October 3, 2023

Supporting Youth Experiencing Intergenerational Conflict (IC) in Immigrant Families by Yuqing Qiu

I recently attended the 2023 American Counseling Association (ACA) Conference, where I presented a poster on supporting youth experiencing intergenerational conflict (IC) in immigrant families. As a first-time attendee, the conference was a significant opportunity to improve my public speaking and open communication skills and networking. My presentation aimed to promote mental health advocacy in immigrant communities across North America and explored the acculturation experiences of immigrant children while identifying ways to support children and their families in navigating familial conflict. With the wisdom I got from my audience, I am now reflecting on my experience of this presentation and rethinking helping the youth experiencing IC in immigrant families.

IC in immigrant families

I chose this topic because of my awareness and understanding of the issues faced by this underrepresented population. Through my research, I discovered that intergenerational relationships between parents and children are critical due to the extended years of living together between the generations. Conflict within these relationships can have negative impacts on individual well-being. Researchers have emphasized the importance of studying conflict and other relevant dimensions of intergenerational relationships (e.g., Guo et al. 2022; Juang et al. 2007). However, there has been a lack of research on resolving IC in immigrant families. Moreover, there are currently no counseling models specifically tailored to the needs of immigrants dealing with IC (Chirico et al. 2020; Ying 2007).

Immigrant families encounter distinct challenges that can cause both youth distress and familial conflict, such as economic strains, acculturation stress, and discrimination in the new country, which can impact the relationships between family members. Previous research has suggested that immigrant adolescents experience greater conflict with their parents than native-born peers due to differences in acculturation speeds across generations (Lau et al. 2005; Lorenzo-Blanco et al. 2012). Immigrant parents often recognize the cultural demands placed on their children at home and school and tend to allow them to chart their own course in life. However, they also aim to maintain the values and traditions of their native homeland and pass them down to their children through culture-specific parenting methods (Shen et al. 2018; Zhang et al. 2017). Meanwhile, U.S.-raised immigrant children face challenges in reconciling these family values and expectations with mainstream Western values and lifestyles, resulting in acculturation differences and difficulties. Such differences and challenges can increase the frequency of IC, particularly with regard to adherence to family values, expectations, and traditions (Lee et al. 2000; Phinney et al. 2000; Ying et al. 2007).

Counseling Approaches to IC

Immigrant families frequently experience conflicts and require support, yet finding appropriate assistance can be challenging. Research indicates that immigrants’ attitudes toward psychotherapy influence their utilization of counseling services, and ethnic minorities, including immigrants, tend to underutilize mental health resources in the United States (Lau et al. 2005; Su et al. 2005). As such, counselors should consider clients’ cultural perceptions and allocate more time to exploring culture-specific issues during therapy. Moreover, immigrants and their families may be dissatisfied with therapy grounded in Western individualistic beliefs. Counselors are therefore encouraged to employ problem-solving, social support-seeking, and emotion-focused coping methods, which may be more effective for clients who adhere to collectivist worldviews (Lee et al. 2005; Rasmi et al. 2014).

Reflection

I presented my project within the allocated time of 30 minutes, and I was delighted to see that many attendees expressed their interest and approached me for further clarification. However, I noticed that most people who showed an interest in my project were either from immigrant families or had been affected by IC resulting from acculturation-related issues. Unfortunately, this tendency is also prevalent in counseling scholarship, where people only pay attention to issues that directly impact them or their respective communities. However, it is crucial for the counseling profession to address the sources of IC in immigrant families and develop strategies to cope with them. These efforts will help immigrant families adapt to new economic and cultural conditions, and policymakers will be better equipped to plan and provide adequate mental health services for these populations.

Furthermore, I was able to talk to many attendees who identified themselves as the population impacted by IC. From their sharing, I was impressed by how the immigrant parents and younger generation framed their experience of navigating mental health and facilitating family relationships, although there are always undergo significant changes presenting in their identity, cognitive abilities, and peer relationships, while emerging adults learn to self-regulate and develop their belief systems. In Western families, these changes may cause disruptions in the family system due to adolescents’ increased desire for autonomy. As the younger generation grows up in a Western culture predominant educational environment, they see how Western parents frequently resolve IC by increasing their children’s involvement in decision-making or granting them greater autonomy. However, this process is either less clear or never addressed in immigrant families, as the literature lacks consensus on the extent of conflict in these populations. These conversations further confirm my opinion that when providing counseling services for children of immigrants, counselors must consider the children’s age group and specific developmental issues they face at different stages of their lives and how this relates to intergenerational conflicts they may experience.

