How to Parent in Canada? The Struggle to Develop a New Habitus Among Chinese Immigrant Mothers
Date
2024-02-14
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Parents worldwide aspire to guide their children toward what they see as “success”. However, immigrant families in Canada, especially those from non-Western backgrounds, encounter distinct challenges. These include maintaining family cohesion and supporting their children's psychological and emotional well-being amidst acculturation differences. This qualitative study utilizes Bourdieu’s critical sociological theory to examine the experiences of five first-generation, middle-class Chinese immigrant mothers in Alberta, Canada. Despite past research suggesting that immigrant parents are resistant to changing some of their deeply held beliefs (regardless of how they diverge from predominant norms), the findings of this study point toward participants’ shared desire to abandon their cultural traditions. They rejected the high-power, hierarchical parent-child relationships of their own upbringing and instead strove to respect their children as autonomous equals with the ‘right’ to self-expression, aligning with Western philosophical paradigms. However, despite these intentions, their habitus is embodied and enduring, such that their habitual ways of reacting and relating to their children reflect the very traditions they consciously reject. The findings illuminate the challenges non-Western immigrant parents face in implementing their evolving parenting goals in everyday interactions with their children.
Description
Keywords
Habitus, Bourdieu, Chinese Immigrants, Immigrant Parenting, Child Development
Citation
Liu, D. (2024). How to parent in Canada? The struggle to develop a new habitus among Chinese immigrant mothers (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.