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Parental Socialization of Emotion and Child Functioning Among Indian American Families: Consideration of Cultural Factors and Different Modes of Socialization
... Indeed, theorized linkages between parents' emotion dysregulation and emotion socialization practices (Morris et al., 2007) have been corroborated by empirical work. Recent findings suggest that greater parent emotion dysregulation predicts decreased supportive (Raval et al., 2018) and heightened non-supportive (Buckholdt et al., 2014;Morelen et al., 2016) responses to school-age children and adolescents. Still, more research is needed to understand these trends in younger samples over time to develop models of anxiety risk and inform early intervention efforts, including those that may be transdiagnostic in nature. ...
... Perhaps mothers' maladaptive ER more readily engenders non-supportive, but not less supportive, parenting practices. There is some precedent for this, although the extant literature offers equivocal findings (Morelen et al., 2016;Raval et al., 2018). Still, present results do evidence the importance of maternal emotion dysregulation as a proximal predictor of non-supportive emotion responses, consistent with emotion-related parenting theory (Hajal & Paley, 2020). ...
... Aspects of non-supportive emotion responses independent from maternal emotion dysregulation may be controlled and warm, potentially discouraging child negative affect and reinforcing adaptive ER. This may be, in part, what has been captured in some studies showing that parents' nonsupportive responses are not necessarily detrimental to child psychological adjustment (e.g., Hooper et al., 2018;Raval et al., 2018). More broadly, perhaps the observed, positively-valenced, indirect relation reflects that mothers who are more emotionally dysregulated and prone to reacting non-supportively have children who are more concerned with and oriented to their mothers' emotional reactions. ...
Models of transdiagnostic family emotion processes recognize parents’ emotion-related characteristics and behaviors as key contributors to child emotional development and psychological functioning. One such psychological outcome, child anxiety, is prevalent and early emerging, underscoring the importance of identifying early family- and emotion-related mechanisms involved in anxiety risk. We investigated the extent to which mother and child emotion-related traits and behaviors related to child anxiety in a community sample of 175 mother–child dyads. Using three time-points (child ages 2–4 years, assessments 1 year apart), we examined how mothers’ emotion dysregulation predicted their emotion socialization practices (either supportive or non-supportive) and children’s emotion regulation (ER; either attention- or caregiver-focused) over time, in relation to later child anxiety. Models controlled for child inhibited temperament and also tested the role of maternal anxiety in these trajectories. Mothers reported on their emotion dysregulation, emotion socialization, and their own and their child’s anxiety, whereas child ER and inhibited temperament were measured using laboratory observation. In supportive emotion socialization models, maternal emotion dysregulation predicted child anxiety 2 years later. An indirect effect emerged, such that greater maternal emotion dysregulation predicted greater non-supportive emotion socialization, which in turn related to children’s greater caregiver-focused ER. Maternal emotion dysregulation, maternal anxiety, and child inhibited temperament each predicted child anxiety above and beyond other variables, although their shared variance likely accounted for some of the results. Findings lend partial support to current theoretical models of transdiagnostic family emotion processes and child anxiety development, suggesting promising avenues of future research.
... Caregiverchild transmission also occurs through environmental factors; caregiving practices of emotionally dysregulated caregivers are proximal influences on child emotional development (Seddon et al., 2020;Tan & Smith, 2019). For instance, caregivers who are higher in emotion dysregulation may engage in fewer supportive (e.g., encouraging, validating) and more nonsupportive (e.g., dismissing, punishing) responses to their children (Lorber, 2012;Raval et al., 2018), contributing to their children's own difficulties in managing and expressing their emotions (Buckholdt et al., 2014;Morelen et al., 2016;Price & Kiel, 2022). Indeed, several studies have provided evidence from transmission of caregiver emotion dysregulation to their child across different developmental periods, including childhood and adolescence (e.g., Keskin & Branje, 2022;Lorber et al., 2017;Shaw & Starr, 2019;Tan & Smith, 2019). ...
Intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation (ED) has strong implications for psychopathology risk. Past research has neglected assessing parenting-specific domains of ED and the transactional nature of these processes in early development. This study tested longitudinal relations among mothers’ nonacceptance of their own emotions (ED), mothers’ experiential avoidance of their child’s emotions (EA), and early manifestations of child ED (negative affect [NA]). Participants were 186 mothers (91.9% White, 95.7% non-Hispanic/Latina) of children (44.6% female, 83.3% White, 93% non-Hispanic/Latinx, diverse socioeconomic status) who participated when children were ages 1 (T1), 2 (T2), and 3 (T3) years. Mothers reported on variables of interest at each time point. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model delineated within- versus between-family effects among variables across time, allowing for a variable-centered examination of both individual differences and bidirectional effects. Regarding the between-family component, ED positively covaried with both EA and NA such that mothers endorsing higher nonacceptance of their emotions tended to also endorse their child’s greater NA and greater avoidance of child emotions. Though within-family autoregressive relations trended positively, no stability effects emerged. Within-time point and cross-lagged effects tended to be nonsignificant, with the exception of EA and NA positively covarying at T3, such that when mothers had more stability (less fluctuation) in their EA at child age 3, they also endorsed more stability in their child’s NA. Findings also prospectively indicated greater trait-like stability in the maternal versus child emotion traits and in between-family relations relative to within-family processes.
... The literature on family socialization typically portrays parents as primary agents shaping their children's internalization of cultural and societal norms (Bowie et al., 2013;Maccoby, 1994). However, this framework does not adequately convey the experiences of many immigrant families, including KA's, where parents undergo socialization of the host culture simultaneously with their children (Hurh, 1998;Raval et al., 2018). Immigrant Korean parents, generally slower in adopting mainstream cultural practices and English fluency compared to their immigrant or U.S.-born children (Kim, 2011), often find themselves ill-equipped to navigate the complex socialization processes in the U.S. Consequently, it is not uncommon for immigrant families to experience role reversals, where children assist their parents with language brokering and family decision-making (Shen et al., 2014). ...
