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Parental Ethnotheories in the Context of Immigration: Asian Indian Immigrant and Euro-American Mothers and Daughters in an American Town
Chemba S. Raghavan, Sara Harkness and Charles M. Super Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 2010 41: 617 DOI: 10.1177/0022022110362629 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/41/4/617

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Parental Ethnotheories in the Context of Immigration: Asian Indian Immigrant and Euro-American Mothers and Daughters in an American Town
Chemba S. Raghavan1, Sara Harkness2, and Charles M. Super2

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 41(4) 617632 The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0022022110362629 jccp.sagepub.com

Abstract Cross-cultural research is inherently limited by the difficulty of disentangling cultural effects on childrens development from other environmental features that covary with culture. The growing presence of immigrant populations in the United States offers an opportunity to study parents cultural belief systems, or parental ethnotheories, as they influence childrens settings and activities in the absence of other environmental supports. This study examined Asian Indian immigrant mothers (n = 10) and matched Euro-American mothers (n = 10) ethnotheories about their daughters by means of analysis of the mothers discourse in the context of semistructured interviews, multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis of the descriptors, and consensus analysis. The mothers ethnotheories are reflected in differences between the settings and daily activities of their daughters. The Indian immigrant mothers ideas and practices are compared to findings in the Whitings comparative field studies and discussed in relation to several concepts of culture. Keywords gender, culture, parental beliefs, Asian, Indian, immigration For developmentalists interested in disentangling environmental effects on children, crosscultural studies are inherently compromised by the fact that culture generally comes packaged with multiple features that may have their own independent effects. Research by Harkness and Super (1992), for example, compared children in a rural African village characterized by a subsistence economy, polygynous family structure, relative isolation from the modern world, and
1 2

UNICEF East-Asia Pacific Regional Office University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Corresponding Author: Sara Harkness, University of Connecticut, 348 Mansfield Rd., Unit 2058, Storrs, CT 06269-2058 Email: sara.harkness@uconn.edu

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little schooling, to children in U.S. middle-class communities where most children come from nuclear families and are immersed in school-related settings for much of their daily lives (Harkness & Super, 1992). Given this complex array of contrasts, how can one unpackage the effects of culture from the myriad other differences that co-occur with it (Weisner, Matheson, & Bernheimer, 1996)? The classic anthropological response to this dilemma is to assert that culture encompasses all the above differences. According to this view, differences because of urbanization or socioeconomic status are simply part of the cultural envelope within which all individuals live, and the task is to understand the internal dynamics of each cultural system. Within the field of psychology, a variety of perspectives have been offered, from the idea of culture as a variable (e.g., Bornstein et al., 1998) to a view of culture and the individual as inseparable elements of a larger whole (Rogoff, Baker-Sennett, Lacasa, & Goldsmith, 1995). In another contrast to traditionally anthropological assumptions, many psychologists have adopted a dichotomized or dimensional view of culture (Keller, 2007; Marcus & Kitayama, 1991). The work of John and Beatrice Whiting and their colleagues presaged several of these approaches and directly contributed to current integrative frameworks in cross-cultural psychology (see Georgas, Berry, van de Vijver, Kaitibai, & Poortinga, 2006; Kaitibai, 2007). Although the communities that the Whitings chose for their cross-cultural research were assumed to have internally consistent cultural systems as in classical anthropological field studies (Levy, 2005), they viewed childrens culturally constructed environments in terms of discrete characteristics (or variables) whose effects could be empirically demonstrated. Thus, for example, gender differences in behavior were conceptualized as the result of the ways that parents differentially assign boys and girls to settings that, in turn, provide different kinds of opportunities for learning and practice (Whiting & Edwards, 1988). Furthermore, the associated profiles of social behavior of both children and their parents (particularly their mothers), although culturally unique, could also be grouped together across cultures and related to other features of the environment such as cultural complexity or family structure (Whiting & Whiting, 1975). Our own theoretical approach, drawn in part from the Whitings work, parses the childs environment of daily life, or developmental niche, into three subsystems of settings, customs, and the psychology of the caretakers, including parents cultural belief systems or parental ethnotheories (Harkness & Super, in press; Super & Harkness, 1986, 1999, 2002). Within this framework, a key question is how each of the subsystems of the niche contributes to the childs learning environment. The Whitings, like ourselves, were interested in all three subsystems. For example, Beatrice Whiting studied the changing concepts of the good child and good mothering in the village of Ngecha and connected those concepts to the changing setting and child-rearing practices in that rural community outside Nairobi, Kenya (Whiting, 2004). The growing presence of immigrant populations in the United States offers a special opportunity for more differentiated analysis of cultural and environmental effects on childrens development. Immigrants to the United States may leave behind their extended family and the community that supports specific daily routines of living, but they bring with them cultural models of the world and the self, the learned and shared systems of meaning and understanding (DAndrade, 1990, p. 65) that constitute the core of culture or its value orientations (Greenfield & Cocking, 1994). If immigrants are well educated, they may live in the same communities, hold the same kinds of jobs, and send their children to the same schools as nonimmigrant, mainstream Americans. Within this identical general ecology, however, parental ethnotheories uniquely differentiate immigrant families from their native-born counterparts, for they alone among elements of the niche necessarily incorporate the parents culture of origin. The power of parental ethnotheories in organizing the other two subsystems of the nichesettings and customs of carebecomes more evident in this context.

