The impacts of parent-child acculturation gaps on educational involvement and psychological adjustment of Chinese immigrant parents

• In Event: Dissertation workshop session
  In Special Session: Migration and Mobility

Proposal

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study that integrates education and psychology. It will investigate how parent-child acculturation gaps in language use and cultural values influence Chinese immigrant parents’ educational involvement in middle and high school and their psychological adjustment. The dissertation will be proposed in Comparative and International Education Program at Lehigh University. It is supervised by Dr. Peggy Kong.

Research Purpose
By 2017, over 2.8 million immigrants in the United States hailed from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (2017 American Community Survey, 2018). Chinese immigrant parents face great challenges in educational involvement (Costigan & Koryzma, 2011; Ji & Koblinsky, 2009; Turney & Kao, 2009). Therefore, the purpose of the dissertation is to explore how parent-child acculturation gaps in language use and cultural values influence Chinese immigrant parents’ educational involvement and psychological adjustment, and how psychological adjustment mediates the relation between the acculturation gaps and educational involvement.

Research Questions
Three research questions are proposed in the dissertation.
1. How do the parent-child acculturation gaps in adopting English language and American culture and maintaining Chinese language and culture impact immigrant Chinese parents’ educational involvement at home, in school and in the community?
2. How do the parent-child acculturation gaps in adopting English language and American culture and maintaining Chinese language and culture impact immigrant Chinese parents’ psychological adjustment in terms of depression, self-esteem, and life satisfaction?
3. How is the influence of the parent-child acculturation gaps in adopting English language and American culture and maintaining Chinese language and culture on Chinese immigrant parents’ educational involvement at home, in school and in the community mediated by their psychological adjustment in terms of depression, self-esteem and life satisfaction?

Theories and Literature
An integrated acculturation model is developed based on acculturation model and acculturation gap-distress model for the dissertation. The acculturation model proposes that acculturation consists of two dimensions: (1) the adoption of host language and culture, and (2) the maintenance of heritage language and culture, which can impact immigrants’ psychological and sociocultural adjustment (Berry, 1997, 2003, 2005). In the dissertation, educational involvement is considered as one aspect of sociocultural adjustment.
The acculturation gap-distress model addresses the role of the parent-child acculturation gaps in immigrants’ adjustment (Portes & Rumbaut, 2014; Sluzki, 1979; Szapocznik & Kurtines, 1993; Telzer, 2011). However, studies have primarily focused on children (Chen et al., 2014; Hou, Kim, & Wang, 2016; Li & Li, 2017; Lim, Yeh, Liang, Lau, & McCabe, 2009), leaving parents’ issues under-investigated.
The integrated model combines the bi-dimensional construct of acculturation and the emphasis on the parent-child acculturation gaps. It proposes that from a parent-centric perspective, the parent-child acculturation gaps in Chinese immigrant families consist of the adoption of English and American culture and maintenance of Chinese language and culture, which can impact parents’ educational involvement and psychological adjustment.

Methods
The dissertation is designed quantitative. Participants will be first-generation Chinese immigrant parents from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan who have children in middle or high school. Two hundred and fifty parents will be recruited with convenience sampling method from one public high school, Chinese churches, Chinese weekend schools, and online Chinese groups. This sample size was calculated by Monte Carlo simulation to reach an estimated statistical power of 0.8.
Parent-child acculturation gaps will be measured by 6 items from General Ethnicity Questionnaire (GEQ, Tsai, Ying, & Lee, 2000) and 18 items from Vancouver Index of Acculturation (VIA, Ryder, Alden, & Paulhus, 2000). Educational involvement at home and in school will be 12 items from National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). Educational in the community will be measure by items developed in the current dissertation. Psychological adjustment will be measured by 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D, Radloff, 1977), 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985).
Survey will be distributed online. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) will be applied to analyze data with Mplus 7.4. Three models will be conducted, each for one research question.

Evidence and Statement
The dissertation is scheduled to be proposed in late November 2018 so that there is no available evidence at this point. At the time of the conference, it is expected that the dissertation will be in its data collection phrase. Some preliminary results will be shared at the workshop. Feedback from the workshop will help enhance the potential modification of measures, methods to participant recruitment, and data analysis plan.

Author

• Xinwei Zhang, Lehigh University