Parenting Experiences of Chinese Immigrantswith School-age Children
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Date
2012-04-20
Authors
Tian, Xiaomei
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Abstract
A growing number of Chinese immigrants come to Canada to better the future for
their children. While raising children can be demanding at times, the struggles resulting
from bicultural parenting may significantly increase the difficulties. To cater to the
growing cross-cultural parenting needs, this study explored how the unique challenges
such as race, culture, economic issues, language and social networks impacted the
Chinese immigrant parenting experiences.
Phenomenology was used as the strategy to guide the research. Semi-structured
interviews were used to discern how Chinese immigrants were making sense of their
bicultural parenting experiences. Ten Chinese immigrant parents (mother and father)
from five families were recruited as participants.
Ten main themes from “parenting philosophies, attitudes, and approaches of Chinese
immigrant parents” to “needs in raising the children” emerged from the phenomenology
data analysis.
In the main part of the Discussion, I used the phenomenological approach to describe
the meanings of Chinese immigrant parents’ parenting and investigated how these
meanings influenced the parenting methods they chose.
The study confirmed the significance of cultural and social systems of support for
Chinese immigrant parenting. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory served as a
foundation upon which the development and implementation of this study was built.
Finally, to initiate efficient programs for Chinese immigrant parents in the future, I
put forward the recommendations to all the stakeholders who are interested in the bicultural
parenting issues.
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Keywords
Parenting , Chinese Family Relationships , Immigrant Children , Families , Chinese Canadians