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The study of Asian Indian immigrant families in the United States is of interest for several reasons. Demographically, Asian Indians are currently the fastest growing immigrant group, and like other Asian immigrants, they have been noted for their generally high academic achievement in American schools (Fuligni, 1997; Reeves & Bennett, 2004). Academic success among Asian Indians appears to occur across socioeconomic statuses, especially if the children feel strong connections with their families and engage in selective acculturation (Gibson, 1997). A research focus on Asian Indian women in particular is needed because developmental studies in India have demonstrated a distinctive gender-related status differential (Hancock & Brouwer, 1999; Lamb, 2002). In the Asian Indian immigrant context, these differences have been shown to be particularly important in the study of gender because of significant intersections of gender identity with ethnicity and religiosity (Deaux & Stewart, 2001; Kurien, 1998) and the renegotiation of gender identity at different points in the life span (Kallivayalil, 2004). Recent research has also pointed to the significant role of parents, particularly mothers, as vessels or transmitters of culture in Asian Indian immigrant communities (Dasgupta, 1998; Kallivayalil, 2004). This observation is consistent with the idea that acculturation is an active process in which parents and other members of a family are involved as agents who translate and interpret the culture rather than passively absorbing and communicating it (Rayaprol, 1998). Beatrice Whiting, too, always had an intense interest in the role of women as agents of social change in their role as mothers and household managers (Edwards & Whiting, 2004). The present article compares cultural beliefs and practices of immigrant Asian Indian and native-born Euro-American mothers residing in a university community of central Pennsylvania. We first report cultural similarities and differences in the qualities that the two groups of mothers chose to talk about in describing their own daughters during an interview. Similar to other recent findings (Harkness, Super, & Van Tijen, 2000; Ryan, Nolan, & Yoder, 2000; Ryan & Weisner, 1998), we propose that such descriptions reflect parents cultural models of a normative, prototypical child. Having identified key descriptors in both samples of mothers, we then explore how they were used in discourse as more elaborated evidence concerning the belief systems that the descriptors represent. Complementing this qualitative analysis, we report a systematic investigation of how these concepts are organized in semantic space for each group, using established techniques of similarity scaling. Finally, we compare the daily routines of the Indian and American daughters, as recorded by their mothers in diaries, to understand how parental ethnotheories are instantiated in the construction of childrens environments of daily life.

Method Sample
The sample consisted of 10 Asian Indian mothers and 10 native-born American mothers who had daughters aged 5 to 15 years, residing in a university community of central Pennsylvania. The distribution of ages of the girls was similar across the two samples, with a mean age of 9.2 years for the target children in each group. Indian families were recruited to the study through cultural networks familiar to the first author, for example, through Indian associations. Each Indian family nominated an American family whom they knew and saw as being similar to themselves. Through this snowball procedure, pairs were matched as closely as possible for socioeconomic status, parents educational background, and ages and birth order (first born vs. later born) of target daughters. The ages of the mothers in both samples ranged from 30 to 45 years, with a mean of 36.8 years for the Indian mothers and 38.0 years for the American mothers. The Indian mothers had all lived in the United States for at least 12 years prior to the study and all but one of their husbands had lived in the United States for at least 13 years. The fathers in this sample

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were highly educated (almost all had PhDs), and all were employed at the local university. All the Indian mothers and 9 of the American mothers had an undergraduate college degree. Nonparametric tests of significance using the MannWhitney U test indicated that the sample groups did not significantly differ on parental ages, U(18) = 29.0, p = .10, or family income, U(18) = 40.0, p = .34.

