Validation of the Dutch Test of Conflict Handling in Chinese College Students

Abstract

There are limitations in existing conflict management instruments used in China. Therefore, we translated the Dutch Test of Conflict Handling (DUTCH), and then examined the reliability and validity of this Chinese Revised version (DUTCH-CR). Participants were 2,035 college students at 4 universities in China. We conducted exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis on data from questionnaires completed by the participants. Our findings show that the DUTCH-CR is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring the handling of conflicts between Chinese college students. Further, we found that 4 conflict-handling styles are more suitable for Chinese college students. This was achieved by merging the problem-solving and compromising factors into a collaborating one, and retaining the yielding, avoiding, and forcing factors of the original DUTCH instrument.