Acculturation, Filial Piety, and Family Conflicts in Chinese Americans

This book describes a study which examines the relationship between intergenerational conflict and generation level, acculturation, and filial piety among Chinese Americans. A sample of 213 Chinese Americans adults was recruited from the local Chinese community at Los Angeles County and online survey from universities at California. The study investigated conflicts between three parent-child dyads: (a) parents who never immigrated (nonimmigrant parents) with their first-generation immigrant children, (b) first-generation parents with second-generation children, and (c) second-generation parents with third-generation children. Contrary to our prediction, the results indicated that first-generation immigrants reported the highest level of intergenerational conflicts with their nonimmigrant parents compared to their counterparts. This finding calls the attention from scholars to examine the relationships between immigrants and their parents who reside in their country of origin. Moreover, this is the first study in the field to examine intergenerational conflict between Chinese parents who never immigrated to the United States and their children who are first-generation immigrants.