Adolescent culture brokering and family functioning: a study of families from Vietnam

In immigrant families, culture brokering (CB) refers to the ways in which children and adolescents serve as mediator between their family and aspects of the new culture. This study focused on the debate in the literature about whether CB implies "role reversal" in the family and "adultification" of the adolescent or whether CB is better understood as simply one of the many ways that immigrant children contribute to family functioning. Results indicated a mixed picture with respect to this debate. Greater amounts of adolescent CB were indeed related to higher adolescent reports of family conflict, but also to greater family adaptability. In addition, the amount of CB was unrelated to family satisfaction and family cohesion. Secondary questions centered on the relationship of CB to adolescent and parent demographic and acculturation variables. Here, CB was related to parent acculturation patterns but not those of adolescents. Implications for future research on the CB role are discussed.