Impulse Control Moderates the Link Between Parent–Child Cultural Orientation Gaps and Externalizing Problems in Chinese Immigrant Early Adolescents

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate whether the expected association between parent–child cultural orientation gaps and externalizing problems was moderated by impulse control (IC) among Chinese early adolescents in immigrant families. Ninety-one first- and second-generation Chinese immigrant youths (58% girls) aged between 11 and 13 years and their parents completed independent measures of mainstream and heritage cultural orientations. IC was evaluated via a computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task, while externalizing problems were assessed via parental report. Regression analyses indicated that low levels of IC represented a risk factor for externalizing adjustment among early adolescents who were less oriented toward the mainstream culture than their parents. In addition, high levels of IC were protective for early adolescents who were less oriented toward their heritage culture than their parents. The findings suggest that IC plays an important role in Chinese early adolescents’ behavioral adjustment. Implications of the results are discussed.

Keywords

Chinese immigrants early adolescence acculturation gap enculturation gap externalizing problems

Early adolescence is a critical time for the development of externalizing problems (World Health Organization, 2016), especially among immigrant youth who have to go through the process of cultural adaptation (Dimitrova, Chasiotis, & van de Vijver, 2016; Kwak, 2003). Although Chinese immigrant youth are generally considered a “model minority” in terms of academic performance, recent evidence reports more psychological difficulties in this ethnic group compared with mainstreamers (Okamura et al., 2016). Specifically, previous research indicates that Chinese immigrant youths are particularly vulnerable to internalizing problems, self-harm behavior, and social anxiety (Mistry et al., 2016), whereas much less is known about externalizing difficulties in this population. Yet scholars increasingly report that externalizing symptoms are a major concern (e.g., Huang, Calzada, Cheng, Barajas-Gonzalez, & Brotman, 2017; J. Kim et al., 2018) and call for more research on self-regulatory skills among Asian immigrant youth (Cheah, 2016).

Given the detrimental effect of externalizing difficulties across the life span and the potential costs to society in terms of delinquency and violence later in life (Betz, 1995), identifying the potential risk and protective factors linked to such difficulties is paramount to inform effective prevention and intervention programs targeting Chinese early adolescents with an immigrant background (Zhou et al., 2012). The current study aimed to examine how parent–child discrepancies in acculturation and/or enculturation processes are linked to externalizing problems among Chinese immigrant families and if these associations are moderated by early adolescents’ self-regulatory skills operationalized as impulse control (IC).

Parent–Youth Cultural Orientation Gaps and Externalizing Problems

Immigrant children and their parents go through the process of cultural adaptation at different rates, potentially leading to parent–youth differences in adaptation to the mainstream culture (i.e., acculturation gap) and maintenance of the heritage culture (i.e., enculturation gap) (Kwak, 2003). Such gaps become more influential at the entry into adolescence, when children strive for more autonomy and independence and are increasingly exposed to out-of-home contexts and to different cultural values and behaviors (Garcìa-Coll & Pachter, 2002). Dissimilar parent–child levels of acculturation and enculturation may intensify the normative challenges faced by immigrant youth during this developmental phase. This might be even more so among Chinese immigrant families, given the large distance between their collectivist heritage culture and the more individualistic Western receiving cultures (Dion & Dion, 1996).

Extant research on the link between parent–child cultural orientation gaps and psychological adjustment has yielded inconsistent findings due to variability in theoretical and methodological approaches (see Telzer, 2010, for a review). Specifically, scholars agree that this relation depends on the domain and the direction of parent–youth discrepancies, which, in turn, may interact with other individual and cultural variables (Ward & Geeraert, 2016). Preliminary evidence suggests that when parent and youth independent reports of both cultural orientations are considered, gaps in parent–child cultural orientations are not necessarily linked to more externalizing problems in the U.S. context (Nieri et al., 2016; Telzer, 2010; Telzer, Yuen, Gonzales, & Fuligni, 2016). Indeed, situations in which youths are more oriented toward the host culture than their parents may be a normative experience among immigrant families and therefore are potentially unrelated to negative outcomes or even linked to better adjustment (Telzer et al., 2016). For example, a study of Chinese immigrant families in Canada found that cultural orientation gaps had a detrimental effect on youths’ mental health only when parents were more enculturated than their children and not when children were more enculturated or acculturated than their parents (Costigan & Dokis, 2006). However, the authors also found that the parent–child acculturation gap was linked to lower achievement motivation in children. Thus, more research is needed to shed light on the conditions for psychological adjustment as a function of parent–child cultural orientation gaps.

The Moderating Role of Impulse Control

To date, most studies in the field have focused on moderating or mediating variables such as quality of the parent–child relationship, family conflict, and parenting style (e.g., S. Y. Kim, Chen, Wang, Shen, & Orozco-Lapray, 2013; M. Kim & Park, 2011; Ly & Zhou, 2016). Yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to individual factors that may be additionally important in coping resources amenable to interventions. Here, we propose that the cultural orientation gap–externalizing problems link may depend on levels of early adolescents’ IC (Fine, Mahler, Steinberg, Frick, & Cauffman, 2017). IC is the ability to self-regulate and inhibit an automatic response in order to successfully complete a goal (Bezdjian, Baker, Lozano, & Raine, 2009). It becomes a crucial skill at the entry into adolescence and has been found to moderate the effects of contextual stressors (e. g., poverty, negative parenting) on externalizing difficulties (see Fine et al., 2017). IC transcends innate abilities linked to intelligence, involving behavioral components that are susceptible to environmental influences, including parenting practices and poverty (see Jaramillo, Rendón, Muñoz, Weis, & Trommsdorff, 2017; Li-Grining, 2012). Indeed, prior studies show that IC may serve as a potentially protective factor in the link between environmental–familial functioning and emotional and behavioral problems (Jaramillo et al., 2017; Menting, Van Lier, Koot, Pardini, & Loeber, 2016). For instance, a recent study in Italy found that IC interacted with Moroccan and Romanian immigrant early adolescents’ cultural orientations and that this joint effect buffered the negative consequences of ethnic discrimination on mental health (Miconi et al., 2018). Thus, adolescents with better self-regulatory abilities tend to exhibit better psychological outcomes, especially in at-risk settings, whereas the opposite seems to be true in children and youth who lack such skills (Fine et al., 2017; Menting et al., 2016; Miconi et al., 2018).

