The acculturation gap of parent–child relationships in immigrant families: A national study

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Kathleen Mullan Harris,Ping Chen
• Date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12760

RESEARCH

The acculturation gap of parent–child relationships

in immigrant families: A national study

Kathleen Mullan Harris

1

|Ping Chen

2

1

Department of Sociology and The Carolina

Population Center, University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill

2

Frank Porter Graham Child Development

Institute, University of North Carolina at

Chapel Hill

Correspondence

Ping Chen, Frank Porter Graham Child

Development Institute, CB# 8180, Chapel

Hill, NC 27599-8180, USA.

Email: pc@unc.edu

Abstract

Objective: We examined the acculturation processes involving

intergenerational consonance and dissonance in parent–child

relationships in U.S. immigrant families.

Background: This study is important because we lack

national studies that examine the association between

acculturation processes and intergenerational relationships

among diverse racial/ethnic groups in immigrant families.

Method: Using national data from Add Health withdiverse

race/ethnicity, we measured acculturation levels by immi-

grant generation, age of arrival, and length of time. Inter-

generational consonance (the degree to which children and

parents share the same values and activities) was measured

by family cohesion and sharing meals (specifically dinners)

with parents. Intergenerational dissonance (the degree to

which parents and children differ in expected norms and

parents lose authority over their children) was measured by

parent–child conflict and parental control. Ordinary least

square, binary logistic, ordered logistic, and Poisson regres-

sions were conducted depending on the nature of the four

dependent variables.

Results: We found robust evidence that adolescents of the

second immigrant generation acculturate more rapidly than

those of the first generation and their immigrant parents

creating a “gap”in intergenerational relationships. Thus,

second-generation adolescents experience lower levels of

family cohesion,less frequency of sharing weekly dinners

with parents, less parental control of adolescents’activities,

Author note: This research uses data from Add Health, funded by grant P01 HD31921 (Harris) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver

National Institute of Child Health and HumanDevelopment (NICHD), with cooperative funding from 23 other federalagencies and

foundations. Add Healthis currentlydirected by RobertA. Hummer and fundedby the National Institute on Agingcooperative agreements

U01 AG071448(Hummer) andU01AG071450 (Aielloand Hummer)at the University ofNorth Carolina atChapel Hill. Add Healthwas

designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We are

grateful for the helpful comments of Patricia Ferna ndez-Kelly, William Haller, Krista Perreira, Elizabeth Budd (copy editor), and Wendy

Middlemiss (editor).

Received: 13 November 2021Revised: 25 February 2022Accepted: 2 July 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12760

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

1748 Family Relations. 2023;72:1748–1772.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

and more serious arguments about their behaviors with

their parents than their first-generation counterparts.

Conclusion: This is the new evidence that is based on

national data, across multiple measures of intergenerational

relationships, and holds for diverse racial and ethnic groups.

Implications: The findings underscore the importance of

developing culturally informed interventions supporting

healthy parent–child relationships in immigrant families.

KEYWORDS

acculturation process, generational consonance, generational dissonance,

immigrant families, intergenerational relationships

One of the most profound demographic changes that ushered in the new millennium was the

dramatic rise in immigration to the United States and the rapidly changing ethnic diversity of

the U.S. population (Portes & Rumbaut, 2006). This change echoed a similar phenomenon

of over 100 years ago inbotholdandnewways(Alba& Nee,2003; Farley, 1996). From 1990

to 2018, the nation’s immigrant population aged 18 years or older increased by about 25 million

(from 19.8 million in 1990 to 44.7 million in 2018), adding roughly 900,000 immigrants to the

population per year (Migration Policy Institute, 2020); it has been projected that most of the

U.S. population growth in the coming decades will continue to be due to immigration, includ-

ing both the increase from immigrants themselves and the increase from their higher fertility

rates (Colby & Ortman, 2015).

Immigrant children (first generation who are foreign born) and U.S.-born children (as second

generation) of foreign-born immigrant parents are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. popula-

tion of young people under age 18 years, accounting for 25.9% of all American children in 2018

(Migration Policy Institute, 2020), including about 54% of all Hispanic children and 17% of all

AsianAmericanchildren(Child Trends Data Bank, 2018). Today, one of four American children

under age 18 years are children of immigrants (includingbothfirst-generationchildrenwithafor-

eign birth and second-generation children with a native birth to foreign-born parents). Because most

children in immigrant families belong to Hispanic or non-White racial and ethnic minorities,

reflecting the post-1965 immigration waves from Latin America and the Caribbean and from Asia

and the Middle East, future projections indicate that the proportion of children under 18 years who

are non-Hispanic White will decline from about 52% in 2014 to about 36% in 2060 (Colby &

Ortman, 2015).

The tremendous influx of immigrant families into the United States over the past few decades

has transformed the social and economic landscape for family interactions and the development of

children under age 18 years. Despite considerable research on the experiences and adaptation of

immigrant adults, there has been limited attention to the immigrant experiences of young children

and adolescents in studies of immigration (e.g., Jasso & Rosenzweig, 1990;Li&Warner,2015;

Lieberson, 1980; Tienda & Haskins, 2011). This is largely due to a lack of data on immigrant

descendants or missing information on nativity (Jensen & Chitose, 1996;Portes,1996;

Rumbaut, 2014;Waters&GersteinPineau,2015). Only within the past several years have studies

addressed the adaptation processes and outcomes of children and adolescents in the new immigra-

tion, but this research is mainly based on regional surveys that exploit the geographic concentration

of immigrant families or on specific immigrant ethnic groups (e.g., Fuligni, 1997;Li&

Warner, 2015; Perez, 1994; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001a; Rumbaut, 1994;Su



arez-Orozco & Su

arez-

Orozco, 2001; Tseng & Fuligni, 2000; Van Hook & Balistreri, 2002; Waters, 1996; Zhou, 2001).

Research using national data rarely have sufficient sample sizes to identify separate ethnic groups

(Rumbaut, 2014). We therefore lack a national and representative view of the well-being of

ACCULTURATION OF IMMIGRANT PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS1749