This study investigated the associations among acculturative family distancing in communication and values, family conflicts (parent-adolescent conflict, interparental conflict), and depressive symptoms and the mediating effects of family conflicts in the associations between acculturative family distancing in communication and values, and depressive symptoms in KA adolescents. Path analysis was used to analyze data from a cross-sectional survey of 339 Korean American adolescents (Mage = 14.99, SD = 1.67; 53% female) residing in New York City and New Jersey. Measurements include the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) Scale, Acculturative Family Distancing Youth Report Scale (AFD-YR), the Family Conflicts Scale (FCS), and the Children’s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale. All path coefficients for the final model were statistically significant. There were significant mediating effects of parent-adolescent conflict and interparental conflict on the associations between acculturative family distancing in communication and values and depressive symptoms. The study suggests acculturative family distancing may be a contextual risk factor for depressive symptoms among KA youth. Additionally, greater acculturative family distancing may erode the strength and quality of family relationships. One of the objectives of this study was to test the AFD theory which identifies more problematic dimensions of intergenerational acculturation gap that increase risk for family conflict. The findings of the current study not only support but also build on the AFD theory by examining its relationship to both interparental and parent-adolescent conflicts.
... Findings on the role of acculturation in promoting parental nurturance are inconsistent. While some studies report that immigrants tend to maintain their cultural practices and control over their children (Cote et al., 2015), others report that acculturation is associated with changes in cultural practices and improved nurturance (Liu et al., 2017;Raval et al., 2018;Zhai, 2017), yet some others report that there is a lack of evidence on the association between acculturation and parental nurturance (Cheah et al., 2018). The complexity of the relationship between acculturation and parental nurturance underscores the need for more nuanced research that considers cultural diversity and the dynamic nature of acculturation among immigrant populations. ...
Social support is a valuable resource for immigrant parents to maintain their parental self-efficacy and fulfill childrearing duties. Using data from a sample of first-generation Asian American immigrant parents of multiple ethnic groups who were born outside the United States (N = 670), this study examined the relationships among social support, parental self-efficacy, and nurturing parenting behaviors. The analysis revealed that positive parenting behaviors, measured by parental nurturance, were positively associated with social support. When analyzing the sources of social support separately, we found a significant association between parental nurturance and family support, but no significant associations were observed with partner or friends’ support. Parental self-efficacy played a significant mediating role in the relationship between family support and parental nurturance. These findings have important implications for clinical practice and policy interventions that address the needs of first-generation Asian American parents, the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the U.S.
... Few studies have directly tested this theory, and cross-cultural studies find results that are inconsistent with findings from North American studies (Raval & Walker, 2019;Raval, Walker & Daga, 2018). The first study to test the theory was the original study by Gottman et al. (1996), who concluded that the effect of emotion coaching on child outcomes was mediated by child emotion regulation. ...
More than two decades of research have shown that parental emotion‐related socialization behaviors (ERSBs) significantly predict child emotion understanding and externalizing behavior problems. This study aimed to replicate these findings in a sample of 40 Norwegian preschool children and to test whether the effect of parental ERSBs on externalizing child behavior problems was mediated through child emotion understanding. Parental report on ERSBs was obtained using the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) questionnaire. Child emotion understanding was assessed directly using the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). The results showed that parental distress reactions and externalizing child behavior problems were significantly correlated and that parental expressive encouragement was significantly correlated with child emotion understanding. Estimation of indirect effects was conducted using process analysis and showed that parental expressive encouragement was indirectly related to externalizing child behavior problems (b = −0.17) via child emotion understanding. The results suggest that better child emotion understanding, and lower parental distress are related to lower levels of behavior problems in preschool children. These findings provide support for the Parental Meta‐Emotion Philosophy (PMEP) model, where the effect of parental emotion socialization on externalizing child behavior problems is mediated through emotion understanding.
We propose a transactional model of risk and resilience and ambiguous loss as theoretical guides to understanding transnational fathering. We also examine the risk and buffering conditions associated with each temporal aspect of the migrant journey of transnational fathers beginning with the initial decision to leave their country of origin to their process of resettlement in a destination country. In addition, we examine the effects of the absence of transnational fathers from their family on the fathers themselves, their partners, and their children. We critically explore the buffering effects of communication at a distance as a strategy for reducing the risks associated with the migration experience of transnational fathers and examine the buffering role of substitute caregivers in the home country as a means of reducing the risk associated with the absence of fathers on children. New directions for future work in this area are noted.
This study examined the influence of the family on adolescents' acculturation, ethnic identity achievement, and psychological functioning. One hundred eighty American-born Asian Indian adolescents and one of their immigrant parents completed questionnaires assessing their acculturation, ethnic identity, and family conflict. Adolescents also completed anxiety and self-esteem measures. The results showed that parents' and adolescents' ratings of their self-identification and ethnic identity were positively associated. Parents who had a separated or marginalized style of acculturation reported higher family conflict than those who had an integrated or assimilated acculturation style. Adolescents reported higher self-esteem, less anxiety, and less family conflict when there was no acculturation gap between them and their parents. The findings suggest that how parents relate to their natal, as well as to the host, culture has direct effects on adolescents' ethnic identity achievement and their psychological functioning.
The relationship between parental emotion socialization and offspring adjustment during emerging adulthood across cultures has been understudied. We examined emerging adults' reports of maternal emotion socialization, their subjective experience, and their own current adjustment in India (n = 238) and USA (n = 220). Indians rated their mothers as providing more explanation-oriented responses and reported feeling more positive in response, and rated their mothers as providing all four nonsupportive responses (punitive, minimizing, scolding, and not talking) more, and reported feeling less negative in response than Americans. Reports of mothers' nonsupportive responses were positively related to emerging adults' adjustment problems in both cultures. In the US, mothers' supportive responses were directly negatively related to emerging adults' adjustment problems, while in India, maternal supportive responses were indirectly related to emerging adults' adjustment problems via their subjective experience. Culture moderated the relation between maternal expressive encouragement and emerging adult adjustment problems.
As the seventh in the series, this annual review of research on Asian American psychology focused on the 332 articles that were identified by PsycINFO as being published in 2015 and that met the inclusion criteria established by prior reviews. Consistent with prior annual reviews, these articles were coded for 4 domain themes: study topic, methodology, participant characteristics (i.e., ethnicity), and age range/developmental period of the sample. In addition to presenting a brief summary of our coding results, we also present a more detailed synthesis and evaluation of empirical work centered around the distinctive status of Asian Americans as members of cultural, immigrant, and minority groups. Trends and patterns in the field and concrete suggestions for future research are discussed throughout the review. A discussion of limitations of our review is also provided.