Overall, research findings suggest that low IC represents a developmental disadvantage in that low IC youth are less able to inhibit their emotions and thoughts and more likely to incur in impulsive inappropriate actions. In addition, youth with a low IC seem to be more susceptible to negative contextual influences, such as harsh parenting (Casey, 2015). Of importance, IC is strongly emphasized in Chinese culture as it responds to Confucian values such as self-control, respect, and obedience (Lieber, Fung, & Leung, 2006). For the aforementioned reasons, we propose that IC may be a candidate moderator of the gap–adjustment link among Chinese immigrant youth.

Chinese Immigrants in Italy

Recent theoretical frameworks increasingly highlight the need to approach the study of acculturative processes through an ecological perspective, taking into account cultural/contextual as well as personal influences on immigrants’ adaptation (Ward & Geeraert, 2016; Zhou et al., 2012). Consistent with this view, the current study evaluates parent–child cultural orientation gaps and externalizing problems among Chinese immigrant families living in Italy, a recently receiving society that generally encourages immigrants’ assimilation rather than integration (Kosic, Mannetti, & Sam, 2005). Italy currently hosts approximately five million legally residing migrants, who make up 8.5% of the total population (ISTAT, 2018). More than 200 nationalities are represented, but the largest communities comprise Romanian (23%), Albanian (9%), Moroccan (8%), and Chinese (5.5%) citizens. Migration fluxes to Italy have grown substantially starting from the 1990s and therefore are a relatively recent phenomenon in comparison with other countries with a long history of immigration, such as the United States. Moreover, ethnocultural diversity in Italian society has historically been low as opposed to traditionally multicultural societies (e.g., Australia, Canada), leading to an overall assimilationist model with regard to immigration policies (Colombo & Sciortino, 2004; Kosic et al., 2005). Italian public opinion, initially tolerant toward immigrants, has become more overtly hostile partly because of the lack of clarity of immigration policies as well as the inefficiency of the public administration, therefore undermining the integration of the diverse immigrant communities (Kosic et al., 2005).

Very few studies investigated cultural orientations and their links to adaptation outcomes among immigrant youth in Italy. Inguglia and Musso (2015) found that Tunisian immigrant adolescents in southern Italy maintained their cultural orientations toward both heritage and host cultures, and this strategy of integration was linked to better mental health outcomes. In contrast, a study by Miconi et al. (2018) reported that very few Romanian and Moroccan immigrant early adolescents in Northern Italy scored high on both cultural orientations, and the role of these cultural orientations in psychological adjustment varied as a function of ethnic group. With regard to Chinese immigrants, at present, Italy hosts the largest Chinese community in Europe (Latham & Wu, 2013). Contrary to the North American context, Chinese immigrants in Italy are not a “model minority” and do not report high academic performance. Indeed, Chinese immigration to Italy has some unique features that further differentiate it from other migrant groups in this country as well as from Chinese migration fluxes to the United States. The vast majority of Chinese citizens originate from the southeastern coastal province of Zhejiang, where rapid growth in urban areas has resulted in striking economic and educational inequalities, which motivated many citizens to go to Italy due to historical and sociopolitical reasons (Chang, 2012). Unlike their North American counterparts, many Chinese immigrants in Italy run small businesses in consumer goods and manufacturing sectors (Ceccagno, 2003). As a consequence, Chinese children often drop out of school because they are expected to help in the family business (Laghi, Pallini, Baiocco, & Dimitrova, 2014). While parents strongly encourage their children to learn the Italian language and to perform well at school, they also require them to maintain their heritage, culture, and traditions (Pedone, 2013). However, intercultural contact with the mainstream population is low, since Chinese immigrants in Italy are a highly mobile, close-knit community with its own structure and organization (Marsden, 2014). Research evidence suggests that Chinese immigrant communities are not well integrated into the mainstream Italian society, although the new generations are increasingly expressing their right and desire to be part of the majority population (see http://www.associna.com/it/).

Current Study

The present study aimed to investigate the associations of parent–child cultural orientation gaps with early adolescents’ externalizing problems in Chinese immigrant families in Italy, postulating the moderating role of IC. Based on recent recommendations (e.g., Telzer et al., 2016), we considered acculturation and enculturation dimensions simultaneously and obtained independent reports of both cultural orientations from parents and children. In addition, we relied on questionnaires as well as an experimental task to reduce issues of social desirability and shared-method variance.

In light of prior results, we anticipated that parent–child cultural discrepancies would be linked to more externalizing problems in children (Telzer, 2010; Ward & Geeraert, 2016). Given the lack of studies on the moderating role of IC in the cultural orientation gap–externalizing problem link, no specific hypotheses were generated in this regard. Yet, based on past research, it was reasonable to expect that good IC skills would buffer against the negative effects of such discrepancies on youths’ externalizing problems. Conversely, it was anticipated that low IC would represent a risk factor in the gap–adjustment link (Fine et al., 2017).

Method

Participants

Participants were part of a larger study on immigrant and native Italian early adolescents’ socio-emotional adjustment (see Miconi, Moscardino, Altoè, & Salcuni, 2019). The sample included 91 Chinese early adolescents of immigrant origin (58.2% girls; 26.4% first generation, i.e., born in China) and their first-generation Chinese parents (i.e., born in China). Participants were aged between 11 and 13 years (mean [M] = 12.38 years, standard deviation [SD] = 0.74). On average, first-generation youths had been residing in Italy for M = 5.17 years (SD = 2.85, range 2-12 years).

