Study: Adult Children Of Chinese Americans Stressed Over Cultural Expectations
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new study takes a look at the culture of Chinese Americans in Chicago, and the effects of adult children trying to live up to the expectation that they'll take care of their aging parents.
Rush University Medical Center Professor Xinqi Dong said the study found 67 percent of Chinese adult children believe they have close relationships with their mothers and fathers, but more adult children believe their fathers, more than their mothers, care for them more.
"From the adult children's perspective, the majority of their parents expected a higher than average level of care, respect, greetings, happiness, and obedience. Respect was the most highly expected behavior; financial support was the least. Moreover, adult children practice an equal or slightly lower level of filial piety to their parents. Mothers displayed higher expectation of filial care and received more as well," the study found.
A third of the adult children have parents who live with them, and more than half live within a 15 minute drive.
However, even though adult children perceive higher expectations from their parents, the parents told Dong a different story. Dong said many aging Chinese parents do not believe their children will take care of them the way they took care of their own parents.
"I can't tell you how many times I hear the older adults who say 'The way I took care of my father, my grandfather are way different than what I may be expecting from my children,'" he said.
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Still, Dong said nearly half of Chinese adult children have face-to-face contact with parents every day, and take care of many of their personal needs, to the detriment of some adult children in the form of stress.
The stress caused by caregiving is one reason Chinese adult children would like the community to help out more, but Dong said "sometimes a caregiver does not want to be perceived as potentially neglectful by dropping their parents off for respite here."
