Acculturation, Asian cultural values, family conflict, and perceived stress in Chinese immigrant female college students in the United States

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Acculturation, Asian Cultural Values, Family Conflict, and Perceived Stress in Chinese immigrant female college students in the United States. The sample consisted of 66 Chinese immigrant female college students between the ages of 18 and 30. All participants resided in the United States for a minimum of three years and had immigrated to the United States from Chinese or other Asian speaking countries. In addition, all were unmarried and had parents residing in the United States. Participants were recruited through convenience sampling and the Internet, with primary recruitment in the Southern California region. There were two versions of the survey, one paper and pencil and one Internet. All but one participant completed the survey on-line.; Participants were given five self-administered questionnaires to complete: the Demographic Questionnaire, the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA), Asian Values Scale (AVS), Asian American Family Conflict Scale (AAFCS), and Perceived Stress Scale-14 (PSS-14). The findings did not show any significant relationships between acculturation, Asian cultural values, and family conflict. However, the results of correlational and multiple regression analyses revealed significant relationships between acculturation, Asian cultural values, and perceived stress. Findings suggest that the level of acculturation is negatively correlated to the level of perceived stress, in which low acculturation was related to high stress. In addition, the level of adherence to Asian cultural values is positively correlated with the level of perceived stress, whereby, the more one adheres to Asian cultural values the higher the perceived stress. Findings are discussed in relation to current literature. Implications and future research for the Chinese population in the United States are also discussed.