Among parents, 53 mothers (58.2%) completed the questionnaire, while the remaining 38 (41.8%) were fathers. All parents were born in China in the region of Zhejiang, confirming national statistics on Chinese immigration to Italy (Pedone, 2013). Parents had been residing in Italy on average for M = 14.76 years (SD = 5.55, range 3-28 years). The majority (90%) of adolescents were from two-parent families, whereas 10% were from single-parent (including never married, divorced, or widowed) families.

In terms of socioeconomic status (SES), Chinese immigrants reported a medium level (M = 4.96, SD = 1.90, range 1-9) based on the scoring system of the Family Affluence Scale (Currie et al., 2008) (see Method section). The study protocol and procedures were approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Psychology, University of Padua (protocol #1473-2014).

Procedure

Data were collected between March 2015 and July 2016. Participants were recruited by establishing partnerships with schools with large immigrant student populations. Parents who expressed an interest in the study were asked for a signed informed consent, and early adolescents were asked for additional verbal assent. Data collection took place at school. Each adolescent was assessed individually in a quiet room by trained research assistants, whereas parents were asked to complete a questionnaire packet at home. The response rate was 61%.

Participants were tested in two separate individual sessions of approximately 45 minutes each within a week’s time. In the first session, early adolescents completed the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices, followed by a set of self-report questionnaires. IC was assessed during the second session on a laptop computer with E-Prime 2 software. All questionnaires and verbal instructions that had not been previously validated in one of the target languages were translated using standard translation–backtranslation techniques. Participants were informed that their involvement was voluntary and that their responses would be confidential. The investigator remained in the room while participants completed their surveys to monitor their activity and answer questions.

Measures

Cultural Orientations and Gaps

Parents and youths completed the Cultural and Social Acculturation Scale (CSAS; Chen & Lee, 1996), a bidimensional scale assessing individuals’ contact with, and engagement in, both heritage (enculturation) and mainstream cultures (acculturation). The questionnaire consists of 32 items, 15 of which refer to the mainstream culture and 17 to the heritage culture. Items are rated on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 to 5 points. The CSAS items assess cultural orientations in three main domains: language fluency, media use, and social affiliations. The average score of responses was computed for each subscale, separately for early adolescents and their parents, with higher scores indicating a stronger orientation toward the specific culture. The CSAS has been used in previous studies with Chinese American samples, reporting good internal reliabilities (see Chen et al., 2014). In the present study, internal consistencies of the mainstream (Italian) orientation subscale were α = 0.85 and α = 0.88 for early adolescents and their parents, respectively; reliabilities of the heritage (Chinese) orientation subscale were α = .83 for early adolescents and α = .64 for their parents.

To examine cultural gaps, we first computed the standard scores separately for parent and adolescents’ self-reports on each subscale. Next, we computed difference scores, in which we subtracted the parents’ z scores from the adolescents’ z scores. Thus, positive scores indicate greater discrepancies, with early adolescents reporting higher cultural orientations than their parents, while negative scores indicate greater discrepancies, with parents reporting higher cultural orientations than their children.

Impulse Control

Adolescents were administered a computerized version of the Iowa Gambling Task (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994). In this task, they were shown four decks of cards displayed in a linear sequence across the screen. They could select cards from a deck by clicking on it with the mouse. When turned, each card revealed a combination of gains and losses (measured in play money). Adolescents were given a virtual stake of €2000 and asked to win as much money as possible by choosing cards from any of the four decks (one card per trial), treating the play money as if it were real. They were not told how many trials there would be, but they were told that some of the decks were better than others. The two disadvantageous decks delivered large immediate rewards but were disadvantageous in the long run because they also delivered larger losses than rewards, whereas the two advantageous decks delivered smaller immediate rewards than the other two decks but were advantageous in the long run because they delivered even smaller losses. To ensure that adolescents understood that outcomes were contingent on their selections, 12 training trials in which the experimenter guided them by stating the amounts won and lost preceded the actual experiment. A proportion score was calculated for the number of advantageous and disadvantageous choices for each adolescent. Subsequently, the proportion of disadvantageous choices was subtracted from the proportion of advantageous choices, with higher positive scores indicating relatively advantageous performance.

Externalizing Problems

Early adolescents’ externalizing problems were assessed by means of the 25-item, parent-rated version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997). In this version, parents are asked to rate their child’s behaviors on a Likert-type scale ranging from 0 (not true) to 2 (absolutely true). We used parents as informants because several studies indicate that adolescents tend to overestimate their own socio-emotional problems across a wide range of cultures, including China (see Rescorla et al., 2013). Furthermore, the use of a multi-informant approach is highly recommended to avoid problems related to common method variance (Ratelle, Duchesne, & Guay, 2017). Both Italian and Chinese validations of the SDQ parent report version have shown good psychometric properties (Du, Kou, & Coghill, 2008; Marzocchi et al., 2004). In the present study, the three-subscale division of the SDQ (i.e., internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior) was used. For the purposes of this article, we focused on the externalizing problems subscale (α = .68).

Control Variables

Age, Gender, Ethnicity, and Nativity

Both adolescents and their parents were asked to complete a questionnaire providing information on their gender, age, place of birth, and family composition.

Socioeconomic Status

SES was assessed via the Family Affluence Scale (Currie et al., 2008), a valid measure of socioeconomic level for children and adolescents. It includes four items concerning material affluence. The sum across items is computed to provide an overall SES score ranging from 0 to 9, in which scores from 0 to 2 indicate low affluence, 3 to 5 medium affluence, and 6 to 9 high affluence (see Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2005; Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2007). Cross-national studies have demonstrated good validity and reliability of the scale across countries, including Italy (see Vieno, Santinello, Lenzi, Baldassari, & Mirandola, 2009).