In a US population of adult male and female Sikh immigrant participants (N = 350), we explored sociocultural factors related to depression, giving participants a choice between English or Punjabi surveys. Language preference pointed to a subgroup with higher levels of depression and lower satisfaction with life. Underreporting of depression suggests a general reluctance to discuss depression. While multiple sociocultural variables were associated with depression bivariably, multivariate analysis identified negative religious coping and anxiety as unique predictors of depression. Community interventions should tap into the protective close-knit social fabric of this community as an opportunity to change the stigma of mental health.
Previous research provides an inadequate account of parental emotion socialization and its relation to child functioning among ethnic minority groups in the United States. This study compared reports of Asian Indian immigrant and White American mothers’ emotion socialization and examined relations between mothers’ emotion socialization and child outcomes in these two groups. Indian immigrant (n = 34) and White American (n = 38) mothers completed measures of child behavior problems and social competence, as well as self-report measures of two types of emotion socialization, responses to children’s negative emotions and emotion expressivity. Children completed a self-report measure of social competence. Results revealed that Indian immigrant mothers were more likely than White American mothers to report responding nonsupportively to their children’s negative emotions. However, reports of mothers’ nonsupportive responses were not related to child outcomes in the Indian immigrant group. In the White American group, reports of mothers’ nonsupportive responses were positively related to child behavior problems. Mothers’ self-reported negative emotion expressivity was positively related to child behavior problems and negatively related to mother-rated child social competence for Indian immigrants, while no significant relation was found between mothers’ negative emotion expressivity and child outcomes for White Americans. Moderation analyses were performed with these variables but were nonsignificant. Results are discussed in the context of cultural influences on emotion socialization and subsequent impact on child functioning.
Socialization of emotion is implicated in a variety of child outcomes, yet few studies have examined parental emotion socialization in ethnic minority families in the United States. In this study, we compared Indian immigrant (n = 40) and White American (n = 54) mothers' parental meta-emotion philosophies using the Parental Meta-Emotion Interview (Katz and Gottman, 1996) to specifically examine how differences in these philosophies may be related to reports of social competence and behavior problems in school-age children. Results showed that White American mothers were rated significantly higher than were Indian mothers in emotion coaching, awareness of their own and their child's emotions, acceptance of their own emotions, and regulation of their own emotions; however bivariate correlations indicated that emotion coaching was positively related to mother-rated child social competence and inversely related to mother-rated child externalizing behaviors for White Americans, whereas it was unrelated to child outcomes for Indian families. Moderation and simple slope analysis revealed that the interaction between ethnicity and mothers' regulation of her own emotions significantly predicted child behavioral problems, such that mothers' regulation of her own emotions was inversely related to child behavior problems for Indian mothers, whereas there was no relationship for White American mothers.
We explored the meta-emotion philosophies of Indian immigrant mothers living in the Midwest region of the United States to expand the scarce literature on emotion socialization in diverse families. A total of 15 mothers of teen and preteen children participated in a meta-emotion interview, in which they were asked about their own and their children’s experiences of anger, sadness, and fear. We analyzed interview responses through an open-ended phenomenological approach and found the following major themes: familial context of emotions, subtle communication of emotions, and an overarching philosophy centering on inevitability of negative emotions and the importance of moving on. Mothers differed in how well they believed that they could move on. Overall, the present findings demonstrate the role culture plays in emotional experiences of immigrant mothers and serve as a reminder that theories based on European American families might have limited applicability to other cultural and ethnic groups.
Abstract
Studies examining the link between parental socialization and child functioning in varying cultural contexts are scarce. Focusing on early adolescents in suburban middle-class families in India, the present study examined interrelations among reports of mothers’ socialization goals, socialization behaviors in response to child emotion, child emotion regulation, and child socioemotional functioning. One hundred and ten mothers and one of their children attending seventh grade at middle schools in Gujarat, India participated. Results indicated that suburban Indian mothers were more likely to endorse relational than autonomous socialization goals, and relational socialization goals were related to mothers’ reported explanation-oriented socialization behaviors in response to their children’s anger or sadness. Children’s self-reported regulation of anger and sadness mediated the negative relation between reports of mothers’ explanation-oriented supportive behaviors and child behavior problems. Moreover, children’s self-reported dysregulation partially mediated the positive association between reports of mothers’ nonsupportive behaviors and child behavior problems.
Cultural differences in daily emotions were investigated by administering emotion questionnaires four times a day throughout a one-week period. Respondents were American students, Japanese students living in the United States, and Japanese students living in Japan. Americans rated their emotional lives as more pleasant than did the Japanese groups. The dimension of emotional pleasantness (unpleasant-pleasant) was predicted better by interdependent than independent concerns in the Japanese groups, but this was not the case in the American group where the variance predicted by interdependent and independent concerns did not significantly differ. It is argued that cultural differences in the concerns most strongly associated with pleasantness are related to differences in ideals, norms, and practices of what it means to be a person. Cultural differences in the concerns are assumed to implicate differences in the nature of emotional experience.
This study explored age, gender, reported English fluency, social support satisfaction and social connectedness as predictors of acculturative stress among a sample of 359 international students. Results indicate that international students from Europe experienced less acculturative stress than their counterparts from Asia, Central/Latin America, and Africa. Moreover, English fluency, social support satisfaction, and social connectedness were all predictors of acculturative stress. Implications for counselling and research are discussed.
