The Association between Language Maintenance and Family Relations: Chinese Immigrant Children in Australia

Abstract

This study investigated the relevance of emotional and familial factors to language maintenance in immigrant families. Information about the family relations of 40, 9–12 year-old children from Chinese-speaking immigrant families in Sydney, Australia, was obtained using the Family Relations Test, the Family System Test and the Separation Anxiety Test. Information about language maintenance patterns was obtained using a new Language Maintenance Questionnaire focusing on various aspects of language maintenance. Analysis revealed that children who were more likely to use and prefer to use their parents' mother tongue were those who perceived their family to be more cohesive and low in hierarchy, had fewer negatively loaded emotions associated with parents and showed indications of a secure attachment pattern. The results are discussed in terms of the strong emotional aspects embedded in one's mother tongue and its importance to one's psychological and familial reality.