Nonverbal Intelligence

Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (Raven, 1938) were administered to early adolescents as a measure of nonverbal reasoning ability. It is the most known and widely used test of all culture-reduced tests and has shown good reliability and validity across many cultural groups (Raven, 2000). The average score for Chinese early adolescents was M = 109.14, SD = 11.28, range = 80-128.

Data Analysis

Analyses were performed using R software. Cases were eliminated when 20% or more of the items of one measure did not receive an answer. Thus, 9 cases (9%) were eliminated, resulting in a final sample of 91 early adolescents and their parents. The remaining missing values were imputed for each subject based on each subject’s mean score rounded off to the closest integer to respect the metric of the considered measure.

Descriptive information for the sample was summarized using means and standard deviations for continuous variables and counts and proportions for categorical variables. Differences in acculturation and enculturation level between parents and early adolescents were assessed by means of a paired t test. At the bivariate level, associations among parents’ and early adolescents’ cultural orientations, adolescents’ IC, and externalizing problems were assessed using Pearson’s correlations.

At the multivariate level, a linear regression model was implemented, with externalizing problems as dependent variable and with acculturation and enculturation gaps and IC as independent variables. To assess potential moderating effects of IC, the two-way interactions between acculturation and enculturation gaps with IC were also included in the model. In addition, we considered the interaction between acculturation and enculturation gaps. Results were interpreted in terms of significance and size of coefficients and explained variance.

We also included age, gender, generation, and SES as covariates, since they have been found to influence developmental outcomes in migrant youth (see Dimitrova et al., 2016). Finally, we controlled for nonverbal intelligence for at least two reasons. First, the relation between IC and intelligence is complex in both adult (Toplak, Sorge, Benoit, West, & Stanovich, 2010) and child samples (Crone & van der Molen, 2004; Smith, Xiao, & Bechara, 2012). Although results are still inconclusive, some studies found that nonverbal intelligence affected self-regulatory capacities in children and adolescents (Arffa, 2007; Hongwanishkul, Happaney, Lee, & Zelazo, 2005). Indeed, performance at the Iowa Gambling Task has been associated with general intelligence, even if such a performance goes beyond innate abilities linked to intelligence as it involves behavioral components that are susceptible to environmental influences (see Jaramillo et al., 2017; Li-Grining, 2012). Second, recent evidence points to the interrelation between general cognitive ability and problem behavior during early adolescence (Flouri et al., 2018).

Results

Preliminary analyses showed that mothers and fathers reported similar levels of acculturation, enculturation, and of their children’s externalizing problems. Thus, results from mothers and fathers were averaged to form an overall parent score for all subsequent analyses. Means and standard deviations for study variables and bivariate correlations are reported in Table 1.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of Study Variables for Chinese Immigrant Parents and Early Adolescents and Correlations (n = 91).

	M (SD)	Range	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
1 Mainstream cultural orientation (self report)	3.16 (0.70)	1.40-4.93	—	−0.18	0.34**	0.10	0.58***	0.20	−0.05	−0.34**	−0.15	−0.16	0.35***	0.10	−0.05
2 Chinese cultural orientation (self-report)	3.44 (0.62)	1.76-4.53		—	−0.10	0.02	−0.07	0.70***	0.11	−0.08	0.18	0.26*	−0.24**	0.18	0.09
3 Mainstream cultural orientation (parent report)	2.08 (0.70)	1.06-4.31			—	0.23*	−0.58***	−0.23*	0.12	−0.12	0.02	−0.24*	0.11	0.08	0.09
4 Chinese cultural orientation (parent report)	3.30 (0.50)	2.27-4.67				—	−0.12	−0.70***	0.10	<0.01	0.06	−0.16	0.12	0.31**	−0.08
5 Acculturation gap	0.00 (1.15)	−3.72 to 2.33					—	0.03	−0.14	−0.19	−0.15	0.07	0.21*	0.01	−0.12
6 Enculturation gap	0.00 (1.40)	−3.81 to 2.46						—	0.01	−0.06	0.08	0.30**	−0.25*	−0.09	0.13
7 Impulse control	0.01 (0.15)	−0.54 to 0.56							—	−0.09	0.10	−0.07	0.03	−0.02	0.19
8 Externalizing problems (parent report)	4.69 (2.81)	0-12								—	−0.07	−0.18	−0.04	0.01	−0.37
9 Age	12.38 (0.74)	11-13									—	0.02	−0.30**	0.16	0.15
10 Gender^a												—	−0.15	−0.01	0.09
11 Generation^b (% first)	26.4	—											—	0.29**	0.06
12 Socioeconomic status	4.96 (1.90)	1-9												—	−0.04
13 Nonverbal intelligence	109.14 (11.28)	80-128													—

Note. SD = standard deviation. Raw scores for each Cultural and Social Acculturation Scale subscale (early adolescent and parent report) are reported.

Coded 1 = male and 2 = female. b. Coded 1= first generation and 2 = second generation.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Results from a paired t test indicated that early adolescents were significantly more oriented toward the mainstream culture than their parents, t(90) = 12.90, p < .001, d = 1.35, whereas they did not differ in levels of enculturation to the Chinese culture, t(90) = 1.69, p < .094, d = 0.18.

As can be seen in Table 2, we found a main effect of nonverbal intelligence and acculturation gap on externalizing problems, such that a larger gap (with adolescents scoring higher than their parents in the mainstream cultural orientation scale) and higher nonverbal intelligence were linked to fewer externalizing problems. However, this gap significantly interacted with IC (two-way interaction) in links with externalizing problems. To explore the interaction effect, we performed tests of the simple slopes (Aiken & West, 1991) controlling for all terms included in the model and using a median split for the moderating variable to take its skewed distribution into account. As depicted in Figure 1, the level of externalizing problems varied significantly as a function of acculturation gap among early adolescents with low IC (B = −1.12, standard error [SE] = 0.30, p < .001, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .26), whereas the same was not true for adolescents with high IC (B = −0.13, SE = 0.46, p = .787, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .002). More specifically, among low IC early adolescents, those who were more acculturated than their parents reported fewer problems, whereas adolescents who were less acculturated than their parents reported the highest level of symptoms.

