Parenting–Acculturation Match and Psychosocial Adjustment for Academically Gifted Chinese American Adolescents

Abstract

Objective Grounded in person–environment fit theory, we examine how different levels of parenting–acculturation match are associated with gifted Chinese American students' psychosocial adjustment. This study identifies parenting profiles indicated by psychological control and decisional autonomy granting and adolescents' acculturation profiles indicated by mainstream American culture and Chinese culture orientations. Background According to person–environment fit theory, optimal adjustment occurs when there is a match between individuals' environments and needs. However, it remains understudied whether academically gifted Chinese American adolescents have optimal psychosocial adjustment when their acculturation orientation matches with their family's parenting profile. Method Using self‐report questionnaires, this study assessed 222 academically gifted Chinese American adolescents' perceptions of parental psychological control and autonomy granting, American and Chinese culture orientation, and psychosocial adjustment (depression, anxiety, social acceptance, and self‐esteem). Latent profile analysis was used to identify parenting and acculturation‐orientation profiles. Results Three parenting profiles were identified: high control oriented (14.9%; i.e., high in psychological control and low in decisional autonomy granting), slight control oriented (44.6%; i.e., psychological control slightly exceeding decisional autonomy granting), and child oriented (40.5%; i.e., low in psychological control and high in decisional autonomy granting). Given that all the adolescents in the sample slightly preferred mainstream American culture to Chinese culture, three levels of parenting–acculturation match were identified: a strong match (for those in child‐oriented families), moderate match (for those in slight‐control‐oriented families), and weak match (for those in high‐control‐oriented families). Conclusion The adolescents with a strong parenting–acculturation match reported lower anxiety and higher social acceptance and self‐esteem than those with a weak match. Implications Practitioners working with academically gifted Chinese American adolescents should seek to understand adolescents' acculturation and the parenting practices in their families and acknowledge how their psychosocial problems are associated with a mismatch in adolescent acculturation and parenting. Strategies for mitigating psychosocial problems in relation to an acculturation–parenting mismatch are discussed.

Listen to the Voices of Gifted Chinese Students in New Zealand: A Culturally Responsive Framework

“…The parents’ group believed that gifted and talented education should not occur only in the school context and all parent participants strongly believed education at home with the family was essential to nurture gifted children. This is consistent with previous research which shows that Chinese immigrant parents have reported discrepancies in education values and beliefs with schools (Chang et al, 2021). In order for parents to acknowledge the role teachers play in developing their children’s gifts and talents, it is essential for parents to be given the opportunity to hear the teachers’ voices about the strategies being utilized in the school/classroom context and discuss together the scope of a school/home partnership.…”

“…In Australia, researchers have found that a significant reason for the academic performance of Chinese Australian being generally higher than Anglo-Australians is the extra support of their parents (Vialle, 2013). After investigating 222 academically gifted Chinese American adolescents' perceptions of parental involvement, Chang et al (2021) concluded that although these participants' levels of orientation toward American culture were higher than their levels of orientation toward Chinese culture, their views of their academic success and personal achievement were largely influenced by their parents. In Canada, researchers argued that another predictor of Chinese students' high achievement is that immigrant Chinese parents educate their children with more strict discipline and rules by setting aside homework time, limiting social time, and enrolling their children in private classes (Costigan et al, 2010).…”

“…Current research has shown the overwhelming impact of Confucian theories on Chinese who are living overseas (Chang et al, 2021; Vialle, 2013). Even for those people who have lived in Western countries for years, research has illustrated that Chinese have considerably different perceptions of gifted and talented education from Western ideas.…”

Adjustment and family dynamics among academically gifted Chinese and European American adolescents

“…This model showed the average relations between all the variables in Figure 1 across the groups. For all the dependent variables, we controlled for adolescents' age, gender (0 = male; 1 = female), lunch status (two dummy variables for free and reduced lunch, with full price as the reference group), generational status (two dummy variables for first and second-generations, with third-generation or beyond as the reference group), and family type (0 = single parent; 1 = two parent) because they were treated as covariates in previous research studying associations between family dynamics and adolescent outcomes in Chinese American and European American families (Chang et al, 2021). For each dependent/mediating variable, we also controlled for its previous level (i.e., the level at T1) because the previous levels of the dependent variables were associated with academic efficacy and/or academic performance at T1.…”

Teaching Classical Chinese at New Zealand Universities: A Languacultural Perspective

“…Cultural diversity research studies in the field of gifted and talented education in New Zealand have concentrated mainly on Māori and Pasifika students (Ministry of Education, 2013Education, , 2018. Other scholars have argued that teaching practices should be responsive to the cultural traits of all groups of gifted students (Bevan-Brown, 2011;Chang et al, 2021). However, few studies have examined Asian and/or Chinese descent gifted students in New Zealand.…”