This article introduces the concepts of parental
meta-emotion, which refers to parents' emotions about their own and their children's emotions, and
meta-emotion philosophy, which refers to an organized set of thoughts and metaphors, a philosophy, and an approach to one's own emotions and to one's children's emotions. In the context of a longitudinal study beginning when the children were 5 years old and ending when they were 8 years old, a theoretical model and path analytic models are presented that relate parental meta-emotion philosophy to parenting, to child regulatory physiology, to emotion regulation abilities in the child, and to child outcomes in middle childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Sixteen 1st-generation Asian Indian mothers and fathers were interviewed about the influence of immigration on retention of their own ethnic identity and their ability to promote a sense of ethnic identity in their 2nd-generation children. Data were analyzed with the consensual qualitative research methodology (C. E. Hill et al., 2005) and revealed ethnic identity retention to be influenced by engagement in cultural celebrations and activities, a need to hold onto tradition and upbringing, family ties, social support, and a rejection of perceived Western values. Ethnic identity retention was challenged by environmental obstacles and barriers within American society, loss of familial support, lack of cultural continuity, and an inability to have the "best of both worlds." Furthermore, participants identified specific values and strategies relevant to transmitting an ethnic identity to their children as well as specific challenges to this process, including limited familial and communal guidance and modeling, obstacles from Western culture, an inability to apply their own experience or upbringing, a lack of cultural knowledge, and the potential for intermarriage. Implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
American ethnic groups are often thought of as discrete categories to which people belong and that explain some aspects of psychological functioning. However, ethnicity is a complex multidimensional construct that, by itself, explains little. To understand its psychological implications, it is necessary to identify and assess those aspects of ethnicity that may have an impact on outcomes of interest. In this article, the author examines 3 key aspects of ethnicity: cultural norms and values; the strength, salience, and meaning of ethnic identity; and the experiences and attitudes associated with minority status. These aspects are best understood in terms of dimensions along which individuals and samples vary, rather than as categories into which individuals can be classified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The family appears to be an important setting for learning about emotions and how to express them within a social context. Because of the need for reliable and valid measures of emotional expressiveness in the family, the Self-Expressiveness in the Family Questionnaire is introduced and evaluated in four studies with 499 mothers and 362 fathers. Factor analyses indicate highly consistent patterns of loadings for a two-factor solution across the four studies. The resulting positive and negative scales are highly internally consistent and stable over time. Evidence of good convergent, discriminant, and construct validity was obtained, and a preliminary short form with good internal consistency and construct validity was also identified. Ideas for future research on marital and parent–child issues are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
People in different cultures have strikingly different construals of the self, of others, and of the interdependence of the 2. These construals can influence, and in many cases determine, the very nature of individual experience, including cognition, emotion, and motivation. Many Asian cultures have distinct conceptions of individuality that insist on the fundamental relatedness of individuals to each other. The emphasis is on attending to others, fitting in, and harmonious interdependence with them. American culture neither assumes nor values such an overt connectedness among individuals. In contrast, individuals seek to maintain their independence from others by attending to the self and by discovering and expressing their unique inner attributes. As proposed herein, these construals are even more powerful than previously imagined. Theories of the self from both psychology and anthropology are integrated to define in detail the difference between a construal of the self as independent and a construal of the self as interdependent. Each of these divergent construals should have a set of specific consequences for cognition, emotion, and motivation; these consequences are proposed and relevant empirical literature is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined Taiwanese–Canadian mothers’ conceptions of personal freedom in everyday situations for their children and the influence of acculturation on their beliefs. Forty mothers of six- to eight-year-old children participated in a semistructured interview and sorting task. Interview responses revealed that, regardless of acculturation, child decision-making was important and that mothers should negotiate and compromise with their child on everyday issues such as clothing, food, activities, daily routine and homework. They believed that child resistance was motivated by the children's personal interests, laziness, limit testing and their emotional state. Sources of conflict were resolved by parental authority, discussing/negotiating and conceding to the child. The sorting task also revealed that personal issues were judged as within their children's jurisdiction.
The current study examined the relations between maternal meta-emotion philosophy and adolescent depressive symptoms, as well as general adolescent adjustment and the quality of parent–child interaction. Consistent with previous findings on children in the preschool period and middle childhood, it was expected that an emotion coaching meta-emotion philosophy would be associated with fewer depressive symptoms, higher levels of adjustment and lower frequencies and less reciprocity of aversive and dysphoric affect during mother–child interaction. Maternal meta-emotion interviews, observations of mother–child interaction and assessments of adolescent adjustment were obtained. Results indicated that mothers of adolescents with high levels of depressive symptoms were less accepting and expressive of their own emotions than were mothers of adolescents with low levels of depressive symptoms. A mother's acceptance of her own emotion was associated with fewer depressive symptoms, higher self-esteem and fewer externalizing problems in young adolescents. A mother's emotion coaching was associated with lower frequency and less likelihood of the reciprocity of aversive and dysphoric affect during mother–child interaction. Discussion highlights the role of maternal meta-emotion philosophy in creating emotional closeness in families with high and low levels of depressive symptomatology.
We tested the hypothesisthàgood feelings'' Ð the central element of sub-jective well-beingÐ are associated with interdependence and interpersonal engagement of the self in Japan, but with independence and interpersonal disengagement of the self in the United States. Japanese and American college students (total N 5 913) reported how frequently they experienced various emotional states in daily life. In support of the hypothesis, the reported frequency of general positive emotions (e.g. calm, elated) was most closely associated with the reported frequency of interpersonally engaged positive emotions (e.g. friendly feelings) in Japan, but with the reported frequency of interpersonally disengaged positive emotions (e.g. pride) in the United States. Further, for Americans the reported frequency of experience was considerably higher for positive emotions than for negative emotions, but for Japanese it was higher for engaged emotions than for disengaged emotions. Implications for cultural constructions of emotion in general and subjective well-being in particular are discussed.
A burgeoning of research on emotion has identified the importance of emotionally competent functioning to children's psychosocial adaptation. As a consequence of this basic research, we argue that prevention and treatment programs for youth would benefit from direct consideration of the role of emotion when designing developmentally appropriate programs. The rationale for including a greater focus on emotion in youth prevention and treatment programs is drawn from the affective neuroscience and clinical psychology literatures. Preliminary data from prevention and treatment programs that have a strong emotion focus are promising. Future work needs to examine how emotion-related processes are related to psychopathology in youth, develop developmentally sensitive programs that are influenced by basic research on emotions, evaluate the relative effectiveness of prevention and treatment programs, and assess the potential long-term impact of emotion-focused and emotion-informed programs.
Cross-cultural research is inherently limited by the difficulty of disentangling cultural effects
on children’s development from other environmental features that covary with culture. The
growing presence of immigrant populations in the United States offers an opportunity to
study parents’ cultural belief systems, or “parental ethnotheories,” as they influence children’s
settings and activities in the absence of other environmental supports. This study examined
Asian Indian immigrant mothers’ (n = 10) and matched Euro-American mothers’ (n = 10)
ethnotheories about their daughters by means of analysis of the mothers’ discourse in the
context of semistructured interviews, multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis of the descriptors,
and consensus analysis. The mothers’ ethnotheories are reflected in differences
between the settings and daily activities of their daughters. The Indian immigrant mothers’ ideas
and practices are compared to findings in the Whitings’ comparative field studies and discussed
in relation to several concepts of culture.