Procedures
Both quantitative and qualitative measures were used to derive a picture of how mothers in the two cultural groups perceived their daughters, what qualities they considered desirable, and how they organized their daughters daily lives in accordance with culturally based ideas. The combination of methods used here provides convergent validity for the findings derived through each method (Campbell & Fiske, 1959). Mothers free descriptions of their daughters. Mothers free descriptions of their daughters were generated in the context of semistructured interviews, specifically in response to the question, How would you describe your daughter? The interviews, which were all in English, were tape-recorded and later transcribed to maintain an accurate record of the words mothers used. The descriptors thus generated, including both single adjectives and whole phrases, were examined by three independent raters to derive a condensed list that encompassed the entire range. In all, 16 core descriptors were identified as representing the full semantic space without major redundancy. These include descriptors most frequently used by the Indian mothers, by the American mothers, and by both groups. Qualitative analysis of how the descriptors were used in discourse was also used to explore their meaning to the mothers. The 16 core descriptors represented a range of more than 90% of the words mentioned. Some words were not included because of low frequency of mention (frequency of mention less than two times, e.g., gets tired easily) or because of specific unique characterizations (e.g., scared of dogs) or because of generalized, vague characterizations (e.g., domesticated was mentioned once but was not elaborated). Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. We explored the semantic organization of the core descriptors in each sample through multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis of mothers responses to a triads test. The 16 core descriptors were used to construct a triads test consisting of 80 triads in a balanced, incomplete block design, where each pair of descriptors was represented twice in the whole questionnaire (Borgatti, 1990). For each set of three descriptors (i.e., for each triad), mothers were requested to circle the adjective that was most different in meaning from the other two. The results were scored such that frequency of not being identified as different became a measure of semantic proximity between pairs, and the resulting proximity matrix was analyzed using multidimensional scaling to explore patterns of similarity judgments among the descriptors in each group. The data obtained from the triads test were then scored, yielding an aggregate matrix of proximities among the 16 descriptor variables as well as individual proximity matrices for each participant. The aggregate matrix was subjected to multidimensional scaling. Cluster analysis was used on the same proximity data to identify descriptor groups in relation to the dimensions derived by the multidimensional scaling. Consensus analysis. An often overlooked issue in cross-cultural comparisons is the degree to which there is (or is not) true consensus within a single sample around the average model. The analytical strategy used to evaluate this question in the present study is consensus modeling (Romney, Weller, & Batchelder, 1986). Through a technique similar to a principal components analysis of participants (rather than items), consensus modeling identifies a pattern of responding that best represents a cultural truth. The degree to which this pattern is shared among the participants is estimated by the ratio of the Eigenvalue for the first derived factor to the Eigenvalue of the next most powerful factor. A ratio of 5 or better is considered as evidence of cultural consensus (Romney, Batchelder, & Weller, 1987).

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Mothers diaries of their daughters daily routines. We studied the daily routines of the Indian and American daughters, as recorded by their mothers in week-long diaries, to understand how their ethnotheories were instantiated in the construction of childrens settings and customs of everyday life. The allocation of time to various activities was calculated and the groups were compared, with the assumption that activities given more time would be those considered more important by both mothers and (possibly) daughters in each group.

