Empowerment or alienation: Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers’ perception of mobile media in constructing their social role and facilitating parenting practices in the US

Abstract

Previous studies have investigated how Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers adjust to life in the US in order to understand their lives and help them to adapt to the new culture. Based on acculturation and mobile media theories, this study explores particularly how Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers’ child-rearing practices in the US are mediated by mobile media. Guided by the theoretical framework of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), we conducted 16 in-depth interviews with Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers. Findings reveal that while going through the acculturation process, Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers attempt to play the traditional social role of mother as defined in their home countries when utilizing mobile media in their new home. Mobile media have symbolic meanings of empowerment and can be used as tools to deal with prejudice in the host country. This study also suggests that mobile media may mediate Chinese and Korean immigrant mothers’ acculturation processes when adopting different types of acculturation strategies (e.g., integration or separation). Implications for practice and future studies are further discussed.