The reliability and factor structures of the Chinese Self-Report Family Inventory (C-SFI) are ex
amined in this paper. The C-SFI was administered to 858 Chinese parents and their adolescent
children (n= 429). Results showed that the C-SFI is internally consistent. Contrary to the previ
ous findings that there are five to six dimensions of the original Self-Report Family Inventory
(SFI), factor analyses revealed that two stable factors (Family Health and Family Pathology)
were abstracted from the C-SFI. The present data suggest that social work and clinical practitio
ners should be cautious in using the subscales in the SFI (particularly for Chinese people) and
that they should be conscious of cultural variations in the application of family assessment tools.
Further effort should be made to clarify the dimensionality of the SFI.
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