Adolescent-Parent Relations in Asian Indian and Salvadoran Immigrant Families: A Cultural-Developmental Analysis of Autonomy, Authority, Conflict, and Cohesion

Abstract

From a cultural perspective, this study addressed the two developmental theories that adolescents want more autonomy and fewer parental rules than parents consider appropriate, and that discrepancy between adolescents and parents on views of autonomy and authority result in decreased cohesion and increased conflict. The study included 100 adolescent-parent dyads who were immigrants to the United States from El Salvador and India. While findings pointed to cross-cultural commonalities, such as autonomy seeking among adolescents, they also highlighted the importance of culture to different meanings of autonomy and the limits of the discrepancy thesis. The discussion calls for future scholarship to include concepts of salience to diverse groups such as family interdependence and appreciation for the parental immigrant experience.