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Perceived parent-adolescent relationships and depressed mood in Korean American adolescents: 

Perceived parent-adolescent relationships and depressed mood in Korean American adolescents 10-27-05 Eunjung Kim, PhD, ARNP University of Washington

Slide2: 

This study was funded by RIFP and IESUS from the University of Washington KO1 from NINR

Overview: 

Overview Backgrounds adolescent depressed mood: US - Asian American -Korean American Korean Americans: cultural values, parenting goals and styles challenges in Korean American parent-adolescent relationships: parental warmth, control, intergenerational acculturation conflicts Research questions Method Results & Discussion Conclusion

Research questions : 

Research questions how parent-adolescent relationships (i.e., warmth, control, and intergenerational acculturation conflicts) are related to Korean American adolescents’ depressed mood? are the same parent-adolescent relationship variables important across mother and father? how each specific parent-adolescent conflict situation is related to adolescents’ depressed mood?

Adolescent depressed mood : 

Adolescent depressed mood one of the most prevalent mental health problems among adolescents- increasing, reoccurring, and associated with adverse consequences ranges from normal transient feelings of sadness and isolation experienced by most teenagers to the much less common instances of major depressive disorder scores higher than 16 using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)

Adolescent depressed mood: 

Adolescent depressed mood Health Behavior in School Children Survey using 10 statement taken from the DSM-III criteria for depression (Saluja et al., 2004) American Indian adolescents (29%) European American adolescents (22%) Mexican American adolescents (18%) Asian American adolescents (17%) African American adolescents (15%)

Adolescent depressed mood: 

Adolescent depressed mood Puerto Rican adolescent using DSM-IV-TR (Gonzales-Tajera et al., 2005) individual factors: gender, functional impairment familiar factors: parental rejection, primary caretaker’s psychopathology, negative discipline, parental discord, poor parent-child attachment, poor parent-child involvement. environmental factors: exposure to violence and victimizations of neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, assault

Adolescent depressed mood: China vs. US: 

Adolescent depressed mood: China vs. US Chinese adolescents and US adolescents (Greenberger, Chen, Tally, & Dong, 2000) - US adolescents: 53% European, 16% Latino, 12% Asian, 11 % African, and other - poor quality of family relationships (lower parental warmth and higher conflicts with parents) and poorer grades* in school were significantly associated with higher depressed mood using CES-D *grades: no relation for US adolescents

Adolescents depressed mood: European American vs. Asian American: 

Adolescents depressed mood: European American vs. Asian American European and Asian American adolescents (Greenberger & Chen, 1996) Asian American adolescents: Chinese and Korean ethnic differences in depressed mood was not evident in young adolescents using CES-D but, in late adolescence, Asian American adolescents perceived higher depressed mood, lower parental warmth, and higher parent-adolescent conflict than their European American counterparts lower parental warmth and higher conflicts with parents were linked with depressed mood

Adolescents depressed mood:Asian American : 

Adolescents depressed mood: Asian American harsh discipline, low monitoring, and low inductive reasoning (S. Y. Kim & Ge, 2000) more negative peer relationships, not adopting American culture, and immigration to United States after age 12 (Wong, 2001)

Adolescents depressed mood :Korean American : 

Adolescents depressed mood : Korean American Korean American adolescents experience higher mental health problems than Chinese and Japanese American adolescents (C. J. Yeh, 2003) Korean American adolescents scored higher on intergenerational conflicts and were less likely to seek social support than Chinese and Japanese American adolescents (C. Yeh & Inose, 2002)

Korean Americans : 

Korean Americans 2000 Census: 1,076,892 Korean Americans voluntary migrants: political and social security and better opportunity for child’s education Korean American adolescents’ mental health is challenged: two cultures, acculturation

Korean cultural values: 

Korean cultural values Traditional social values: Confucianism Submission of self to family Hierarchical relationships: obedience to authority and parents proper order between elders and youth filial piety

Differences in culture: collectivism-individualism: 

Differences in culture: collectivism-individualism Koreans: Collectivism we in-group interdependence duties/ obligations Americans: Individualism I individual independence pleasure seeking

Parenting goals: 

Parenting goals Korean American: to promote children’s --interdependence --cooperation --absolute obedience without discussion --respect European American: to promote children’s --distinctness --independence --autonomy --self-reliance --self-assertion

Living in two cultures: 

Living in two cultures adolescents generally acculturated to the majority culture at a faster rate than their parents, which challenges Korean American parent-adolescent relationships parental warmth parental control parent-adolescent conflicts

Parental acceptance-rejection theory (R. P. Rohner, 2005) : 

Parental acceptance-rejection theory (R. P. Rohner, 2005) parental warmth refers to the affectional and behavioral quality between parents and adolescents accepting parents are warm and affectionate, rejecting parents tend to be cold, hostile, indifferent, and undifferentiating. parental behavioral control refers to the level of parental limit-setting on adolescents’ behavior and to the degree of parental reinforcement of the limit permissive parents exercise minimum control over adolescents’ behaviors and provide no direction strict parents place many rules and restrictions on adolescents’ behaviors and limit their autonomy

Challenge in Korean American parenting: 

Challenge in Korean American parenting ↑ Parental control: Korean adolescents ↑ warmth/affection Korean American fathers:↑warmth/affection mothers: ↑rejection adolescents: ↑rejection ↑control --- ↑ parent-adolescent conflict

Intergenerational conflict: 

Intergenerational conflict examine generation gap or the intergenerational conflict to understand the nature of parent-adolescent conflict within the Western culture (Lee et al., 2000). conflict with mothers > conflict with fathers: mothers’ greater involvement in day-to-day dealings with adolescents (Greenberger & Chen, 1996). 2nd generation British Asian college female students: perceived conflict with parents and parental overprotection was related to their increased eating disorder (Mujtaba & Furnham, 2001). African and Mexican boys: high parent-child conflicts, more punishment, more fighting, and more rejection were related to children’s problem behaviors (Wasserman, Miller, Pinner, & Jaramillo, 1996).

