Refugees who flee their native countries for social or political reasons usually encounter stressful experiences in engaging with different cultures and in facing psychological and family changes that challenge their beliefs, values, family relations and practices (Kuczynski et al.,
2013). Of course, challenges to and changes in people’s values and beliefs might occur in other situations, but for immigrant families transitioning from collective to individualistic society, acculturation dissonance has a much stronger presence. Immigrant families may have experienced social disorder, war and violence in their homelands, which can have an impact on family relationships (Hart et al.,
2006). As a result of immigration to a new country, parents may encounter difficulties in adopting a new culture and may feel that their relationship with their children has changed and that their parenting ability is under stress in a number of ways (Fleck & Fleck,
2013). For instance, children learn the host country language from school and peer interactions (Tyyskä,
2007), which in turn causes an intergenerational gap in communication, adoption of the host culture and transmission of identity (Anisef & Kilbride,
2000). Furthermore, studies show that youths’ rapid language learning contributes to role reversal as parents become dependent on their children for communicating with service agencies, interpreting (e.g. serving as interpreters for school), paying bills and even making financial decisions on behalf of their families (Putman,
1993; Tyyskä et al.,
2007). In this way, immigrant children are acculturated and navigate the system faster than their parents (Lau et al.,
2005). This is also true for Somali children, and Somali parents have reported an acculturation gap between themselves and their children due to (among other reasons) the latter’s more efficient language learning and understanding of the host country’s values, norms and systems (Mohamed & Yusuf,
2012), factors that have contributed to the conflicts between parents and children (Degni et al.,
2006; Heger Boyle & Ali,
2010; Nilsson et al.,
2012; Osman et al.,
2016).
Acculturation gaps may give rise to role reversal (Trickett & Jones,
2007) and conflict between parents and children as a result of the children’s rejection of their parents’ authority (Bowie et al.,
2017; Osman et al.,
2016; Roche et al.,
2015). As children take on new roles and responsibilities, some parents may feel the loss in their leadership role and struggle to restore their authority over their children, which may result in family conflict (Creese et al.,
1999) and higher levels of psychological distress (Trickett & Jones,
2007). Furthermore, role reversal may escalate, as children learn that certain disciplines from their parents’ culture are considered abusive in the host culture and consequently resist their parents’ cultural disciplinary practices (Mohamed & Yusuf,
2012), whereas parents consider adolescents’ resistance to be a loss of respect and challenge to parents’ authority (Heger Boyle & Ali,
2010; Nilsson et al.,
2012). The disagreement persists as a result of the conflicting desires of adolescents seeking autonomy and parents struggling to maintain family harmony by upholding obedience, hierarchy, loyalty and attachment (Kwak,
2003).