Couple Relationship Standards and Migration: Comparing Hong Kong Chinese with Australian Chinese

• Author: Lau Chau‐Wan,Patrick Leung,W. Kim Halford,Chan Hung‐Cheung,Fons J. R. Vijver,Danika Hiew
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12337
• Date: 01 December 2018
• Published date: 01 December 2018

Couple Relationship Standards and Migration:

Comparing Hong Kong Chinese with Australian

Chinese

W. KIM HALFORD*

PATRICK LEUNG

†

CHAN HUNG-CHEUNG

†

LAU CHAU-WAN

†

DANIKA HIEW*

FONS J. R. VAN DE VIJVER*

,‡,§

Rates of international migration are increasing, which raises the question of how migra-

tion might influence couple relationship standards and impact on the standards of

migrants forming intercultural relationships. We compared relationship standards in

n=286 Chinese living in Hong Kong, China, with standards in n=401 Chinese migrants

to a Western country (Australia) by administering the Chinese-Western Intercultural Cou-

ple Standards Scale (CWICSS). We also compared these two groups to n=312 Westerners

living in Australia. We first tested the structural invariance of the CWICSS across the

three samples with a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. There was margin al but

acceptable fit of a model of two positively correlated latent factors: Couple Bond (with four

indicators, such as demonstration of love and caring) and Family Responsibility (also with

four indicators, such as extended family relations and preserving face). Within the limita-

tions of the study, results suggest migration is associated predominantly with differences

in women’s, but not men’s, relationship standards. Migrant Chinese women show align-

ment of Couple Bond standards with Western standards, and divergence of Family

Responsibility standards from Western standards. Discussion focused on how migration

and intercultural relationship experiences might differentially influence various domains

of relationship standards, gender differences in migration effects on standards, and the

implications for working with culturally diverse couples.

Keywords: Couple Relation ship; Western; Chinese; Relationship Standard; Migration;

Acculturation

Fam Proc 57:996–1011, 2018

Epstein and Baucom (2002, p. 72) defined couple relationship standards as: “... per-

sonal beliefs about the characteristics an intimate relationship ... should have.” Rela-

tionship standards show important variations by culture (Hiew, Halford, van den Vijven

*School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Qld, Australia.

†

Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong.

‡

Department of Cultural Studies, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands.

§

North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to W. Kim Halford, School of Psychology,

University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia. E-mail: K.halford@psy.uq.edu.au

Conduct of this study was supported by a Chinese University of Hong Kong International Collaborative

Research Grant awarded to Patrick Leung.

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doi: 10.1111/famp.12337

& Liu, 2015a, b) and are associated with relationship satisfaction (Hiew et al., 2015b).

There are high rates of migration to Western countries by people from Eastern cultures,

and high rates of intercultural marriage (International Organization for Migration, 2015).

Against this backdrop, it is important to understand how relationship standards are asso-

ciated with migration. Intercultural couples could experience differences in relations hip

standards (e.g., about overtly expressing love, or time spent with extended family) , and

this could be challenging for the couple’s relationship. The current paper comp ared rela-

tionship standards between Hong Kong Chinese and Chinese migrants living in Australia.

We also compared these two groups of Chinese with Australians of European Ancestry

(Westerners) to test whether Chinese migrating to a Western country are more similar to

Westerners than Chinese living in China, and if so, whether that similarity can be found

across various domains of relationships standards.

Migration and Intercultural Couple Relationships

Rates of international migration increased markedly in the first two decades of the 21

st

Century relative to the 20th Century (International Organization for Migration, 2015).

Globally there are about 250 million international migrants (about 3.2% of the world’s

population), with about half of these migrants living in 10 highly urbanized, high- income

countries including the United States, Canada, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Ger-

many, and Australia (the last being one of the two countries in which the current study

was conducted; International Organization for Migration, 2015). Many of the migrants to

these Western countries come from Eastern cultures such as China (3.8 million migrants

annually), and India (3.4 million; International Organization for Migration, 2015), which

are very different from Western culture. Intercultural couple relationships have increased

in line with migration. For example, the number of interracial marriages in the United

States increased tenfold between 1960 and 2002 (Zhang & Kline, 2009). The proportion of

marriages identified as intercultural is around 30% in Australia and Hawaii, and over

10% in France, Germany, Canada, and some areas of mainland USA (Australian Burea u

of Statistics, 2012; Lanzieri, 2012; Lee & Edmonston, 2005; Statistics Canada, 2012).

Western and Chinese Cultures and Relationship Standards

We have focused on exploring differences in relationship standards between Chinese

and Western people for a number of reasons. First, the vast majority of research on cou-

ple relationship standards has been with Western samples, but the generalizability of

many findings to couples from other cultures is unclear (Hiew et al., 2015a). Second, peo-

ple of Chinese ancestry account for one quarter of the world’s population (Hoosain, 2008)

and constitute the majority of Asians living in Western countries such as the United

States and Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012; Shibusawa, 2008). Thir d,

Chinese and Western cultures differ on major cultural values, such as individualism-col-

lectivism and egalitarian-hierarchical social relations (Sagiv & Schwartz, 2007) , and

hence might have potentially important differences in relationship standards. Moreover,

many countries in Asia (e.g., Japan, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam) share the

collectivistic and hierarchical cultural characteristics of China (World Values Survey,

2016), and hence findings on Chinese relationship standards might have relevance to

couple relationships in other Asian cultures. Finally, in many countries, Chinese have

high rates of intercultural marriage (Zhang & Kline, 2009).

Consideration of Chinese cultural values needs to take account of the enormous

social changes that have occurred in China. For example, the New Marriage Law of

1950 eradicated traditional arranged marriages and began a new era of choice. Since

then, there has been an extraordinary economic surge in prosperity, and increasing

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