Date of Award

Spring 2025

Thesis Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Sponsor

Dr. Alice Davidson

Committee Member

Dr. Steve St. John

Committee Member

Dr. Matthew Forsythe

Abstract

Immigrant parents experience many challenges when shifting to a new culture, such as rearing children in a culture different from the one in which they were reared. Adjusting to a new culture is associated with aspects of parental wellbeing and the parenting practices that they adopt (Murthy, 2024). This has been studied widely among immigrant parents, but not among Pakistani immigrants. The present descriptive study aimed to address the following questions among a sample of Pakistani immigrant participants (N = 61): 1) What parenting practices and values are embraced by Pakistani immigrant parents and to what extent are these values consistent with US culture and/or their culture of origin? 2) Are personal parenting values associated with demographic factors, including age at migration, education level, and income level? 3) To what extent are personal parenting values associated with ethnic identity and parental wellbeing? We administered open-ended and quantitative measures to measure parenting values, parental wellbeing, and ethnic identity. Endorsement of specific parenting values were largely unrelated to demographic factors with the exception of two findings consistent with hypotheses. Contrary to hypotheses, embracing parenting values from both cultures was largely unrelated to parental stress and parenting satisfaction. Notably, ethnic identity was negatively associated with societal-oriented parenting perfectionism. This research provided insight into how complex the transmission of parenting values can be for immigrant parents, with no one right or wrong way to raise one’s children in a culture different than one’s own.

Rights Holder

Yumna Khan

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