Intergenerational acculturation conflicts: 

Intergenerational acculturation conflicts Immigrant parent-adolescent conflict is more complicated due to living in two cultures (Lee et al., 2000) “my child is too Americanized and don’t act like a proper Korean teen” vs. “my parents are being too traditional” this kind of conflict need to be understood within intergenerational acculturation conflicts father-adolescent conflicts may be more serious than mother-adolescent conflicts perceived acculturation disparity was related to related to Chinese American father-child conflicts, but not to mother-child conflicts (Fu, 2002)

Research questions : 

Research questions how parent-adolescent relationships (i.e., warmth, control, and intergenerational acculturation conflicts) are related to adolescents’ depressed mood? are the same parent-adolescent relationship variables important across mother and father? how each specific parent-adolescent conflict situation is related to adolescents’ depressed mood?

Method: sample: 

Method: sample 56 Korean American adolescents (ages 11 -17) living in the Pacific Northwest adolescents (31 boys, 25 girls): 13 years, lived in the US for 10 years fathers: 47 years, 16 years of education, lived in the US for 18 years mothers: 43 years, 15 years of education, lived in the US for 11 years family income over $60,000 (36%)

Instruments: 

Instruments instrument with preferred language Parent Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (Rohner, 1991) Asian American Family Conflict Scale (Lee et al., 2000) Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977)

Question 1. how parent-adolescent relationships (i.e., warmth, control, and intergenerational acculturation conflicts) are related to adolescents’ depressed mood?: 

Question 1. how parent-adolescent relationships (i.e., warmth, control, and intergenerational acculturation conflicts) are related to adolescents’ depressed mood?

Question 2. are the same parent-adolescent relationships variables important across mother and father?: 

Question 2. are the same parent-adolescent relationships variables important across mother and father?

Question 3. how each specific parent-adolescent conflict situation is related to adolescents’ depressed mood?: 

Question 3. how each specific parent-adolescent conflict situation is related to adolescents’ depressed mood?

1. My parent tells me what to do with my life, but I want to make my own decisions. : 

1. My parent tells me what to do with my life, but I want to make my own decisions.

2. My parent tells me that a social life is not important at my age, but I think that it is. : 

2. My parent tells me that a social life is not important at my age, but I think that it is.

3. I have done well in school, but my parent’ academic expectations always exceed my performance. : 

3. I have done well in school, but my parent’ academic expectations always exceed my performance.

4. My parent wants me to sacrifice personal interests for the sake of family, but I feel this is unfair. : 

4. My parent wants me to sacrifice personal interests for the sake of family, but I feel this is unfair.

5. My parent always compares me with others, but I want them to accept me for being myself. : 

5. My parent always compares me with others, but I want them to accept me for being myself.

6.My parent argue that they show me love by housing, feeding, and educating me, but I wish they would show more physical and verbal signs of affection. : 

6.My parent argue that they show me love by housing, feeding, and educating me, but I wish they would show more physical and verbal signs of affection.

7. My parent doesn’t want me to bring shame upon the family, but I feel that my parent is too concerned with saving face. : 

7. My parent doesn’t want me to bring shame upon the family, but I feel that my parent is too concerned with saving face.

8. My parent expects me to behave like a proper Korean boy or girl, but I feel my parent is being too traditional. : 

8. My parent expects me to behave like a proper Korean boy or girl, but I feel my parent is being too traditional.

9. I want to state my opinion, but my parent considers it to be disrespectful to talk back. : 

9. I want to state my opinion, but my parent considers it to be disrespectful to talk back.

10. My parent demands that I always show respect for elders, but I believe in showing respect only if they deserve it. : 

10. My parent demands that I always show respect for elders, but I believe in showing respect only if they deserve it.

Question 3. how each specific parent-adolescent conflict situation is related to adolescents’ depressed mood?: 

Question 3. how each specific parent-adolescent conflict situation is related to adolescents’ depressed mood?

Conclusions: 

Conclusions father-adolescent relationship: ↑ depressed mood:  warmth, ↑conflict mother-adolescent relationship: ↑ depressed mood:  warmth, ↑control, ↑conflict conflict with father and low maternal warmth were significant factors

Conclusions: 

Conclusions overall, high conflict group adolescents scored higher than 16 on CES-D, indicating that they were experiencing depressed mood high conflict group adolescents experienced significantly more depressed mood than low conflict group adolescents in 6 situations: academic expectation, sacrificing one’s interests, ways to express love, saving face, expressing opinion, and showing respect to elderly significantly more high conflict group adolescents scored higher than CES-D 16 than low conflict group adolescents in the same 6 items

Limitations: 

Limitations self-reports using CES-D small sample size sampling bias

Recommendation for research: 

Recommendation for research larger sample, longitudinal design culturally and linguistically appropriate intervention program