Psychological adaptation and autonomy among adolescents in Australia: A comparison of Anglo-Celtic and three Asian groups

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.09.002Get rights and content

Abstract

A questionnaire was administered to 426 adolescents to investigate ethnic group differences on eight variables. It was hypothesized that Asian (Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese) adolescents would score higher on parental authority values, school adjustment and psychological symptoms; and lower on gender relationship/children's rights values, sense of mastery, self-esteem, life satisfaction and behavior problems than Anglo-Australians. Females were hypothesized to report higher scores on psychological symptoms but lower scores on behavior problems and sense of mastery. The results showed all three Asian groups scoring higher on parental authority values. Chinese-Australians reported higher school adjustment scores than Anglo-Australians. The three Asian groups scored significantly lower on gender relationship/children's rights values and behavior problems. But only the Vietnamese-Australians scored lower on life satisfaction; and only the Chinese-Australians reported a lower sense of mastery than Anglo-Australians. There was no group difference on self-esteem. Generation status did not exert an influence on values; but there was an interaction effect (with ethnicity) with regards to self-esteem, life satisfaction and school adjustment. The implications in relation to cultural and migration-related factors and cultural values were discussed.

Introduction

Australia has always been identified as a “country of immigrants”; “modern Australia” described as “the product of immigration” (Castles, Foster, Iredale, & Withers, 1998, p. 1). Free settlers started arriving on Australian shores since 1788. The country's history is dominated by themes of British settlement and conquest and minor attention to non-British pioneers. The Government started restricting immigration during the 1850s culminating in the White Australia Policy in 1901, which led to a slowing down of immigration for the next 45 years. It was since the abolition of the White Australia Policy in 1973 that a rapid increase in Asian migration to Australia began to occur. Asian immigration also increased with the arrival of Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon (Vietnam War), and the influx of immigrants from other Asian countries (Bulbeck, 1998; Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, 2000a).

Of interest to this study are three immigrant groups of adolescents, namely, Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese. These three groups are chosen because they are among the largest groups of immigrants migrating to Australia in recent years. In 1994–1995, Asian countries such as Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India and China accounted for 23.9% of Australia's immigrant intake (Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research, 1995a). According to the 1996 census (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1997), Chinese-speaking people are Australia's second largest non-English speaking group while Vietnamese-speaking people are the fourth largest. The Philippines is the eighth top source country of migration overall and the third top Asian country, next to Vietnam and China (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1997; Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) (2000b), Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) (2000c), Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) (2000d), Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) (2000e)).

This study attempts to address three research questions: (1) Do immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents differ in their values and psychological adaptation? (2) Does generational status (first- or second-generation) have an influence on their values and adaptation outcomes? and (3) Does gender play a role in adaptation outcomes of adolescents?

The term “Asian”, as used in this paper, is based on its geographical reference to the continent of Asia. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) definition of “Asian” for migration purposes followed this geographical definition provided by the United Nations (Millbank, 1996). The ABS further divides Asia into Northeast Asia (including China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan among others), Southeast Asia (including Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines among others), and Southern Asia.

It is recognized that the term “Asian” is inadequate to capture the differences in culture, history and contemporary realities of the countries in the continent:

‘Asian’ is a catch-all term that not only subsumes cultural, historical, linguistic and national differences but also disregards the complex heterogeneity of contemporary circumstances of being or becoming ‘Asian’ in terms of local and global continuities and fractures. (Matthews, 2000, p. 29)

Thus the “lumping together of all of ‘Asia’ as if it were a monolithic entity” (Ang, Chalmers, Law, & Thomas, 2000, p. xviii), while predominant, is open to criticism, and which the authors of this paper wish to avoid. Therefore, the use of the term “Asian” in this study is limited to its usefulness in identifying the source country or cultural affinity of the groups of participants.

