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Research Article                                                                                                                                        Open Access

## Preadolescents with Immigrant Backgrounds: The Relationship between Emotional Problems, Parental Achievement Values, and Comparison

Daniele E. Alves 1* , Kristin Gustavson 1 , Espen Roysamb 1,2 , Brit Oppedal 1 ,Henrik D. Zachrisson 1,3

1 Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway

2 Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway 3 Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development, Oslo, Norway

*Corresponding author: Daniele.Evelin.Alves@fhi.no; alves.integra@gmail.com

## Abstract

Background: Although strong parental achievement values have been associated with positive outcomes among children (e.g.,  academic  success),  they  have  also  been  connected  to  emotional  problems.  The  latter  effect  may  be  the  result  of pressure related to such things as parental comparison of filial achievement, which appears to be more predominant among immigrant parents as compared with non-immigrant parents.

Objectives : Our goals were to assess the following: 1) whether higher levels of parental achievement values and comparison are found among immigrant preadolescents; and (2) whether comparison (i.e., comparing a child's achievements with those of siblings and peers) can account for the link between strong parental achievement values and emotional problems among the children of immigrants.

Methods : The sample included 902 preadolescents between the ages of 10 and 12 years from two Norwegian cities: Oslo (79%) and Bergen (21%). Forty-seven percent of the sample had immigrant parents, and  the others had non-immigrant parents. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by fifth, sixth, and seventh graders from fourteen schools during normal  school  hours;  the  questionnaires  were  completed  after  school  by  students  from  Turkey  and  Sri  Lanka.  The questionnaire included measures of emotional problems, parental achievement values, comparison, and school hassles. We used a moderated mediation model to test whether the relationship between parental achievement values and emotional problems was accounted for by comparison and to look at whether this mediation was stronger for preadolescents with immigrant  backgrounds  as  compared  with  their  non-immigrant  peers.  Background  and  academic  factors  that  could confound the unique relationships among the main variables were adjusted for in the analyses.

Results: The  association  between  parental  achievement  values  and  emotional  problems  was  found  to  be  mediated  by comparison. Higher levels of parental achievement values were associated with more comparison, and this relationship was stronger  for  preadolescents  with  immigrant  backgrounds.  Comparison  was  only  linked  to  emotional  problems  in preadolescents with immigrant backgrounds.

Conclusions: This  study  suggests  that  stronger  parental  achievement  values  among  immigrants  as  compared  with  nonimmigrants in Norway are found as early as preadolescence and that comparison may be part of the link between strong parental achievement values and emotional problems.

Keywords: Internalizing  symptoms,  pressure, comparison, parental achievement,  academic expectations, ethnic minority, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran (EMBU)

## Background

'…disproportionate emphasis on children's achievement…not only has the potential to engender distress among children but also has real constraints in terms of the capacity to generate the successes  so  pervasively  exhorted…'  (Luthar  and Becker, 2002, p. 1605).

## The  link  between  immigrant  backgrounds  and  parental achievement values

For many immigrant parents, the importance assigned  to  academic  achievement  is  particularly high (1). Upward social mobility is a powerful factor that  drives  immigrants  to  settle  in  new  countries, especially  among  those  who  have  moved  from developing  to  industrialized  countries.  Immigrant parents  tend  to  perceive  education  as  a  primary avenue through which social mobility can be achieved by their children in the new country (2). It has been proposed  that  immigrant parents are optimistic  about  their  offspring's  educational  and socioeconomic  prospects  (3,4).  This  may  prompt their children to try harder to achieve academically. It  is  unclear,  however,  how  immigrant  parents' optimism  leads  their  children  to  adopt  behaviors that  influence  their  emotional  health.  Given  that social  mobility  is  usually  an  integral  motivation  for immigrants,  higher  levels  of  parental  achievement values (i.e., attitudes that emphasize academic achievement) are expected among immigrant parents  as  compared  with  non-immigrant  parents. Several  studies  have  supported  this  finding  (5-7), particularly  among  Asian  immigrant  groups  in  the United States,  and  this  has  given  rise  to  the  Asian 'model minority' stereotype (8-10). This stereotype permeates American society and refers to the general  tendency  to  regard  Asian  immigrants  as high-achieving students and employees.

## The link between parental achievement values and emotional

## problems

Although  parental  achievement  values  have  been linked to positive outcomes among adolescents (1114), they have also been linked to emotional problems  in  groups  such  as  the  Chinese  (15)  and Korean  (16)  immigrants  as  well  as  among  affluent American  suburban  adolescents  (17).  The  latter suggests that the link  between strong parental achievement  values  and  emotional  problems  may not  necessarily  be  limited  to  immigrant  groups. Although research in these areas has been in demand  (17-19),  not  much  is  known  about  the relationship  between  parental  achievement  values and emotional problems among adolescents, particularly immigrant adolescents. Why might strong  parental  achievement  values  be  related  to emotional problems? Strong feelings of pressure to achieve  in  accordance  with  parental  (or  the  child's own) values may be part of the explanation for this.

