Acculturation, psychological adjustment, and parenting styles of Chinese immigrant mothers in the United States.

Abstract

Objectives This study examined whether acculturation to American culture, maintenance of Chinese culture, and their interaction predicted Chinese immigrant parents’ psychological adjustment and parenting styles. We hypothesized that American orientation would be associated with more positive psychological well-being and fewer depressive symptoms in immigrant mothers, which in turn would be associated with more authoritative parenting and less authoritarian parenting. The examination of the roles of Chinese orientation and the interaction of the two cultural orientations in relation to psychological adjustment and parenting were exploratory. Methods Participants were 164 first-generation Chinese immigrant mothers in the U.S. (Mage = 37.80). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of acculturation on psychological adjustment and parenting. Bootstrapping technique was used to explore the conditional indirect effects of acculturation on parenting as appropriate. Results American orientation was strongly associated with positive psychological well-being, which was in turn related to more authoritative parenting and less authoritarian parenting. Moreover, American and Chinese orientations interacted to predict depressive symptoms, which were in turn associated with more authoritarian parenting. Specifically, American orientation was negatively associated with depressive symptoms only at mean or high levels of Chinese orientation. Conclusions Results suggest acculturation as a distal contextual factor and psychological adjustment as one critical mechanism that transmits the effects of acculturation to parenting. Promoting immigrant parents’ ability and comfort in the new culture independently or in conjunction with encouraging biculturalism through policy intervention efforts appear crucial for the positive adjustment of Chinese immigrant parents and children.

Child inhibitory control and maternal acculturation moderate effects of maternal parenting on Chinese American children’s adjustment.

“…Therefore, how much mothers acculturate towards the mainstream American culture may be more likely to differentiate first-generation immigrant mothers than the degree to which they maintain their heritage Chinese culture. This finding is also consistent with the larger body of research that has found stronger implications of immigrants’ orientation toward the mainstream culture for their psychological adjustment and parenting practices than their orientation towards their heritage culture (e.g., Hwang & Ting, 2008; Yu, Cheah, & Calvin, 2016). Interestingly, however, maternal enculturation was directly associated with lower levels of child internalizing and externalizing problems at W2.…”

The Crying Clinic: Increasing accessibility to Infant Mental Health services for immigrant parents at risk for peripartum depression

“…Immigrant parents from collectivist backgrounds may struggle with upholding their traditional parenting beliefs and customs and adapting practices from the culture of their host country (Kim, Ahn, & Lam, 2009; Yaman, Mesman, van IJzendoorn, Bakermans‐Kranenburg, & Linting, 2010). These findings are consistent with research that indicates that acculturation can be a stressful process for parents (Miao, Costigan, & MacDonald, 2018; Yu, Cheah, & Calvin, 2016), and call for additional support and resources to help these parents cope with acculturation‐related stressors. Furthermore, complex individual and community‐level factors may contribute to a higher risk of PPD in immigrant women, including a lack of social support and financial burdens.…”

A person-centered examination of acculturation and psychological functioning among Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers in the United States.

“…However, during the preschool developmental period, mothers begin to interact with the larger mainstream American community (i.e. school, children's peers and their parents), and experience a heightened and self-conscious period of parental socialization (Yu, Cheah, & Calvin, 2016).…”