Exploring the Relationship Among Familism Endorsement, Intergenerational Conflict, Mental Health and College Adjustment Among Asian American College Students

Asian Americans in the United States are the fastest growing ethnic group which has increased from 11.9 million in 2000 to 17.3 million in 2010, totaling a 43% increase in just 10 years.  The importance of the family to Asians is difficult to overstate. Asian societies are based on families and the Asian identity is quintessentially familistic, as family relationship significantly informs self-construal. However, a familistic attitude does not necessarily implicate family harmony, as intergenerational conflict secondary to differential acculturation between the migrant parents and their children has also been well documented in the empirical literature. Having been socialized in their culture of origin, adult migrants tend to retain those values and acculturate slowly to majority American culture, while their children are developmentally more susceptible to environmental influences and engage with the majority culture through schooling and peers. This discrepancy is particularly pronounced during young adulthood when separation-individuation is normative in American culture, while increasing family responsibility is expected in Asian cultures. Thus, Asian American college students must negotiate their parents’ emphasis on familism with the larger society’s ideal of individualism, which in turn would affect their mental health. However, very little is known about the roles and impact of familism and family conflict on Asian American college students’ well-being (e.g., mental health and college adjustment). The current study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the relationship between familism and family conflict, the roles of familism in relation to well-being of Asian American college students.   

By using a convenience sample, 110 Asian American college students who were either American-born or immigrated to the U.S. participated in this study. The majority of the participants were Vietnamese (36.4%), followed by Chinese (32.7%) and Filipino (30.9%). Student’s average age was 21.49 (SD=1.88) who were either American-born or immigrated to the U.S.  Females accounted for 47.3% and males accounted for 52.7%. 42.2% reported an annual family income below $50,000. Participants completed the standardized instruments which measured depressive symptomology measured by Center for Epidemiological Studies- Depression Scale, college adjustment measured by Inventory of College Challenge for Ethnic Minority Students, familism measured by the Familism Endorsement Scale (one for themselves and one for parents based on their perception), intergenerational conflict measured by Asian American Family Conflicts Scale, and sense of coherence/resiliency.

Preliminary findings show that discrepancy in familism endorsement between participants and parents is associated with intergenerational conflict (r= .47, p<.001). By using multiple regression, after controlling for gender, family income, age, and sense of coherence, discrepancy in familism endorsement predicts intergenerational/intercultural conflict (β= .27, p<.001), and intergenerational conflict predicts depressive symptom (β= .21, p<.001) and college adjustment (β= .51, p<.001).

The present study supports a growing body of evidence suggesting that the differences in endorsing familism between parents and children can negatively impact the family dynamics creating interngenerational/intercultural conflict which, in turn, adversely influences on college students’ mental health and their college adjustment.  Findings suggest the importance of mental health interventions for Asian American college students and strengthening the intergenerational relationship in Asian families.