It has been found that achievement pressure, whether  parental  or  personal,  appears  to  increase emotional  problems  (15,17;20-25).  According  to this line  of  thought,  the  link  between  parental achievement  values  and  emotional  problems  may depend  on  the  amount  of  perceived  achievement pressure.  As  compared  with  parental  achievement values (which  measure  how  strongly  parents  value their child's achievement in terms of attitudes), the relationship  between  achievement pressure (which measures parental behavior with the aim of influencing children to achieve better) and emotional problems is more thoroughly studied and supported  in  the  research  literature  (15,17,20-25). Although parental achievement values and pressure are  usually  linked,  it  is  possible  to  hold  strong achievement  values  without  pressuring  or  actively coercing the child to excel academically. Parents can exert  academic  pressure  in  many  ways,  such  as  by offering conditional rewards  (e.g., going  to  the cinema with friends) or punishments (e.g., not being allowed  to  participate  in  desired  leisure  activities) depending on the child's academic results. Another way of exerting academic pressure is through comparison; this involves parents openly comparing their child's achievements with those of others (e.g., siblings, peers) with the aim of coercing the child to exceed academically. Comparison is a type of psychological  pressure  or  control  that  has  been found  to  be  more  frequently  used  among  groups with predominantly collectivistic values (16,26). Thus, comparison as an expression of pressure may mediate the relationship between parental achievement  values  and  filial  emotional  problems. As  such,  strong  comparison  could  explain  why strong  parental  achievement  values  are  sometimes related to high levels of filial emotional problems.

## The unique effect of parental achievement values on emotional problems

To  properly  assess  the  unique  effect  of  parental achievement  values  on  emotional  problems,  it  is important to adjust for a series of factors related to the child's academic situation. First and foremost, it is  important  to  distinguish  between  the  effects  of parental  achievement values from  those  of  parental achievement pressure, because the latter could confound the relationship between the former and emotional  problems.  Actually,  these  terms  have been used interchangeably in the research literature, thus  making  it  difficult  to  tease  their  effects  apart from each other (17,27). In studies based solely on children's own self-reporting, there is also a need to adjust for factors that could influence the relationship between child-reported parental achievement  values  and  emotional  problems.  For example,  academic  competence,  which  is  generally inversely  related  to  emotional  problems  (22),  can potentially confound the relationship between parental achievement values and emotional problems  because  all  variables,  including  parental ones, are based on the child's perception. Perfectionistic students with high levels of perceived  academic  competence  could  report  high levels of both perceived parental achievement values and personal emotional problems (21), because  all  of  these  are  perceived  by  the  same person at the same point in time. Other examples of potentially confounding variables are academic factors that have been associated with both emotional problems and parental achievement values, such as school hassles, lack of parental help with homework, and domestic chore burden, which is  included  as  an  academic  factor  as  a  result  of  its negative association with academic competence (28). More school hassles have been associated with emotional problems (29). Parental help with homework has been associated with positive academic  outcomes  (30),  although  general  findings are  mixed  (31).  Despite  higher  levels  of  parental achievement  values,  immigrant  youth  in  Norway have  not  reported  equivalently higher levels of parental  help  with  homework  as  compared  with their  ethnic  majority  peers  (28).  Domestic  chore burden  has  been  suggested  as  a  reason  why  some groups of immigrant children, especially girls, appear  to  engage  less  than  their  ethnic  majority peers in leisure activities that seem to protect them from  emotional  problems  (32).  These  perceived variables  are  likely  to  influence  reported  levels  of either  emotional  problems,  parental  achievement values,  or  both  in  studies  comparing  immigrants with non-immigrants.

## The Norwegian context and hypotheses

The contrast between non-Western immigrants and non-immigrant  ethnic  Norwegians  is  particularly interesting in terms of parental achievement values. This is both because Norway's non-Western immigrants are more traditionalistic and collectivistic  as  a  group  and  because  there  is  a relatively  low  emphasis  on  academic  achievement among  the  non-immigrant  population  (again,  as  a group). Norway is one of the most socially egalitarian countries in the world in which additional higher education pays the least (33). It is possible that, within this social context, Norwegian parents  may  not  have  the  same  eagerness  and urgency with regard to pushing their children toward academic achievement. By contrast, immigrant parents are willing to pay the price of a loss  of  social  network  and  cultural  competence through immigration to achieve social mobility for themselves or their children in the new country (4). The fact that first-generation immigrants sometimes have to postpone  social mobility for the next generation may explain why second-generation immigrants report more parental achievement values (5,28,34). As for collectivistic parenting strategies, they may promote interdependent bonds between  generations,  and  they  may  strengthen  the association  between  parental  and  child  behavior (35).  This  suggests  that  the  link  between  parental comparison and emotional problems could be stronger among children of immigrants as compared with non-immigrants.

