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Cited by 170Racial and Ethnic Identity ResearchMigration, Health and TraumaPsychosocial Factors Impacting Youth

Acculturative family distancing (AFD) and depression in Chinese American families

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Hwang, Wei-Chin, Wood, Jeffrey J., Fujimoto, Ken·2010·Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
DOI 10.1037/a0020542PMC PMC2948416
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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Knowledge of acculturative processes and their impact on immigrant families remains quite limited. Acculturative family distancing (AFD) is the distancing that occurs between immigrant parents and their children and is caused by breakdowns in communication and cultural value differences. It is a more proximal and problem-focused formulation of the acculturation gap and is hypothesized to increase depression via family conflict. METHOD: Data were collected from 105 Chinese American high school students and their mothers. Rasch modeling was used to refine the AFD measure, and structural equation modeling was used to determine the effects of AFD on youth and maternal depression. RESULTS: Findings indicate that greater AFD was associated with higher depressive symptoms and risk for clinical depression. Family conflict partially mediated this relation for youths, whereas for mothers, AFD directly increased risk for depression. Greater mother-child heritage enculturation discrepancies were associated with greater mother and child AFD. Mainstream acculturation discrepancies and language gaps between mothers and youths were not significantly associated with any of the primary outcome variables. CONCLUSIONS: Results highlight the need for better understanding of how AFD and other acculturation-gap phenomena affect immigrant mental health. They also underscore the need for prevention and intervention programs that target communication difficulties and intergenerational cultural value differences.

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  • When immigrating to the US, Latino youth tend to acculturate faster than their parents, which results in acculturation discrepancies that can lead to conflictual parent-child relationships.

    “When immigrating to the US, Latino youth tend to acculturate faster than their parents, which results in acculturation discrepancies that can lead to conflictual parent-child relationships (Fuligni, 2012; Hwang et al., 2010; Unger et al., 2009).”

    From Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data (2018) · cites this paper as Hwang et al., 2010

    The introductory section says parent–child acculturation gaps are likely in immigrant families and associates larger gaps with intergenerational conflict in Asian Americans. The Discussion reports a link between heritage-enculturation gaps and family conflict in the study’s Chinese American families. Neither passage establishes that Latino youth generally acculturate faster than their parents or that this pattern causes conflict in Latino families; page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Wright BD Linacre JM Combining and splitting categories Rasch Measurement Transactions 1992 6 3 233 235
  2. Ying Y Strengthening intergenerational/intercultural ties in migrant families: A new intervention for parents Journal of Community Psychology 1999 27 89 96

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Authors
Hwang, W.-C., Wood, J. J., & Fujimoto, K.
Affiliations
  • Claremont McKenna College (US)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
  • University of Illinois Chicago (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2010-10
Volume
78
Issue
5
Pages
655-667
ISSN
  • 0022-006X (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-2117
DOI
10.1037/a0020542
PMC
PMC2948416
OpenAlex
W1996809810
Cited by
170
References
62
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 5
FWCI
19.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (1R34MH73545-01A2, 1P50MH073511-01A2)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychosocial Factors Impacting Youth
Keywords
Chinese American families, immigrant families, depression, family conflict, mother-child communication, acculturation gap, language barriers, adolescent depression, maternal depression, immigrant mental health
MeSH terms
Acculturation, Adolescent, Adult, Asian, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Mother-Child Relations, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk Factors, Psychological Distance, Social Values, Parenting, Multilingualism, Emigrants and Immigrants, Family Conflict

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