Recent work has shown that the higher levels of parental monitoring and stricter rules set by immigrant parents play are a strong, positive role in helping immigrant adolescents maintain lower levels of delinquency and higher grades.
But as immigrant adolescents rapidly acculturate into American schools, a gap between parents and their children begins to form.
A recent study found that while many adolescents from Chinese immigrant families were performing well in US schools and showing very low levels of behavior problems, as acculturation proceeded these adolescents and their parents "suffered increased emotional distance, increased conflicts, and less communication"(Qin, 2006).
In a recent NPR report on intergenerational conflict, a Chinese-American teenage girl explains that while she may see, understand and even agree with the parenting styles of her parents she wishes that her mother could better understand the American teenager--and in doing so, better understand her.
Listen to this story which recently aired on All Things Considered.
No comments:
Post a Comment