Parents and children only? Acculturation and the influence of extended family members among Vietnamese refugees

Laila Tingvold, Anne Lise Middelthon, James Allen, Edvard Hauff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

The nuclear family is often the point of departure in much of the existing acculturation research on refugee youth and children of refugees. The influence of other extended family members appears to receive less attention in understanding acculturation processes and intergenerational perspectives. This qualitative study explores the influence of extended family members upon a small sample of Vietnamese refugee parents and their adolescents while they undergo acculturation through their long-term resettlement process in Norway. With repeated interviews over a time span of 3 years, we identified situations and processes in family life in which extended kin become particularly activated and influential. Vietnamese refugee families in Norway keep close contact with extended kin even in the face of geographical distance to kin remaining in Vietnam, or globally dispersed. Aunts, uncles, and cousins are experienced as significant persons in the lives of many adolescents. Additionally, birth order of parents can often influence relationship dynamics among siblings and siblings children. Extended kin surfaced as especially important and influential at critical stages and crisis situations in family life. Extended family, and in particular, parental siblings play important roles in the acculturation experience and family functioning of Vietnamese refugee families in Norway. This has important implications for the study of Vietnamese and other refugee and immigrant families in acculturation research.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)260-270
Number of pages11
JournalInternational Journal of Intercultural Relations
Volume36
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2012

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The project described was supported by the Norwegian Extra Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation through Extra Funds. The work of the third author was supported by Award Number R24MD001626 from the National Center for Minority Health Disparities , and P20RR016430 from the National Center for Research Resources , both from the National Institutes of Health. We wish to thank interpreter and assistant Mimi Tran Nguyen for successful cooperation. Michelle Dondanville, Center for Alaska Native Health Research, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Aina Basilier Vaage, Stavanger University Hospital, Norway, and Fons J.R. van de Vijver, University of Tilburg, the Netherlands, who read earlier drafts and provided valuable comments.

Keywords

  • Acculturation
  • Extended family
  • Mental health
  • Qualitative methods
  • Refugees
  • Vietnamese

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