The term “Asian” nonetheless provides a useful referent when drawing differences in relation to mainstream non-Asian groups. In Australia, for example, the term provides a platform for discussing issues related to the “Othering” of groups from Asia. This is evidenced by publications such as Asians in Australia (Coughlan & McNamara, 1997), Alter/Asians (Ang et al., 2000) and even The Asianisation of Australia? (Jayasuriya & Kee, 1999), among others. The field of cross-cultural psychology has used the term albeit in a “lumping” way.

When citing existing literature in this paper, the use of the term “Asian” is based on how the original authors use it. Past studies are cited where they provide some background without necessarily drawing a direct comparison to the three Asian groups in this study.

How different are Asian immigrant adolescents to Anglo-Celtic adolescents in Australia? The eight variables of interest to the study are the following: school adjustment, life satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological symptoms, behavior problems, parental authority values, gender relationship/children's rights values, and sense of mastery.1 All these variables are among those investigated in the International Comparative Study of Ethnocultural Youth (ICSEY) involving 13 countries, including Australia. The first five variables are related to adaptation whereas the last three are related to differences in values.

Parental authority values, gender relationship/children's rights values, and sense of mastery are all related to Autonomy-Relatedness which are related to the concepts of Individualism and Collectivism (I/C). According to Triandis (1990), “people in every culture have both collectivist and individualist tendencies, but the relative emphasis is toward individualism in the West and toward collectivism in the East and South” (p. 39). Kagitcibasi (1994) defines collectivism as the expression of the need for relatedness and individualism as the need for autonomy. In cultures of relatedness, family culture and interpersonal relational patterns are characterized by “dependent-interdependent relations with overlapping personal boundaries” (p. 62) emphasizing hierarchy, control and obedience. The emphasis on relatedness and collectivism in many Asian cultures is captured by a concept in Filipino psychology called kapwa. Kapwa refers to a “shared identity”, a bond between the self and others. One's identity is not considered complete unless it is in relation to others. It encompasses both categories of the insider and the outsider, with the quality of interaction varying depending on which level one is categorized under (Enriquez, 1994). The culture of autonomy or separateness, in contrast to relatedness, is characterized by separated and well-defined personal boundaries, emphasizing autonomy and self-reliance (Kagitcibasi, 1994; Triandis, 1990).

In Hofstede's (1979) classic study on value systems, Australia was high on individualism and low on power distance (acceptance of unequal power distribution) whereas Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines were low on individualism and high on power distance. Power distance and individualism are negatively correlated.

The variables of parental authority values, and gender relationships/children's rights values are part of what is more commonly termed family values. Consistent with the findings of Hofstede, Blair and Qian (1998) also point out that Asians from different countries are similar in various aspects, especially in relation to the degree of parental control, parental authority, interdependence among family members and school success affecting family honor. In his summary of studies on Chinese values, Bond (1996) maintains that Chinese from societies such as China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore are similar in terms of their emphasis on hierarchy and identification with various in-groups.

With the trend toward hierarchy, control, obedience and identification with in-groups among Asians, there is an expected emphasis on family unity, respect for authority, and a sense of duty and honor to the family (Lee & Rong, 1988; Schneider, Hieshima, Lee, & Plank, 1994). This trend is not as apparent with Anglo-Australians. Rosenthal and Feldman (1991) found that Chinese-Australian adolescents reported a more demanding family environment than Anglo-Australian adolescents did. Chen and Lan (1998) found that Chinese students in the People's Republic of China were more willing to accept their parents’ advice and were more concerned about their parents’ expectation than their Anglo-American counterparts in the United States.

