Acculturation In Asian Americans
Xiang Li
5/5/2010
Cultural Psychology
The relationship between Acculturation and Family Relations in Asian American Families
Introduction
Ever since it was possible for immigration, people have been coming to the United States from all around the world. According to the 2000 Census, foreign born immigrants account for 11.1% (31 million). However few resources have been put in effort to understand how acculturation can influence family relationship in whose children is either U.S.-born or overseas-born. Acculturation has been defined by Redfield, Linton and Herskovits in 1936 as the “phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original …show more content…
The independent variable of this proposed study is the individual placement with in John Berry’s model of acculturation and the dependent variable will be the effects of such placement has on family relationship. With the challenges mentioned previously in mind, current study will try to control for demographic characteristics which may influence the final results. On the basis of studies mentioned above, current study will examine the relationship between acculturation and family relations in Asian families. First, I predict since the parents’ acculturation gap will influence their adolescent and children’s self and ethnic identity formation, there would be a correlation between parents’ ethnic identity and adolescents’ style of acculturation. For example, adolescents who have integrated (biculturalism) are expected to have parents with positive attitudes to both their culture of origin and host society’s culture. Second, I predict conflict to be more frequent in families with parents who overly value their culture of origin (separation or tradition) or are disconnected with both cultures (marginalization) than families where parents are integrated or assimilated in acculturation style. Third, I predict adolescents’ psychological function is influenced by their acculturation style in that adolescents who show an integrated acculturation style (Assuming a bicultural orientation is the most psychologically adaptive) would have a higher self-esteem, less anxiety and better school performance since these terms are directly related to family relation and conflict causations. Lastly, I predict U.S.-born Asian American adolescents are less likely to experience conflicts with their immigrant parents than overseas-born adolescents since U.S.-born Asian Americans are more
5/5/2010
Cultural Psychology
The relationship between Acculturation and Family Relations in Asian American Families
Introduction
Ever since it was possible for immigration, people have been coming to the United States from all around the world. According to the 2000 Census, foreign born immigrants account for 11.1% (31 million). However few resources have been put in effort to understand how acculturation can influence family relationship in whose children is either U.S.-born or overseas-born. Acculturation has been defined by Redfield, Linton and Herskovits in 1936 as the “phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original …show more content…
The independent variable of this proposed study is the individual placement with in John Berry’s model of acculturation and the dependent variable will be the effects of such placement has on family relationship. With the challenges mentioned previously in mind, current study will try to control for demographic characteristics which may influence the final results. On the basis of studies mentioned above, current study will examine the relationship between acculturation and family relations in Asian families. First, I predict since the parents’ acculturation gap will influence their adolescent and children’s self and ethnic identity formation, there would be a correlation between parents’ ethnic identity and adolescents’ style of acculturation. For example, adolescents who have integrated (biculturalism) are expected to have parents with positive attitudes to both their culture of origin and host society’s culture. Second, I predict conflict to be more frequent in families with parents who overly value their culture of origin (separation or tradition) or are disconnected with both cultures (marginalization) than families where parents are integrated or assimilated in acculturation style. Third, I predict adolescents’ psychological function is influenced by their acculturation style in that adolescents who show an integrated acculturation style (Assuming a bicultural orientation is the most psychologically adaptive) would have a higher self-esteem, less anxiety and better school performance since these terms are directly related to family relation and conflict causations. Lastly, I predict U.S.-born Asian American adolescents are less likely to experience conflicts with their immigrant parents than overseas-born adolescents since U.S.-born Asian Americans are more