Adolescents have high rates of mental health problems. One dramatic consequence of these problems is suicide. A prominent source of adolescent problems is conflict with parents. These conflicts are exacerbated in immigrant children if their acculturation rates differ significantly from those of their parents. The main purpose of the proposed study is to examine how acculturation and parenting affect adolescent mental health within a Chinese-American cultural context. The sample will include Chinese immigrant adolescents and their parents.
One specific aim i s to investigate the stability and change of acculturation, parenting, and adolescent mental health from a developmental contextual perspective, and to determine the degree to which the processes linking acculturation, parenting, and adolescent mental health are similar or different across Chinese immigrant families in primarily American versus primarily Chinese-American settings. Structural equation model will be used to examine the relationships between variables within each of the two settings. The hypotheses regarding the above specific aim are: (1) because adolescents adopt US values and behaviors faster than their parents, they will show increasingly discrepant expectations concerning appropriate timetimes of autonomy and family obligations over time; and (2) some aspects of parenting will be affected by acculturation and will show change over time, but not others. For example, parental control, but not warmth, will change as a result of acculturation. A second specific aim is to determine the mechanisms through which acculturation affects adolescent's mental health. It is hypothesized that one of the mechanisms through which parenting influences adolescent mental health is through a family climate that has detrimental effects. Although mechanism is through adolescent belief about self and relationships. A third mechanism involves the degree to which the expectations of adolescents fit with those of their parents. Adolescents who have a larger mismatch with their parents concerning autonomy and family obligations will have poorer mental health than those who more closely match their parents' expectations.