Family values can be linked to sense of mastery, a concept that is related to locus of control or attribution. Individualist cultures emphasize self-reliance and this is consistent with attributing success to personal factors such as ability and effort (Yan & Gaier, 1994). Tafarodi and Swann (1996) argue that in collectivist cultures, people are expected to defer to the wishes of others, thus limiting choice and self-perceived control, which are related to self-competence. They found that Chinese college students in China reported lower self-competence scores than their North American counterparts. Yan and Gaier (1994) found that Anglo-American students explained academic achievement more in terms of ability than Asian students, including Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese students, although all groups attributed academic achievement first to their own efforts. Crittenden (1996), in a review of Chinese attribution, claimed that Chinese students did not differ from other students in other countries in terms of their ratings of the relative importance of attributional factors, but Chinese students were less internal in locus of control when compared with Americans.

The second set of variables of interest to this study is related to psychological adaptation. Berry (1997, p. 13) defines adaptation as “changes that take place in individuals or groups in response to environmental demands.” Ward and colleagues (Searle & Ward, 1990; Ward, 1996; Ward & Kennedy, 1993) have distinguished between two types of adaptation: psychological adaptation which “is associated with psychological well-being or emotional satisfaction” and sociocultural adaptation which “is related to the ability to ‘fit in’ or negotiate interactive aspects of the host environment” (Ward, Okura, Kennedy, & Kojima, 1998, p. 279). Self-esteem, life satisfaction and psychological symptoms are thought to be related to psychological adaptation outcomes whereas school adjustment and behavior problems are considered social adaptation outcomes. Self-esteem, life satisfaction and school adjustment are regarded as positive indicators whereas psychological symptoms and behavior problems are regarded as negative indicators.

In relation to psychological adaptation, Searle and Ward (1990) point out that as life changes are associated with physical and psychological problems, the changes associated with migration could possibly lead to psychological problems among immigrants. Similarly, Schwarzer, Hahn, and Schroder (1994) suggest that migration can be considered a critical life event and is associated with psychological functioning. These ideas lead to the migration-morbidity hypothesis (Klimidis, Stuart, Minas, & Ata, 1994) where migrant status is hypothesized to be associated with greater psychological morbidity.

For instance, immigrant adolescents face two sets of challenges. First, like all adolescents, they face the challenges associated with adolescence such as independence from their parents, searching for their own identity, and dealing with the academic demands in schools (for those who are still attending school). Second, as immigrant adolescents, they have to face the additional challenges of adjusting to a fairly drastic change in the environment as they migrate to a new country and dealing with differences in values as the values and cultures of the countries of origin of the immigrant adolescents might differ from the non-immigrant adolescents. These challenges might also be different for first generation immigrants (born outside the host country) and second-generation immigrants (born in host country with immigrant parents).

The migration-morbidity hypothesis, however, has been challenged. For example, there are studies showing that immigrant adolescents are adapting satisfactorily in terms of both psychological and sociocultural adaptation (e.g. Fan & Karnilowicz, 2000; Fuligni, 1998). This phenomenon of better adaptation among immigrant adolescents than non-immigrant adolescents is termed the “immigrant paradox” (e.g., García Coll, 2005; Hayes-Bautista, 2004). In fact, it is also noted that the first generation of immigrants has better adaptation than the second generation of immigrants.

In terms of psychological problems, Chang (1996) found that Asian-Americans reported more psychological symptoms than Caucasian-Americans. Huang, Leong, and Wagner (1994) also reported that Asian-Americans exhibited more psychological distress than their Anglo-American counterparts.

Self-esteem is often thought to be related to social and emotional disorders (Sam & Berry, 1995). Scheier and Botvin (1997) found that affective distress was related to self-esteem. Klimidis et al. (1994) also regard negative self-concept as an index of psychological morbidity. Sam (2000) considers self-esteem as a measure of psychological well-being and mental health. Herz and Gullone (1999) found that Vietnamese-Australian adolescents reported lower self-esteem scores and higher parental overprotection scores than Anglo-Australian adolescents.

Life satisfaction is the global evaluation of a person's quality of life based on one's own chosen criteria (Shin & Johnson, 1978). Essentially, life satisfaction is a subjective evaluation. For immigrants, the changes brought about by immigration might potentially affect one's life satisfaction (Inglehart & Rabier, 1986). Ullman & Tatar (2001) found that young immigrants migrating from the former Soviet Union to Israel reported lower life satisfaction than their non-immigrant peers.

