The Adjustment of Asian American Families to the U.S.Context: The Ecology of Strengths and Stress

The number of Asian American families is on the rise. Asian American families are a diverse group. This chapter focuses on Asian American families that migrated to the United States in the last three decades. This chapter challenges the media’s depiction of them as a Model Minority. Because of this stereotype, many challenges that this group encounters may not gain adequate attention. The chapter examines their strengths and resiliency, along with the ecology of stress that influences family dynamics. 705 digitalcommons.unl.edu 706 X i a , D o , a n D X i e i n H a n d b o o k o f M a r r i a g e a n d t H e f a M i l y (2013) sus Bureau). For the most part, Asian Americans are highly educated, with 49.4% holding a Bachelor’s degree or higher and only 14.6% having less than a high school education. Occupationally, 47.1% of Asian Americans hold managerial, professional, or related positions. This chapter will focus on Asian American families that migrated to the United States in the last 3 decades. Myths about Asian American families will be examined, along with the ecology of stress that influences family dynamics, and their family strengths and resiliencies. Myths About Asian American Families Asian American families are far from what the media has often depicted as the Model Minority because they have their fair share of challenges and stresses. At times, these challenges and stresses are not well recognized, and thus, do not receive immediate or sufficient attention. Below are some myths pertaining to Asian American families. Myth 1: Asian American Students Are Model Students: Good Grades, Respectful, and Trouble-Free Students from Asian America families are supposed to get straight As in school; they must be very respectful to teachers and parents, they must be drug-free or trouble-free; their parents must be well educated and have good salaries; their families must live comfortably. This stereotypical image of the Model Minority hurts Asian American communities. For example, this stereotype may contribute to Asian students not being eligible for some scholarships or financial assistance that is available to minority students. “Politically, this idealized picture of Asian families has been used to criticize everything from the woes of other minorities and their dependence on big government to the consequences of our country’s departure from traditional family roles” (Lee & Zhan, 1998, p. 132). As a result, Asian American individuals may be alienated from peers or coworkers (Leong & Grand, 2008; Lo, 2010; Tang, 2008) and their issues may not receive enough attention or warrant the same type of social and community support. As a result, their relationship with these groups in the social context may be strained. Myth 2: Asian American Families Earn More Money Than Other Ethnic Families According to the ACS, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau’s (2009a), the median income of Asian households was $68,780, which is higher than Whites ($53,131), Blacks ($33,463), and Hispanics ($39,923). However, there are several reasons contributing to this high income when we take into account the characteristics of Asian households. For example, Asian families tend to be intergenerational, with many individuals, including grandparents, parents, children, and sometimes even unmarried aunts or uncles. Data from the ACS (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009a) indicated that 11.4% of Asian households consisted of other relatives, whereas only 5.3% of White households were so. More specifically, 5.9% were in a household with grandchildren compared to 2.9% of Whites. In addition, due to the collectivistic nature of Asian culture, these family members often pool their income together. Therefore, anybody who can work is encouraged to contribute to the household income, and family financial resources are shared. As such, the family or household income appears to be high, but the average resources per person may be limited. Chan (1991), a leading researcher in Asian American studies, reexamined returns on education discussed by sociologists. Returns on educations referred to additional dollars earned for each additional year of education obtained after high school. Asian Americans were disadvantaged when their investment in education was taken into account. The additional income earned by investing each additional year in college was estimated at $320 and $438 for Chinese and Japanese Americans, respectively, as compared to $522 for Whites (Varma, 2004). They have to complete more years of education in order to reach the same income level. T h e a D j u s T m e n T o f a s i a n a m e r i c a n f a m i l i e s T o T h e u.s . c o n T e X T 707 Myth 3: All Asian American Families Are Sailing off Smoothly After They Migrate to the United States Asian Americans are more diverse than homogeneous. They or their ancestors came from different ethnic groups, for various reasons, and with unique cultural heritages. For example, a vast number of Asian Americans who migrated from Southeast Asia (e.g., Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) in the last 30 years left their countries involuntarily as refugees while those from Japan, China, and India came voluntarily to pursue an advanced degree and promising careers. Most refugee immigrants were neither prepared psychologically, nor