Cultural Values, Social Status, and Chinese American Immigrant Parents’ Emotional Expressivity

Cultural values and social status are two salient factors in the psychological experiences of immigrant families, and both have been associated with immigrant parents’ patterns of emotional expression in previous studies. The present study examined how endorsement of cultural values (collectivism and conformity) and social status were uniquely associated with immigrant parents’ emotional expressivity in the family. First-generation Chinese American immigrant parents (N = 239, 80% mothers; M = 41.31 years old) of elementary-age children reported on their endorsement of values of collectivism and conformity, their patterns of emotional expressivity in the family context, and their family income and education levels. Path analyses indicated unique positive associations between family income and all domains of parents’ emotional expressivity and negative associations between family income and parents’ endorsement of collectivism and conformity. Parents’ endorsement of collectivism was negatively associated with negative-dominant expressivity. We discuss implications of our findings for theories of culture and emotion, as well as for future intersectional approaches with Asian American populations