Exploring the Relationship Among Parental Bonding, Family Conflict, and Mental Health in Asian American Young Adults

Purpose: Asian immigrant parents in the United States face acculturation challenges due to the different languages and values in Asian and mainstream American culture (e.g., interdependence vs. independence, collectivism vs. individualism, respectively). Such challenges tend to degrade immigrant adults’ parenting functioning, which can reduce children’s wellbeing. Due to environmental exposure from school and peers, children tend to acculturate more quickly and to embrace American cultural values more strongly than their immigrant parents, who tend to acculturate more slowly and to adhere to Asian values. The differences in cultural values between parent and child (an intergenerational cultural difference) and adolescent–parent acculturation dissonance in Asian immigrant families can influence their views of good parental bonding differently. For example, Asian immigrant parents incline to endorse strict control and be less expressive in showing affection based on the traditional Asian values, whereas their children prefer the expression of parental love and affection. Such intergenerational cultural differences contribute to diminished relationship with parents and increased intergenerational conflicts, which negatively impact mental health among the children of immigrants. Previous research, however, has been limited mainly to early and/or middle adolescents, and work on the influence of parental bonding and intergenerational relationship on young adults’ psychological well-being is sparse. To fill this gap, this study was aimed at examining the relationships among acculturation dissonance, intergenerational cultural differences, parental bonding, intergenerational conflict, and mental health (e.g., depressive symptoms) among Asian American college students.

Methods: For this cross-sectional study, a combination of convenience and snowball sampling methods was used to recruit Asian American college students. 110 students participated in the study with an average age of 21.49 ± 1.88 years, and female made up 47.3% of participants. Participants completed a survey containing standardized measures of acculturation level based on English proficiency, intergenerational cultural differences (Asian Familism Endorsement scale), parental bonding (Parental Bonding Inventory), intergenerational conflict (Asian American Family Conflict), and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies—Depression).

Results: The findings show that there were significant relationships between intergenerational cultural difference and parental bonding (r = -0.27, p<.01), intergenerational cultural difference and family conflict (r = 0.28, p < 0.01), parental bonding and family conflict (r = -.0581, p < 0.001), parental bonding and depressive symptoms (r = -0.309, p < 0.001), and family conflict and depressive symptoms (r = 0.581, p < 0.001). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that higher parental bonding (β = -0.22, p < 0.05) and lower intergenerational conflict (β = 0.33, p < 0.005) showed reduced depressive symptoms after controlling for intergenerational cultural differences, college challenges, social support, and gender.

Discussion: This study shows the importance of parental bonding and intergenerational conflict in mental health among Asian American young adults. In particular, this study provides social workers with knowledge of the importance of cultural value differences in parental bonding, which impacts family harmony and young adults’ wellbeing. The findings suggest the importance of culturally competent mental health interventions that aim to enhance parental bonding and to reduce the intergenerational relationship in Asian immigrant families.