Describes results of a psychometric tool, the Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families-Child Scale (ICIF-CS), to help social workers assess the parent-child relationship of immigrant families. Research documents transmission of trauma across generational lines that results in family conflict and first-generation children who exhibit insecurity and psychological stress in Southeast Asian refugee families. The ICIF-CS begins with the question, “I am satisfied with my relationship with my mother/father,” and seven other questions that begin “my mother/father and I”: (1) agree on aims, goals, and important things in life, (2) agree on friends, (3) agree on the amount of time we spend together, (4) agree on how we demonstrate our feelings for each other, (5) generally talk things over, (6) agree on how to behave in an American setting, and (7) agree on how to behave in a Vietnamese/Cambodian/Hmong setting. Results of 188 college-age participants showed slightly more positive relationships for the mother than the father and a moderate level of intergenerational conflict. Self-esteem levels were significantly lower than European American college students but this deviance might be a consequence of the Asian culture norms of self-effacement. Depression levels were slightly higher than for American peers.