were equipped with English language skills. They were faced with many challenges in adjusting to their lives in the United States. They do, however, exhibit resiliency and strengths that help overcome adversity. For example, Vietnamese Americans living in eastern New Orleans before Katrina drew strengths from their culture and history to rebuild their community (Leong, Airriess, Li, Chen, & Keith, 2007). By early 2007, more than 90% of former Vietnamese American residents had returned to eastern New Orleans. The Ecology of Stress Asian American families face a multitude of stressors and challenges. Some are general life stressors, while others are more unique to Asian Americans as an ethnic and cultural group. The type of stress and challenges, however, also varies across ethnicity and culture, country of origin, acculturation level, education, language skills, migration history, social class, and length of residency in the United States. These contextual sources of stress and challenge originate both at the broader societal level and within individual families. They directly or indirectly influence parent–child relationships, couple’s relationships, power structures, and gender roles. For example, results from the Mental Health America Attitudinal Survey (2006) revealed that 34% of the Asian Americans sampled indicated feeling stressed from their relationships with others, family relationships, and employment, while nearly 42% reported stress relating to finances. More specifically, Blair (2000) conducted a study with a random sample of 124 Cambodian adults in Utah, who have been in the United States an average of 8.1 years. The participants rated 14 stressors on average as being “very stressful” within their first year in the United States. The top four stressors included: (a) A lack of adequate English skills (77%); (b) thoughts about family members who had been left behind (63%); (c) transportation problems (62%); and (d) thoughts about people they had known who were killed in Cambodia (60%). The researcher also assessed stressors during the past year, and participants identified an average of 5.2 “very stressful” issues, with the top four being: (a) worries about the future in the United States (27%); (b) health worries (26%); (c) worries about family left behind in Cambodia (24%); and (d) worries about not having enough money (23%) (Blair, 2000). These findings illustrate three important patterns concerning the type and level of stress experienced by Cambodian refugees in particular and Asian American immigrant families in general. First, these families tend to have “very stressful” feelings about basic survival and adaptation in the beginning phase of their resettlement in the United States. Basic language skills and the ability to get from one place to another are essential for daily living in the host country. Second, the types and level of stress in general tend to diminish as the families acculturate and find ways to meet their basic needs. In the latter phase of their resettlement, Asian immigrant and refugee families tend to worry about their future in the United States, and their health and well-being. The third pattern demonstrates the strong kinship system and family interdependency among Asian Americans. Although migration, time, and distance impeded family relationships, Cambodian refugees continued to worry about family members they have left behind in their country of origin. Overall, these stressors can have detrimental effects on Asian immigrants and refugees, with Blair (2000) concluding that these stressors contributed to substantial amounts of depression among Cambodian refugees. 708 X i a , D o , a n D X i e i n H a n d b o o k o f M a r r i a g e a n d t H e f a M i l y (2013) Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination One of the more prevalent issues that is sometimes difficult to label and eliminate is the issue of racism, prejudice, and discrimination that Asian American and other minority groups experienced in both a historical and contemporary context. For instance, in 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act banned immigration from China, and in 1907 and 1908, similar restrictions were placed on Japanese and Korean immigrants through the Gentlemen’s Agreement (U.S. DHHS, 2000). A decade later, The Immigration Act of 1917 limited the entry of Asian Indians (U.S. DHHS). Asian Americans also were denied the rights to citizenship, suffrage, and due process under the law (Zia, 2000). For example, in 1923 in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the Supreme Court ruled that Asian Indians were ineligible for citizenship (Gee, Spencer, Chen, Yip, & Takeuchi, 2007). During World War II, Japanese Americans were put in internment camps and were treated as enemies (Zia, 2000). In the everyday context, Yoo, Gee, and Takeuchi (2009) conducted a telephone survey and found that 7% of Asian Americans (N = 888; 376 Chinese, 245 Vietnamese, 267 Korean Americans) in their sample reported experiencing racial discrimination and 12% reported language discrimination. As expected, recent Asian immigrants, or those residing in the United States for less than 10 years, indicated the highest level of racial (9%) and language discrimination (19%) (Yoo et al., 2009). While U.S.