This article attempts to bridge together two research domains: one attending to the link between achievement  values  in  immigrants  and  the  other addressing the link between pressure and emotional problems. This is a novel framework, especially for adding to studies of the mental health of children of immigrants. On the basis of the previously mentioned  existing  research,  we  first  hypothesize that  immigrant  background  will  be  associated  with higher  levels  of  both  parental  achievement  values and  comparison. Thus,  we  attempt  to  differentiate between  the  effects  of  parental  achievement values and achievement pressure, which are operationalized by  comparison  in  this  study.  Second,  we  suggest that  the  relationship  between  parental  achievement values  and  emotional  problems  will  be  mediated through  comparison  and  moderated  by  immigrant background in such way that the relationship will be stronger for those with immigrant backgrounds.

## Methods

Data collection

Data  was  provided  by  the  Youth  Culture  and Competence (YCC) study undertaken by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and approved by  the  Regional  Committee  for  Medical  Research Ethics  (REC).  During  2006  and  2007,  the  YCC invited  preadolescents  between  the  ages  of  10  and 12 years from fourteen schools in Oslo and Bergen to participate in the first wave  of this study. Although the proportion of immigrants in Bergen is equal  to  the  11%,  which  is  the  national  average, 27% of the population of Oslo is foreign born, or Norwegian  born  with  two  foreign-born  parents. Immigrants are from more than 200 different countries,  most  of  which  are  non-Western  (33). Although there are few ethnic enclaves in Norway, immigrants  tend  to  settle  together  in  areas  where housing prices are reasonable. Schools in these areas were targeted during the initial stage of recruitment. In  addition,  children  of  Tamil  and  Turkish  origin from other schools were recruited through collaboration with immigrant non-governmental organizations.

Parents  were  informed  about  the  YCC  study through the preadolescents' school or the immigrant non-governmental organization and asked to  provide  written  informed  consent  if  their preadolescents  were  allowed  to  participate  in  the study, in accordance with REC guidelines.

The  YCC  questionnaire  was  completed  by  the preadolescents in their respective classrooms during two class hours. For those recruited through immigrant non-governmental organizations, questionnaire completion was performed after school  hours.  Research  assistants  were  available  if needed  during  data collection. Of  the children invited, 1042 preadolescents in the fifth, sixth, and seventh  grades  participated  in  the  YCC,  which resulted a participation rate of 65%.

## Identifying immigrants and non-immigrants

For  ethical  reasons,  we  were  not  allowed  by  the REC to directly ask participants about their ethnic backgrounds  in  the  questionnaire.  Thus,  we  relied on  parental  and  grandparental  place  of  birth  to categorize participants according to parental immigrant  background.  During  the  first  phase  of categorizing the participants, we grouped participants into three broad categories according to parental immigrant background: 1) immigrant parents (n = 473; parents born abroad and at least three grandparents born abroad); 2) non-immigrant parents  (n  =  476;  parents  born  in  Norway  and  at least  three  grandparents  born  in  Norway);  and  3) dual  parents  (n  =  91;  one  parent  born  in  Norway and  one  parent  born  abroad).  Participants  in  the third category were excluded from further analyses, because their  complex mix of immigrant and nonimmigrant  backgrounds  required  special  attention that exceeded the scope of this study.

During  the  second  phase  of  categorizing  the participants, we grouped those with immigrant parents into national groups according to maternal place of birth. (There were a few participants whose parents were born in two different countries outside of  Norway.)  The  result  was  a  broad  but  scattered representation of a total of 49 national backgrounds.  The  only  countries  that  made  up more  than  5%  of  the  sample  were  Norway  (n  = 485), Pakistan (n = 126), Turkey (n = 45), and Sri Lanka (n = 43).

During the third phase of categorizing the participants,  we  divided  the  immigrant  group  into two  main  groups  in  accordance  with  a  distinction used by Statistics Norway: 1) individuals originating in the European Union or the European Economic Area, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; and 2) individuals originating in European countries  outside  of  the  European  Union,  Asia, Africa,  Latin  America,  and  countries  in  Oceania other than Australia and New Zealand (36). Because there were only sixteen participants in group 1, they were  excluded  from  analysis.  In  other  words,  the parents of the preadolescents included in this study have non-Western backgrounds.

## Sample

The  sample  consisted  of  902  preadolescents  who were  evenly  divided  across  age  and  gender.  Fortyseven percent of the sample had immigrant backgrounds,  which  means  that  minorities  were overrepresented in line with the recruitment strategy of the YCC. The largest minority groups were from Pakistan  (14%),  Turkey  (5%),  and  Sri  Lanka  (5%). Of those recruited through cultural centers, eighteen  preadolescents  with  Turkish  backgrounds (40% of the Turkish  sample)  and  four  with  Tamil backgrounds  (9%  of  the  Tamil  sample)  completed the  questionnaire.  It  was  not  possible  to  compare participants and non-participants in terms of background characteristics, because this was a convenience  sample  and  information  about  nonparticipants was limited.

