Immigrant Chinese Parents in New York Chinatowns: Acculturation Gap and Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

Acculturation is challenging for Chinese immigrant parents who have different linguistic and cultural experiences from their adolescent children. Yet, there is little research investigating the roles of acculturation and acculturation gap in the psychological adjustment of Chinese immigrant parents from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The present study is the first study to simultaneously examine the impacts of Chinese immigrant parents’ acculturation, their adolescent children’s acculturation, and the parent– adolescent acculturation gap on the psychological adjustment of Chinese immigrant parents in a lowincome context. This study includes 225 Chinese immigrant parents (Mage = 42.93, SD = 5.97; 77% females) in New York City Chinatowns and their middle and high school-aged adolescent children (Mage = 13.77, SD = 2.27; 46% female; 75% US-born). The parents completed questionnaires that assessed their own acculturation and their perception of their adolescent children’s acculturation regarding English proficiency, American cultural acquisition, Chinese proficiency, and Chinese cultural maintenance. The parents also reported their psychological adjustment regarding self-esteem, life satisfaction, and depression. Multivariate regression showed that higher parental self-esteem was associated with higher adolescents’ English proficiency and a smaller parent–adolescent gap in English proficiency. Higher parental life satisfaction was associated with higher parents’ English proficiency, higher adolescents’ English proficiency, and a smaller parent–adolescent gap in Chinese proficiency. Lower parental depression was associated with higher parents’ American cultural acquisition. This study highlights that both acculturation at the individual level and the acculturation gap at the family level have important impacts on the psychological adjustment of Chinese immigrant parents in a low-income context.