Table 2.

Final Linear Regression Model With Externalizing Problems as Dependent Variable.

Variable	B (SE)	Omnibus F (df)	$η_{p}^{2}$
Gender (female)	−0.92 (0.58)	2.50 (1, 79)	.03
Age	−0.25 (0.42)	0.36 (1, 79)	<.01
Generation (second)	−0.03 (0.74)	0.01 (1, 79)	<.01
Socioeconomic status	0.07 (0.16)	0.17 (1, 79)	<.01
Nonverbal intelligence	−0.08 (0.03)	10.88 (1, 79)**	.12
Acculturation gap	−0.61 (0.26)	6.82 (1, 79)*	.06
Enculturation gap	0.02 (0.21)	0.06 (1, 79)	<.01
Impulse control	−0.98 (1.90)	0.32 (1, 79)	<.01
Acculturation gap × impulse control	3.37 (1.55)	4.71 (1, 79)*	.06
Enculturation gap × impulse control	3.42 (1.64)	4.37 (1, 79)*	.05
Acculturation gap × enculturation gap	0.16 (0.20)	0.62 (1, 79)	.01

Note. SE = standard error; df = degree of freedom. n = 91. Baseline category for gender was male. Baseline category for generation was first generation. R² = .28.

p < .05; **p < .01.

Figure 1.

Interaction effect of acculturation gap and impulse control (IC) on externalizing problems for Chinese immigrant early adolescents (n = 91). IC was divided into two levels based on median: low = below median; high = above median. 95% confidence bands are presented in grey.

Another two-way significant interaction emerged between enculturation gap and IC. As can be seen in Figure 2, early adolescents who were less enculturated than their parents reported more difficulties at low levels of IC and fewer difficulties at high levels of IC. In contrast, early adolescents who were more enculturated than their parents had similar levels of externalizing problems, regardless of IC. Yet simple slope analysis indicated that the association between enculturation gap and externalizing problems was not significant neither at low (B = 0.21, SE = 0.27, p = .442, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .01) nor at high levels of IC (B = 0.26, SE = 0.36, p = .474, $η_{p}^{2}$ = .016).

Figure 2.

Interaction effect of enculturation gap and impulse control (IC) on externalizing problems for Chinese immigrant early adolescents (n = 91). IC was divided into two levels based on median: low = below median; high = above median. 95% confidence bands are presented in grey.

Discussion

The present study aimed to examine parent–child cultural orientation gaps in relation to externalizing problems among Chinese early adolescents in immigrant families in Italy, a recent receiving society that currently hosts the largest Chinese ethnic community in Europe. Specifically, we investigated whether the expected association between parent–youth discrepancies and externalizing problems varied depending on adolescents’ IC. We found that not all types of cultural orientation gaps were linked to more externalizing problems and that IC played an important role in links with behavioral adjustment.

As expected, early adolescents reported on average a stronger orientation toward the mainstream culture compared with their parents, whereas no differences emerged in enculturation levels. This is in line with prior findings showing that immigrant children acculturate faster to the new host culture than their parents do. Indeed, children are socialized in two cultures at a younger age and have more contact with the host culture due to formal schooling. In contrast, it is generally more difficult for parents to learn a new language and to open to the values of the new culture (Costigan & Dokis, 2006; Kwak, 2003; Telzer, 2010), especially among Chinese immigrant parents in the Italian context, where many first-generation immigrants who did not attend Italian public schools speak only Chinese and have no solid links with the host society (Marsden, 2014). Nonetheless, a strong connection with the area of origin is maintained thanks to Chinese media and to frequent family trips to China, whenever possible (Pedone, 2013). These peculiarities of the Chinese migrant group in Italy may explain why children are more acculturated than their parents, but at the same time they do not differ in average levels of enculturation.

As hypothesized, both parent–youth acculturation and enculturation gaps interacted with IC in links with early adolescents’ externalizing problems. As regards the acculturation gap, youths who were more acculturated than their parents reported the lowest level of externalizing problems, suggesting that a discrepancy in this direction may be normative for Chinese immigrant youths’ adjustment in Italy (Costigan & Dokis, 2006; Telzer et al., 2016). However, this effect varied with levels of IC. Specifically, a lower IC was found to put early adolescents at risk for worse externalizing outcomes, but only when parents were more acculturated than their offspring. In other words, a better IC was found to be protective in the nonnormative situation in which parents reported to be more acculturated than their children. Given parental expectations that children achieve good host language proficiency and success in the mainstream society, early adolescents’ low levels of acculturation may represent a risk factor in the family context and lead to more disruptive behaviors as reported by their parents. In this case, IC may represent a crucial personal ability that helps regulate one’s behaviors and actions to reduce the risk of externalizing problems (Fine et al., 2017).

As regards the enculturation gap, our findings suggest that IC does not play a relevant role in links with externalizing problems when parents do not differ from their children in levels of enculturation, or when children are more enculturated than their parents. In contrast, better IC was protective when children were less enculturated than their parents. As pointed out by Costigan and Dokis (2006), when parents are strongly linked to the Chinese culture, having children who do not share this interest may be experienced as a threat to family cohesion. Importantly, at larger gaps in this direction (i.e., parents more enculturated than their children) a better IC was linked to fewer externalizing problems. We reasoned that the ability to regulate one’s impulses may be positively experienced by Chinese parents as a capacity to behave in line with traditional cultural values of self-control (Lieber et al., 2006) and thus reduce the risk of disruptive behaviors. A better IC may at least in part compensate for the enculturation gap perceived by parents. However, it should be noted that this interaction effect was weaker than the effect of the acculturation gap–IC interaction, suggesting that the acculturation dimension might be more crucial for Chinese immigrant early adolescents’ behavioral adjustment.

