Working with and for communities: A collaborative study of harmony and conflict in well-functioning, acculturating families

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Abstract

The present research was conducted by the Centre for Applied Cross-cultural Research (CACR) in collaboration with the New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils (NZFEC) following a needs assessment of research priorities in the ethnic communities. Thirty-nine parents and adolescents from Asian, Middle Eastern and African backgrounds were interviewed about their experiences in New Zealand. The interviews were then analysed and organised into themes in line with a grounded theory approach. Two major themes emerged: (1) Normative Issues for Parents and Children and (2) Migration and Acculturation Issues, each of these with several sub-themes. Findings revealed that parents and adolescents differed in their expectations across a number of important domains (e.g., privacy, trust, and relationships) and that intergenerational conflict, which arises from normal developmental processes, may be exacerbated by the acculturation process. The research offers important insights about families in cultural transition to immigrant communities and policy makers; it also advances acculturation theory through its focus on the family as a unit and its examination of both harmony and conflict in acculturating families.

Introduction

“Our population is becoming more ethnically diverse; however, we have yet to gain a strong appreciation of the changes these families are experiencing. Until we have good research and wider understanding, it is difficult to develop policies that would assist their adjustment and settlement in New Zealand.” Rajan Prasad, New Zealand's Chief Families Commissioner (Prasad, 2005, p. 4)

Although New Zealand has evolved historically as a bi-cultural nation, built on the relationship between the indigenous Maori and their British colonizers, the revision of immigration legislation in 1986 and 1991 has recently led to dramatic changes in the country's ethnic composition. At present almost one in four persons in the 4.3 million population is overseas-born (Statistics New Zealand, 2007), and ethnic, cultural, and religious heterogeneity in New Zealand has been growing exponentially, with around 40,000–50,000 new immigrants from approximately 150 countries entering the country each year (Ministry of Social Development, 2008, Statistics New Zealand, 2007). As a settler society, the level of diversity within the New Zealand population now exceeds that found in Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia (Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder, 2006). Immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland (29%) represent a significant proportion of this group; however, Asia (29%) and the Pacific (15%) are now prominent source regions for new immigrants. Settlers from sub-Saharan Africa (7%) and North Africa and the Middle East (2%) make smaller contributions to New Zealand's growing diversity, but their numbers are rapidly rising (Ministry of Social Development, 2008). The 2006 Census revealed that Africans, Asians and Middle Easterners were the fastest growing ethnic groups, and these three groups are the focus of the current research (Statistics NZ, 2007).

With this as a background, the Centre for Applied Cross-cultural Research (CACR) at Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils (NZFEC), which acts as the primary non-governmental organization for the country's ethnic communities, formed a strategic partnership to achieve common goals.1 These goals include the production of evidence-based research that can be used by ethnic groups, government policy-makers, and non-governmental organizations to address the challenges of integration, participation, and social cohesion in a culturally diverse society. As part of this partnership, CACR conducted a needs analysis for NZFEC in 2006 to identity the most important areas of concern in the ethnic communities. Three priority issues emerged: immigrant employment; information needs during settlement; and immigrant parents’ apprehensions about their children's well-being and development, particularly relating to issues of identity and cultural maintenance (see http://www.nzfec.org.nz/page/home.aspx for reports on the first two projects). Following this needs assessment, CACR and NZFEC secured funding from the New Zealand Families Commission for a collaborative study on family dynamics in the acculturation process, a topic also of concern to New Zealand's Chief Families Commissioner as expressed in the above quotation (Prasad, 2005).

This paper describes the project's process, outcomes, and applications. The research draws largely on acculturation theory, and the paper describes and discusses the key findings in relation to this literature; however, the research goes beyond mainstream studies of acculturation in that it involves a significant community dimension, in terms of its initiation, implementation, and application. Consequently, the paper weaves together community-based social action themes with advances in acculturation theory and research.

Acculturation theory and research can provide an avenue to address issues arising in multicultual societies, including the psychological and social adaptation of individuals, groups, and communities who experience prolonged intercultural contact (Berry, 1997). However, in psychology, this research typically focuses on individuals and occasionally takes into account the complex mutual and reciprocal relationships that individuals have with intimate others during the acculturation process (Georgas et al., 2006, Kagitcibasi, 2007). Immigrants most often relocate as family units. It is highly probable, then, that an individual's experience of cross-cultural transition is significantly affected by the experiences of his or her family members.

