Developmental paths from parents' bicultural socialization beliefs to emerging adult depressive symptoms in Chinese American families.

Abstract

Parents' socialization beliefs have implications for the psychological adjustment of their children through their parenting behaviors; however, such pathways have rarely been established among Chinese American families. The present study examined how Chinese American parents' goals for their children to take on bicultural values and behaviors (i.e., bicultural socialization beliefs) influenced their child's level of depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood through their parenting behaviors and the level of parent-child alienation. Data came from Waves 2 (adolescence) and 3 (emerging adulthood) of a longitudinal study of 444 Chinese American families. Mothers' reports of their bicultural socialization beliefs positively predicted adolescents' reports of mothers' autonomy-supporting behaviors and interdependence-focused shaming behaviors. In addition, there was a significant and negative indirect effect of mothers' bicultural socialization beliefs on emerging adult depressive symptoms through adolescents' reports of mothers' autonomy-supporting behaviors and emerging adults' reports of alienation to their parents. In contrast, there was a significant and positive indirect effect from fathers' reports of their bicultural socialization beliefs to emerging adult depressive symptoms, through emerging adults' reports of alienation only. Findings contribute to our understanding of bicultural processes in Chinese American families and establish that parents' beliefs have significant implications for the psychological adjustment of Chinese American youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).