NCJ Number
226933
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 38 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 691-702
Date Published
May 2009
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationship between maternal acculturation, neighborhood disadvantage, parenting practices, and youths’ conduct problems.
Abstract
Findings show the influential role of maternal acculturation, suggesting that mothers play a particularly important role in socializing children and linking the family to a broader network of relatives and friends. Chinese-American mothers who report greater acculturation toward American culture have adolescents who display lower levels of conduct problems. This pattern could be explained by the finding that more highly acculturated mothers relied more on monitoring and less on harsh discipline. Further, in terms of neighborhood-level variables, maternal acculturation was related to more protective parenting practices in terms of greater use of monitoring and less harsh discipline. Moreover, parents living in neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty and unemployment tend to display less warmth and higher levels of harsh and inconsistent discipline; neighborhood disadvantage was significantly associated with less maternal monitoring and was marginally associated with more harsh discipline. Data were collected from 444 Chinese-American adolescents in the seventh or eighth grade, along with 408 of their mothers and 382 of their fathers. Tables, figures, and references