This study examined how mother–daughter connectedness may moderate: (a) the effect of acculturative family distancing (AFD) on psychological well-being (PWB), (b) the effect of mother–daughter conflict on PWB, and (c) the mediation effect of AFD on PWB through mother–daughter conflict. Four hundred and ten Asian American students completed an online survey. Our first hypothesis was not supported; the relation between AFD and PWB was significantly negative for those with higher connectedness but not significant for those with lower connectedness. We found support for the second and third hypotheses, whereby the associations were significantly negative at very low levels of connectedness, significantly positive at very high levels of connectedness, and not statistically significant at low, moderate, or high levels of connectedness. Our findings highlight the protective nature of connectedness in the mother–daughter relationship, which challenges the notion that cultural differences within Asian American families are necessarily associated with negative outcomes.
AhnA. J.KimB. S. K.ParkY. S. (2008). Asian cultural values gap, cognitive flexibility, coping strategies, and parent-child conflicts among Korean Americans. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 14, 353–363. doi:10.1037/1099-9809.14.4.353
2.
BarryD. T.MizrahiT. C. (2005). Guarded self-disclosure predicts psychological distress and willingness to use psychological services among East Asian immigrants in the United States. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 193, 535–539. doi:10.1097/01.nmd.0000172642.23147.23
3.
BrotanekJ. M.RochaL. O.FloresG. (2008). Supporting immigrant family strengths: Promoting optimal health, health care, and child development. Zero to Three, 29, 18–25.
4.
CarreraS. G.WeiM. (2014). Bicultural competence, acculturative family distancing, and future depression in Latino/a college students: A moderated mediation model. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 61, 427–436. doi:10.1037/cou0000023
5.
ChungR. H. G. (2001). Gender, ethnicity, and acculturation in intergenerational conflict of Asian American college students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 7, 376–386. doi:10.1037/1099-9809.7.4.376
6.
DuldulaoA. A.TakeuchiD. T.HongS. (2009). Correlates of suicidal behaviors among Asian Americans. Archives of Suicide Research, 13, 277–290. doi:10.1080/13811110903044567
7.
FarverJ. A.NarangS. K.BhadhaB. R. (2002). East meets West: Ethnic identity, acculturation, and conflict in Asian Indian families. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 338–350. doi:10.1037/0893-3200.16.3.338
8.
FischerL. R. (1991). Between mothers and daughters. Marriage & Family Review, 16, 237–248. doi:10.1300/J002v16n03_02
9.
GilA. G.VegaW. A. (1996). Two different worlds: Acculturation stress and adaptation among Cuban and Nicaraguan families. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 13, 435–456. doi:10.1177/0265407596133008
10.
GilA. G.VegaW. A.DimasJ. M. (1994). Acculturative stress and personal adjustment among Hispanic adolescent boys. Journal of Community Psychology, 22, 43–54. doi:10.1002/1520-6629(199401)22:1<43::aid-jcop2290220106>3.0.co;2-t
11.
HayesA. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
12.
HilarioC. T.VoD. X.JohnsonJ. L.SaewycE. M. (2014). Acculturation, gender, and mental health of Southeast Asian immigrant youth in Canada. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 16, 1121–1129. doi:10.1007/s10903-014-9978-x
13.
HwangW. (2006). Acculturative family distancing: Theory, research, and clinical practice. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 43, 397–409. doi:10.1037/0033-3204.43.4.397
14.
HwangW.WoodJ. J. (2009). Acculturative family distancing: Links with self-reported symptomatology among Asian Americans and Latinos. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 40, 123–138. doi:10.1007/s10578-008-0115-8
15.
HwangW.WoodJ. J.FujimotoK. (2010). Acculturative family distancing (AFD) and depression in Chinese American families. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 655–667. doi:10.1037/a0020542
16.
JuangL. P.SyedM.TakagiM. (2007). Intergenerational discrepancies of parental control among Chinese American families: Links to family conflict and adolescent depressive symptoms. Journal of Adolescence, 30, 965–975. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2007.01.004
17.
KimB. S. K.YangP. H.AtkinsonD. R.WolfeM. M.HongS. (2001). Cultural value similarities and differences among Asian American ethnic groups. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 7, 343–361. doi:10.1037/1099-9809.7.4.343
18.
KohJ. B. K.ShaoY.WangQ. (2009). Father, mother and me: Parental value orientations and child self-identity in Asian American immigrants. Sex Roles, 60, 600–610. doi:10.1007/s11199-008-9550-z
19.
KriegerT.ZimmermannJ.HuffzigerS.UblB.DienerC.KuehnerC.HoltforthM. G. (2014). Measuring depression with a well-being index: Further evidence for the validity of the WHO well-being index (WHO-5) as a measure of the severity of depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 156, 240–244. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2013.12.015
20.
KwakK. (2003). Adolescents and their parents: A review of intergenerational family relations for immigrants and non-immigrant families. Human Development, 46, 115–136. doi:10.1159/000068581
21.
LaSorsaV. A.FodorI. G. (1990). Adolescent daughter/mid-life mother dyad. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14, 593–606. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1990.tb00233.x
22.
LeT. N.StockdaleG. D. (2005). Individualism, collectivism, and delinquency in Asian American adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34, 681–691. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3404_10
23.
