Parent‐Adolescent Language Use and Relationships Among Immigrant Families With East Asian, Filipino, and Latin American Backgrounds

This study examined differences in the quality of relationships between immigrant parents and their adolescent children as a function of the languages with which they speak to one another. Over 620 adolescents with East Asian, Filipino, and Latin American backgrounds completed measures on parent-adolescent language use and relationships. Adolescents who spoke in different languages with their parents reported less cohesion and discussion with their mothers and fathers than did their peers who spoke the same language with their parents. Adolescents who mutually communicated in the native language with their parents reported the highest levels of cohesion and discussion. Longitudinal analyses indicated that whereas language use did not predict differential changes in parent-adolescent relationships over a 2-year period, the quality of relationships did predict changes in language use. The associations between language use and relationships generally existed regardless of the families' ethnic and demographic backgrounds, and these associations did not vary across families of different backgrounds. Key Words: Asian, immigrant families, language use, Latino, parent-adolescent relationships. For the estimated 14 million children from immigrant families in the United States (Rumbaut, 1998), normative developmental changes in family relationships are coupled with the additional challenges of acculturation and adaptation to a new society. More than 80% of U.S. immigrants migrate from Asian Pacific or Latin American countries, and little is known about their adjustment and adaptation (Ring, 1996). Within immigrant families from these countries, children often rapidly learn and adopt the English language, whereas their parents frequently maintain use of their native tongues. A theory of language shift suggests that movement toward English language use among children from immigrant families increases at a dramatic pace during the adolescent years as youths spend more time in contexts outside the home (Veltman, 1983b). These language shifts often occur at a cost to native language use within the home as children quickly develop proficiency and general preference for the English language (Fillmore, 1991; Rumbaut, 1997; Veltman, 1988). Even adolescents who communicate in the native language with their peers may find that their peers do not have sufficient language competencies to aid them in retaining the native language as it is used in the home with parents (Dabene & Moore, 1995; Veltman, 1983a). Immigrant parents, in contrast, are less likely than their children are to develop high levels of English proficiency (Fillmore, 1991). Parental employment in segregated immigrant labor markets or in occupations where they do not regularly learn or use English limits their opportunities to acquire English fluency (Ong & Hee, 1994; Wing, 1994). Furthermore, adults who attempt to learn English through night classes or adult schools may not have the requisite time nor language acquisition abilities to develop strong skills in a second language (Romaine, 1989). The mix of language abilities and preferences among parents and children gives rise to different language use patterns within immigrant families. In some households, parents and adolescents communicate predominantly in English, whereas in other families, they communicate in the native language. Within a third group of families, a complex pattern of nonreciprocal language use emerges wherein immigrant parents predominantly communicate to their children in the native language and children respond in English (Dabene & Moore, 1995). Within these families, parents may differ from their children in the rate and ultimate development of English proficiency, but they are likely to develop a rudimentary understanding of the new language (Veltman, 1983a). In addition, children's shift toward English does not preclude a basic understanding of the native language that their parents continue to use with them. …