The last contribution of stress in the acculturation process among the Bengalis and Indians is the social adjustments. It becomes difficult for some members to adjust to other social groups. The research carried out reveals that children of these groups find it hard to cope up in the learning environment, especially due to prejudice of other students based on racism. Racism is the phenomenon that contributes to stress among the international students. Although immigrants may assimilate cultural norms, some individuals who are attached strongly to their traditional belief may become stressed. This is because they feel guilty for abandoning their social structures and cultures, and it may take time for them to adapt to the new cultural practices (Farver, Bhadha & Narang, 2002).
Bangladeshi and Indians children may work as cultural brokers in order to help their parents in the U.S. First, social motivation to socialize with children from other cultures, thus build a sense of belonging (Alam, 2009). There are three types of social motivation, and one of them is a sense of fairness. Many Bengalis and Indians parents hold the cultural belief that can be broken down through the help of their children, because children learn or acquire acculturation faster than their parents. Therefore, all groups should be treated fairly in a society with varied cultural beliefs. The second one is existence of authority that would reduce or stop unfair behaviors and promote fair behaviors. The last one is social pressure, and it can be disapproved by pressure from peers for instance, children. Through social motivation, children would help their parents in culture breakdown.
The second way through, which the Bengalis and Indian children can make in order to help their parents, is through performing gender and social roles. Gender roles are crucial in acculturated society. Alam (2008) points out that social and gender roles particularly the role of female in a society is crucial. For instance, the Bengali parents desire their daughters to get married under the parents’ responsibilities. However, children may help their parents to diminish these traditional beliefs. Moreover, through education or learning one can help children to achieve a sense of direction. Many of the Bengalis and Indians parents discovered that their children were serving as cultural brokers. This is because many children acquire assimilation faster than their parents. Hence, through practicing gender roles, children may act as cultural brokers.
The first generation of the South East Asian, especially the Bengalis and Indians parents, use varied parenting styles. Most of them use authoritative, authoritarian, permissive or withdrawn styles. The Bengalis and Indian parents of the first generation used the four parenting styles in modeling the behaviors of their children. The parents’ responsiveness among these social groups has been found to predicting social competence and psychological functioning; thus promoting self-control. The traditional parenting style of the first generation of the Indians and Bengalis was authoritative, when the parents used authoritative powers in controlling their children. The authoritative style was seen as an effective parenting style because it was an ideal and successful method, and it was preferred because it produced better results on the side of children. According to Baptiste (2005), children of parents who used authoritative style in rearing children were more socially and instrumentally competent compared to other parenting styles. Moreover, the authoritative style is the most common parenting style employed in many families in the U.S.. The research indicates that children from the authoritarian families, which are high in control but low in responsiveness, tend to perform moderately. They are rated as having poor social skills but lower depression level. The withdrawn parenting style is considered to be the worst style of parenting and children raised in such conditions have poor outcomes. They have poor social skills and mostly perform lower in educational performance (Scheidegger, 2007). Children from the permissive families, which are high in responsiveness and low in demanding show some problem behaviors and perform poorer in schools (Hiu Ying Chau, 2005). However, they have higher self-esteem, social skills and low depression levels.
The traditional parenting styles, especially the authoritative style, may cause conflicts in the second generation children living in the United States. This is because social class, gender and ethnicity have been found to produce different results depending on the parenting style. The authoritative style of parenting may cause conflicts because the second generation appears to be less significant to the well-being of girls that the boys. It is not associated with better educational performance for Asian American children. According to Jain and Belsky (1997), consistent parental monitoring of the activities of children in the second generation and consistent discipline may cause parent-children conflicts. Moreover, due to changes that have been associated with urbanization, some parenting styles are shifted. Urbanization has altered the structure of the family and obligation of parents towards their children. Hence, children in the second generation do not prefer authoritative parenting style, thus it may cause conflicts.
The conflicts may result when exercising varied parenting styles. This is because these children are raised under various cultures and values that may impact their psychological behaviors. Thus, the parenting styles may not work effectively when applied. This is because different cultural may influence the behaviors of children in different ways, therefore, when parents try to raise their children in the desired ways, conflicts arise. This is due to the fact that the first generation immigrants have more exposure to the traditional values than the second generation immigrants (Abouguendia & Noels, 2001). Hence, in case parents try to control and expect children to live up according to their expectations, it may be difficult. Sometimes, it may inflict stress on the second generation children.
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