Results Mothers Descriptions of Their Daughters

Sixteen core descriptors were derived from the interviews and included terms used primarily by the American mothers, primarily by the Indian mothers, and similarly by both groups. Five of these descriptors were used almost exclusively by the American mothers to describe their daughters: independent, well-rounded, athletic, assertive, and outspoken. In contrast, six other descriptors were primarily by the Indian mothers: responsible, obedient, respectful, hospitable, modest, and argumentative. Mothers of both groups tended to equally characterize their daughters as caring, smart, happy, sociable, and shy. The preferred descriptors for each group of mothers refer to culturally important and desirable (or particularly undesirable) qualities, as illustrated by the ways that mothers used them in discourse. American-preferred descriptors. The American mothers descriptions of their daughters centered around the ideal of an independent, self-confident, and self-actualizing young woman who could stand up for herself in a competitive world. For example, in describing what she imagined as an ideal daughter, one American mother said: I just hope [shell be] someone who sees their potential, and goes for it, and becomes very independent and self-confident. This mother went on to elaborate what she meant by independence: Somebody that can learn to make her own decision. . . . They realize that they are the ones that make the decisions and they have to reap the consequences, one way or another. So they are very independent in that, . . . when they eventually leave the nest and are on their own, and they dont rely on their parents. I mean, they become very self-sufficient. Another American mother talked about the uncertainties of growing up in U.S. society today and what qualities this requires of children: You know, we have no . . . our society doesnt have any direct path, that says this is how our kids ought to grow up, this is how kids have to be. Gee, some women arent even marrying til they are 40, having children until they are 45. But, well see. Time will tell. We have a rough generation coming up. So we need to raise kids to be strong, to be independent, because they need to be tough. Being well-rounded is also important for success, but enthusiasm for this quality was tempered by one mothers concern that her daughter not be too agreeable. Instead, this mother hoped that her daughter would be more assertive: Hopefully [shell be] a well-rounded person. Thats what I want her to be is well-rounded. But, I dont want her to be pushy. But I know that you have to have some of that today.

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Have to be somewhat aggressive. You cant be stand-back and shy. I was super-shy. There is nothing like that in her personality. Thus, being outspoken could be a good quality in the service of assertiveness and independence. Athleticism was similarly framed in the context of independence. Another mother summarized, Shes been independent since she was little. Very much knows what she wants to do, and figures out how to get it, and disciplines herself very well. So, she doesnt need a lot of reminding about doing this or doing that. . . . Other than that, she really does take care of herself, and actually does tell me if I need to take her shopping for something. Thats what we had to do on the weekend. She needed special shoes for the softball team, so she was the one to say, Can we go to the mall and get these shoes, or can we go downtown? She is very independent. Indian-preferred descriptors. The six descriptors used almost exclusively by the Indian mothers referred to a different set of culturally desirable qualities. In some instances, in fact, the mothers made it clear that these qualities stood in contrast to what they saw as American ways. For example, one mother contrasted what being responsible means in India and in the United States, as she spoke of how her daughter would have been different if she had been brought up in the home country: She [would have been] more responsible. More homely [domestic] person. . . . By now, she would be able to do some cooking. She would be able to do some sweeping the floor, or mopping the floor, or even washing clothes. She would be . . . she would be a little more mature. . . . She would help me in the kitchen, you know, a lot of things. The mother went on to draw a contrast with the American version of responsibility: Here, they have to be more responsible, because when they go into college . . . these kids, in this country, they are ready to go away after they finish their high school. . . . That means they have to have responsibility for their life earlier. As this mother suggested, responsibility can take at least two forms: competence and helpfulness in the context of the family (the Indian model) and making ones own decisions apart from the family (the American model). For the Indian mothers, the qualities of being obedient and respectful were closely allied with their own version of responsibility. For example, one mother discussed her ideas about arranging her daughters marriage, as is traditional in India: I will find a boy, then I will try to find out as much as I can about him and his parents, then I might give an opportunity for my daughter to know that boy. Like, you know, they can meet a few times, discuss anything, you know, they might want to know each other . . . before she really gets married to that boy. I found him quite nice, but I want her to feel very convinced and comfortable, that yes, he is the boy for me. I am not just going to find a boy that we are satisfied with, but she is not, and still perform the marriage. . . . Growing up, and as time goes on, maybe she might be responsible enough to listen to us, not just find someone who looks nice and attractive, and get married to him. In the scenario that this mother described, her daughter is obedient and respectful of her parents judgmentshe does not go out and find her own matebut the mother is also respectful of her daughters wishes, a more modern version of the traditional approach to arranged marriages in which the future spouses did not know each other at all before the ceremony.

