclusions Findings regarding the different items reflected the emphasis on interdependence and restrained emotional display in Chinese culture. The new questionnaire can be used as a culturally sensitive measure of sibling relationships in China.