## Measures

Outcome variables

Emotional  problems  were  measured  by  the  selfreport  version  of  the  emotional  problems  subscale of  the  Strengths  and  Difficulties  Questionnaire, Norwegian  version  (see  www.sdqinfo.com)  (34). This questionnaire has adequate psychometric properties that have been replicated in Norway (3739).  The  emotional  problems  subscale  consists  of five  items  that  indicate  symptoms  of  somatization, anxiety, and depression. The items are as follows: 'I get a lot of headaches, stomachaches, or sickness,' 'I worry a lot,' 'I am often unhappy, depressed, or tearful,'  'I  am  nervous  in  new  situations.  I  easily lose  confidence,'  and  'I  have  many  fears.  I  am easily  scared'  ( α =  0.68).  The  items  were  rated  0 ('Not true') to 2 ('Certainly true'), and a sum score of between 0 and 10 was computed.

## Predictor, moderator, and mediator variables

The predictor variable was parental achievement values, which was a measure of how preadolescents perceived  parental  attitudes  regarding  achievement and which was extracted from the Parental Pressure Questionnaire validated by Kim (35,40). Four items were  rated  on  a  Likert  scale  that  ranged  from  1 ('Never') to 5 ('Always') (α = 0.70), and a mean score  was  computed.  The  items  were  as  follows: 'My parents carefully monitor what I do in school,' 'My parents think that doing well in school is very important,'  'My  parents  say  that  I  should  work hard at everything I do,' and 'My parents often ask me about schoolwork.' The moderator variable was immigrant background, which was dichotomized as 0 for those with non-immigrant backgrounds and 1 for those with immigrant backgrounds.

The mediator variable was comparison , which measured how parents actively compared the child's achievement  with  that  of  others  as  a  form  of parental pressure or control (26). This is done as a parental  strategy  to  coerce  the  child  to  desire  to outperform his competitors, thereby conforming to parental  expectations.  These  items  were  developed and  validated  by  Sumer  and  Kagitsibaci  (26)  and added  to  the  comparison  subscale  of  the Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran scale for children. This is  a  validated  scale,  and  its  name,  translated  from Swedish,  means  'My  Memories  of  Upbringing' (41).  These  items  were  added  as  a  result  of  their relevance  for  measuring  parental  rearing  styles  in collectivistic societies (26). Three of the items added measured achievement comparison and were included in the present study due to their relevance for exploring the construct of parental achievement pressure.  The  achievement  comparison  items  were as follows: 'My parents are more concerned about how  I  do  relative  to  other  children  than  what  I actually  accomplish,'  'My  parents  compare  my school  performance  with  that  of  my  friends,'  and 'My parents compare my school performance with that  of  my  siblings  or  relatives'  ( α =  0.63).  Each question  was  rated  on  a  scale  that  ranged  from  1 ('Never') to 5 ('Always'), and a mean score of the scale was computed.

## Background variables

In  addition  to  gender  (dichotomized  as  0 for  boys and 1 for girls) and city background (0 for Bergen and 1 for Oslo), grade level (1 for fifth grade, 2 for sixth grade, and 3 for seventh grade) and economic hardship  were  included  as  background  variables. The two latter variables were used as proxies for age and  socioeconomic  status,  respectively.  Age  was computed by transforming grade level values from the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades into 10, 11, and 12  years  of  age,  respectively.  Economic  hardship, which served as a proxy for socioeconomic status, was measured  with  four items from  the scale Adolescent  Perceptions  of  Family  Hardship  (42). The  items  were  as  follows:  'How  often  do  your parents  argue  with  each  other  about  not  having enough  money?',  'How  often  do  you  argue  with your  parents  about  not  having  enough  money?', 'How  much  of  a  problem  does  your  family  have because your parents do not have enough money to buy things your family needs or wants?', and 'How upset or worried are your parents because they do not have enough money?' ( α =  .65).  The  first  two items  were  rated  on  a  scale  that  ranged  from  1 ('Never')  to  5  ('Always'),  whereas  the  latter  two items  were  rated  on  a  scale  that  ranged  from  1 ('Never')  to  4  ('Very  much').  All  four  economic hardship items were standardized, and a mean score was  computed.  The  unstandardized  scale,  which consisted  of  the  first  two  items,  was  used  when reporting mean differences ( α = .48); otherwise, the standardized scale was used.

## Academic factors

School  hassles  (i.e.,  everyday  concerns  related  to schoolwork) were measured by five items from the General Everyday Hassles scale (43). The preadolescents listed how often during the last year they had experienced the following: 'I am afraid of not doing well enough at school,' 'Big problems in understanding the teacher when he/she is teaching,' 'Strong pressure from those around me to succeed and do well at school,' 'Problems with one or more teachers,' and 'Arguments or problems  with  other(s)  in  class'  ( α =  .57).  Each question  was  rated  on  a  scale  that  ranged  from  0 ('No, never') to 3 ('Yes, very often'), and summed scale scores were computed.