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The girl who is obedient, respectful, and not argumentative could also be shy and modest, qualities that the Indian mothers valued. One mother described her daughter approvingly as quiet, one who would not volunteer information unless asked by an adult as in an incident in which there was a discussion about how to find someones house; she concluded the story with the comment, She is modest that way. Finally, all these qualities were seen as important in the context of graciously entertaining and helping guests, being hospitable. As one mother commented, Sometimes I feel that . . . children here . . . you cannot call it ideal. If you go to their house, you will feel that they come and say Hi, hello. Beyond that they have nothing to say. They have completely different values, they have completely different interests. . . . The way I feel, when [my daughters] grow up, I dont want them to be like that, you know I want them . . . they should talk to everybody, they should be hospitable. . . . The moment somebody is inside the house, they should not just go away. Thats how I feel that they should be . . . know that if its a house there will be a lot of people and they cannot just go away like that. Here, the underlying cultural belief is that visitors are an integral part of any household, and part of being a successful girl has to do with sociability and caring behavior that one should exhibit with guests. This mother was speaking from an assumption that a house is defined in part by a lot of people and the childs responsibility is to internalize the value of spending time with them. In doing so, the child is not only learning to give but also receiving affection and care. One Indian mother commented on the absence of this feature of family life for her daughter in the United States: She doesnt get the affection of her grandparents and uncles and stuff like that. Those thingsyou see them so often. They visit you a lot. They are like your extended family. She is deprived of that . . . being hospitable. Descriptors frequently used by both cultural groups. Five descriptors were used frequently by both the American and Indian mothers in describing their daughters: caring, smart, happy, sociable, and shy. Examination of how these words were used in discourse, however, suggests that their significance varied for the two groups. For the Indian mothers, being caring was associated with the key attribute of being hospitable to guests and sociability was construed as being able to fit into a groupan essential skill for young Indian women who traditionally marry into their husbands family household. Being smart was valued along with modesty, as in the story of the girl who did not volunteer information until asked by an adult, and shyness was valued as an attractive quality in a girl. For the American mothers, in contrast, many qualities were linked to the central construct of independence, as in the example of the mother who expressed the hope that her daughter would be somewhat aggressive, in contrast to her own shyness as a child. Interestingly, although this mother characterized her 8-year-old daughter as kinda more on the fringe of peer groups, she ultimately concluded that she is really not a loner, but she can get along fine by herself. Another mother recounted the familiar scenario of her 6-year-old daughter who refused to put on warm clothes to walk to school on a cold daythat is, she was argumentative. The daughter had her way but immediately felt cold and was rescued by her amused mother, who commented, So, I think you have to realize that they have to make their own decisions, and that theres just so much you can do, and if they are not independent, then you are going to have them

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on your doorstep all the time. And they are not going to be the best citizens that they can be in their real lives. In summary, the words that the American and Indian mothers chose to use most frequently in describing their daughters are indicators of what qualities they saw as defining their own daughter in comparison to an implicit cultural model of what a girl could or should be like at this particular age. From the ways that the words were used in discourse, we find further evidence of how the different qualities relate to each other as a cultural model of the child. These relationships are also evident in the multidimensional scaling of the results of the triads test, providing a visual representation of how the core descriptors are organized in semantic space for each cultural sample.

