Behind the Disempowering Parenting: Expanding the Framework to Understand Asian-American Women’s Self-Harm and Suicidality

Abstract

Background: Asian-American young adult women have high rates of depression and suicide. Disempowering parenting style, characterized as abusive, burdening, culturally disjointed, disengaged, gender prescriptive (ABCDG), has been associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempt among Asian-American women. Objective: This study examines specific socio-contextual factors that may be associated with disempowering parenting styles of Asian immigrant parents. Methods: Thirty-eight 1.5- and 2nd-generation Asian-American women (Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese) participated in in-depth interviews. Among this, 16 women reported a history of suicidal ideation or suicide attempt. NVivo was used to identify shared socio-contextual factors among these 16 women. Results: Findings revealed seven socio-contextual factors were linked to disempowering parenting: (1) mental and physical health concerns, (2) marital discord, (3) sociocultural linguistic barriers, (4) job-related stress, (5) fragile support networks, (6) trauma from the country of origin, and (7) the vague transmission of personal history. Discussion: The stressors related to pre- and post-immigration among these parents were linked to their characteristics of parenting. These stressors collectively affect immigrant parents as well as their own children. Identification of these factors allows us to design culturally informed psychotherapy to work effectively with Asian-American parents as well as their children. It is essential that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers use culturally informed practice to evaluate and intervene before these stressors lead to suicidality in young Asian-American women.