The influence of maternal acculturation, neighborhood disadvantage, and parenting on Chinese American adolescents' conduct problems: Testing the segmented assimilation hypothesis

Lisa L. Liu, Anna S. Lau, Angela Chen, Khanh T. Dinh, Su Yeong Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Associations among neighborhood disadvantage, maternal acculturation, parenting and conduct problems were investigated in a sample of 444 Chinese American adolescents. Adolescents (54% female, 46% male) ranged from 12 to 15 years of age (mean age = 13.0 years). Multilevel modeling was employed to test the hypothesis that the association between maternal acculturation and adolescents' conduct problems could be explained by differences in mothers' reliance on monitoring and harsh discipline. In addition, guided by segmented assimilation theory, measures of neighborhood disadvantage were expected not only to be related to differences in parenting, but also to moderate the effects of maternal acculturation on parenting. Results indicated that increased maternal acculturation was related to higher levels of maternal monitoring and lower levels of harsh discipline, which, in turn, were related to lower levels of adolescents' conduct problems. Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed that neighborhood disadvantage was related to lower levels of maternal monitoring. However, neighborhood disadvantage did not moderate the link between maternal acculturation and parenting practices.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)691-702
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of youth and adolescence
Volume38
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2009

Keywords

  • Acculturation
  • Chinese American
  • Conduct problems
  • Neighborhood disadvantage
  • Parenting

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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