Neighborhood Environment, Cultural Orientation, and Parenting: Understanding the Intergenerational Conflict in Asian Immigrant Families

Background: Intergenerational conflict is endemic and has substantial individual, familial, and societal consequences. However, few studies discussed the influences of the neighborhood environment on intergenerational conflicts among Asian immigrant families. To fill this research gap, this study aims to examine links among neighborhood environment, cultural orientation, parenting stress, social support, and intergenerational conflicts.

Methods: Two datasets were used in this secondary data analysis: 2011-2017 Study of Asian American Families (SAAF) and the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates. The sample size is 849. Neighborhood economic disadvantages, residential instability, and ethnic heterogeneity are the three indexes to capture neighborhood structural factors. Intergenerational conflicts were measured by the 10-item Asian American Family Conflicts Scale. Cultural orientation was measured by two domains in the SAAF: cultural values and cultural practices. Cultural values were measured by the Multiphasic Assessment of Cultural Constructs-Short Form. Cultural practice was assessed by the Korean Acculturation Scale. Social support was a latent variable that was assessed by the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Parenting stress was assessed by Parenting Stress Index Short Form. Related demographic variables were controlled. Structural equation modeling was conducted using Mplus 8.0.

Results: The model fit indices indicated a good model fit: CFI = .960, RMSEA = .045 (90% CI = .043, .047), and SRMR = .082. Three neighborhood factors showed indirect effects on intergenerational conflicts among Asian immigrant families via family-level factors. Also, all family-level factors directly affected intergenerational conflicts among Asian immigrant families (social support: β = -.08, p = .03; parenting stress: β =.15, p < .001; cultural values: β = .29, p < .001; and cultural practice: β =.16, p < .001).

Economic disadvantage increased parenting stress (β =.08, p =.04) of Asian immigrants and preferences of their traditional cultural values (β =.10, p =.02) and further increased intergenerational conflicts (β =.15, p < .001). Ethnic heterogeneity both directly and indirectly affected parenting stress. Neighborhood residential instability was only associated to Asian immigrant parents’ preferences on practicing American culture (β =-.12, p =.001), which increased the parenting stress (β =.19, p < .001) and intergenerational conflicts. Finally, economic disadvantage was negatively related to social support, and then was related to increased preferences on their own cultural values (β =-.10, p =.005), which further increased intergenerational conflicts.

Conclusions: For Asian immigrant families, their living environment showed a significant influence on their intergenerational conflicts through their cultural orientation, social support, and parenting stress. Our findings contributed to existing literature by adding the interactive effects among neighborhood and family level factors on intergenerational conflicts, which can inform intervention efforts to foster healthy family relationships among Asian immigrant families. The findings suggest that attention to neighborhood environment could be considered for upstream intervention, paired with direct focus on parental stress and social support, to reduce intergenerational conflict in Asian immigrant families. These results show that the complex dynamics of neighborhood environment with individual and family characteristics merit greater elaboration in order to fully understand the factors affecting intergenerational conflict in Asian immigrant families.