Four studies examined the hypothesis that, although people may generally want to savor, rather than to dampen, their positive emotions (i.e., hedonic emotion regulation), such a hedonic emotion regulation tendency should be less pronounced for Easterners than for Westerners. Using retrospective memory procedures, Study 1 found that Easterners recalled engaging in hedonic emotion regulation less than Westerners did, even after controlling for their initial emotional reactions. Studies 2-3 showed that cultural differences in emotion regulation were mediated by dialectical beliefs about positive emotions. Study 4 replicated the findings by examining online reports of emotion regulation strategies on the day students received a good grade. Furthermore, there were cultural differences in actual emotion change over time, which was partly explained by dialectical beliefs about positive emotions. These findings highlight the active role cultural scripts play in shaping emotion regulation and emotional experiences.
Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this study examined mothers' socialization of child emotion in suburban middle-class families in Gujarat, India. In particular, a community sample of 602 children, 6 to 8 years, was screened for emotional/behavioral problems using a parent-report measure standardized with this population. Based on the screening, four groups of children were formed: those with internalizing problems (n = 31), externalizing problems (n = 32), and somatic complaints (n = 25), and an asymptomatic control group (n = 32). Mothers of children across groups completed a previously pilot-tested, forced-choice, self-report questionnaire of their emotions and behaviors in response to their children's anger, sadness, and physical pain, and an individual open-ended interview further exploring their socialization behaviors, immediate goals, and expectations from their children. Quantitative data revealed that mothers of children in internalizing, externalizing, and somatic complaints groups reported more negative emotions (anger, disappointment, embarrassment, restlessness) and punitive/ minimizing behaviors than the control group, with the somatic-complaints group also reporting less sympathy and emotion-/ problem-focused behaviors than the control group. Qualitative data provided a culturally grounded overarching framework to understand emotion socialization in this sample, and suggested variation across groups with respect to the type of mothers' behaviors, along with expectations for appropriate behavior.
Background:
Increases in externalizing behaviors during the transition to adolescence may put children at risk for developing mental disorders and related problems. Although children's ability to regulate their emotions appears to be a key factor influencing risk for maladjustment, emotion processes during adolescence remain understudied. In this longitudinal study, we examined a multi-level mediational model in which emotion coaching by parents was posited to influence the ability of adolescents to regulate their emotions, which in turn influences their expression of problem behaviors.
Methods:
We recruited a representative community sample of 244 families with biological sibling pairs comprising a child in late elementary school and a child in middle school. Maternal meta-emotion interviews were coded for mother emotion coaching and adolescent difficulty with anger. Mothers also completed questionnaires on adolescent irritability. Ratings of adolescent problem behaviors were obtained from mother and teacher questionnaires completed at two time points. Using structural equation modeling, constructs were partitioned into components across older and younger siblings to examine shared and nonshared variance and contextual effects.
Results:
Cross-sectional data indicated that mothers' emotion coaching of anger was related to better anger regulation in adolescent siblings, which was, in turn related to less externalizing behavior. Although support for mediational effects was limited in the longitudinal data, both older and younger siblings' difficulties in regulating anger predicted adolescent externalizing behavior three years later. Additional longitudinal predictors of externalizing behavior were observed for younger siblings. In particular, emotion coaching of anger by mothers was associated with decreased externalizing behavior, while conversely, older siblings' externalizing behavior was associated with increased externalizing behavior in the younger siblings over time.
Conclusions:
The findings highlight the importance of considering family emotion processes in understanding adolescent problem behavior. Both maternal emotion coaching of adolescent anger and adolescent difficulty in regulating anger influenced adolescent externalizing behavior. Emotion coaching interventions seem worthy of consideration for enhancing the impact of prevention and intervention programs targeting youth externalizing behaviors.
A community sample of Indian immigrants in the United States (N = 195) completed a survey to assess the relationship between acculturation and mental health. The relationship among several social and demographic variables, three aspects of acculturation (perception of acceptance, cultural orientation, and language usage), and three aspects of mental health (psychological distress, acculturative stress, and satisfaction) were examined. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify statistical predictors of a composite index of mental health. Results indicated that acceptance and cultural orientation play crucial roles in mental health, independent of various social and demographic variables. Feeling accepted by the host society and being involved with Americans and U.S. culture were related to better mental health.
The authors examined the interplay of personality and cultural factors in the prediction of the affective (hedonic balance) and the cognitive (life satisfaction) components of subjective well-being (SWB). They predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is mediated by hedonic balance and that the relation between hedonic balance and life satisfaction is moderated by culture. As a consequence, they predicted that the influence of personality on life satisfaction is also moderated by culture. Participants from 2 individualistic cultures (United States, Germany) and 3 collectivistic cultures (Japan, Mexico, Ghana) completed measures of Extraversion, Neuroticism, hedonic balance, and life satisfaction. As predicted, Extraversion and Neuroticism influenced hedonic balance to the same degree in all cultures, and hedonic balance was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction in individualistic than in collectivistic cultures. The influence of Extraversion and Neuroticism on life satisfaction was largely mediated by hedonic balance. The results suggest that the influence of personality on the emotional component of SWB is pancultural, whereas the influence of personality on the cognitive component of SWB is moderated by culture.
In this study, we explored the relations between positive and negative family expressiveness, parental emotion coaching, child emotion regulation, and child aggression. The sample included 120 fourth-grade children and their mothers. Mothers completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist, the Family Expressiveness Questionnaire, and a portion of the meta-emotion interview to assess their awareness and acceptance of, and instruction in managing their child's anger and sadness (3 dimensions of parental emotion coaching). Teachers rated each child's aggression and completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist for each child. The 3 dimensions of parental emotion coaching and positive and negative family expressiveness were not directly related to child aggression. However, both negative family expressiveness and the mother's acceptance of the child's negative emotions were indirectly related to child aggression through the child's emotion regulation.