The family can play an important role in fostering the psychological well-being of its members by providing a system of social support, transmitting cultural values, and nurturing a sense of belonging (Oppedal, 2006, Phinney et al., 2001, Phinney and Ong, 2002). While disciplines such as sociology and anthropology have indeed stressed the importance of the family in the acculturation process, until recently the psychological literature was lacking in this area. Kagitcibasi (2007) suggests that this lack of attention is due to the focus on the individual and the use of experimental methodologies that have created a difficulty in allowing the family to be treated as a unit of analysis.

Recently there has been a move towards research that considers the acculturation process as embedded within a familial context. However, of the few psychological studies that have focused on acculturating families, research rarely solicits the voices of more than one family member at the same time (e.g., Costigan and Dokis, 2006, Falicov, 2005, Kwak, 2003, Steinberg, 1990). Such an approach tends to conceal some of the more dynamic, relational aspects of family acculturation. Indeed, it has been suggested that research should focus on the acculturation experience of the family as a discrete unit, meaning that the experience of the family is distinct from the combined experiences of individual family members (Dinh & Nguyen, 2006).

The acculturating family is confronted with an array of issues that challenge its functioning and the patterns of interaction among its individual members. These challenges include pressure on traditional roles (both gender roles and familial parent–child roles) and status changes associated with adapting to the new culture (Chung, 2001). Roles may be put under strain due to practical reasons; for example, both parents may need to work to meet economic demands (as opposed to the wife playing the sole role of homemaker) or the child may become the principal communicator for the family due to parents’ difficulties with language (Dinh & Nguyen, 2006). Family status and structural changes can also come about for more ideological reasons, such as there being more work and socialising opportunities for women in egalitarian societies and less emphasis on hierarchy between parents and children. These examples illustrate that migration, particularly to a country characterized by large differences in language, values, beliefs, and traditions, often requires fundamental changes in the functioning of the family unit.

Dinh and Nguyen (2006) suggest that with regards to the immigrant family, the parent–child relationship is most affected by the stress associated with the acculturation experience. However, there is no consensus in the literature as to how parent–child relationships affect broader adaptive outcomes. Although some studies point to the ability of the family to act as a coping resource for acculturating individuals, research generally focuses on the risk of intergenerational differences that lead to elevated levels of conflict and threaten the coping capacities and well-being of all family members (Phinney et al., 2005b, Phinney et al., 2005a). Drawing on both acculturation theory and the developmental literature, the following sections present an overview of familial conflict and harmony and their impact on post-migration adaptation.

Adolescence is largely a period of exploration and identity formation (Erikson, 1963). As part of the process of self-development, greater autonomy-seeking and increasing peer influence, immigrant adolescents often accept new cultural values and practices more readily than their parents (Kwak, 2003, Rothbaum et al., 2000). When children change faster than their parents, for example, acquiring better language-proficiency and adopting mainstream values and lifestyles, “dissonant acculturation” results (Phinney, Romero, Nava, & Huang, 2000). Consequently, the intergenerational discrepancies in orientations toward ethnic and heritage cultures may lead to conflict in the family (Jose et al., 2000, Kwak, 2003, Phinney et al., 2005b, Phinney et al., 2000).

Intergenerational conflict, however, is not always viewed as a negative component of parent–adolescent relationships. On the contrary, within Western cultures, conflict in the family is generally seen as a normal manifestation of the process of individual identity development (Kapadia & Miller, 2005). Disagreement between parents and adolescents are thought to be a common part of the process of adolescents asserting autonomy and developing independence, and a normal result of children establishing their own values and systems of belief. Developmental conflict does not cause any long term negative effects on the well-being of the family and tends to diminish throughout the adolescent years and to vanish in most families by the time youth reach adulthood (Adams et al., 1992, Marcia et al., 1993).

The normative function of intergenerational conflict may change, however, when a family migrates and parents cannot rely on the new society to assist in the transmission of heritage cultural values to their children (Kwak, 2003). This dislocation can lead parents to adhere even more strongly to traditional values and to reject the influence of the receiving society, often creating a more harmful and longer-lasting type of family conflict (Chung, 2001). Intergenerational conflict that is the result of the process of cultural change often comes about through inconsistencies between the values espoused in the family and those taken on by the adolescent from the wider society, a process that can cause increased feelings of distress and lead to maladjustment for all family members (Lee, 2004, Stuart, 2008)

While research on family dynamics in the acculturation process has tended to focus on the negative impact of intergenerational conflict, it has also been suggested that the ways in which individuals relate to their families can function to alleviate the stressful aspects of cultural contact and change. For example, it has been found that good family relationships, especially high levels of perceived support, have positive consequences for young people. Family relationships can be strengthened as a result of acculturation, and they may provide a buffer to the negative impacts of acculturative stress by social sharing and the collective development of solutions to problems arising from cultural change (Arends-Toth and van de Vijver, 2006, Kagitcibasi, 2006, Lin, 2008).

