Culture conflict in Australia : reactions to intergeneration disparity in second-generation immigrant and Australian adolescents

Abstract

The adolescent born into the host society of his immigrant parents has to adapt to the cultures of both his parents and his peers, yet has full recourse to neither. Culture conflict appears probable. Conversely research on the contemporary Western adolescent describes him as maturing into a rapidly changing society so different from that in which his parents grew up that he too is in a state essentially of culture conflict. Literature on the adolescent and Australian immigration predicted greater conflict for immigrants' children, although some writers expected less than that found in the United States. Questionnaires were administered in the Melbourne homes of 107 second generation 14-lö-year-olds and their parents from the United Kingdom, Holland, Germany, Italy and Greece, plus 39 Australian children and their parents, matched on the child's age, sex, scholastic achievement, religion, and socioeconomic status of parents. Absolute differences on items of two value scales indicated degree of disparity between the social norms of the child and those of his parents. Australianism Disparity measured disagreement on broad social issues, and Intergeneration Disparity on familial norms. Categories of predicted adolescent reactions to conflict derived from consistency theory were rejection of parents, rejection of peers, rejection of social mores, and alienation. Instruments designed to measure these variables were satisfactory, excepting indices of Australianism Disparity and identification with parents. Australian children scored higher on Australianism Disparity than immigrants, especially Northwest Europeans. I-G Disparity means did not differ as all children reported some disagreement, but did not realise how great i t was and all groups thought, their peers were less conforming than they were themselves. Northwest European children identified more closely with their parents than Australian or United Kingdom children. Peer-group identification was highest in United Kingdom children and lowest in Northwest European children. Rejection of social mores by Northwest Europeans was less than by Australian and United Kingdom children. European children evinced less alienation than Australian or United Kingdom adolescents, although the means for all groups were above the third quartile of Hughes' adult standardisation sample. Children of all groups scored higher than their parents on Australianism, when scored following Taft's original specifications, but the difference was greater for European than for Australian or United Kingdom children. Australianism Disparity correlated with rejection of social mores, especially for Southern European children, but did not predict other reactions for any group. Greater I-G Disparity predicted stronger rejection of parents, particularly in European children, although Southern European adolescents in conflict at the same time gave evidence of attempting to identify with both parents and peers. It correlated with identification with peers, but most strongly for United Kingdom and Southern European children. Both rejection of social mores and alienation were predicted by I-G Disparity for all groups. Thus disparity of norms between parents and child predicted rejection of parents by European subjects, identification with peers by United Kingdom and Southern European children, and rejection of society and its conventions by all groups. Although conflict reactions were more widespread in Southern European children than in others, the strongest finding was that all groups experienced conflict and reacted by rejecting adult society and its mores. Second-generation adolescents, and especially Southern Europeans, were in somewhat greater conflict than were Australians, but this was a small proportion of the dis sat isfaction with adult society evident in all groups. Although the nature and extent of the conflict aroused varied to some degree in the children interviewed, the generation gap and its consequences were substantial both in second-generation adolescents and in their Australian peers. Show more