Contours of child-parent conflict among South Asian American and Chinese American young adults

An emphasis on family ties appears so entrenched in the South Asian American worldview that for distressed adults, clinical problems often present as family conflict (Almeida, 2005; Tewari, 2000), and scholars recommend conceptualizing individual client problems using family therapy models (Inman & Tewari, 2003). This pattern may be explained by a highly interdependent self-orientation combined with traditional virtues that emphasize cooperation and duty (i.e., filial piety) at the family level. Given that family conflict is of clinical concern for many other Asian American populations (e.g., Abe-Kim, Takeuchi & Hwang, 2002; Lee, Jung, Su, Tran & Bahrassa, 2009), I examine the broad shared and ethnic-specific factors of parent-child disagreement and its role in wellbeing for South Asian American young adults (n = 150), compared with Chinese American young adults (n = 150). Based on the shared cultural emphasis on collectivism, it was hypothesized that family interdependence would moderate the prediction of wellbeing by general family disharmony in both groups, and that complying and accommodating responses to a recent disagreement would be associated with more intense interdependent emotions. There was evidence that interdependence did play an important role in general wellbeing scores and in emotion intensity during a recent conflict, although differently for each ethnic group. Ethnic differences were also observed in responses to actual and hypothesized conflict. Findings are discussed in light of theorized distinctions between South Asian American and Chinese American family dynamics.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2012

Author dc:creator

• Masood, Nausheen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Okazaki, Sumie
• Ramirez Garcia, Jorge I.
• Hubert, Lawrence J.
• Abelmann, Nancy A.
• Wiley, Angela R.

• Asian American families
• family conflict
• mental health
• South Asian American
• Chinese American
• Indian American

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2012 Nausheen Masood

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/31926

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/31926