Multidimensional Scaling and Cluster Analysis

As mentioned above, mothers responses to a triads test were used to construct a matrix of similarity, or proximity, among them. This matrix was then used as a basis for multidimensional scaling, as a way of creating a visual representation of the semantic space occupied by the descriptors. A three-dimensional solution was found to be necessary for each group, with stress values of .10 for the American sample and .09 for the Indian sample. Figures 1 and 2 show the first two dimensions of the scaling solution for each sample (the third dimension was not interpretable). As is evident, both groups of mothers seem to recognize two similar dimensions, although they are represented in complementary fashion. The first (Dimension 1 in the Indian solution and Dimension 2 for the American sample) contrasts assertive and individual qualities with social and obedient qualities: smart, outspoken, and argumentative are at one extreme and shy, respectful, and caring are at the other. The second (Dimension 2 for the Indian sample and Dimension 1 for the American mothers) seems to capture a continuum of social integration, from positive engagement at one end to social distance from the group (as a function of either argumentativeness or shyness) at the other. The placement of individual descriptors in the four quadrants of each solution is generally similar, with two exceptions: athletic and respectful. In the American solution, athletic appears in the socially closeassertive quadrant, whereas in the Indian solution it is found in the socially distantassertive quadrant. Respectful, in contrast, appears in the socially integratedsocial obedient quadrant in the Indian scaling, whereas it is placed in the socially distantsocial obedient quadrant in the American solution. Cluster analysis further elucidates differences in meaning of the individual qualities as they are grouped together in each sample. The clusters represented here, indicated by solid ellipses drawn on the scaling results (Figures 1 and 2), are taken from the middle level of clustering, generally the first clusters with more than two descriptors; the next level of inclusion is also indicated in the figures by the dotted-line ellipses. For each sample, there is a cluster of closely associated descriptors that seem to capture a cultural image of the competent girl who is smart and well-rounded, but these qualities are joined by two contrasting pairs of descriptors in each sample: happy and responsible for the Indian sample and athletic and independent for the Americans. Thus, the Indian solution seems to incorporate elements of social and emotional intelligence in a core concept of cultural competence. In contrast, the American cluster emphasizes individualism and competitiveness. The association between intelligence and athletic competence in the American cluster reflects a cultural model of assertive individual achievement as well as the actual usefulness of athletic stardom for getting into college (and getting it paid for). This contrast is accentuated by associations at the next level. In the Indian solution, the competence cluster is joined to a social-familial cluster including respectful, hospitable, caring, and

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Figure 1. Indian immigrant parents descriptors

sociable, whereas in the American cluster analysis it is linked to an assertiveness cluster including argumentative, assertive, and outspoken. Although each clustering solution has both a socialfamilial and an assertiveness cluster, they are differentially related to the rest of the clusters: In the Indian analysis, the assertiveness cluster (including athletic) is left unattached, whereas in the American clustering, the social-familial cluster remains unattached. Both samples seem to recognize a close association between modest and shy, but this clustered pair is joined by obedient in the Indian solution, consistent with the Indian mothers positive evaluation of obedience and modesty as social qualities becoming to a girl. The term respectful, which is added to the shy modest pair in the American solution, appears in the Indian solution together with the core qualities in the social-familial cluster. Respect for others thus seems to be associated with communal and familial characteristics such as hospitality, sociability, and caring in the Indian sample rather than with individual characteristics such as modesty and shyness, as it appears in the American solution. Finally, each solution leaves one descriptor unclustered. Interestingly, their

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Figure 2. American parents descriptors

meanings are the complement of each other: Argumentative is left out of the Indian solution, and obedient remains unconnected to other descriptors in the American one. It appears that mothers in each sample had difficulty in relating these descriptors to other ones in a meaningful and consistent way.

Consensus Analysis
As noted above, consensus analysis provides a way of assessing the level of agreement among research participants in terms of their approximation to a single average model of responses. Using a technique similar to a principal components analysis of participants (rather than items), consensus modeling identifies a pattern of responding that best represents a cultural truth and estimates agreement in terms of the ratio of the Eigenvalue for the first derived factor to the Eigenvalue of the next most powerful factor. In the present case, there is strong agreement among

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the American mothers, with a ratio of 8.3 between the first and second factors. Agreement within the Indian sample is just below the conventional criterion level for cultural consensus, with an Eigenvalue of 4.9. The difference between these ratios in the two groups is probably meaningful, reflecting greater diversity of thinking among the Indian mothers even though these differences were not particularly evident in their interviews. This is not surprising given that these mothers came from many different regions in India and had not all lived in the United States for the same amount of time; furthermore, the internal diversity can be seen as an indication of possible differences in acculturation strategies. The lower level of within-group agreement may also reflect individual differences in the ways that Indian cultural models of the child are being renegotiated in the context of living in a new cultural context.

