Intergenerational cultural conflicts in norms of parental warmth among Chinese American immigrants

Abstract

This study examines the intergenerational cultural conflict experienced by Chinese adolescents from immigrant families, and its consequences for their adjustment. Intergenerational cultural conflict is assessed as the mismatch between adolescents’ ideals and perceptions of parental warmth. The extent and consequences of such mismatches for these youth are also compared to European American adolescents—who likely did not experience such conflict. One hundred and eighty-four Chinese American (60 first- and 124 second-generation) and 80 European American adolescents completed measures of (1) parental warmth (the acceptance-rejection subscale of the Children's Report on Parent Behavior Inventory), and (2) psychological adjustment. Chinese American adolescents’ ideals exceeded their perceptions of parents’ warmth to a greater degree than they did for European American adolescents. Moreover, such discrepancies were related to greater adjustment problems for Chinese American adolescents. Although only a small proportion of adolescents reported that parents were warmer than they desired, this excessive warmth had more positive consequences for Chinese American than European American adolescents.