Cultural tensions in immigrant households: Acculturative conflict, parental criticism, and depressive symptoms among Korean adolescents

Abstract

Developmental experiences and processes during adolescence such as individuation, increased conflict, and neurological changes (Arnett, 2007) may contribute to depressive symptoms in this developmental stage (see Rudolph, 2009). Among immigrant adolescents, the emergence of depressive symptoms may be further influenced by difficulties and stressors they experience as immigrants (Cleary et al., 2018; Lo et al., 2017), such as parent-adolescent acculturative conflict and parental criticism (Huang et al., 2012). These factors may contribute to a unique etiology of depressive symptoms in immigrant adolescents. For example, conflicts regarding matters of acculturation between immigrant Asian parents and their adolescents have been linked to depressive symptoms (Juang et al., 2018). Additionally, parental criticism has been linked to depressive symptoms throughout adolescence across racial groups (Castro & Rice, 2003; Huang et al., 2012). Although studies have linked parent-adolescent acculturative conflict and parental criticism with depression (Castro & Rice, 2003; Juang et al., 2018), no studies have examined the relationships among these three variables in this developmental stage. For immigrant adolescents, acculturative conflict and parental criticism may be developmentally specific factors related to depression based upon their contextual experiences. Therefore, the current study examined the potential mediating role of parental criticism on the association between parent-adolescent acculturative conflict and depressive symptoms in a sample of Korean immigrant adolescents in New Zealand, where Koreans are one of the fastest-growing and most psychologically vulnerable immigrant communities (Ho et al., 2002). One hundred and twenty-six Korean immigrant adolescents (MAge = 15.30, SDAge = 1.68; Female = 48.1%; Myears in NZ = 7.95, SDyears = 4.50) were recruited through local Korean organizations and churches. Participants answered anonymous questionnaires: Acculturation Intergenerational Conflict Scale (Lee, 2004; αmothers = .95, αfathers = .94), the Network of Relationships-Relationship Quality Version (Furman & Buhrmester, 2008; criticism subscale, αmothers = .81, αfathers = .87), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977; α = .87). Correlations demonstrated significant relationships among the key variables (see Table 1), and an ANOVA revealed no significant sex differences. Mediation analyses using PROCESS (Hayes, 2012) were used to assess the potential mediating role of parental criticism between parent-adolescent acculturative conflict and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that maternal criticism was a significant mediator between mother-adolescent acculturative conflict and depressive symptoms (β = 3.60, 95% CI [.62, 6.00]), but this was not found for fathers. The results support previous findings that parent-adolescent acculturative conflict and criticism are associated with adolescent depression across diverse racial groups (Castro & Rice, 2003; Juang et al., 2018). Additionally, the results suggest that parent-adolescent acculturative conflict and adolescent depression may be mediated by parental criticism, suggesting that parent-adolescent acculturative conflict may influence parental criticism, which then impacts depressive symptoms in Korean immigrant adolescents. When working with this population, community organizations and practitioners might consider the impacts of parent-adolescent acculturative conflict and parental criticism on adolescent mental health. Future research should be directed towards exploring whether these findings are unique to this population or exist cross-culturally among other immigrant youths.