Strategies of Cultural Adaption in Intercultural Parenting

Abstract

Twenty-one participants were interviewed about their experiences of parenting as intercultural couples, to understand how they navigate cultural differences within the family. Intercultural couples are defined in this study as heterosexual couples who have different sociocultural heritages with distinct cultures of origin as identified by the participants. All couples identified that either they or their parents were born and raised in a different country of origin from that of their partner’s. A grounded theory method was used for data analysis resulting in the development of a typology of cross-cultural parenting. The diverse strategies used by intercultural parents to negotiate diversity based on their cultural differences and their degree of mutual acculturation emerged to support this model. These strategies of adaptation included assimilation, cultural tourism, cultural transition, cultural amalgamation, and dual biculturalism. This framework can be used by mental health professionals to better understand how many couples may adapt to cultural differences to form healthy families.