Recent research has shown that in order to experience the benefits of family relationships, family members must perceive their values to be congruent. Higher levels of perceived similarity between members of the family lead to lower levels of conflict and confusion for young people undergoing acculturation (Lin, 2008, Stuart, 2008). Conversely, lack of family cohesion has been linked to depression, anxiety, and gang involvement in adolescents and to depression and anger in parents (Hernandez-Guzman & Sanchez-Sosa, 1996 cited in Ying, Lee, & Tsai, 2004).

Despite the link between family cohesion and positive outcomes for parents and children, there has been very little research that focuses on the underlying dynamic processes, i.e., how the feelings of connection within the family lead to psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. Sam and Virta (2003) suggested that one of the major predictors of positive outcomes in the acculturation process is social support. The influence of familial social support may exert particularly powerful influences on adolescent acculturation and adaptation as the family provides an important context for the development of identity and for the expression of shared values and beliefs (Adams et al., 1992, Smetana et al., 2006).

The majority of studies on families undergoing the process of acculturation have focused on the intergenerational conflict created by tensions between heritage and cultural values of the receiving society. Although it has been established that parent–adolescent conflict is a common occurrence during the acculturation process (Kwak, 2003), there are still important gaps in our knowledge about conflict. First, little is known about how parents and adolescents view this conflict: specifically, do parents and adolescents generally agree that conflict exists in particular domains, and do they agree about the intensity and consequences of this conflict? Secondly, do differences exist between normative intergenerational conflict (which is a consequence of normal adolescent development and a degree of autonomy-seeking) and conflict that is specifically tied to the acculturation process?

There are also gaps in our knowledge about harmony, cohesion, and social support within the family and how these impact on acculturation and adaptation. First, what issues are points of agreement in acculturating families? Secondly, what is the nature of family cohesiveness, and how does it affect psychological and socio-cultural adaptation? Thirdly, how does the family function as a source of social support?

The current study seeks to examine these questions in families who are actively involved in negotiating the acculturation process. As such, the project differs from most studies of the acculturation process in that: (1) it is set predominantly in a family context with both parents and children included in the study; and (2) it examines both familial harmony and conflict during acculturation. Furthermore, the project is distinctive in that it arises from community needs and is conducted with community collaboration and support. Accordingly, the research is designed for the return of the findings to immigrant communities with the goals of increasing understanding between parents and children and minimizing the risks and maximizing the benefits of culture contact and change. The findings can also be applied to the development of policy designed to assist the settlement of immigrant families in New Zealand.

Section snippets

Procedure

The CACR conducted a needs analysis with the ethnic communities facilitated by the networks of the NZFEC in 2006 to identity the most important areas of concern for migrants in the New Zealand environment. One of the priority issues to emerge concerned the apprehensions of migrant parents around their children's development of identity and the transmission of cultural values. Following the emergence of this issue, the CACR and NZFEC developed a research strategy around the topic of migrant

Results and discussion

Two higher order, over-arching themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Normative Issues for Parents and Children, and (2) Migration and Acculturation Issues. The first refers to the common issues that arise between parents and adolescents in the course of children growing older and expressing more autonomous behavior, specifically media, manners, money, clothing, housework, and antisocial behaviours. The second relates to the issues for minority families that are embedded in the experience of

Acculturation and the family

The majority of acculturation research focuses on intergenerational conflict and usually prioritises the experiences of individuals rather than family units. The focus on the negative impact of acculturation on individual family members can act to conceal some of the more dynamic and positive components of family acculturation. The present research investigated both areas of conflict as well as harmony. It was found that while there were tensions in the family, for the most part, relationships

Conclusions

The current study revealed that migrating families bring a range of strengths to the acculturation process, specifically in regard to the supportive function of the family unit. We emphasise these resources in contrast to most studies that assume a deficit perspective and highlight the conflicts experienced by immigrant families. Nevertheless, it is clear that acculturation creates a variety of novel, and sometimes problematic, situations for the family unit. Therefore, a broader and more

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the New Zealand Families Commission for funding this research. They would also like to thank Sue Hanrahan for key operational work on this project; Fungisai Foto, Makoni Tressi, Yousr Ali, Amaal Rasheed, Pohswan Narayanan, Yasodha Narayanan, and Mahany Sos who acted as field assistants and members of the reference group; Sammyh Khan and Jessie Wilson who assisted with data coding; and all of the parents and children who participated in this research.

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