Overall, our findings highlight the value of differentiating between acculturation and enculturation gaps, as well as among the different directions that such gaps can take. Our results challenge the common expectation of detrimental associations between parent–youth cultural gaps and psychological distress in immigrant youth. Indeed, some gaps may be unrelated to distress or even be protective for adaptation. IC, a self-regulatory capacity that can be easily associated with Chinese cultural values of self-restraint and control, was found to be an important protective factor able to buffer the risks of youths’ externalizing difficulties, especially in nonnormative at-risk situations (e.g., parents more acculturated or enculturated than their children). Future research is warranted to ascertain whether the current findings can be generalized to Chinese immigrant families settled in other recent receiving societies, since cultural orientations in immigrant populations are influenced by a number of distal factors including acculturation attitudes of the majority group, neighborhood characteristics, and national immigration policies.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

The current study is among the first to document the important role of Chinese early adolescents’ ability to control their impulses in the face of parent–child cultural orientation gaps, especially in a context other than the United States. However, there are several limitations in the present study that need to be mentioned. First, cultural orientation is a multidimensional construct. In the present study, we mainly focused on the behavioral aspects of acculturation and enculturation processes. Future research assessing additional dimensions (e.g., cognitive, affective) and ethnic identity would be highly informative at this developmental stage. Second, our results should be interpreted in light of our sample size. We had limited power to assess potential three-way interactions among parent and children’s acculturation, enculturation, and youths’ IC, leading us to assess parent–youth gaps by means of a difference score. The use of a difference score to assess cultural orientation gaps is informative on the direction and size of the gap within the family, but it fails to control for mean levels of cultural orientations. Future studies with larger samples using interaction terms between parent and children’s cultural orientations to address this issue are needed to broaden our understanding of the topic (Costigan & Dokis, 2006; Telzer et al., 2016). Third, the cross-sectional design prevents us from drawing any conclusions about causality. Longitudinal studies are needed to shed light on the developmental trajectories of variables involved in immigrant adolescents’ behavioral adjustment. Fourth, our study does not rule out the possibility that cultural orientation gaps may contribute to specific contextual stressors—for example, difficulties in parent–child communication, discrepancies in cultural expectations, language brokering—that may be exacerbated or buffered by adolescents’ levels of IC. Further research is needed to have a more comprehensive understanding of cultural adaptation processes in Chinese immigrant families. Fifth, although most Chinese immigrant families in Italy come from the Zhejiang region in China, it should be noted that the homogeneity of the sample in our study may prevent the generalization of results to Chinese immigrant populations from different Chinese regions. Sixth, we used a convenience sample of early adolescents recruited mostly from schools with a high percentage of immigrants. Although immigrant-origin youths in Italy tend to live and attend schools in neighborhoods highly populated by immigrant families, adaptation patterns may differ as a function of ethnic diversity within the school context. Thus, further studies may include more heterogeneous samples to increase the validity of findings. Seventh, the difference in years of residence in Italy between parents and children was not included in the main analysis as this variable could be calculated only for first-generation youth. Given that the latter represented a relatively small proportion of the total sample (26%), we could not run separate analysis comparing the two subgroups due concerns related to statistical power. However, we controlled for children’s generational status (first or second) in our regression model as a proxy for the difference in length of time spent in the receiving society. Future studies considering the length of time in Italy for both parents and children are warranted to address potential differences in acculturation/enculturation patterns. Last, in the present study, externalizing problems were exclusively reported by parents. Additional informants (e.g., teachers, peers) are warranted to obtain a more accurate picture of adolescents’ externalizing difficulties in different contexts (Yang, Kuo, Wang, & Yang, 2014).

In spite of these limitations, our study uniquely contributes to advancing research on Chinese immigrant families by providing evidence that the relation between parent–child cultural orientation gaps and behavioral adjustment is not so straightforward during early adolescence and needs to be situated in the broader cultural context, where personal and contextual variables interact in links with immigrant youth’s adjustment. Our findings suggest that prevention and intervention efforts should focus on promoting children’s involvement and participation in both their heritage and host cultures, supporting the extensive literature on the beneficial effects of biculturalism and integration on immigrants’ mental health (Nguyen & Benet-Martínez, 2013; Nieri et al., 2016). A shift toward an environment more supportive of integration policies may be beneficial in reducing the risks associated with parent–youth cultural gaps. In addition, IC emerged as a potential point of entry for programs aimed at reducing externalizing difficulties among Chinese immigrant early adolescents. Research investigating the association of cultural orientation gaps with other personal factors amenable of intervention (e.g., executive functions, emotion regulation) in other ethnic groups and across different countries is warranted to inform prevention efforts with early adolescents in multicultural settings.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the early adolescents and parents who participated in the study.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Grant CPDA147892 from the University of Padua to UM.

References

Aiken

L. S.

West

S. G.

(1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Arffa

(2007). The relationship of intelligence to executive function and non-executive function measures in a sample of average, above average, and gifted youth. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 22, 969-978. doi:10.1016/j.acn.2007.08.001

Bechara

Damasio

A. R.

Damasio

Anderson

S. W.

(1994). Insensitivity to future consequences following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Cognition, 50, 7-15.

Betz

C. L.

(1995). Childhood violence: A nursing concern. Issues in Pediatric Nursing, 18, 149-161.

Bezdjian

Baker

L. A.

Lozano

D. I.

Raine

(2009). Assessing inattention and impulsivity in children during the Go/NoGo task. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27, 365-383. doi:10.1348/026151008X314919

Casey

B. J.

(2015). Beyond simple models of impulse control to circuit-based accounts of adolescent behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 295-319. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015156

Ceccagno

(2003). New Chinese migrants in Italy. International Migration, 41, 187–213.

Chang

(2012). 20th century Chinese migration to Italy: The Chinese diaspora presence within European international migration. History Compass, 10, 179-190.

Cheah

C. S.

(2016). Commentary: Charting future directions for research on Asian American child development. Child Development, 87, 1055-1060. doi:10.1111/cdev.12580

10.