While the above studies suggest that immigrant adolescents might experience problems in relation to psychological adaptation, research on immigrant adolescents, especially Asian immigrant adolescents, suggest that the picture is more optimistic for sociocultural adaptation. For example, the classroom behavior of Asian immigrant students has been well documented. Bullivant (1986) reported that, in Australia, “the class behavior and attitudes of Asian students received almost universal praise” (p. 161). Asian students were regarded as ideal students and teachers liked having them as students in their classes. Blair and Qian (1998) also maintain that Asian children are well behaved outside the home (see Appendix A Result of statistical analysis on the factor psychological adaptation, Appendix B Result of statistical analysis on the factor autonomy).

In terms of educational outcomes, numerous studies have shown that Asian immigrants in North America outperformed their Anglo-American counterparts (e.g., Vernon, 1982; Schneider et al., 1994; Chao, 1996). Similarly, in Australia, Chinese students performed better academically than their Anglo-Australian counterparts (Chan, 1987; Fan & Karnilowicz, 2000). The educational outcomes of Asian students might also be related to the collectivist emphasis on family and authority. Schneider et al. (1994) argue that there is an emphasis on “the importance of education for self-improvement, a respect for authority, and a sense of duty and honor to the family” (p. 325) in Asian cultures, and Asian students who endorse these Asian values are more likely to succeed academically. However, Vietnamese-Chinese students have been found to perform more poorly in school than those Chinese students from Hong Kong, Taiwan or mainland China, in both Australia and Canada (Leung, 2001).

At this point, it is necessary to provide background information of the settlement characteristics of the three Asian groups. The majority of Chinese immigrants came to Australia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Chinese community was not a homogeneous group and they came from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, among others. The Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore were younger and were more likely to be professionals, living in middle class suburbs and were economic, skills or family union migrants compared to the Chinese from China (Bureau of Immigration and Population Research (BIPR) (1994a), Bureau of Immigration and Population Research (BIPR) (1994b), Bureau of Immigration and Population Research (BIPR) (1994c); BIMPR, 1995b).

The majority of the Vietnam-born came to Australia as refugees, after the political upheavals in the mid 1970s (Thomas, 1997). There was a fairly high unemployment rate among them. The majority of those in the labor force were either plant and machine operators or laborers, but they were under-represented in the professional group (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1997).

The Filipino group is considered one of the fastest growing non-English-speaking background groups in Australia over the last 20 years. The steady increase in immigration from the Philippines has been observed since 1976 when the country started joining the list of top ten source countries of settler arrivals. Most Philippines-born immigrants came under the family reunion scheme, with very few coming under the Skill Migration program (BIR, 1993; BIPR, 1994d; BIMPR, 1995c; Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) (1997), Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) (2000e)). A small proportion were employed in skilled occupations, while a large proportion were employed as laborers and related workers. A significant number worked in the manufacturing industry.

It could be seen from the above that the context of immigration for the three groups are somewhat different. The Vietnamese-Australians have a refugee background whereas the Filipino and Chinese-Australians came to Australia as voluntary immigrants. It is recognized that immigrants who are motivated by reactive reasons (refugees) normally experience more adaptation difficulties in the society of settlement, compared to those who are motivated by proactive reasons (voluntary immigrants).

With regard to first and second generation immigrants, it is thought that second generation immigrants (born in the society of settlement) are more likely to be similar to non-immigrant adolescents and their values, as they have spent their early years of socialization in the society of settlement. They might not experience the move from one country to another and the changes in life style, or separation from social ties experienced by the first generation immigrants (born outside the society of settlement).