Socialization of children’s emotions is implicated in a variety of child outcomes including children’s social and emotional competence, peer relations, self-esteem, and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Recognizing the importance of culture, an emerging body of literature has examined caregiver socialization of children’s emotions in culturally diverse groups and has shown both similarities and variation in parental emotion-related socialization behaviors. Preliminary findings also suggest that caregiver emotion socialization behaviors that are associated with adaptive child outcomes in White middle-class families (with whom a bulk of the emotion socialization research is conducted) may not be related to adaptive child functioning in other cultural groups. In this article, we propose a conceptual framework that extends Eisenberg, Cumberland, and Spinrad’s (1998) model and unpacks aspects of culture that help explain the variation in caregiver emotion socialization processes and in the relation between caregiver emotion socialization and child socio-emotional functioning across cultural groups. Within the context of this framework, we systematically review published studies of caregiver emotion related socialization behaviors in culturally diverse families for children between preschool-age to adolescence, with a focus on their implication for child well-being. Gaps in the existing literature are identified, and directions for future research are outlined.
The relations between mothers' expressed positive and negative emotion and 55-79-month-olds' (76% European American) regulation, social competence, and adjustment were examined. Structural equation modeling was used to test the plausibility of the hypothesis that the effects of maternal expression of emotion on children's adjustment and social competence are mediated through children's dispositional regulation. Mothers' expressed emotions were assessed during interactions with their children and with maternal reports of emotions expressed in the family. Children's regulation, externalizing and internalizing problems, and social competence were rated by parents and teachers, and children's persistence was surreptitiously observed. There were unique effects of positive and negative maternal expressed emotion on children's regulation, and the relations of maternal expressed emotion to children's externalizing problem behaviors and social competence were mediated through children's regulation. Alternative models of causation were tested; a child-directed model in which maternal expressivity mediated the effects of child regulation on child outcomes did not fit the data as well.
Parent responses to children's emotions vary within and across cultures. The present study compared mothers' reports of their emotional and behavioral responses in hypothetical situations depicting their children experiencing anger, sadness, or physical pain in two communities in India (traditional old city, N = 60; suburban middle class, N = 60), with a suburban middle‐class group in the USA (N = 60). Results showed that mothers in both groups in India reported more explanation‐oriented problem‐focused responses to their children's emotions than US mothers. US mothers reported the most solution‐oriented problem‐focused responses, followed by suburban Indian mothers, followed by old‐city mothers. US mothers reported behaviorally‐oriented punitive responses (i.e., time out, removal of privileges) towards child anger more than the other groups. Suburban Indian mothers reported briefly not talking to the child in response to child anger more than the other groups whereas old‐city Indian mothers reported scolding/spanking more than the other groups.
The present paper is an attempt to understand various theories that explain mental health issues of Asian Indian immigrant women. It further explores depression as a threat to mental health and also examines the various supports to mental health. The literature will delve into the ways in which systems deter or promote members of the chosen population in the maintenance of optimal health and well-being, implication for the Human Behavior in the Social Environment (HBSE) curriculum, and future research needs are also explored. The paper looks specifically at middle-class women from first and second generations. It would also make an effort to understand the concept of mental health, women and mental health, the immigration history, and the Asian Indian immigrant family. This is imperative, as it would provide a better understanding of these issues among Asian Indian immigrant women. Knowledge of these issues will help the social work practitioners and counselors to deal effectively with the Indian women. It will also help in providing a different perspective in understanding human behavior. The term Asian Indian immigrant women has been abbreviated as AIIW throughout the paper to focus on women who have their roots in India.
The paper investigates the relationship between acculturation experience and accultura tive stress among a group of 76 Asian Indian immigrants living in mid-western United States using Berry et al. 's(1987) model. The most preferred acculturation attitude was found to be one of Integration. Acculturative stress had significant positive relationships with attitudes of Separation and Marginalisation but negative relation ship with Integration. Assimilation was found predictive of psychological stress, Separation of psychosomatic stress and Integration of overall stress. Results generally supported the postulated model.
This study compared the parenting attitudes of Asian Indian mothers living in the United States with those living in India. Fifty seven mothers participated in the study (Living in the United States=23, Living in India=34). The parenting attitudes of the mothers were measured using the Adolescent-Adult Parenting Inventory (AAPI, Bavolek, 1984). The AAPI has four subscales: (a) Reversing Parent-Child Family Roles, (b) Lack of Empathic Awareness of Children's Needs, (c) Inappropriate Developmental Expectations of Children, and (d) Strong Parental Beliefs in the Use of Corporal Punishment. A one-way (2: country of domicile) ANOVA showed significant differences in the mothers' attitudes about inappropriate expectations for their children {F(1,55)=10.24, p h 0.002}, the use of corporal punishment {F(1,55)=6.423, p h 0.007}, and role reversal {F(1,55)=4.63, p h 0.03}. Post hoc analysis indicated that the Asian Indian mothers living in the United States had lower inappropriate expectations and tended not to reverse roles with their children. The results also showed that the Asian Indian mothers living in India favored the use of corporal punishment more than their counterparts in the U.S.
The current report covers the reliability and validity data on an extensive study of the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA) involving a sample of 324 adults. Concurrent validity results showed that the SL-ASIA scores were significantly correlated with demographic information hypothesized to reflect levels of Asian-American identity. For example, high SL-ASIA scores were found associated with having attended school in the U.S. over a longer period of time, during which time the subject's Asian identity would have been reduced. Factorial validity was determined by comparing factors obtained for the SL-ASIA with factors reported for a similar scale measuring ethnic identity of Hispanics, the ARSMA. Of the four interpretable factors reported for the ARSMA, three were identified for the SL-ASIA.
Research has established links between parental emotion socialization behaviours and youth emotional and psychological outcomes; however, no study has simultaneously compared these relations for White, Black, and Asian individuals. In this study, emerging adults identifying as White (n= 61), Black (n= 51), or Asian (n= 56) retrospectively reported on parents' emotion socialization behaviours during childhood, existing emotion regulation (ER) skills, and current psychopathology symptoms. Asian participants reported fewer positive displays of emotions in their families during childhood than White and Black participants. Despite this difference, low expression of positive emotions in families during childhood did not relate to negative outcomes for Asian participants but was linked for White and Black participants. Overall, Asian participants reported more difficulties with ER than Black or White participants, and relations between ER difficulties and psychopathology varied by racial group. The findings emphasize the need to consider race when conducting research on emotion functioning with families and highlight emotion dysregulation as a potential treatment target for White, Black, and Asian individuals.