Chen

S. H.

Hua

Zhou

Tao

Lee

E. H.

Main

(2014). Parent-child cultural orientations and child adjustment in Chinese American immigrant families. Developmental Psychology, 50, 189-201. doi:10.1037/a0032473

11.

Chen

Lee

(1996). The Cultural and Social Acculturation Scale (child and adult version). London, Ontario, Canada: University of Western Ontario, Department of Psychology.

12.

Colombo

Sciortino

(2004). Immigrants in Italy (Vol. 105). Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino.

13.

Costigan

C. L.

Dokis

D. P.

(2006). Relations between parent–child acculturation differences and adjustment within immigrant Chinese families. Child Development, 77, 1252-1267. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00932.x

14.

Crone

E. A.

van der Molen

M. W.

(2004). Developmental changes in real life decision making: Performance on a gambling task previously shown to depend on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Developmental Neuropsychology, 25, 251-279.

15.

Currie

Molcho

Boyce

W. T.

Holstein

Torsheim

Richter

(2008). Researching health inequalities in adolescents: The development of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) family affluence scale. Social Science & Medicine, 66, 1429-1436. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.024

16.

Dimitrova

Chasiotis

van de Vijver

(2016). Adjustment outcomes of immigrant children and youth in Europe. European Psychologist, 21, 150-162. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a00024

17.

Dion

K. L.

Dion

K. L.

(1996). Chinese adaptation to foreign cultures. In Bond

M. H.

(Ed.), The handbook of Chinese psychology (pp. 457-478). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

18.

Kou

Coghill

(2008). The validity, reliability and normative scores of the parent, teacher and self report versions of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in China. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 2, 8.

19.

Fine

Mahler

Steinberg

Frick

P. J.

Cauffman

(2017). Individual in context: The role of impulse control on the association between the home, school, and neighborhood developmental contexts and adolescent delinquency. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46, 1488-1502. doi:10.1007/s10964-016-0565-4

20.

Flouri

Papachristou

Midouhas

Joshi

Ploubidis

G. B.

Lewis

(2018). Early adolescent outcomes of joint developmental trajectories of problem behavior and IQ in childhood. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 1595-1605. doi:10.1007/s00787-018-1155-7

21.

Garcìa-Coll

Pachter

L. M.

(2002). Ethnic and minority parenting. In Bornstein

M. H.

(Ed.), Handbook of parenting: Vol. 4. Social conditions and applied parenting (pp. 1-20). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

22.

Goodman

(1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38, 581-586. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01545.x

23.

Hongwanishkul

Happaney

K. R.

Lee

W. S.

Zelazo

P. D.

(2005). Assessment of hot and cool executive function in young children: Age-related changes and individual differences. Developmental Neuropsychology, 28, 617-644. doi:10.1207/s15326942dn2802_4

24.

Huang

K. Y.

Calzada

Cheng

Barajas-Gonzalez

R. G.

Brotman

L. M.

(2017). Cultural adaptation, parenting and child mental health among English speaking Asian American immigrant families. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 48, 572-583.

25.

Inguglia

Musso

(2015). Intercultural profiles and adaptation among immigrant and autochthonous adolescents. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 11, 79–99.

26.

ISTAT. (2018). Annuario statistico italiano 2018 [Italian Yearly Statistical Report 2018]. Rome, Italy: Istituto Nazionale di Statistica. Retrieved from https://www.istat.it/it/files//2018/12/Asi-2018.pdf

27.

Jaramillo

J. M.

Rendón

M. I.

Muñoz

Weis

Trommsdorff

(2017). Children’s self-regulation in cultural contexts: The role of parental socialization theories, goals, and practices. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 923. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00923

28.

Kim

Nicodimos

Kushner

S. E.

Rhew

S. C.

McCauley

Vander Stoep

(2018). Comparing mental health of US children of immigrants and non-immigrants in 4 racial/ethnic groups. Journal of School Health, 88, 167-175. doi:10.1111/josh.12586

29.

Kim

Park

I. J.

(2011). Testing the moderating effect of parent–adolescent communication on the acculturation gap–distress relation in Korean American families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40, 1661-1673.

30.

Kim

S. Y.

Chen

Wang

Shen

Orozco-Lapray

(2013). Longitudinal linkages among parent–child acculturation discrepancy, parenting, parent–child sense of alienation, and adolescent adjustment in Chinese immigrant families. Developmental Psychology, 49, 900-912. doi:10.1037/a0029169

31.

Kosic

Mannetti

Sam

D. L.

(2005). The role of majority attitudes towards out-group in the perception of the acculturation strategies of immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29, 273-288. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.06.004

32.

Kwak

(2003). Adolescents and their parents: A review of intergenerational family relations for immigrant and non-immigrant families. Human Development, 46, 115-136.

33.

Laghi

Pallini

Baiocco

Dimitrova

(2014). Parent and peer attachment and psychosocial adjustment of Chinese immigrant adolescents in Italy. In Dimitrova

Bender

van de Vijver

(Eds.), Global perspectives on well-being in immigrant families (pp. 259-273). New York, NY: Springer.

34.

Latham

(2013). Chinese immigration into the EU: New trends, dynamics and implications. London, England: Europe China Research and Advice Network.

35.

Li-Grining

C. P.

(2012). The role of cultural factors in the development of Latino preschoolers’ self-regulation. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 210-217. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00255.x

36.

Lieber

Fung

Leung

P. W. L.

(2006). Chinese child-rearing beliefs: Key dimensions and contributions to the development of culture-appropriate assessment. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 9, 140-147. doi:10.1111/j.1467-839X.2006.00191.x

37.

Zhou

(2018). Bidirectional associations between teacher–child relationship quality and Chinese American immigrant children’s behavior problems. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47, 954-966. doi:10.1080/15374416.2016.1183496

38.