The Instantiation of Cultural Models in Daily Routines

The families in this sample, it will be remembered, all lived in the same neighborhoods and town and sent their children to the same schools. Furthermore, given that the American families were nominated by the Indian parents and that the fathers were all employed at the same university, it seems likely that they participated to some extent in the same social networks. Many forces from the larger ecology, therefore, might be expected to create a similar pattern of daily activities for daughters in the two groups. Analysis of parental diaries of the girls daily routines, however, shows that although this is true in some regards, the groups also differed in culturally meaningful ways. Table 1 presents the percentage of waking time the girls spend in various activities when not in school. (There was no significant difference between the two groups in either time in school or time asleep.) Although the allocation of time in the two groups activities appears similar in some ways, the overall difference among frequencies of all task assignments is highly significant, c2(18) = 76.14, p < .00. Post hoc comparisons (with alpha set at .05; number of contrasts = .0045) indicate that the American and Indian girls differ significantly in the following ways: The Indian girls spent approximately 2 to 3 times as long as the Americans in solitary play at home, hospitalityrelated activities such as greeting guests, helping serve snacks and drinks to guests and remaining in their presence for an acceptable amount of time, doing chores, self-care (including bedtime routines, dressing, and grooming), and heritage-related activities such as attending a class on Hinduism, visiting the Hindu temple about 3 hours away, and listening to an Indian storyteller. In contrast, the American girls spent more time in outings with the family or friends, music practice, sports participation, and (to a lesser degree) social play with peers. The two groups of girls spent equivalent time at meals and watching television or videos. Overall, these differences yield a picture of a more active schedule for the American girls, with more time devoted to individual developmental activities (athletics and music practice) and more time outside the house, whether playing with friends or going on outings with the family. The Indian girls, in contrast, spent more time at home helping out with chores and hospitality as well as engaged in solitary play (excluding homework, where mothers were usually present and interacting with the children) and self-care. In this contrast, we can see an instantiation of the different ethnotheories of the mothers: for the American mothers a cultural model of the child as active and independent, and for the Indian mothers a cultural model of the child whose life is centered on the family. It is noteworthy, from a developmental point of view, that the girls themselves played a role in the instantiation of parental ethnotheories as they fulfilled their mothers expectations.

Discussion and Conclusions

Mothers concepts of their children are shaped by the assumptions, concerns, and goals of their own cultural backgroundthat is, their ethnotheories of parenting. In the present study, these

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Table 1. Mean Percentage of Time Spent in Various Activities by Two Groups of Adolescents Activity Athletics* Bedtime rituals* Chores* Eating Grooming* Heritage* Hospitality* Music practice* Outings with family or friends* Social play with peers* Solitary, no caretaker* TV, videos, music Overall c2 p
*Significant post hoc comparison, p < .05.

Anglo-American 10.1 0.8 4.8 17.8 2.9 2.2 3.1 6.4 5.2 21.5 6.7 19.2 76.14 < .000

Indian immigrant 2.7 1.7 7.6 21.6 4.9 3.9 8.8 3.4 0.9 15.5 12.1 19.8

parental ethnotheories are evident in the ways that Asian Indian and Euro-American mothers described their daughters and organized their daughters daily activities. Although most of the Indian mothers had brought up their daughters from birth in their new cultural surroundings, it is evident that they were actively maintaining their own cultural ideas in the context of parenting and that these ideas contrasted in important ways from those of their American friends. At the same time, the Indian mothers acknowledged that they had had to make some concessions to the different cultural norms of their new communities: Daughters who would have been competent cooks and who would have routinely helped their mothers in the kitchen back home could not be expected to do so in the United States. Interestingly, the Indian mothers appeared to accept this change even though they were already experiencing a loss of household help that would have been available from the extended family and servants in their communities of origin. The differences between the cultural beliefs of the Euro-American and Indian immigrant mothers documented here are compatible with the profile of maternal behavior described by Whiting and Edwards (1988), based on field studies in India. Like the immigrant mothers in the present study, the mothers in India expected obedience from their children, and they particularly looked to their daughters for help in the kitchen. They consciously trained their daughters for a future arranged marriage and life in a new home. Given the vast differences in cultural expectations for mate selection in the United States, it is impressive that some of the mothers in the present study still hoped to take a role in choosing their daughters future husband. From our knowledge of the study samples, however, it is evident that these mothers did receive support in maintaining their cultural roots through a strong network of Indian families in the community and associated cultural activities. Furthermore, they were able to participate as equals in the host community because of their high level of education, high economic status, and ability to easily communicate in the host language. The Indian immigrant mothers strategy of acculturation thus seems to fit Berry and Sams (1997) integration category, which entails both maintenance of their own cultural orientation and participation in the host culture. The Indian mothers emphasis on responsibility, in contrast to the American mothers concern with independence, is consistent with the contrast between individualism and collectivism, or independence and interdependence, which has been recognized by other researchers who have studied Asian and Western cultures (Marcus & Kitayama, 1991). There are many varieties of

