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Stability and Change in Adjustment Profiles Among Chinese American Adolescents: The Role of Parenting

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

Asian American adolescents are often depicted as academically successful but psychologically distressed, a pattern known as the achievement/adjustment paradox. In a sample of 444 Chinese American adolescents (54 % females), we identified three distinct patterns of adjustment in early adolescence, middle adolescence, and emerging adulthood: the well-adjusted group, which was the largest, exhibited high achievement and low psychological distress; the poorly-adjusted group exhibited poor achievement and moderate distress; and the paradox group exhibited relatively high achievement and high distress. More than half of the adolescents remained in the same profile over time. Adolescents with supportive parents were more likely to stay well-adjusted, and those with “tiger” parents were more likely to stay in the paradox group over time. The present study focused on the critical role of parenting in early adolescence, highlighting variations in Chinese American adolescents’ adjustment in multiple domains over time.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided through awards to Su Yeong Kim from (1) Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD 5R03HD051629-02. (2) Office of the Vice President for Research Grant/Special Research Grant from the University of Texas at Austin. (3) Jacobs Foundation Young Investigator Grant. (4) American Psychological Association Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, Promoting Psychological Research and Training on Health Disparities Issues at Ethnic Minority Serving Institutions Grant. (5) American Psychological Foundation/Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, Ruth G. and Joseph D. Matarazzo Grant. (6) California Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Extended Education Fund. (7) American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Massachusetts Avenue Building Assets Fund, and (8) Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD 5R24HD042849-13 grant awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.

Author contributions

SYK conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination and drafted portions of the manuscript; YW performed the statistical analysis and drafted portions of the manuscript; YS and YH participated in the interpretation of the data and drafted portions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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The authors report no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, 108 East Dean Keeton Street, Stop A2702, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Su Yeong Kim, Yijie Wang, Yishan Shen & Yang Hou

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  1. Su Yeong Kim
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Correspondence to Su Yeong Kim.

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Kim, S.Y., Wang, Y., Shen, Y. et al. Stability and Change in Adjustment Profiles Among Chinese American Adolescents: The Role of Parenting. J Youth Adolescence 44, 1735–1751 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0303-3

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