Session: Acculturation, Parenting and Child Well-Being Among Asian American Families (Society for Social Work and Research 22nd Annual Conference - Achieving Equal Opportunity, Equity, and Justice)

The theme of this symposium is to examine the associations of acculturation, parenting, and child well-being among Asian American families. Asian Americans have become the fastest growing immigrant population in the US. They also account for the largest share of foreign-born children in the US. Acculturation among Asian Americans, particularly Asian immigrant families, involves a variety of behavioral adaptions and changes. For Asian American parents, acculturation puts additional challenges into parenting and family dynamics, and as a result, affects intergenerational relations and child well-being. In severe cases, acculturation challenges may put Asian American parents and their children at high risk for involvement in the child welfare system. Therefore, it is important to examine the relationship between acculturation, parenting, and child well-being among Asian American families. This symposium consists of three papers. The first paper was an exploratory case study of Vietnamese families involved in the child welfare system in California. This paper examined how the unique contextual stressors experienced by Vietnamese immigrant families influenced the connections between acculturation, parenting, and family dynamics. Findings of the paper showed that low education attainment and poor English-language skills contributed to parental stress and prohibited Vietnamese immigrant parents from involving with their children's schooling, which in turn reduced the quality of family relationships. The second paper used data from the Survey of Asian American Families (SAAF) conducted between 2011 and 2014 in New York and New Jersey, and examined the relationship between social support, parenting self-efficacy, and parental nurturance. This paper revealed the importance of family support in promoting parental nurturance among Asian Americans and the mediating role of parenting self-efficacy, controlling for ethnicity and acculturation. The paper discussed the importance of different types of social support to Asian American families, and highlighted the significance of family support and parenting self-efficacy to child well-being. The final paper used data from the Hawaii subsample of SAAF conducted between 2015 and 2017, and examined whether parents' acculturation experiences were associated with parent-child conflict and parental stress. Results of path analysis revealed that cultural values on familism were indirectly related to parental stress through parent-child conflict, while cultural practices were directly associated with parental stress. This paper discussed different aspects of acculturation and suggested the development of culturally competent social services and interventions targeting parent-child relationships and parents' psychological well-being. In summary, the three papers of the symposium used newly collected data from California, New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii, and utilized both exploratory qualitative and advanced quantitative methods to analyze the associations of acculturation, parenting, intergenerational relations, and child well-being in Asian American families. These papers provided new information on Asian American families across different locations and various Asian ethnicities. Findings of these papers suggested specific areas of needs among Asian American families regarding acculturation, parenting, and social support. Such information is important because it can help inform the development of culturally appropriate parent training and social support programs. It has significant implications for social work practices and services to Asian American families.