How Cultural Norms and Situations Shape Intergenerational Conflict: Examining Young Bicultural Adults in a Western Context

Decisions about whom to date or marry and which career path to pursue are major life decisions with significant implications. Bicultural individuals in particular may be faced with intergenerational conflicts in these domains when norms surrounding these differ in their heritage and mainstream cultures. Across two experimental studies we examine three different cultural groups and four different contexts of parent-child conflict.

In study 1 (N = 106; 60 South Asian Canadian, 46 European Canadian) participants were asked to recall or imagine a conflict that they had with their parents concerning dating (experimental condition), or a family-gathering (control condition). Participants then completed a measure of affect (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1998). Results indicated that South Asian Canadians reported more negative affect in the dating condition than in the family gathering condition, but no such difference was observed among European Canadians, F(1,101) = 5.11, p = .026, η² = .05).

In study 2 (N = 176; 79 Chinese Canadians, 97 European Canadians) participants wrote about academic conflict (experimental condition) or household chores (control condition). Participants then completed a measure of self-conscious emotions (Marschall, Sanftner & Tangney, 1994) and PANAS. Results showed that Chinese Canadians reported higher negative affect in the academic condition than in the chores condition, F(1, 172) = 4.04, p = .046, η² = .02. Although Chinese Canadians reported more shame than European Canadians, this difference did not depend on condition, F(1, 172) = 1.95, p = .17). Chinese Canadians reported more guilt in the academic condition, whereas the Europeans reported more guilt in the chores condition, F(1, 172) = 5.06, p = .026, η² = .03).

The present research highlights the importance of examining the interaction of culture and situation in understanding how and why parent-child conflict unfolds more easily in certain cultural groups and specific situations.