Migrant Children’s Acculturation in China: The Roles of Parent-Child Communication and Parent-Child Relationship

Abstract

Due to the large number of internal migrant children in China, an ideal opportunity exists for scholars to examine the influencing factors of their acculturation. Also, because of research gaps, this study aimed to examine whether parent-child communication and relationship could play a role in migrant children’s acculturation. In total, this study recruited sixty-five migrant children in Shenzhen and conducted an online survey to evaluate their level of acculturation as pertaining to parent-child communication and relationship issues. Through the regression analysis, this study determined that the different genders displayed diverse degrees of acculturation. For example, girls were more inclined to adapt to the new culture of their new city, while boys were more likely to retain their original cultural mores. Moreover, fathers tended to play a more significant role in children’s acculturation than mothers. Meanwhile, there appears to be no correlation between children’s acculturation and the parent-child relationship, while the parent- child relationship does have an impact on the level of children’s assimilation. This study also proffers that the process of children’s acculturation is changeable rather than fixed. Thus, parents should allot more time with their children in order to develop a positive line of communication with their children and focus more attention on their behavioral changes in the process of acculturation.