Breaking The Clouds

C. Huntsinger from Northern Illinois University and P. Jose from Victoria University of Wellington also published their study “Relations Among Parental Acceptance and Control and Children’s Social Adjustment in Chinese American and European American Families” in the issue of Journal of Family Psychology 2009, Vol. 23, No. 3. The authors studied parental acceptance, control, and “Chiao Shun” (or, Jiao-Xun, the Chinese word for training) in 35 immigrant Chinese American families as well as 38 European American families (parents were mostly born in the States). Data were collected from children from preschool to 4^th grade.

They found that within the couples, fathers and mothers in Chinese American family group rated similar levels of acceptance and control; but they did not in European American family group. Parental acceptance and control showed to influence children’s social development. Parents who are warm and accepting has been associated with positive adjustment, while parents who are overly controlling and punitive as well as those who show affection but low levels of controlling are related to maladjustment among children and adolescents in the USA.

Findings from this study concluded that for Chinese American fathers and mothers as well as European American mothers, higher acceptance and greater control were linked to their children’s more positive psychosocial adjustment, while for European fathers, acceptance and control did not predict children’s outcome four years later. Among the limitations to this study are relatively small sample size and over-representation of well-educated individuals in both Chinese American immigrants and European American study groups.

In the issue of Jan/Feb 2002 of journal Child Development, researchers (A.J. Fuligni, et al) from Center for Culture and Health, UCLA published article, “The Impact of Family Obligation on the Daily Activities and Psychological Well-Being of Chinese American Adolescents.” The authors studied 140 adolescents (ave. age 14.6 years old, 74 girls and 64 boys) of Chinese immigrant families in the U.S. using a daily diary method that includes an initial measure of attitude towards daily family obligation and several checklists of their daily activities and psychological well-being for a period of two weeks. The authors found that subjects show a greater inclination to balance family obligations with their academic demands than their social life with peers on a daily basis. The extent of involvement in family obligations was not associated with psychological distress. Not surprisingly, girls were asked to sacrifice more for family obligations than boys; however, analysis of gender differences in psychological well-being is not shown in the article. The authors did report that oldest and only children tend to show more distress than their younger siblings.

Also in the issue of Journal of Family Psychology 2009, Vol. 23, Number 3, R. Chao et al from University of California published research article, “Interpretations of Parental Control by Asian Immigrant and European American Youth”. The authors studied adolescents’ affective interpretations of parents’ control, that is, feelings of anger toward control, and how their interpretations moderate the relationship between control and adolescents’ behavioral adjustment. A total of 1085 immigrant youth of Chinese, Korean, and Filipino descent, and also European American youth from high school in the greater Los Angeles area were included in the study. Parental behavioral control was measured with the Firm Control/Lax Control scale of the Children’s Report on Parent Behavior Inventory. Parental psychological control was measured with Barber’s revised scale of psychological control from the Child-Rearing Practices Behavioral Inventory. Affective interpretations of anger toward parental control were measured by asking adolescents how angry they would feel toward parental control. Adolescents’ behavioral adjustment was measured using the internalizing and externalizing scales from the Youth Self-Report of the Child Behavioral Checklist.

Not surprisingly, there were differences between European American and Asian immigrant youth in the effects of both behavioral control and psychological control. The immigrant youth from Chinese and Korean families demonstrated less anger toward parental control (both behavioral and psychological control) than European American youth. The authors attribute such differences to cultural differences and Confucian influences on Chinese and Koreans. The authors also report that among European Americans, as adolescents’ feelings of anger increased, the beneficial consequences of behavioral control decreased, whereas the negative effects of psychological control on behavior problems decreased. These were not observed in Asian immigrants.

In the issue of Journal of Family Psychology 2009, Vol. 23, No. 3, S.Y. Kim et al from University of Texas at Austin published article, “Parent-Child Acculturation, Parenting, and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Immigrant Families.” Adolescent either US born or foreign born in households with at least foreign-born one parent were recruited from seven middle schools in Northern California. In a pool of 444 Chinese American families, the authors used a sample of 388 father-adolescent dyads with foreign-born fathers, and 399 mother-adolescent dyads with foreign-born mothers. Most of the participants originally came from Hong Kong or southern provinces of China. Fewer than 10 families came from Taiwan. Each parent and the child received a packet of bilingual questionnaires (in English and Chinese) measuring acculturation, parenting quality, and adolescent depressive symptoms. The authors found that a high discrepancy in father-adolescent acculturation levels relates significantly to more adolescent depressive symptoms. Furthermore, a high level of discrepancy in American orientation / adaptation between fathers and adolescents is associated with unsupportive parenting practices that is in turn linked to more adolescent depressive symptoms. These findings are reportedly sustained after controlling of the influence of parents’ socioeconomic status.

The Chinese have a long history in the United States. Earlier Chinese immigrants mostly contributed to building railroads of this country and making delicious Dim Sum. Over the years, more and more Chinese immigrants have made significant contributions to the intellectual and other aspects of the society. Since hundreds and thousands of those highly educated mainland students and scholars immigrated after late 1970s and 1980s, with their hard work and achievements, not only the population of Chinese has been greatly increased but the overall socioeconomic level of Chinese has been significantly elevated as well. Still, awareness of mental health in the community is yet to improve. Despite enormous research on mental health in generally, both biologically and psychologically, specific works on Chinese/Asian population here are only just a few. Here I provide some summaries of research related to Chinese/Asian American mental health. For more detailed information, please read the original journal papers. (Two students in the community, E. Tsai and W. Hsu, have provided substantial help and I appreciate their dedication to this important community work.)