-born Asian Americans experienced the least language discrimination (0%), they still encounter racial discrimination (4%) (Yoo et al., 2009). Asian Americans continue to face employment and housing discrimination (Turner, Ross, Bednarz, Herbig, & Lee, 2003) as well as more severe issues, including hate crimes and racial profiling by law enforcement (Gee, Spencer, et al., 2007; Zia, 2000). Although some Asian American groups, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean Americans, have been in the United States for many generations, they are still considered foreigners due to their physical characteristics. According to the Surgeon General, racial discrimination is a critical risk factor for mental disorders and other psychological issues (U.S. DHHS, 2000). For example, racial discrimination is significantly correlated with depressive symptoms in Filipino, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian eighth and ninth graders surveyed in California and Florida (Rumbaut, 1994). Similarly, racial discrimination is associated with greater risk for depressive and anxiety disorder in Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese, Asian Indians, Japanese, Korean, and Pacific Islanders (Gee, Spencer, et al., 2007). In addition, unfair treatment related to discrimination is associated with increased prescription and illicit drug use as well as alcohol dependency in Filipino Americans (Gee, Delva, & Takeuchi, 2007). Even after controlling for age, sex, education, family income, health insurance, primary language, nativity status, and ethnicity, both racial and language discrimination were significantly correlated with increased chronic health conditions in Asian Americans (Yoo et al., 2009). Acculturative Stress New Asian immigrant and refugee families face the stress relating to their migration experience, and the ongoing adjustments to the new culture and new life. The uprooting process of immigration is challenging, because it fractures the existing social network. The family also struggle to acquire a new language and acculturate to the new environment. Family problems and tension are more likely to erupt due to these changes. Specifically, refugee families, who came from war-torn nations and refugee camps, may have to deal with post-traumatic and psychological issues relating to their experiences. These effects may last for years, even after they have settled in the host country. For instance, a study conducted by Hinton, Rasmussen, Leakhena, Pollack, and Good (2009), with 143 Cambodian refugee patients at a psychiatric clinic in Massachusetts, highlights these important issues. The refugees in the sample had survived the Pol Pot genocide (1975–1979), in which more than 1.7 million Cambodians were exT h e a D j u s T m e n T o f a s i a n a m e r i c a n f a m i l i e s T o T h e u.s . c o n T e X T 709 ecuted or died of starvation (Hinton et al.). In examining the family level of anger, the researchers found that almost half (48%) of the participants reported becoming angry with a family member in the last month, and about 10% were specifically angry with a spouse (Hinton et al.). The reasons varied from personal relationship issues (infidelity, 29%) to employment and financial stress (not having a paying job, 22%) (Hinton et al.). Moreover, about 45% of the participants indicated experiencing anger toward their children (N = 64), and the reasons ranged from a child acting disrespectfully (30%) (e.g., yelling at a parent) to a child staying past curfew (30%). Interestingly, 68% had trauma recalls during these anger episodes, and half had flashbacks (52%) (Hinton et al.). These findings highlight the interesting dynamic between psychological and family issues. The acculturation gaps within Asian American families may also be a source of conflict (Sue & Sue, 2008). Often times, children in immigrant and refugee families learn the language and acculturate faster than their parents. The differential rates of acculturation sometimes make the parents more dependent on their children for help in terms of language translation and other social interactions. The role reversal sometimes affects the quality of the parent–child relationship (Yee, DeBarysche, Yuen, Kim, & McCubbins, 2006). In conjunction with acculturation, children may adopt American values and behaviors that may conflict with those of their parents. Parents and elders may see it as a sign of disrespect due to differing styles of communication and behaviors. Children may develop individualistic goals that are divergent from their collectivistic family orientation (Costigan & Dokis, 2006; Sue & Sue, 2008). Migration and acculturation are multifaceted events involving changes at the social, emotional, cultural, and economic levels. Acculturation is the process whereby the values, attitudes, behaviors, and relationships of persons from one culture are modified as a result of contact with a different culture (Berry, 2001; Moyerman & Foreman, 1992). Specifically, the changes may mean that new immigrants take on different jobs, develop a new relationship with spouse and children, and acquire new parenting skills (Chung & Bemak, 2006). As such, stress often results from these changes which are an inherent part of immigration experiences. (Sodowsky, Kwan, & Pannu, 1995). Acculturative stress often entails three aspects: (1) lifelong duration, (2) pervasiveness, and (3) intensity (Smart & Smart, 1995). Acculturative stress, however, can serve as a motivator for positive change within the immigrant families and it is not always negative (Bush, Bohon, & Kim, 2009).