While gender difference is not the major focus of this study, the literature does recognize its effect on some of the variables of the study. For example, gender is thought to be related to psychological distress. It was found that migrant girls in general reported more depressive tendencies than boys (Sam & Berry, 1995). Crystal et al. (1994) found that high school girls from the USA, Japan, and Taiwan reported more maladjustment, including stress and depression, than their male peers. However, Flouri, Buchanan, and Bream (2000) found that there was an excess of adolescent males over females with externalizing problems and an excess of adolescent females with internalizing problems. Internalizing disorders refers to conditions whose central feature is disordered emotion. The central characteristic of externalizing disorders is dysregulated behavior. Frieze, Parsons, Johnson, Ruble, and Zellman (1978) also observed a general pattern of external locus of control among females, or a lower personal sense of mastery, and this pattern was confirmed by Chandler, Shama, and Wolf (1983).

The aim of the present study was to investigate the needs of immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents. In addition, we also examined the effect of gender and country of birth (first and second generation immigrants) on the aforementioned variables. The hypotheses are stated below.

With regards to the dependent variables related to values:

  • (1)

    The three Asian groups will endorse parental authority values more than Anglo-Australians will, but they will report lower scores on gender relationship/children's rights and sense of mastery.

  • (2)

    The first generation immigrants will endorse parental authority values more than second-generation immigrants will, but they will report lower scores on gender relationship/children's rights and sense of mastery.

    With regards to the dependent variables related to adaptation:

  • (3)

    The three Asian groups will report lower scores on self-esteem, life satisfaction and behavior problems but higher scores on psychological symptoms and school adjustment than Anglo-Australians.

  • (4)

    Comparing the three Asian groups, the Vietnamese-Australians will report lower scores on self-esteem, life satisfaction, school adjustment and higher scores on behavior problems and psychological symptoms than the Chinese- and Filipino-Australians.

  • (5)

    The first generation immigrants will report lower scores on self-esteem, life satisfaction and behavior problems but higher scores on psychological symptoms and school adjustment than second-generation immigrants.

    On the effect of gender:

  • (6)

    Females will report higher scores on psychological symptoms but lower scores on behavior problems and sense of mastery.

Section snippets

Participants

There were 426 adolescent participants (see Table 1 for summary of selected characteristics): 157 Anglo-Australians, 89 Chinese-Australians, 106 Filipino-Australians and 74 Vietnamese-Australians. The classification was based on the participants’ self-reported ethnic background and that of their parents. The sample consisted of 173 males and 253 females.

A considerable proportion of the Vietnamese-Australian adolescents were born in Australia (65%), whereas the percentage was less for

Results

The mean and standard deviation scores of the four groups on all 8 variables/scales are shown in Table 3.

To examine group differences in values and adaptation outcomes, two two-way multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) were performed.3

Discussion

Hypothesis 1 was supported. The three Asian groups showed higher scores on parental authority values and lower scores on gender relationship/children's rights values than Anglo-Australians. Chinese-Australians also reported lower scores on sense of mastery than Anglo-Australians.

Hypothesis 2 was not supported. There was no generation or interaction effect for value related variables.

Hypothesis 3 was partially supported. The three Asian groups reported significantly lower scores on behavior

Acknowledgment

The study was made possible with funding assistance from the Australian Research Council, the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Psychology of Victoria University. The study was also part of the International Comparative Study of Ethnocultural Youth (details provided within the article). We also wish to thank the principals and students of Rooty Hill and Plumpton High Schools in Sydney for their participation, Helen Lardizabal and research methods students of the University of New South

Cynthia Leung received her Ph.D. from Monash University and is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology at Victoria University. Her research interests lie in the areas of cross-cultural psychology and migrant adjustment. She previously published under the surname “Fan”.

References (93)

  • M. Bendixen et al.

    Measurement of antisocial behavior in early adolescence: Psychometric properties and substantive findings

    Criminal Behavior and Mental Health

    (1999)
  • J.W. Berry

    Immigration, acculturation and adaptation

    Applied Psychology: An International Review

    (1997)
  • S.L. Blair et al.