Marsden

(2014). Chinese descendants in Italy: Emergence, role and uncertain identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37, 1239-1252. doi:10.1080/01419870.2014.883082

39.

Marzocchi

G. M.

Capron

Di Pietro

Duran Tauleria

Duyme

Frigerio

. . . Therond

(2004). The use of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in southern European countries. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 13(Suppl. 2), ii40-ii46. doi:10.1007/s00787-004-2007-1

40.

Menting

Van Lier

P. A.

Koot

H. M.

Pardini

Loeber

(2016). Cognitive impulsivity and the development of delinquency from late childhood to early adulthood: Moderating effects of parenting behavior and peer relationships. Development and Psychopathology, 28, 167-183. doi:10.1017/S095457941500036X

41.

Miconi

Altoè

Salcuni

Di Riso

Schiff

Moscardino

(2018). Discrimination and externalizing problems among Moroccan- and Romanian-origin early adolescents in Italy: Moderating role of cultural orientations and impulse control. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 24, 374-388. doi:10.1037/cdp0000192

42.

Miconi

Moscardino

Altoè

Salcuni

(2019). Self-construals and social adjustment in immigrant and nonimmigrant early adolescents: The moderating role of executive functioning. Child Development, 90, e37-e55.

43.

Mistry

Yoshikawa

Tseng

Tirrell

Kiang

. . . Wang

(2016). An integrated conceptual framework for the development of Asian American children and youth. Child Development, 87, 1014-1032. doi:10.1111/cdev.12577

44.

Nguyen

A. M. D.

Benet-Martínez

(2013). Biculturalism and adjustment: A meta-analysis. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 44, 122-159. doi:10.1177/0022022111435097

45.

Nieri

Grindal

Adams

M. A.

Cookston

J. T.

Fabricius

W. V.

Parke

R. D.

Saenz

D. S.

(2016). Reconsidering the “acculturation gap” narrative through an analysis of parent–adolescent acculturation differences in Mexican American families. Journal of Family Issues, 37, 1919-1944.

46.

Okamura

K. H.

Ebesutani

Bloom

Higa-McMillan

C. K.

Nakamura

B. J.

Chorpita

B. F.

(2016). Differences in internalizing symptoms across specific ethnic minority groups: An analysis across Chinese American, Filipino American, Japanese American, Native Hawaiian, and White youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 25, 3353-3366. doi:10.1007/s10826-016-0488-4

47.

Pedone

(2013). A journey to the west: Observations on Chinese migration to Italy. Florence, Italy: Firenze University Press.

48.

Ratelle

C. F.

Duchesne

Guay

(2017). Predicting school adjustment from multiple perspectives on parental behaviors. Journal of Adolescence, 54, 60–72.

49.

Raven

(2000). The Raven’s progressive matrices: Change and stability over culture and time. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 1-48. doi:10.1006/cogp.1999.0735

50.

Raven

J. C.

(1938). Standard progressive matrices: Sets A, B, C, D, (and E). London, England: H. K. Lewis.

51.

Ravens-Sieberer

Auquier

Erhart

Gosch

Rajmil

Bruil

. . . Mazur

(2007). The KIDSCREEN-27 quality of life measure for children and adolescents: Psychometric results from a cross-cultural survey in 13 European countries. Quality of Life Research, 16, 1347-1356.

52.

Ravens-Sieberer

Gosch

Rajmil

Erhart

Bruil

Duer

. . . Mazur

(2005). KIDSCREEN-52 quality-of-life measure for children and adolescents. Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research, 5, 353-364. doi:10.1586/14737167.5.3.353

53.

Rescorla

L. A.

Ginzburg

Achenbach

T. M.

Ivanova

M. Y.

Almqvist

Begovac

. . . Döpfner

(2013). Cross-informant agreement between parent-reported and adolescent self-reported problems in 25 societies. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 42, 262-273.

54.

Smith

D. G.

Xiao

Bechara

(2012). Decision making in children and adolescents: Impaired Iowa Gambling Task performance in early adolescence. Developmental psychology, 48, 1180-1187. doi:10.1037/a0026342

55.

Telzer

E. H.

(2010). Expanding the acculturation gap-distress model: An integrative review of research. Human Development, 53, 313-340. doi:10.1159/000322476

56.

Telzer

E. H.

Yuen

Gonzales

Fuligni

A. J.

(2016). Filling gaps in the acculturation gap-distress model: Heritage cultural maintenance and adjustment in Mexican American families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45, 1412-1425. doi:10.1007/s10964-015-0408-8

57.

Toplak

M. E.

Sorge

G. B.

Benoit

West

R. F.

Stanovich

K. E.

(2010). Decision-making and cognitive abilities: A review of associations between Iowa Gambling Task performance, executive functions, and intelligence. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 562-581. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.04.002

58.

Vieno

Santinello

Lenzi

Baldassari

Mirandola

(2009). Health status in immigrants and native early adolescents in Italy. Journal of Community Health, 34, 181-187. doi:10.1007/s10900-008-9144-2

59.

Ward

Geeraert

(2016). Advancing acculturation theory and research: The acculturation process in its ecological context. Current Opinion in Psychology, 8, 98-104. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.09.021

60.

World Health Organization. (2016). Growing up unequal: Gender and socioeconomic differences in young people’s health and well-being: Health Behaviour in School-Aged children (HBSC) study: International report from the 2013/2014 survey (Health Policy for Children and Adolescents No. 7). Retrieved http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/303438/HSBC-No.7-Growing-up-unequal-Full-Report.pdf?ua=1

61.

Yang

H. J.

Kuo

Y. J.

Wang

Yang

C. Y.

(2014). Culture, parenting, and child behavioral problems: A comparative study of cross-cultural immigrant families and native-born families in Taiwan. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51, 526-544. doi:10.1177/1363461514532306

62.

Zhou

Tao

Chen

S. H.

Main

Lee

. . . Li

(2012). Asset and protective factors for Asian American children’s mental health adjustment. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 312-319. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00251.x