OBJECTIVES: Parents from different cultures differ in how frequently they express emotions. However, the generalizability of the relations between parental expressivity and child adjustment in non-Western cultures has not been extensively studied. The goal of the present study was to investigate prospective relations between parental expressivity within the family (positive, negative dominant, and negative submissive expressivity) and Chinese children's psychological adjustment, above and beyond parenting styles. DESIGN: The study used two waves (3.8 years apart) of longitudinal data from a sample (n= 425) of children in Beijing (mean ages = 7.7 years at T1 and 11.6 years at T2). Parental expressivity and parenting styles were self-reported. To reduce the potential measurement overlap, items that tap parental expression of emotions toward the child were removed from the parenting style measure. Children's adjustment was measured with parents', teachers', and peers' or children's reports. RESULTS: Consistent with findings with European American samples, parental negative dominant expressivity uniquely and positively predicted Chinese children's externalizing problems controlling for prior externalizing problems, parenting styles, and family SES. Neither parental expressivity nor parenting styles uniquely predicted social competence. CONCLUSIONS: Despite previously reported cultural differences in the mean levels of parental expressivity, some of the socialization functions of parental expressivity found in Western countries can be generalized to Chinese families. Although parental expressivity and parenting styles are related constructs, their unique relations to child's adjustment suggest that they should be examined as distinct processes.
A model of the ethnic identity development of South Asian immigrants to America, primarily from Indian and Pakistan, is presented. Cultural identity is considered in the context of the social, psychological, political, and historical context of the Indian subcontinent and the United States. A framework for understanding identity development is proposed for both immigrant and native born South Asian Americans. Cultural and gender identity, the worldview of South Asian Americans, and implications for counselors are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
focuses on Indian Americans, [a] new Asian ethnic group to emerge in the post-1965 era / focuses on racism, discriminatory measures, prejudice, and anti-Indian violence that earlier and contemporary Indian immigrants encountered in the US / provides a historical analysis of Indian political movements to protect their civil rights and interests / points out that Indian immigrants identify themselves with particular regional-linguistic subgroups, not with the Indian national origin group / indicates that religious places and organizations, Indian and ethnic newspapers, TV, videotapes, and visits to their homeland all facilitate Indians' ethnic identity / [socioeconomic adjustment and marriage and family issues are also discussed] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Mothers of preschoolers in China and India reported on the value they accorded to items tapping two socialization goals, Filial Piety and Socioemotional Development and two parenting styles, Authoritative and Authoritarian. In both cultures, maternal valuing of Filial Piety was associated with greater exertion of parental control, whereas greater valuing of Socioemotional Development was related to more frequent use of Authoritative practices. However, patterns in relationships between Filial Piety, Socioemotional Development and Authoritative parenting differed across Chinese and Indian mothers. Positive associations were found among these three variables for Indian mothers, reflecting Hindu beliefs about young children and childhood. Among Chinese mothers, on the other hand, Filial Piety was negatively related with Socioemotional Development and the use of Authoritative practices. Our results suggest that Chinese mothers believe that the use of authoritative practices, which encourage socioemotional development in children, will inhibit achievement of filial behaviour and academic achievement. Contrasts between these two Asian cultures highlight the importance of considering parents' socialization goals and beliefs in cross-cultural studies of child-rearing practices. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A sample of 292 respondents, drawn from three locations, participated in a study designed to examine the effects of eighteen situations on the choice of collectivist and individualist behaviour and intentions, or their combinations. The findings indicated that concerns for family or family members evoked a purely collectivist behaviour. Compelling and urgent personal needs and goals in conflict with the interests of family or friends led to a mix of individualist and collectivist behaviour and intentions. Individualist behaviour intended to serve collectivist interests was the third most frequently opted choice. Respondents' education had a significant effect and other background variables had indeterminate effects on the choice of either purely collectivist or a mix of collectivist and individualist behaviour and intentions.
Three of the basic goals of immigrants in multicultural societies-maintenance of heritage culture, participation in the host society, and maintenance of psychological and physical health-were examined as outcome variables in a proposed individual difference model of the acculturation process. The three composite predictor variables in the model were psychosocial adjustment, consisting of psychological well-being, bicultural competence, and perceived outgroup social support; connectedness to family and culture, consisting of family allocentrism, ethnic identity, and perceived ingroup support; and the experience of acculturation-specific and non-specific daily hassles. The roles of separation and assimilation modes of acculturation were also examined. The research participants were 85 male and 81 female Iranian immigrants to Canada. Their median age was 34 years; their median length of residence in Canada was seven years. The viability of the model was supported through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Psychosocial adjustment was directly related to outgroup behavior (reflecting contact with the host culture) and to psychophysical distress. Connectedness to family and culture was directly related to ingroup behavior, and daily hassles were directly related to psychophysical distress. Furthermore, each of these predictor variables was associated with either or both modes of acculturation. In turn, these modes of acculturation predicted the outcome behavior variables. Implications of the model for further research are discussed.
The objective of this exploratory study was to understand how Asian Indian immigrant families adjust to U.S. culture by examining factors that influence acculturation preferences or styles and how these styles may be associated with their children's psychological functioning, as measured by self-esteem and academic performance. 85 U.S.-born Asian Indian adolescents (45 girls; 40 boys) and one of their immigrant parents completed questionnaires about family demography, self-identification, acculturation, and religiosity. Adolescents also completed a self-perception profile. Results showed parents and adolescents had similar styles of acculturation. However, adolescents were more likely to self-identify as ‘Indian-American’ than were their parents. For both adolescents and their parents, integrated and assimilated acculturation styles were related to family SES, years of U.S. residence, and religiosity scores. Adolescents who had an integrated acculturation style had higher GPAs and higher scores on the self-perception profile than did adolescents who were separated or marginalized. The findings lend tentative support for an integrated style of acculturation in promoting positive outcomes for first generation Asian Indian adolescents.
