Subjective well-being among New Zealand Chinese and New Zealand Europeans: Does intergenerational communication matter?

1
Subjective well-being among New Zealand Chinese
and New Zealand Europeans Does intergenerational
communication matter?

• James H. Liu and Susan Gee
• Victoria University of Wellington
• Sik-hung Ng
• City University of Hong Kong

2
Acculturation and Adaptation

• While much of cross-cultural psychology has
  emphasized cultural differences, researchers on
  acculturation have focused on the global movement
  of peoples across cultural boundaries and the
  psychological process of adaptation. This
  literature tends to emphasize cultural hybridity
  (merging of aspects of two cultures) rather than
  differentiation, and has found that bicultural
  self-construal is typical among immigrant
  populations.

3
Increasing Asian (Chinese) Population in New
Zealand

• In New Zealand (NZ), the most rapidly growing
  ethnic group is Asian, most particularly Chinese.
  Chinese now constitute about 2.5 of NZs
  population of 4 million. Many of these are new
  immigrants who have arrived in the last 10 years
  and live mainly in the cities of Auckland,
  Wellington, and Christchurch. This has been a
  sustained trend in NZ demographics.

4
Focus on Life Satisfaction/SWB

• Because many of these are new migrants, issues
  associated with aging have been under-researched.
  Here, we will focus on life satisfaction (or
  the subjective well-being-- SWB) of New Zealand
  Chinese and Europeans aged 40-80.

5
Culturally realized pathways to SWB?

• Our research question is to ask whether a single
  universal model of life satisfaction is
  sufficient to describe relationships among
  variables in these two ethnic groups, or whether
  cultural selfways require alternative models of
  life satisfaction for ethnic subpopulations in a
  single nation.

6
Universal and Culture Specific Predictors of
LS/SWB

• The international literature suggests that health
  and economic hardship (not wealth per se, but
  lack thereof) are cross-cultural predictors of
  SWB/LS.
• Social relations are also important, but unlike
  health and hardship, this factor can be
  operationalized in a variety of ways and could
  have culture specific effects.

7
Chinese Cultural Expectations for
Intergenerational Communications

• Chinese and Europeans may hold different
  expectations regarding communication among family
  members, especially concerning elderly parent or
  grandparent. Filial piety obligations and
  responsibility form the core of a strong
  commitment relationship for Chinese, that should
  be maintained regardless of cost. For
  intergenerational relationships among Chinese
  living in Western societies, part of the cost may
  be communication non-accommodation, with
  different values and practices across
  generations.

8
Western Expectations for Intergenerational
Communication

• Among Westerners, by contrast, relationships with
  even close kin have a voluntary component, and so
  amount of contact with elderly family could be
  reduced if there is a substantial failure to
  communicate in a mutually satisfactory manner.
  (Even in Taiwan, data show that elderly parents
  prefer to live by themselves rather than with
  their adult children).

9
Cultural pathways for intergenerational
commuication

• In traditional Chinese culture, accommodation is
  not necessarily the norm for intergenerational
  communication. Rather, educating and correcting
  their children is a lifelong project for Chinese
  parents. These expectations will influence SWB.
• We hypothesize that communication
  non-accommodation plays different roles for NZ
  Chinese compared to NZ Europeans.

10
Hypotheses

• HYP 1. The experience of communication
  non-accommodation is higher among NZ Chinese than
  NZ Europeans.
• HYP 2. Intergenerational communication with
  elderly family is perceived more as a obligation
  rather than as a desire among NZ Chinese compared
  to NZ Europeans
• HYP 3. Communication non-accommodation is
  negatively related SWB and desire for contact
  among NZ Europeans, but not NZ Chinese

11
Study 1. Intergenerational communication among
the young and middle-Aged

• Characteristics of the Sample (Family members)
• NZ Europeans 298, 137 young (avg age17), 161
  middle-aged (avg age40),
• Mean residency30 years
• NZ Chinese 286, 136 young (avg age17), 150
  middle-aged (avg age47)
• Mean residency 18 years 79 completely fluent
  in English, 32 in Chinese 83 conversant in
  both languages.

12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
Intergenerational communication with elderly
family for NZ Europeans
16
Intergenerational communication with elderly
family for NZ Chinese
17

• SUMMARY STUDY 1
•     Frequency of conversation with older family
  is the same in the 2 groups
•     Young and Middle-aged NZ Europeans ENJOY
  conversation with their older family more than NZ
  Chinese
•     NZ Chinese feel that it is their duty and
  responsibility to converse with older family more
  than NZ Europeans
•     NZ Chinese not as sensitive to
  non-accommodation on the part of older family
  (they endure or ignore these)
•     NZ Europeans reciprocated non-accommodation
  on the part of older family with avoidance
  reduced happiness
•     Both groups enjoy positive feedback from the
  elders

18
Study 2 Intergenerational Communication and
well-being among middle-aged and older NZ
Europeans and Chinese
19
Measuring Life Satisfaction/SWB

• Life Satisfaction Items (from James Davies,
  1986 and WHOQOL, 1998)
• These are the best years of my life
• The things I do are as interesting to me as they
  ever were
• Compared to other people, I get down in the dumps
  too
• often (r)
• I would not change my past life, even if I could
• How would you rate your quality of life?
• How often do you have negative feelings such as
  feeling
• down, despair, anxiety, depression? (r)
• Cronbachs Alpha on Z-scores.65

20
Measures of Hardship and Health

• Hardship (8 items, NZ Dept Social Welfare) cold
  in winter to keep heating bill down, made do
  without meat or main food item, wear worn out
  clothing when going out, accommodation run down,
  Alpha.75
• Health (7 items, WHOQOL,1998) physical pain,
  need for medical treatment, enough energy,
  ability to work and function in everyday life,
  able to get around, satisfied with sleep, etc.,
  Alpha.80

21
Measures of Interaction with Adult Children

• Accommodation (Alpha.85) They will listen when
  I have a problem They make me feel loved and
  care for.
• Non-accommodation (Alpha.75) They can get on my
  nerves We dont understand each other They can
  be too demanding
• Time for Interaction (Alpha.69) I would like to
  spend more time together, but they are busy I
  would like to spend more time together, but I am
  busy.
• Control of Time (Alpha.90) We have an equal say
  in arranging when visits of time spent together
  will take place We have an equal say in
  determining length of visits or time spent
  together I know ahead of time when visits or
  time spent together will occur.

22
Communication with Adult Children by Older and
Middle Aged NZ Chinese and Europeans
23
LS/SWB for Older and Middle Aged NZ Chinese and
Europeans
24
Regression on LS/SWB for NZ Europeans
25
Regression on LS/SWB for NZ Chinese
26
Discussion

• While health and hardship were by far the
  strongest predictors of SWB, lending support for
  a universal model, different experiences of
  intergenerational communication affected SWB, in
  different ways for NZ Chinese and Europeans, even
  after controlling for many powerful variables.
• Chinese (other East Asians) treat interactions
  with family as an obligation and a
  responsibility. Even though they report more
  non-accommodation with family members, this does
  not affect their SWB. By contrast NZ Europeans
  reported less non-accommodation, but this reduced
  their SWB.
• Room for cultural selfways in a universal model