Parental  help  with  homework  was  measured  by the mean score of two questions from the Lamborn Parenting Scale (44): one concerning maternal help and the other concerning paternal help. These were worded  as  follows:  'My  mother/father  helps  me with school assignments and home work if there is something I do not understand' ( α = .54). Adolescent  domestic  chore  burden  was  measured with one  question  from  the  General  Everyday Hassles  scale  (43):  'Too  much  responsibility  at home (for taking care of siblings or doing household chores).' Participants could rate this on a scale that went from 1 ('Not at all') to 5 ('Always'). This measure is considered an academic factor  because  it  has  been  associated  with  lower achievement and stronger emotional problems and because it is particularly relevant in specific immigrant communities in which girls are expected to contribute more than boys to household chores (32). Self-rated academic competence was measured by two questions concerning how competent preadolescents perceived themselves to be in math and Norwegian, respectively. Each subject was rated from 1 ('Not at all') to 5 ('Very competent'), and the  mean  competence  score  was  computed  ( α = .53).

## Missing analysis

We  used  a  maximization-expectation  algorithm  to impute missing responses for each scale included in the analyses with more than one item. These were emotional  problems,  parental  achievement  values, comparison, school hassles, domestic chore burden, academic achievement, and parental help with school work. Missing values were imputed if at least 50%  of  the  items  had  been  completed  by  each participant. The scale with the highest percentage of missing  values  was  comparison  (7.8%  for  nonimputed items and 3.2% with imputed items). The number of cases involving emotional problems was unchanged before and after imputation (N = 889). After imputation, the number of valid cases increased  from  742  to  849  (94.1%).  The  imputed variables  were  approximately  normally  distributed for  emotional  problems  (skewness,  1.17;  kurtosis, 2.08), parental achievement values (skewness, -0.73; kurtosis, -0.08), comparison (skewness, 0.54; kurtosis, -0.44), and academic achievement (skewness, -0.49; kurtosis, 0.08), whereas values for school hassles (skewness, 0.61; kurtosis, -0.28) and parental  help  with  school  work  (skewness,  1.74; kurtosis, 2.70) fell within acceptable values.

## Analytic strategy

The  level  of  significance  was  set  at  .05.  We  used PASW  Statistics 18 software (45) to conduct correlations, to perform t -tests to investigate whether preadolescents with immigrant backgrounds reported higher levels of parental achievement values and comparison, and to determine the mediating role of comparison on the relationship  between  parental  achievement  values and emotional problems among minority and majority  preadolescents  with  the  macro  'Process' developed  by  Hayes  (46).  More  specifically,  we tested Model 59 in 'Process,' which tested moderated  mediation;  this  looked  at  whether  the effect of parental achievement values ( X ) on emotional  problems  ( Y )  was  significantly  mediated by  comparison  ( Mj )  across  immigrant  background (the  moderator, W )  (46).  Background  (i.e.,  gender, school  grade,  economic  hardship,  and  city)  and academic  factors  (i.e.,  school  hassles,  age,  parental help  with  homework,  domestic  chore  burden,  and academic  competence)  were  adjusted  for  in  the model, because these variables could confound the relationship between X and Y given that all measures in the study stem from child self-reports at one point in time. Because sampling distributions of  indirect  effects  are  seldom  normally  distributed (47), bootstrapping was  performed to test the significance  of  the  indirect  effect  among  minority and  majority  preadolescents  and  to  address  the difference  between  the  magnitudes  of  the  indirect effect in these two groups. To  estimate  95% confidence  intervals,  5000  bootstrap  samples  were drawn  from  the  original  sample,  all  of  which  had the same N as the original sample.

## Results

The sample included 902 participants, and sampling characteristics are presented in Table 1 in terms of percentages, means, standard deviations, and correlations  among  variables.  Categorical  variables were  dichotomized  so  that  immigrant  background, female  gender,  and  living  in  Oslo  were  given  the value  1,  whereas  non-immigrant  background,  male gender, and living in Bergen were given the value 0. Positive correlations in Table 1 involving the remaining variables (which were continuous) indicated  that  girls,  preadolescents  with  immigrant backgrounds,  and  those  living  in  Oslo  reported higher levels of emotional problems. The percentage of participants with immigrant backgrounds  (47%),  girls  (50%),  and  citizens  of Oslo (79%) are listed in the second column of Table 1.  In  the  same  column,  there  are  mean  values, standard deviations, and ranges for the continuous variables  (i.e.,  emotional  problems,  school  hassles, parental  achievement  values,  economic  hardship, age,  comparison,  parental  help  with  homework, domestic chore burden, and academic competence). We see that preadolescents with immigrant backgrounds report more emotional problems, parental  achievement  values,  and  comparison  but less  parental  help  with  homework. No relationship was  found  between  immigrant  background  and perceived economic hardship. Those who reported more economic hardship also reported more parental achievement values, more comparison, more emotional problems, and more domestic chore  burden  as  well  as  less  parental  help  with homework.