La psychologie interculturelle a montré qu'il existait des rapports étroits entre le contexte culturel et le développement comportemental de l'individu. Cette relation établie, l'effort des recherches interculturelles a de plus en plus porté sur ce qu'il advenait des individus quand ils tentaient de refaire leur vie dans une culture différente de leur culture d'origine. Les conséquences psychologiques à long terme de ce processus d'acculturation sont très variables, dépendant de variables sociales et personnelles qui renvoient à la société de départ, à la société d'accueil et à des phénomènes qui existent avant, mais qui émergent pendant la période d'acculturation. Cet article esquisse un schéma conceptuel à partir duquel acculturation et adaptation peuvent ětre étudiées, puis présente quelques conclusions et résultats généraux tirés d'un échantillon de travaux empiriques. On envisage des applications possibles à la politique et aux programmes d'insertion en prenant en considération les couts et les bénéfices sociaux et psychologiques émanant de l'adoprion d'une orientation pluraliste et intégrationniste.
Three separate studies focusing on convergent and discriminant validity evidence for the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales are presented. The HCSBS is a 65-item social behavior-rating scale for use by parents and caretakers of children and youth ages 5–18. It is a parent-rating version of the School Social Behavior Scales. Within these studies, relationships with five behavior-rating scales were examined: the Social Skills Rating System, Conners Parent Rating Scale–Revised-Short Form, Child Behavior Checklist, and the child and adolescent versions of the Behavior Assessment System for Children. HCSBS Scale A, Social Competence, evidenced strong positive correlations with measures of social skills and adaptability, strong negative correlations with measures of externalizing behavior problems, and modest negative correlations with measures of internalizing and atypical behavior problems. HCSBS Scale B, Antisocial Behavior, evidenced strong positive correlations with measures of externalizing behavior problems, modest positive correlations with measures of internalizing and atypical behavior problems, and strong negative correlations with measures of social skills and adaptability. These results support the HCSBS as a measure of social competence and antisocial behavior of children and youth. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
This study addresses a paradox in the literature involving the parenting style of Asians: Chinese parenting has often been described as “controlling” or “authoritarian.” These styles of parenting have been found to be predictive of poor school achievement among European-Americans, and yet the Chinese are performing quite well in school. This study suggests that the concepts of authoritative and authoritarian are somewhat ethnocentric and do not capture the important features of Chinese child rearing, especially for explaining their school success. Immigrant Chinese and European-American mothers of preschool-aged children were administered standard measures of parental control and authoritative-authoritarian parenting style as well as Chinese child-rearing items involving the concept of “training.” After controlling for their education, and their scores on the standard measures, the Chinese mothers were found to score significantly higher on the “training” ideologies. This “training” concept has important features, beyond the authoritarian concept, that may explain Chinese school success.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. Research indicates that some parents have a meta-emotion philosophy that is high in awareness and coaching of emotion relative to others. Gottman et al. (1995) found that emotion-coaching parents have better marital relationships, show better parenting (i.e., they were less rejecting and more praising in the parent-child relationships), and have kids who show better psychological adjustment (i.e., their children showed greater ability to focus attention, fewer behavior problems, had less negative play with their best friends, less physical illness, and higher academic achievement). However, it is not clear whether these patterns are evident cross culturally. Unlike in the United States, Korean society traditionally has been under the influence of Confucianism. It demanded children's one-sided obedience to and respect for their parents in the parent-child relationship (Min, 1993). The goal of this study is to examine the differences between Korean American families and European American families with regards to parental meta-emotion philosophy and its application to parent-child interactions. Thirty-one European American families and 31 Korean American families with 8 to 9-year-old-children were recruited from the greater Seattle area. Parental meta-emotion philosophy, children's report of emotions, and parent-child teaching task interactions were examined. Results revealed that European American parents were more accepting and coaching of their children's emotions than Korean American parents. In the teaching task interactions, Korean American parents were more neutral overall in their affect compared to European American parents, and fathers in particular used more directives. European American parents showed more high level engagement with their children, and all three family members expressed more positive affect than in Korean American families. The children in these Korean American families expressed more tension, and also more often successfully completed the teaching task and completed it faster than European American children. Korean American children rated themselves as feeling less happy overall than European American children on the Reynolds Child Depression Scale. In conclusion, clear differences between European American and Korean American families were found. The curious combination of relatively low emotion coaching, child emotional distress and positive child performance in Korean American families and related implications are discussed.
This research examined children's interdependent self-construals as manifest in their seeing their relationships with their parents as self-defining. Four times over early adolescence, 825 children (mean age = 12.73 years) in the United States and China reported on their inclusion of their relationships with their parents in their self-construals as well as other dimensions of their psychological functioning. Although there was continuity in children's inclusion of their relationships with their parents in their self-construals, American, but not Chinese, children decreased their inclusion over time. In both the United States and China, the more children defined themselves in terms of their relationships with their parents, the more their perceptions of the quality of these relationships mattered for their subsequent emotional functioning.
Relations between self-reported parental reactions to children's negative emotions (PNRs) and children's socially appropriate/problem behavior and negative emotionality were examined longitudinally. Evidence was consistent with the conclusion that relations between children's externalizing (but not internalizing) emotion and parental punitive reactions to children's negative emotions are bidirectional. Reports of PNRs generally were correlated with low quality of social functioning. In structural models, mother-reported problem behavior at ages 10-12 was at least marginally predicted from mother-reported problem behavior, children's regulation, and parental punitive or distress reactions. Moreover, parental distress and punitive reactions at ages 6-8 predicted reports of children's regulation at ages 8-10, and regulation predicted parental punitive reactions at ages 10-12. Father reports of problem behavior at ages 10-12 were predicted by earlier problem behavior and parental distress or punitive reactions; some of the relations between regulation and parental reactions were similar to those in the models for mother-reported problem behavior. Parental perceptions of their reactions were substantially correlated over 6 years. Some nonsupportive reactions declined in the early to mid-school years, but all increased into late childhood/early adolescence.
A sample of 157 Korean immigrants responded to measures of acculturation level, stress from acculturation, and depressive symptoms. The authors hypothesized that adaptive acculturation would depend on assimilation regarding social interactions and the host culture's language as well as on retention of a core identity, including values and traditions of the culture of origin. Consistent with the mediation hypothesis, acculturation, based on a factor representing language use and social relationships, was related to lower acculturative stress and, in turn, lower depression. However, there was no direct support for the integrative, or bicultural, strategy of acculturation. Stress did not mediate the effect of a 2nd acculturation factor, identity and tradition-based acculturation. Rather, this measure of acculturation was directly related to higher depression (i.e., immigrants reporting abandonment of Korean identity, traditions, and values scored higher for depression).