    Family and Asian students’ educational performance: A consideration of diversity

    Journal of Family Issues

    (1998)
  • M. Bond

    Chinese values

  • C. Bulbeck

    Social sciences in Australia

    (1998)
  • B.M. Bullivant

    Getting a fair go: Studies of occupational socialization and perceptions of discrimination

    (1986)
  • Community Profiles 1991 Census: China Born

    (1994)
  • Community Profiles 1991 Census: Singapore Born

    (1994)
  • Community Profiles 1991 Census: Malaysia Born

    (1994)
  • Community Profiles 1991 Census: Philippines Born

    (1994)
  • Immigration update (June quarter)

    (1995)
  • Community Profiles 1991 Census: Hong Kong Born

    (1995)
  • Australian Immigration: Consolidated Statistics, Number 18, 1993–1994

    (1995)
  • Settler Arrivals 1991–1992. Statistical Report No. 8

    (1993)
  • S. Castles et al.

    Immigration and Australia: Myths and realities

    (1998)
  • Chan, H. (1987). The adaptation and achievement of Chinese students in Victoria. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,...
  • T.A. Chandler et al.

    Gender differences in achievement and affiliation attribution: A five-nation study

    Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology

    (1983)
  • E.C. Chang

    Cultural differences in optimism, pessimism, and coping: Predictors of subsequent adjustment in Asian American and Caucasian American college students

    Journal of Counselling Psychology

    (1996)
  • R. Chao

    Chinese and European American mothers’ beliefs about the role of parenting in children's school success

    Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology

    (1996)
  • H. Chen et al.

    Adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ academic expectations: Comparison of American, Chinese-American and Chinese high school students

    Adolescence

    (1998)
  • J. Connell

    A new multidimensional measure of children's perception of control

    Child Development

    (1985)
  • J.E. Coughlan

    The changing characteristics of Chinese migrants to Australia

  • J. Coughlan et al.

    Asians in Australia: Patterns of migration and settlement

    (1997)
  • K.S. Crittenden

    Causal attribution processes among the Chinese

  • D.S. Crystal et al.

    Psychological maladjustment and academic achievement: A cross-cultural study of Japanese, Chinese and American high school students

    Child Development

    (1994)
  • Australian Immigration, Consolidated Statistics, Number 19, 1993–1994

    (1997)
  • Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA). (2000a). Fact Sheet 5: Abolition of the ‘White Australia’...
  • China born community profile

    (2000)
  • Hong Kong born community profile

    (2000)
  • Philippines born community profile

    (2000)
  • Vietnam born community profile

    (2000)
  • E. Diener et al.

    The satisfaction with life scale

    Journal of Personality Assessment

    (1985)
  • V. Enriquez

    From colonial to liberation psychology

    (1994)
  • C. Fan et al.

    The mathematics achievement and aspirations of Chinese-Australian girls and Anglo-Australian girls in Australia

    Current Research in Social Psychology

    (2000)
  • E. Flouri et al.

    In and out of emotional and behavioural problems

  • A.J. Fuligni

    The adjustment of children from immigrant families

    Current Directions in Psychological Science

    (1998)
  • Cited by (13)

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Cynthia Leung received her Ph.D. from Monash University and is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology at Victoria University. Her research interests lie in the areas of cross-cultural psychology and migrant adjustment. She previously published under the surname “Fan”.

    Rogelia Pe-Pua, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Social Science and Policy at The University of New South Wales. She taught at the Department of Psychology at the University of the Philippines for 15 years before migrating to Australia in 1992. Her research has focused on indigenous psychology, and migration psychology. She has conducted several research on ethnic youth issues in Australia.

    Wally Karnilowicz received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology at Victoria University. His research interests lie in the areas of social psychology and research methodology.

    View full text