When testing the first hypothesis, we found that immigrant  background  was  indeed  associated  with higher  levels  of  parental  achievement  values  and higher levels of comparison. This is shown in Table 1,  in  which  immigrant  background  is  positively associated with these variables, as well as in Table 2, in  which  levels  of  these  variables  are  significantly higher for those children with immigrant backgrounds  as  compared  with  those  with  nonimmigrant backgrounds.

Table 2 describes mean scores for preadolescents with  immigrant  and  non-immigrant  backgrounds. Of  all  continuous  variables,  preadolescents  with non-immigrant  backgrounds  only  reported  higher scores than those with ethnic Norwegian backgrounds  for  parental  help  with  homework. However, to assess the unique relationship between immigrant background, parental achievement values,  comparison,  and  emotional  problems,  we needed  to  test  these  variables  simultaneously  and adjust for background and potentially confounding academic factors. This was dealt with when testing the second hypothesis.

When  testing for the second hypothesis,  we adjusted for background and academic factors, and we tested a moderated mediation model. The model

TABLE 1. Descriptives and correlation

| Variable                                               | Percentage or Mean (SD)     | 2     | 3     | 4     | 5     | 6      | 7      | 8      | 9      | 10     | 11     | 12    |
|--------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|--------|-------|
| 1. Emotional problems                                  | [Range] 3.1 (2.3) [0 to 10] | .37** | .14** | .19** | .07*  | .17**  | .12**  | -.08*  | .24**  | -.13** | .26**  | .07*  |
| 2. School hassles                                      | 1.6 (0.5) [0 to 3]          |       | .14** | .09*  | -.04  | .21**  | .01    | -.05   | .18**  | -.15** | .25**  | -.01  |
| 3. Parental achievement values                         | 4.2 (0.7) [1 to 5]          |       |       | .31** | -.07* | -.10** | -.22** | .07*   | .32**  | .05    | .11**  | .22** |
| 4. Immigrant background (vs. non-immigrant background) | 47%                         |       |       |       | .02   | -.03   | .36**  | -.01   | .39**  | -.18** | .12**  | .15** |
| 5. Girls (vs. boys)                                    | 50%                         |       |       |       |       | -.01   | .00    | .00    | -.14** | .09**  | -.10** | .01   |
| 6. Economic hardship                                   | 1.3 (0.5) [1 to 5]          |       |       |       |       |        | -.06   | .02    | .07*   | -.13** | .18**  | -.06  |
| 7. Living in Oslo (vs. Bergen)                         | 79%                         |       |       |       |       |        |        | -.09** | .16**  | -.06   | .01    | .05   |
| 8. Age                                                 | 11.0 (0.8) [10 to 1]        |       |       |       |       |        |        |        | -.11** | -.03   | .02    | -.08* |
| 9. Comparison                                          | 2.8 (1.4) [1 to 6]          |       |       |       |       |        |        |        |        | -.11** | .17**  | .12** |
| 10. Parental help with homework                        | 4.4 (0.9) [1 to 5)          |       |       |       |       |        |        |        |        |        | -.15** | .08*  |
| 11. Domestic chore burden                              | 1.6 (0.8) [1 to 4]          |       |       |       |       |        |        |        |        |        |        | .07*  |
| 12. Academic competence                                | 3.7 (1.0) [1 to 5]          |       |       |       |       |        |        |        |        |        |        |       |

Percentages given for categorical variables; means, standard deviations (SD), and ranges given for continuous variables. Categorical variables were dichotomized as 1 for variables outside parentheses and 0 for variables inside parentheses

* p < .05; ** p < .01 (two-tailed)

TABLE 2. Mean scores, standard deviations (SD), and effect size of mean group differences

| Variable                    | Immigrant background mean (SD)   | Non-immigrant background mean (SD)   |   Partial eta-squared |
|-----------------------------|----------------------------------|--------------------------------------|-----------------------|
| Parental achievement values | 4.40 (0.65)***                   | 3.96 (.68)                           |                   .10 |
| Comparison                  | 3.34 (1.41)***                   | 2.26 (1.10)                          |                   .15 |
| Emotional problems          | 3.58 (2.42)***                   | 2.71 (2.18)                          |                   .03 |
| School hassles              | 1.63 (0.51)*                     | 1.55 (.45)                           |                   .01 |
| Parental help with homework | 4.27 (0.99)                      | 4.58 (.75)***                        |                   .03 |
| Domestic chore burden       | 1.72 (0.87)**                    | 1.53 (.71)                           |                   .01 |
| Academic competence         | 3.96 (0.76)***                   | 3.77 (.79)                           |                   .02 |

The partial eta-squared is the proportion of the variance in emotional problems that is explained by immigrant background as compared with non-immigrant background. Significance for group differences: * p < .01; *** p < .001

tested  whether  the  relationship  between  parental achievement  values  and  emotional  problems  was mediated by comparison and it simultaneously Immigrant background tested  whether  immigrant  background  moderated the relationship between parental achievement values  and  comparison,  between  comparison  and emotional problems, and between parental achievement values and emotional problems.

