Our group theme is the stress that comes with acculturation. Acculturation is the process of cultural change that occurs when individuals from one culture adopt the customs, practices, and values of another culture, usually of the country they immigrate to. This overarching theme relates to our individual themes of job/life dissatisfaction, intergenerational trauma, cultural gap/identity, and parental love in Asian American families. The stressors resulting from acculturation in Asian American families can include the conflict of trying to maintain one’s own values and assimilating to new ones.

Moreover, acculturation has resulted in a constant struggle between preserving one’s heritage while adjusting to mainstream U.S. culture. This balancing act creates cultural gaps between generations within families, leaving a growing population of second generation Asian Americans struggling to navigate their own connections to their cultural identities and experiences growing up in the United States.

Although intergenerational trauma may stem from a place of historical trauma, the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma go hand in hand with stressors resulting from acculturation. One main impact of intergenerational trauma on younger generations is the lack of communication between parents and their children. This relates to the notion that when Asian immigrants move to the U.S and adopt Americanized beliefs and values, they may wish to forget about the past and “start over.” Thus, the process of acculturation allows the older generations who endured this trauma to easily ignore that part of their life and have their children never learn about it.

In the context of family dynamics, the way parental love is expressed in Asian American families is different from typical American families because of the stressors from acculturation, such as discrimination and communication barriers. Parental love is related to intergenerational trauma in Asian American families and can significantly affect how parents express love towards their children. When Asian American immigrant parents have trauma from their parents, they will often project their experiences onto their children, and this can lead to fixed expectations of certain occupations that connect to the job dissatisfaction many Asian Americans face.

The idea of acculturation relates to the idea of work ambivalence because often times the factors that influence job dissatisfaction and views on work amongst Asian Americans are the same that lead to acculturation. Particularly, the idea that Asian Americans have different cultural values than other Americans and thus when those Asian American values are abandoned through acculturation, there is an increase in satisfaction and happiness.