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individualism, however (Harkness, 2008; Harkness et al., 2000). The individualism expressed by the American mothers in this central Pennsylvanian sample was often hard-edged and competitive, similar in tone to one of the groups studied by Kusserow (1999). Reading over transcriptions of interviews, one is struck by the emphasis on being self-reliant and even aggressive and the repeated references to the idea that children must learn to cope with situations alone in anticipation of a future when the neither parents nor anyone else is there to help. This scenario does not seem to occur to the Indian mothers, who instead imagine a future life for their daughters in which the family will always play an important role. Kaitibais (2007) two-dimensional model of agency versus subordination and separation versus closeness is well captured by these mothers. For the Euro-American mothers, encouraging independence as agency was a prerequisite to separation and ultimate success as an adult, as in the mother who warned that if they are not independent, then you are going to have them on your doorstep all the time. And they are not going to be the best citizens that they can be in their real lives. The Indian immigrant mothers seemed to be having some trouble negotiating over agency with their argumentative daughters, although it is clear that they had already made major concessions in this regard. At the same time, they emphasized the importance of emotional closeness with the extended family as a benefit of being hospitable to guestssomething they regretted not having much of in the United States. The combination of ideas expressed by these Indian immigrant mothers thus corresponds to Kaitibais profile of families in cultures that are in transition between the traditional, authoritarian, but close family and the contemporary Western family (well exemplified by the Euro-American mothers in the present study) in which children are granted more agency but eventually also experience greater distance from the family. Recent research on the experiences of immigrants to the United States has highlighted the complex, multidimensional aspects of adaptation to living in a new culture. Contemporary studies have pointed to the many factors that influence the quality of the immigration experience and the variety of strategies that immigrants employ while building their lives in the new environment (Surez-Orozco, Surez-Orozco, & Qin, 2005). The present study illustrates the more general observation that immigrants are not simply the product of exposure to the new host culture over a period of time but rather are individuals who actively negotiate their participation in the host culture while renegotiating their relationship to the culture of origin. At the group level, individuals who share the experience of emigrating from the same cultural region to the United States may create a distinctive new culture, one that is different from both the old and the new contexta process that Foner (2005) has called creolization. The present study of Indian immigrant and Euro-American mothers and daughters illustrates the power of parental ethnotheories in the situation in which other aspects of the larger ecology are virtually the same for both cultural groups. As demonstrated here, parental ethnotheories include not only abstract ideas about the nature of children in general but also specific perceptions of ones own children. Furthermore, our findings suggest that parental ethnotheories are instantiated in their daughters daily routines. In B. Whitings terms, these mothers were shaping their daughters development through assigning them to particular settings whether practice with an after-school athletic team or helping to entertain guests at home. Given that the girls themselves participated in choosing their own activities, it seems likely that parental ethnotheories are not only instantiated in parental behavior but also come to be shared by the children themselves. The coordination of the developmental niche provided by parental ethnotheories is a central avenue of cultures power in the development of children, and the internalization that is implied by the girls participation is the very core of the intergenerational transmission of cultural models. The creole cultures that emerge from a successful mixing of elements from both the old and new environments may, in turn, contribute to the evolution of the host culture.

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630 Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 41(4)

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Financial Disclosure/Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

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Bios
Chemba S. Raghavan is a consultant for research and policy and advocacy initiatives for UNESCO and UNICEF in Bangkok, Thailand. Sara Harkness is professor of human development, pediatrics, and public health and director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Health, and Human Development at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT Charles M. Super is professor of human development and pediatrics and codirector of the Center for the Study of Culture, Health, and Human Development at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT.

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