Family, School, and Youth Outcomes: How Does Bonding to School Moderate the Impact of Family Process Among Asian Americans?

Background: Asian American youths, largely immigrants and ethnic minority, often face multigenerational and cultural conflicts in the family. However, they may find support and comfort from school and friends. Youths spend a majority of their time in school and it is feasible that the quality of their school experience may mitigate the challenges originated from family. Especially, in the absence of positive family encounters, school bonding may be even more important. However, we know little about how school bonding may moderate the influence of family process among Asian American youths. 

Purpose: Using data from the Korean American Families Project (220 youths, 272 mothers, and 164 fathers), this study examined the relationships between parenting style, parental affectivity, family obligation, and youth mental health and academic outcomes over two points in time (wave 1 = 2007, wave 2 = 2008). Further, this study evaluated if, and how school bonding moderates these relationships. This study examined gender differences in these relations.  

Methods: The study utilized parent reports of parenting warmth, acceptance, affectivity, and youth reports of family obligation (wave 1). Outcomes were youth reports of depressive symptoms and GPA (wave 2). The main effects of parenting and family variables on outcomes were first examined. In the next step, two-way interactions with school bonding as a moderator (wave 1) were conducted. Lastly, three-way interactions together with gender added were evaluated. In all analyses, gender of youth, parental socio-economic status, years of living in US, and nativity were included as controls.

Results: Findings indicated that parental warmth (β= −0.360), acceptance (β= −0.674), affectivity (β= −0.374), and family obligation (β= −0.276) inversely predicted youth depressive symptoms (p ≤ 0.05). These variables, however, had no significant relationship with GPA. Results revealed that school bonding moderated the relations between these variables and depressive symptoms. Specifically, among those with lower parental and family measures, youths with poorer school bonding reported higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to those with higher school bonding. This was not the case among youths with higher parental and family measures. Further, no interaction effects were found with GPA, and there were no significant gender differences in these relations.

Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of school bonding to buffer the adverse impact among youth who struggle with lower parental warmth, acceptance, affectivity, and family obligation, especially in regard to mental health. Accordingly, strengthening bonding to school should be a target of intervention among mental health providers and school professionals, particularly for those Asian American youths who experience a lack of positive family encounters. These factors are important family processes that youth acculturation and enculturation (i.e., the level of understanding of their parental culture) may have significant influences. Specifically, when youth view their parental behaviors from the Western cultural perspective, they may not appreciate the underlying meanings of parental behaviors, e.g., indirect and subtle way of expressing warmth and acceptance. Thus, it is imperative to assist youth to understand the cultural nuances of parental behaviors and parent-child relations to promote better youth outcomes.