Australian Family Values Essay

521 Words2 Pages

Family roles and relationships can be impacted by the enculturation of the Australian family values. I will be focusing on two collectivist cultures, Latinos and Chinese migrant families, to find out if their family roles and relationships have changed, and if so how it impacts them? Both my cross cultures traditional expectations of family relationships are based on respect for the elders. Chinese traditional cultural values which derive from the Confucian system such as filial piety which teaches children to respect their elders and to take care of them as they get older as well as teaching women to respect their husbands and parents in law. These traditional beliefs seemed to have been challenged by more westernised views on how younger people should communicate with their parents and what roles they hold within their families now that they live in Australia. Research from 2005 by the ‘Minister for children and youth affairs’ shows how Australian individualistic society has influenced on the views of young Chinese migrants who were found to believe that their parents shouldn’t have so much power over children, that they should be able to make their own decisions as individuals and also that they should be encouraged to ask more questions. …show more content…

Around 67% parents said that the authority and power that they hold in their household hasn’t changed at all since coming to Australia. One Latino parent explained this by saying that their children should always respect them no matter where they are. 28% of parents said that their authority had definitely changed. A parent explained this by saying “I find that in Australia everyone has the freedom to talk unlike back in China where it was the norm to "respect elders". This meant despite what we

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