California Center for Population Research

A self-report, multiple-item measure developed to assess adolescents’ sense of obligation to support, assist, and respect the family is described. The measure was designed to be a simple, straightforward, and meaningful way to the importance of family obligation in adolescents’ daily lives. The development of the measure is described along with a summary of results from a set of studies that have employed it among adolescents from different ethnic and cultural groups. Findings suggest that the measure succeeds at capturing an aspect of family processes that although differentially endorsed across different groups of adolescents, has important consequences for fundamental aspects of adolescent development in a variety of social and cultural groups.