Asian American parenting in a racialized world: The role of ideological contexts and intergenerational gaps

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• Author: Yan Z. Wang,Helen He
• Date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12965

INVITED ARTICLE

Asian American parenting in a racialized world: The

role of ideological contexts and intergenerational gaps

Yan Z. Wang

1

|Helen He

2

1

Department of Psychology, Endicott College,

Beverly, MA

2

Department of Economics, Harvard College,

Cambridge, MA

Correspondence

Yan Z. Wang, Department of Psychology,

Endicott College, 376 Hale Street, Beverly,

MA 01915, USA.

Email: ywang@endicott.edu

Funding information

Jacobs Foundation; Young Scholar Research

Funding

Abstract

Objective: To understand the challenges that have impeded

Asian American parents’critical responses toward racism,

we looked at interpretive contexts, as well as the recent

immigration contexts and their impacts on inter-

generational relationships.

Background: Asian Americans are the fastest growing

diverse group in the United States. The advent of COVID-

19 resulted in a dramatic increase of anti-Asian hate

crimes.

Methods: We reviewed research on Asian American par-

ents’racialized experiences and the challenges they face

when raising children to respond to racism. With a contex-

tual perspective, we highlighted three ideological concepts

that have shaped the interpretive context for Asian Ameri-

can parents’responses to racism, including the model

minority myth, the just-world view, and the cultural main-

tenance model. We also looked at how recent waves of

immigration may have compounded intergenerational

gaps in many Asian American families, with both develop-

mental and acculturational differences between

generations.

Results and Conclusion: Understanding these contexts pro-

vides insights into how to best support Asian American

parents as they communicate with their children on com-

plicated topics. These support can help faciliate these par-

ents’ability to remain grounded in their ethnic-racial

group, while uniting with other diverse groups in disman-

tling racism.

Implications: Informational and sociocultural resources

are needed to help Asian American parents develop racial

Author’s note: We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Aya Shigeto (Nova Southeastern University) for her unwavering

support and suggestions throughout the research process. We also extend our appreciation toFlora Zhu (Iowa City West High School),

whose insightful comments helped shape this work. We appreciate the important feedback provided by our peerreviewers, which greatly

improved the quality of this paper. A significant part of this work was funded by the Jacobs Foundation.

Received: 17 August 2022Revised: 13 July 2023Accepted: 11 August 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12965

© 2023 National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2024;73:193–206. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 193