Abstract
The present study aimed to validate measures of Acculturative Family Distancing (AFD), family conflict, negative mental health outcomes, and acculturation for use with Middle Eastern American emerging adults, which no other studies have explored. The total sample of the current study included 341 Middle Eastern American (MEA) participants who self-identified as Middle Eastern, of Middle Eastern heritage, or Middle Eastern American. MEA participants ranged in age from 19 to 30 years old (M = 26.55, SD = 3.01). Participants completed an online format of the survey, which consisted of the Acculturative Family Distancing Youth Report (AFD-YR), Arab Family Conflict (AFCI), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), and Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale (SMAS). The present study's inability to fully validate established measures used to assess AFD, family conflict, negative mental health outcomes, and acculturation, indicates a great need for the creation of original measures for Middle Eastern American (MEA) emerging adults. As such, the present study illustrates that MEA emerging adults appear to be a unique cultural group; this historically underserved group is deserving of more focal empirical and theoretical scrutiny. Implications of these findings, limitations, and directions for future research were discussed.