Family outcomes are important to the provision of services because families are increasingly considered as the primarily support unit for children with developmental disabilities. With emphasis on positivity and multidimensionality of the life of families who have children with disabilities, this study aimed to expand the applicability of the Family Professional-Partnership (FPP) Scale and the Family Quality of Life (FQOL) Scale to minority families and contribute to a better understanding of family outcomes for Korean-American and Korean families who have children with disabilities.

To expand the usability of the FPP and FQOL Scale, this dissertation validated the two measures' psychometric properties for families of Korean descent. Results from 55 Korean-American families of children with disabilities who reside in the United States and 316 native Korean families of children with disabilities who live in South Korea indicated that both 18-item and 25-item scales demonstrated good psychometric properties. A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed acceptable fit of five-factor structures, Family Interaction, Parenting, Emotional Well-Being, Physical/Material Well-Being, and Disability-Related Support and internal consistency of the scale. The FPP scale was also showed good fit of two domains, Family-Focused Partnership and Child-Focused Partnership.

To compare the means or latent means of three family outcomes (Service Needs and Adequacy, Family-Professional Partnership, and Family Quality of Life) between Korean-American and Korean families, a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) modeling and a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was conducted to the study sample. The results of the MANOVA indicated that Korean families of children with a disability rated they needed more family-focused services than their counterparts, Korean-American families. The mean adequacy ratings for the both Korean-American and Korean families was below 0.3, suggesting that for the most part, families believed they were not receiving adequate amounts of services for their child and their family. In regard to family-professional partnerships, Korean families perceived higher satisfaction on family-focused partnerships than Korean-American families. Regarding family quality of life, there were no significant latent mean differences in terms of five domains of FQOL satisfaction. The results showed similarities and differences between two groups in their perception of Service Needs and Adequacy, Family- Professional Partnerships, and Family Quality of Life in detail.

This study represents an initial attempt to depict the quantitative family outcomes of families of Korean-American families who have a child with a disability as well as native Korean families who reside in Korea. The results of this study will be useful for researchers and practitioners who serve families from Korean backgrounds as well as those residing in South Korea.