Two Sides to Face: Integrity- and Achievement-Centered Face-Saving, Parental Psychological Control, and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese American Adolescents

What is it about?

Depressive symptoms are prevalent but under-recognized mental health risks among Asian and Chinese American populations, especially during adolescence. Face-saving values are also particularly salient and relevant to individuals’ psychological well-being for this population, yet little research has examined the role of face-saving values in adolescents from Asian immigrant families. The present study filled these gaps by revealing the complex but distinguishable pathways from parental face-saving values, parental psychological control, to adolescents’ face-saving values and depressive symptoms. Findings revealed the richness of face-saving values in Chinese American families as well as the distinct foci and functions of two unique but interconnected face-saving values, integrity-centered face of lian (脸) and achievement-centered face of mianzi (面子). Our results suggest that future research that considers culture-specific socialization processes in developmental specificity among children from diverse cultural and immigrant backgrounds would be fruitful in understanding the roles of culture and parenting on children’s developmental and psychosocial outcomes.

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Photo by Ian Keefe on Unsplash

Photo by Ian Keefe on Unsplash