Overall, it is now my great memory of attending the 2023 ACA Conference. Currently, I am thinking of designing a mental health support program for youth and their families in immigrant communities within the scope of recovery college/discovery college. With the evidence from the presentation, I could work from the following perspectives in program design: (1) support parents in revisiting family dynamics; (2) guide parents in their journey of awareness of their own cultural empathy and agency; and (3) develop coping strategies for both parents and their children. I believe everyone on our team is now more confident and prepared for the coming work and challenges.

About the Scholar

My name is Yuqing Qiu. I am a doctoral candidate in the counseling program at George Washington University. I am a certificated LGPC in both D.C. and Maryland and I have been working as a counselor for five years. My primary approaches are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy, and Person Centered Therapy. My theoretic approach rests on the belief that clients are in charge of their counseling experience. I want to instill in my clients the understanding that the therapeutic relationship is a partnership in which they will be expected to put in the effort for homework, be accountable, and present within the counseling alliance. My goal as a counselor is to provide a safe environment where we can explore primary interests, develop goals and determine strengths and assets as move toward the clients’ aspirations.

References

Chirico, Ilaria, Federica Andrei, Paola Salvatori, Irene Malaguti, and Elena Trombini. 2020. “The Focal Play Therapy: An Empirical Study on the Parent–Therapist Alliance, Parent–Child Interactions and Parenting Stress in a Clinical Sample of Children and Their Parents.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17(22): 8379.

Guo, Man, Amy Lemke, and Xinqi Dong. “Sources of Intergenerational Conflict in Chinese Immigrant Families in the United States.” Journal of family issues 43, no. 9 (2022): 2275-2294.

Juang, Linda P., Moin Syed, and Miyuki Takagi. “Intergenerational Discrepancies of Parental Control Among Chinese American families: Links to Family Conflict and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms.” Journal of Adolescence30, no. 6 (2007): 965-975.

Lau, Anna S., Kristen M. McCabe, May Yeh, Ann F. Garland, Patricia A. Wood, and Richard L. Hough. “The Acculturation Gap-distress Hypothesis Among High-risk Mexican American families.” Journal of Family Psychology 19, no. 3 (2005): 367.

Lee, Richard M., Jenny Su, and Emiko Yoshida. “Coping with Intergenerational Family Conflict Among Asian American College Students.” Journal of Counseling Psychology 52, no. 3 (2005): 389.

Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I., Jennifer B. Unger, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Anamara Ritt-Olson, and Daniel Soto. “Acculturation, Enculturation, and Symptoms of Depression in Hispanic Youth: The Roles of Gender, Hispanic Cultural Values, and Family Functioning.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 41 (2012): 1350-1365.

Li, Yong. “Intergenerational Conflict, Attitudinal Familism, and Depressive Symptoms Among Asian and Hispanic Adolescents in Immigrant Families: A Latent Variable Interaction Analysis.” Journal of Social Service Research 40, no. 1 (2014): 80-96.

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Lui, P. Priscilla, and David Rollock. “Assessing Intergenerational Cultural Conflict Among Asian Americans: Comparing Psychometric Properties of Key Measures.” Asian American Journal of Psychology 10, no. 1 (2019): 33.

Phinney, Jean S., Anthony Ong, and Tanya Madden. “Cultural Values and Intergenerational Value Discrepancies in Immigrant and Non‐immigrant Families.” Child Development 71, no. 2 (2000): 528-539.

Rasmi, Sarah, Timothy M. Daly, and Susan S. Chuang. “Intergenerational Conflict Management in Immigrant Arab Canadian Families.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 45, no. 7 (2014): 1124-1144.

Su, Jenny, Richard M. Lee, and Shary Vang. “Intergenerational Family Conflict and Coping Among Hmong American College Students.” Journal of Counseling Psychology 52, no. 4 (2005): 482.

Shen, Jillian J., Charissa SL Cheah, and Jing Yu. “Asian American and European American emerging adults’ perceived parenting styles and self-regulation ability.” Asian American Journal of Psychology 9, no. 2 (2018): 140.

Ying, Yu-Wen. “Strengthening Intergenerational/Intercultural Ties in Immigrant Families (SITIF) Testing a Culturally-Sensitive, Community-Based Intervention with Chinese American Parents.” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 5, no. 2 (2007): 65-88.

Ying, Yu-Wen, and Meekyung Han. “A Test of the Intergenerational Congruence in Immigrant Families—Child Scale with Southeast Asian Americans.” Social Work Research31, no. 1 (2007): 35-43.

Zhang, Wenxin, Xing Wei, Linqin Ji, Liang Chen, and Kirby Deater-Deckard. “Reconsidering parenting in Chinese culture: Subtypes, stability, and change of maternal parenting style during early adolescence.” Journal of youth and adolescence 46 (2017): 1117-1136.