Current Perspectives on Family Dynamics and Relationships: The Intersection of Culture and Immigration

Abstract

Parenting and parent-child relationships have long been key areas of child and family research in North America. However, our understanding of parenting among ethnic and racial minorities around the world has received significantly less attention as compared to the research on families of European backgrounds (Arnett, 2008). Parenting and parent-child relationships, like child development itself, are embedded in a broader cultural context and must be understood within that context. Two broad research traditions are valuable for uncovering the cultural basis of parenting and parent-child relationships: cross-cultural studies and studies of within-group variation among migrant populations. The following chapters have extended our knowledge of parenting and families in the immigrant contexts of Canada, China, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States, representing a wide range of ethnicities, including Albanians, Antilleans, Chinese (from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), Dominicans, Indians, Japanese, Moroccans, Serbians, Russians, South Koreans, Slovenes, South Americans (from Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, and Peru), Surinamese, and Turks. Increased attention to this field will allow researchers to make meaningful contributions to the global, national, and local policies that affect immigration, as well as share knowledge with the service providers around the world to improve the lives of immigrant families.