LeeR. M.ChoeJ.KimG.NgoV. (2000). Construction of the Asian American Family Conflicts Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 211–222. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.47.2.211
24.
LeeR. M.SuJ.YoshidaE. (2005). Coping with intergenerational family conflict among Asian American college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52, 389–399. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.3.389
25.
LiangB.BogatG. A.DuffyN. (2013). Gender and youth mentoring. In DuBoisD.KarcherM. (Eds.), Handbook of youth mentoring (2nd ed., pp. 159–173). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
26.
LinC.-H.LeeS.-M.WuB.-J.HuangL.-S.SunH.-J.TsenH.-F. (2013). Psychometric properties of the Taiwanese version of the world health organization-five well-being index. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 127, 331. doi:10.1111/acps.12040
27.
LuiP. P. (2015). Intergenerational cultural conflict, mental health, and educational outcomes Among Asian and Latino/a Americans: Qualitative and meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 141, 404–446. doi:10.1037/a0038449
28.
MakW. W. S.ChenS. X.LamA. G.YiuV. F. L. (2009). Understanding distress: The role of face concern among Chinese Americans, European Americans, Hong Kong Chinese, and mainland Chinese. The Counseling Psychologist, 37, 219–248. doi:10.1177/0011000008316378
29.
MallinckrodtB.AbrahamW. T.WeiM.RussellD. W. (2006). Advances in testing the statistical significance of mediation effects. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 372–378. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.53.3.372
30.
National Center for Health Statistics. (2011). Health, United States, 2011: With special feature on socioeconomic status and health. Hyattsville, MD.
31.
OrthnerD. K.Jones-SanpeiH.WilliamsonS. A. (2003). Family strength and income in households with children. Journal of Family Social Work, 7, 5–23. doi:10.1300/J039v07n02_02
32.
OttoH. A. (1962). What is a strong family?Marriage and Family Living, 24, 77–80. doi:10.2307/348232
33.
ParkY. S.VoL. P.TsongY. (2009). Family affection as a protective factor against the negative effects of perceived Asian values gap on the parent-child relationship for Asian American male and female college students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 15, 18–26. doi:10.1037/a0013378
34.
PengA. C.TjosvoldD. (2011). Social face concerns and conflict avoidance of Chinese employees with their Western or Chinese managers. Human Relations, 64, 1031–1050. doi:10.1177/0018726711400927
35.
PhinneyJ. S.OngA. D. (2002). Adolescent-parent disagreements and life satisfaction infamilies from Vietnamese- and European-American backgrounds. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 26, 556–561. doi:10.1080/01650250143000544
36.
PortesA.RumbautR. G. (2001). Legacies: The story of the immigrant second generation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press and Russell Sage Foundation.
37.
PreacherK. J.RuckerD. D.HayesA. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185–227. doi:10.1080/00273170701341316
38.
QinD. B. (2008). Doing well vs. feeling well: Understanding family dynamics and the psychological adjustment of Chinese immigrant adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37, 22–35. doi:10.1007/s10964-007-9220-4
39.
RastogiM.WamplerK. S. (1999). Adult daughters’ perceptions of the mother–daughter relationship: A cross-cultural comparison. Family Relations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 48, 327–336. doi:10.2307/585643
40.
SchaferJ. L.GrahamJ. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.7.2.147
41.
SchlomerG. L.BaumanS.CardN. A. (2010). Best practices for missing data management in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57, 1–10. doi:10.1037/a0018082
42.
SchofieldT. J.ParkeR. D.KimY.ColtraneS. (2008). Bridging the acculturation gap: Parent-child relationship quality as a moderator in Mexican American families. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1190–1194. doi:10.1037/a0012529
43.
ShroutP. E.BolgerN. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422–445. doi:10.1037/1082-989X.7.4.422
44.
TangM. (2002). A comparison of Asian American, Caucasian American, and Chinese college students: An initial report. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 30, 124–134. doi:10.1002/j.2161-1912.2002.tb00484.x
45.
Tsai-ChaeA.NagataD. K. (2008). Asian values and perceptions of intergenerational family conflict among Asian American students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 14, 205–214. doi:10.1037/1099-9809.14.3.205
46.
TsengV.FuligniA. J. (2000). Parent-adolescent language use and relationships among immigrant families with East Asian, Filipino and Latin American backgrounds. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 465–476. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00465.x
47.
WongA.WongY. J.ObengC. S. (2012). An untold story: A qualitative study of Asian American family strengths. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 3, 286–298. doi:10.1037/a0025553
YangM.HaydonK. C.MillerM. J. (2013). The relationship between intergenerational cultural conflict and social support among Asian American and Asian international female college students and their parents. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 4, 193–200. doi:10.1037/a0030966
50.
YehM.McCabeK.HurlburtM.HoughR.HazenA.CulverS.. . . LandsverkJ. (2002). Referral sources diagnoses, and service types of youth in public outpatient mental health care: A focus on ethnic minorities. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 29, 45–60. doi:10.1007/BF02287831
51.
YoungC. B.FangD. Z.ZisookS. (2010). Depression in Asian–American and Caucasian undergraduate students. Journal of Affective Disorders, 125, 379–382. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2010.02.124
