The sociocultural and psychological adaptation of Chinese migrant adolescents in Australia and Canada

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the adaptation of Chinese migrant adolescents in Australia and Canada, in terms of their academic achievement, parent—child conflict, and stress, in the light of various societal, situational, and individual variables. The participants included 75 Chinese‐Canadian and 92 Chinese‐Australian high school students. The results suggested that academic achievement in the host society was influenced by societal level variables such as auspices of immigration, and situational and individual variables such as amount of social support available, age, and their definitions of success. For parent—child conflict and stress level, they were related to the situational variable, social support, rather than to societal variables. There was also some evidence to indicate that the three adaptation outcome variables were related.