Mediation  was  tested  by  the  indirect  pathway from parental achievement values through comparison  to  emotional  problems.  The  indirect pathway was significant among both immigrants ( β = .04; bootstrap 95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.07) and non-immigrants ( β = .02; bootstrap  95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.04). However, small mediation  effects  are  generally  expected  to  be  so, because  they  are  the  product  of  two  regression coefficients.  This  particular  mediation  effect  was borderline  significantly  stronger  among  immigrant adolescents as compared with non-immigrant preadolescents  (bootstrap  95%  confidence  interval for  the  difference,  0.004-0.04).  This  suggests  that the relationship between parental achievement values and emotional problems among preadolescents  is  mediated  through  comparison  in both  immigrants  and  non-immigrants  but  to a stronger  degree  among  immigrant  preadolescents. In  addition,  the  relationship  between  comparison and  emotional  problems  is  only  significant  among those with immigrant backgrounds.

Figure 1 shows moderation results, which involve whether  immigrant  background  moderates  these three paths in the model. It also shows the different β values  for  those  with  immigrant  and  majority backgrounds,  which  indicate  that  moderation  was found in the particular path (i.e., values are significantly  different  in  these  groups).  Notice  that only  moderation  values  are  presented  and  that  the significance of the moderation effect of an immigrant  background  is  indicated  by  separate β values  for  preadolescents  with  immigrant  ('imm') and non-immigrant backgrounds ('non').

Results indicated that immigrant background moderated the relationship between parental achievement values and comparison ( p < .01; β imm = .31**; β non = .18**), as well as the relationship between comparison and emotional problems ( p < .01; β imm  =  .15**; β non  =  .04,  not  significant). However,  it did not moderate  the  relationship between parental achievement values and emotional problems (as signified by one single value for both groups, even though the coefficient size was larger for  preadolescents  with  immigrant  backgrounds  [ β = .10; P = .05] than for those with non-immigrant backgrounds [ β = .00; p = .94]).

FIGURE 1. Moderated mediation model with immigrant background as the moderator and comparison as the mediator β, β value; β imm, β value for immigrants; β non, β

<!-- image -->

value for non-immigrants; ns, not significant; Significance **p < .001

## Discussion

In  this  study,  we  first  found  that  preadolescents with immigrant backgrounds reported higher levels of  parental  achievement  values,  comparison,  and emotional problems. Second, we learned that comparison mediated the relationship between parental achievement values and emotional problems, whereas immigrant background moderated this mediated relationship. The relationship  between  comparison  and  emotional problems  is  only  significant  among  preadolescents with immigrant backgrounds. Thus, the results support both hypotheses of this study.

In addition to the main findings presented above, this study also supports the implication of academic factors  such  as  school  hassles  and  domestic  chore burden in preadolescents' emotional problems. Higher levels of parental achievement values among preadolescents with immigrant backgrounds do not seem to be accompanied by proportional levels  of parental help with homework. A comparable study supports  this  finding  as  well  as  that  of  the  link between  self-reported  academic  competence  and parental help with homework (32).

Hence,  this  study  supports  the  findings  of  the only known peer-reviewed study of the topic, which assessed the relationship between parental achievement values and emotional problems among adolescents. That study found that increased levels of parental achievement  values  were  related to increased levels of both comparison and emotional problems (17). Having parents who focus more on achievement appears to be a common denominator between  affluent  suburban  adolescents  as  well  as adolescents  with  immigrant  parents.  Whether  this applies to comparison as well remains to be tested in future studies.

According to preadolescent self-reports, immigrant parents display higher levels of achievement  values  than  non-immigrant  parents. This appears to be positive given that earlier studies have linked positive parental achievement values to academic success during adolescence (12,14). Research shows that immigrant children may benefit from positive parental academic involvement  (4,31),  although  this  beneficial  effect may only apply in the absence of parental pressure such  as  comparison  (and  other  unknown  variables that  were  not  investigated  in  this  study).  However, according  to  preadolescent  self-reports,  immigrant parents  also  display  higher  levels  of  comparison; such levels are directly related to emotional problems  in  our  hypothesis,  and  they  have  been found  to  be  indirectly  related  through  pressure  in other studies.

Future longitudinal studies should examine whether  parental  academic  values  in  fact  precede emotional problems in preadolescents and whether parental support (or emotional warmth) can suppress  the  effect  between  achievement  pressure (personal  or  parental)  and  emotional  problems.  It would also be valuable to assess whether the findings  of  this  study  can  be  supported  among immigrants from predominantly individualistic countries, where filial agreement with parental values  are  less  widespread  than  in  predominantly collectivistic countries. In the latter group of countries, parents tend to emphasize filial agreement,  which  could  explain  why  there  is  a stronger  link  between  parental  achievement  values and emotional problems among immigrants in this study  (who  are  predominantly  collectivistic  on  a group level) as compared with non-immigrants.

