Asian American Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships

This book compares the parental belief systems of European Americans and immigrant Chinese and their influence on parenting styles. It discusses the role of measurement equivalence in understanding Asian American parenting practices.

The relationships between children and their parents are the building blocks for f- ily relationships throughout life. The nature of the parent-child relationship begins with parentingthe practices and strategies that parents engage in as they raise their children. Parenting during childhood sets the stage for parent-adolescent relati- ships. These relationships make a critical difference during the teenage years: we know that when parent-adolescent relationships are healthy and strong, adolescents are more likely to have high aspirations and achievement, and to make healthier choices when it comes to risk-taking. Most of the research in this ?eld has been based in the United States and has been conducted through studies of European American families. Yet a growing body of research suggests important ethnic differences in styles of parenting and the qua- ties characterizing the parent-adolescent relationship. In this area of research, most existing studies have examined ethnic and cultural group differences using widely accepted measures and concepts of parenting. Comparative studies assume that dimensions of parenting such as parental warmth or control have the same meaning across cultures; however, given that conceptualizations of adolescent-parent re- tionships have been developed and tested on samples comprised largely of European Americans, we cannot rule out the possibility that the way we understand parenting has been shaped by the predominantly Western- and U. S. -focused research in this ?eld.

Addresses the growing interest in Asian American family lives and adolescent development Presents distinct methods of study for understanding the cultural distinctiveness of Asian American parent-adolescent relationships Provides empirical data comparing the experiences of subgroups of Asian Americans, including Chinese and Filipino Americans Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Stephen T. Russell, Ph.D., is Professor and Fitch Nesbitt Endowed Chair in Family and Consumer Sciences, Director, Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth, and Families. He completed his doctorate in sociology at Duke University in 1994 and postdoctoral training in Life Course Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1997. His research focuses on adolescent sexual orientation and identity, parent-adolescent relationships, ethnicity, and culture.

Lisa J. Crockett, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1986. Her research focuses on adolescent development and well-being with an emphasis on the role of ethnicity.

Ruth Chao, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. She received her doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Chao was also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Families Studies at Syracuse University. Her research interests include sociocultural perspectives of parenting and the family focusing on Asian immigrants. She recently completed a five-year, longitudinal study, funded by the National Institute of Health, examining the effects of parental control, warmth, and parental involvement in school on adolescent's school performance and behavioral adjustment. Her research also includes studies of the language acculturation of Asian immigrant families across time and its effects on adolescent's adjustment.

Klappentext

The growing presence of non-European cultures in America brings new challenges to as well as opportunities for parenting research. Whereas particular constructs of parent-child relationships were once considered universal, we now recognize distinct cultural variations. This is especially true in the case of Asian Americans, a population encompassing many diverse ethnicities.

Informed by a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies including detailed surveys of teenagers and their parents, Asian American Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships focuses on Chinese and Filipino Americanslarge populations with markedly different histories and cultural influencesgiving readers a new lens into the nature and meaning of cultural differences in parenting. Synthesizing data on adolescent autonomy and dependence, parental support and control (both crucial to adolescents' wellbeing), and the rarely-explored concept of parental sacrifice, this ambitious volume:

• Compares the parental belief systems of European Americans and immigrant Chinese and their influence on parenting styles.

• Discusses the role of measurement equivalence in understanding Asian American parenting practices.

• Examines sacrifice as a central concept in Asian American parenting and in immigrant parenting in general.

• Analyzes how Asian American teenagers understand the support and control provided by their parents.

• Explores the dynamics of parent and child gender in Asian American parenting.

• Places these findings in the context of previous parenting research and identifies new directions for the field.

Asian American Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships is a uniquely informative reference for researchers, clinicians, and graduate students across multiple disciplines, including developmental,clinical child, and school psychology, sociology, and anthropology as well as ethnic and women's studies.

"A much needed and extremely thoughtful contribution to the scholarship on Asian American families. The authors rely on a variety of research methods to reveal patterns that challenge stereotypes and urge us to move beyond pan ethnic categories and explore the rich diversity among Asian Americans. This book is an exemplary study of culture and parenting."

Niobe Way, President, Society for Research on Adolescence /

Professor of Applied Psychology, New York University

Inhalt
Introduction: Asian American Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships.- Do Measures of Parenting Have the Same Meaning for European, Chinese, and Filipino American Adolescents? Tests of Measurement Equivalence.- Parental Beliefs and Their Relation to the Parental Practices of Immigrant Chinese Americans and European Americans.- Parental Sacrifice and Acceptance as Distinct Dimensions of Parental Support Among Chinese and Filipino American Adolescents.- The Meanings of Parent-Adolescent Relationship Quality Among Chinese American and Filipino American Adolescents.- Interdependent Independence: The Meanings of Autonomy Among Chinese American and Filipino American Adolescents.- Conclusions: The Role of Asian American Culture in Parenting and Parent-Adolescent Relationships.