Faith, Conversion, and Challenge: A Qualitative Study of Chinese Immigrant Christian Marriage (in the USA)

INTRODUCTIONResearch on religion and family life has increased markedly over the past twenty years. Furthermore, the impact of religion on family life is now beginning to be recognized as a significant issue which deserves greater study As Houseknecht and Pankhurst (2000) posit:In the process of economic and political change that many societies experience as disruption and disorganization, family and religion are important sources of stability and order, even as they adapt to the changing circumstances in which they find themselves. It is to family and religion that one should go to find the processes that are working out the morality for the new age and the lifestyles for the new era (p. 27).The role of religion in family life is significant not only to native-born Americans but also to immigrants in the U.S. At present, there are 38.5 million immigrants in the U.S., which represent 12.5% of the total U.S. population. Specifically, Asians comprise 28% of overall U.S. immigration (U.S. Census, 2009). The existing literature indicates that religious beliefs and practices have a significant impact on marriage and family life (Christiano, 2000; Mahoney, 2010; Marks, 2004,2006). Religion has also been shown to strongly influence the family life of Chinese immigrants (Lu, Marks, and Baumgartner, 2011 ; Yang, 1998).Approximately 25% to 32% of the Chinese in the U.S. are Christians and when studying Chinese immigrants' marriages and families, it is important to consider these religious beliefs and practices (Chen, 2006). A preponderance of research regarding the impact of religion on marriage and family life focuses on the positive correlations between religiosity and beneficial outcomes in marriage and family life (Mahoney, 2010). This is also the case for research on Chinese immigrant Christians (Lu et al., 2011). However, in order to fully understand the impact of religion on marriage and family life, it is also important to study challenges that arise. To answer Burr, Marks, and Day's (2012) call regarding the need for research addressing the wide variety of religions and cultural conditions, the purpose of the present study is to examine: (a) challenges that sometimes accompany high levels of religious involvement, as well as (b) religion-based resources that Chinese Christian couples have during and aftertheir conversions.OVERVIEW OF LITERATUREAlthough this paper addresses both challenges and resources that accompany religious involvement, one review indicates that religious involvement is generally correlated with "well-being, happiness and life satisfaction, purpose and meaning in life, higher self-esteem, [and] greater marital stability and satisfaction" (Koenig, McCullough, and Larson, 2001, p. 228). In connection with this latter reference to marriage, several empirical studies over the past quarter century have indicated that shared religious beliefs and practices generally have significant positive influences on marital stability and commitment (Abbott, Berry, and Meredith, 1990; Bahr and Chadwick, 1985; Call and Heaton, 1997; Lehrer and Chiswick, 1993).Recently, Mahoney (2010) analyzed 184 studies from 1999-2009 on religion and family and found significant relationships between religion and several marriage and family outcomes. For instance, Mahoney found that religion typically correlates with marital satisfaction and healthy family relationships. Mahoney (2010) also recommended research directions for the next decade which included: a) more research on mixed roles of religion in families, especially in nontraditional or distressed families; b) more attention to the contexts of the family in order to better understand the role of religion in marriage and family life; and c) more qualitative research and high quality quantitative research such as longitudinal designs to study the interface between religion and family life. The present article is a response to the call for qualitative work. …