In addition to its substantial strengths, which will be presented below, this study has some limitations. One  of  them  is  that  we  in  fact  do  not  know  the direction of the relationship between parental academic values and filial emotional problems. It is possible that high levels of emotional problems lead to  high  reports  of  parental  achievement  values.  If this is the case, changing parental overemphasis on academic  success  will  not  alleviate  filial  emotional symptoms,  because  the  cause  of  the  emotional problems would be entirely different. However, this relationship may be bidirectional, in which case less emphasis on achievement by immigrant parents may alleviate  emotional  symptoms.  Perhaps  the  largest limitation  is  that  the  relationship  between  parental achievement values and emotional problems may be the result of an unknown third variable. With this in mind,  we  have  attempted  to  control  for  several variables that have been proposed as possible third variable  candidates  by  studies  from  relevant  fields. Although the present study focused on what preadolescents with immigrant background have in common,  there  are  substantial  differences  among immigrant  groups  in  Norway,  and  future  studies should attend to these differences.

We lack information about non-participants, and the study sample is not representative of Norway's population.  However,  a  lack  of  representativeness does not undermine the significance of the correlations found in this study (48). Another limitation is that some of our measures could have been  more  precise,  such  as  the  use  of  proxies  for age  (grade  level),  academic  competence  (perceived rather  than  actual  test  results),  and  socioeconomic status (perceived economic hardship). These variables  were  implicated  in  somewhat  unexpected results:  higher  age  was  related  to  lower  levels  of emotional problems, and preadolescents with immigrant backgrounds did not report significantly lower  economic  hardship  as  compared  with  their ethnic  majority  peers.  Although  we  controlled  for these variables, having data about participants' actual  ages,  academic  results,  and  socioeconomic backgrounds (preferably based on parental education  level  before  immigration  rather  than  on the  current  type  of  parental  employment,  because the former may also influence academic aspirations) would constitute an improvement in future studies. Several  measures  in  the  study  had  low  Cronbach's alpha values, which may indicate imprecise operationalization.  However,  some  of  these  scales simply include few items (e.g., academic competence),  which  decreases  the  reliability  of  the scale. Alternatively, others are composite  scales (e.g.,  school  hassles),  and  Cronbach's  alpha  values do not accurately reflect the reliability of composite scales (49). Future studies would  benefit  from operationalizing  parental  academic  values  in  a  way that more readily distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic goals (17). In this way, adaptive and maladaptive parental academic values could be more readily distinguished from each other.

This study has also major strengths, and it fills a gap  in  the  research  literature.  To  the  best  of  the authors'  knowledge,  this  is  the  first  peer-reviewed study  to  assess  the  relationship  between  parental academic values and emotional problems in preadolescents with and without immigrant backgrounds.  The  moderated  mediation  model  in this study offers a methodologic framework for the testing  of  theoretic  assumptions  in  this  uncharted field,  and  it  also  suggests  in  which  path  of  the model that immigrant background exerts its moderator  effect.  In  this  case,  it  was  the  path between parental achievement values and comparison. The fairly large sample size enabled the control  of  a  number  of  potentially  confounding variables,  which  supports  the  robustness  of  the findings.  Thus,  the  effects  of  this  study  may  be small, but they are also significant and robust. This study also connects findings from national Norwegian  reports  to  those  of  the  international research community, which can now refine or refute our findings. Because research in this field is lacking, we support the call for more research into the relationship between parental achievement values and emotional problems among adolescents, especially  in  those  groups  in  which  comparison  is common parenting strategy.

## Conclusions

This study particularly supports the role of immigrant background in moderating the relationship  between  comparison  and  emotional problems. In addition, it supports the role of comparison in accounting for the relationship between higher levels of parental achievement values and more emotional problems among immigrant  preadolescents.  Although  high  levels  of parental  achievement  values  have,  in  other  studies, also  been  linked  to  positive  outcomes  such  as academic  success,  the  present  study  adds  to  the research literature that links high levels of parental achievement  values  to  a  negative  outcome:  in  this case,  emotional  problems.  We  suggest  that  strong comparison, whether parental or personal, may have a detrimental effect on emotional problems.

More research is needed to better assess the role of comparison-as well as other aspects of parental achievement  pressure-in  mediating  the  effect  of parental achievement values on emotional problems in children and adolescents. Until further studies are conducted, parents in general, and especially parents of  preadolescents  who  appear  to  be  emotionally distressed,  may  do  well  to  substitute  comparison with  other  strategies  to  encourage  their  children's achievement.

## Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

## Authors' contributions

DEA  participated  in  data collection,  conducted literature  search  and  data  analyses,  and  drafted  the article. KG  conducted data analyses, made a substantial contribution to the methodology of the study  and  the  interpretation  of  results,  and  helped draft the manuscript. ER made a substantial contribution to the manuscript structure and methodology and helped draft the manuscript. BO was  the  Principal  Investigator  of  the  YCC  project from  which  data  from  this  study  was  drawn  and helped draft the manuscript, particularly the background section. HDZ  made a substantial contribution to the design, methodology, and interpretation of the results of the study and helped draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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## Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express gratitude to Dr. Ragnhild Ørstavik at the Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, for her comments on this paper. This project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council.