EDP 816 Module 3 Cultural Transmission Across Generations Example

Between Two Kitchens: Values, Generations and an Immigrant Family

Student Name

Doctor of Education Program, Aspen University

EDP 816: Cultural Perspectives in Psychology

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Between Two Kitchens: Values, Generations and an Immigrant Family

Mrs. Tran came to Seattle from Vietnam at fourteen and now works as a pharmacy technician. Her daughter, Linh, is sixteen, born in Seattle, an honor student who wants to attend college in California. They have argued for months about curfews, Linh's friends, her college plans and her duty to help care for her grandmother, who lives with them. Their family doctor at a composite south Seattle community health center referred them to Grace, the psychologist. Mother, daughter and clinic are all imagined for this course. This paper examines their conflict as a question of cultural transmission.

How Culture Is Transmitted

Cultural transmission happens through several pathways. Vertical transmission runs from parents to children. Oblique transmission runs from other adults and institutions, such as teachers, religious leaders and media. Horizontal transmission runs among peers. Children of immigrants receive vertical transmission largely from the heritage culture and oblique and horizontal transmission largely from the wider society, which can produce differences between generations even in close families.

Acculturation

Berry (1997) described acculturation as the cultural and psychological change that follows contact between cultures. Individuals vary in two orientations: how much they maintain their heritage culture and how much they engage with the larger society. The combinations produce four strategies: integration, maintaining heritage while participating in the wider society; assimilation, giving up heritage for the larger culture; separation, keeping heritage while avoiding the larger culture; and marginalization, little engagement with either. Berry reviewed evidence that integration is generally associated with the best adaptation. Mrs. Tran describes herself as integrated, but at home she emphasizes heritage values strongly; Linh describes herself as both Vietnamese and American, closer to integration than her mother realizes.

Value Gaps Across Generations

Phinney et al. (2000) compared adolescents and parents in Armenian, Vietnamese and Mexican immigrant families and in nonimmigrant European American families on values about family obligations. In all groups, adolescents endorsed family obligations less than their parents did. The gap was larger in immigrant families, and among immigrant families it grew with the length of time they had lived in the United States. Despite the gaps, most adolescents in immigrant families still endorsed family obligations strongly by American standards. The study suggests that the Trans' disagreement is common, expected and not a sign that Linh has rejected her heritage.

Conditions for Transmission

Schönpflug (2001) studied value transmission in Turkish families in Germany and found that values passed from parents to children more fully under some conditions, which she called transmission belts. An empathic parenting style, in which parents are responsive to children's perspectives, was associated with stronger transmission than a more authoritarian style. Family context, including parents' education and the family's circumstances, also mattered. The findings suggest that how values are communicated affects whether they are adopted.

Applying the Research

The research suggests three things for the Trans. First, their disagreement is a normal feature of immigrant family life, and Linh's values are a blend rather than a rejection. Second, Linh still holds family obligation strongly; she worries about her grandmother and wants to send money home if she studies away. Third, Mrs. Tran's insistence, which Linh experiences as rigid, may make transmission less likely, following Schönpflug's findings.

A Plan for Family Sessions

Grace will hold four family sessions. In the first, each describes the values she most wants to keep, with Grace helping each hear what the other says rather than what she fears. In the second, they identify shared values, such as education and care for the grandmother, that both hold. In the third, they negotiate specific issues, such as curfew on school nights and a college plan that includes visits home and help for the grandmother. In the fourth, they plan how to handle future disagreements. Grace will avoid declaring either side's values correct.

The Grandmother

Linh's grandmother, who speaks little English and came to Seattle in her sixties, is an important channel of vertical transmission. She tells Linh stories about the family's village and expects her to help prepare food for festivals. Linh's care for her is one of the clearest signs that heritage values have passed to her. In family sessions, the grandmother's presence, with an interpreter, may help Mrs. Tran see that Linh holds more of the family's values than their arguments suggest. Berry (1997) noted that acculturation unfolds differently across generations within a family, and the grandmother's experience as a later-life immigrant differs from both her daughter's and her granddaughter's.

A Bicultural Identity

Linh describes herself as Vietnamese and American and moves between the two with skill: she speaks Vietnamese at home and at church and English with friends, and she has adapted her mother's emphasis on education into an ambition to study pharmacy far from home. Research on acculturation generally associates this kind of integration with good adaptation (Berry, 1997). The task for the family is not to choose one culture over the other, but to find arrangements that let Linh carry both.

Cautions

The studies cited here involved particular groups at particular times. Phinney and colleagues studied families in California in the late 1990s; Schönpflug studied Turkish families in Germany. The Trans differ in many ways from these samples, and the research describes patterns that may or may not apply to them.

Measuring Progress

After the sessions, Grace will ask each family member to rate how well she feels understood by the other and how often arguments end without resolution, and will check again three months later.

Conclusion

Berry's acculturation model describes how each family member is navigating two cultures, Phinney and colleagues show that value gaps are normal and grow with time and Schönpflug shows that empathic communication supports transmission. For the Trans, sessions that build on shared values and respect both generations offer more than a contest over who is right.

References

Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5-34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1997.tb01087.x

Phinney, J. S., Ong, A., & Madden, T. (2000). Cultural values and intergenerational value discrepancies in immigrant and non-immigrant families. Child Development, 71(2), 528-539. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00162

Schönpflug, U. (2001). Intergenerational transmission of values: The role of transmission belts. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32(2), 174-185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022101032002005