Date of Award

2007

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Department

Psychology

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Research on Asian immigrant families indicates that children often acculturate to the host culture more quickly than their parents, resulting in parent-child acculturation discrepancies, intergenerational conflicts, and psychological distress. The existing literature focuses on adolescents, and little is known about young adults' experiences. Furthermore, there is a need in the current literature to apply a bilineal model of acculturation, in which orientations towards the heritage and mainstream cultures exist on separate dimensions. This study used a Web-based survey to examine the degree to which demographic factors, perceived parent-child bilineal acculturation discrepancies, and intergenerational conflicts predicted distress in 179 Asian Canadian young adults. Hierarchical multiple regression results indicated that mother-child heritage acculturation discrepancies predicted mother-child conflicts. Mother-child conflicts predicted distress, whereas father-child conflicts did not. Canadian acculturation predicted distress over and above perceived parent acculturation and parent-child acculturation discrepancies. Results are discussed in terms of implications for research and counselling.

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