Matching Items (2)
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- All Subjects: Arab American youth
- Creators: Gonzales, Nancy A.
Description
Parenting approaches that are firm yet warm (i.e., authoritative parenting) have been found to be robustly beneficial for mainstream White Americans youths, but do not demonstrate similarly consistent effects among Chinese Americans (CA) adolescents. Evidence suggests that CA adolescents interpret and experience parenting differently than their mainstream counterparts given differences in parenting values and child-rearing norms between traditional Chinese and mainstream American cultures. The current study tests the theory that prospective effects of parenting on psychological and academic functioning depends on adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting and understanding parenting. CA adolescents with values and expectations of parenting that are more consistent with mainstream American parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting similar to their White American counterparts (i.e., benefiting from a combination of parental strictness and warmth). In contrast, CA adolescents with parenting values and expectations more consistent with traditional Chinese parenting norms were predicted to experience parenting and its effects on academic and psychological outcomes differently than patterns documented in the mainstream literature. This study was conducted with a sample of Chinese American 9th graders (N = 500) from the Multicultural Family Adolescent Study. Latent Class Analysis (LCA), a person-centered approach to modeling CA adolescents' cultural frameworks for interpreting parenting, was employed using a combination of demographic variables (e.g., nativity, language use at home, mother's length of stay in the U.S.) and measures of parenting values and expectations (e.g., parental respect, ideal strictness & laxness). The study then examined whether prospective effects of parenting behaviors (strict control, warmth, and their interaction effect) on adolescent adjustment (internalizing and externalizing symptoms, substance use, and GPA) were moderated by latent class membership. The optimal LCA solution identified five distinct cultural frameworks for understanding parenting. Findings generally supported the idea that effects of parenting on CA adolescent adjustment depend on adolescents' cultural framework for parenting. The classic authoritative parenting effect (high strictness and warmth leads to positive outcomes) was found for the two most acculturated groups of adolescents. However, only one of these groups overtly endorsed mainstream American parenting values.
ContributorsLiu, Freda Fangfang (Author) / Gonzales, Nancy A. (Thesis advisor) / Tein, Jenn-Yun (Committee member) / Yoo, Hyung Chol (Committee member) / Barrera, Manuel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Scant research examines the associations between parenting behaviors and the psychological health of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) American youth. Developmental research consistently demonstrates that an authoritarian parenting style (often characterized by rejecting and controlling behaviors, and a common style among MENA parents) is maladaptive for offspring health; however, no study has empirically tested the associations of these behaviors from mothers and fathers with the health of MENA American youth. Using survey data from 314 MENA American young adults (Mage = 20 years, range 18 – 25 years, 56% female), the current study tested the associations between commonly studied parenting behaviors - acceptance, rejection, harsh parenting, and control - with the mental (stress, depression, and anxiety) and physical health (general health perceptions, pain, and somatization) of MENA American youth. Confirmatory factor analysis tested new items informed by preliminary focus groups with original items from the Child Report Parenting Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) to create culturally-informed parenting factors. Results indicated that youth-reported higher maternal acceptance was associated with fewer mental health symptoms, higher maternal harsh parenting with higher mental health symptoms, and higher maternal rejection with worse physical health; father rejection was associated with higher mental health symptoms and worse physical health. Further, the associations between parenting and physical health were moderated by youth Arabic orientation, such that those with higher Arabic orientation showed the best physical health at higher levels of acceptance, and the worst physical health at higher levels of rejection, harsh parenting, and control. Associations between parenting and health did not differ by youth gender. The current findings suggest cross-cultural similarities in the beneficial functions of parental acceptance, and detrimental functions of parental rejection and harsh parenting, with MENA American youth. The associations between parenting and health were exacerbated, for better or for worse, for more Arabic-oriented youth, suggesting these youth may be more greatly impacted by perceptions of their parents’ behaviors. Findings have implications for family interventions working with MENA populations.
ContributorsIbrahim, Mariam Hanna (Author) / Luecken, Linda J. (Thesis advisor) / Gonzales, Nancy A. (Committee member) / Edwards, Michael C (Committee member) / Doane, Leah D (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019