Becoming Civically Engaged Adolescents: Individual and Parenting Mechanisms in Chinese American Families

Objectives: To understand processes contributing to Chinese American adolescents’ civic engagement, our study examined: (a) the mediating role of Chinese American adolescents’ ethnic identity resolution in the associations between their parents’ cultural socialization and their own civic engagement (i.e., political participation and civil participation), (b) the moderating role of parents’ racial socialization competency in the association between parents’ cultural socialization and adolescents’ ethnic identity resolution, and (c) the moderating role of adolescents’ behavioral acculturation toward American culture in the associations between adolescents’ ethnic identity resolution and civic engagement. Method: Participants included 303 Chinese American adolescents aged 10–18 years old (M_age = 14.1, SD = 2.2; 50% girls) and their parents (Mage = 44.1 years, SD = 6.0; 78% mothers). Results: Chinese American parents’ cultural socialization was positively related to their adolescents’ ethnic identity resolution, which in turn contributed to adolescents’ greater political participation and civil participation. The positive association between parents’ cultural socialization and adolescents’ ethnic identity resolution was further strengthened by parents’ greater racial socialization competency. Moreover, a complex moderating effect of adolescents’ behavioral participation in American society was revealed, in which adolescents’ ethnic identity resolution was significantly associated with greater political participation only when they also had high levels of behavioral acculturation. Conversely, the relation between adolescents’ ethnic identity resolution and their civil participation was not dependent on their behavioral acculturation level. Conclusion: Our study highlighted the joint contribution of adolescent and parenting factors in promoting different forms of youth civic engagement in Chinese American families.