Cultural Factors in Asian-American students’ stress

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Cultural Factors in Asian-American students’ stress

“Why only 99 points? What happened to the other one point?” In Confucian based societies, high academic achievements are expected commonly. As the epitome of someone who has two cultural backgrounds, I am the ambassador between Asian culture and American culture. Most of the time, both cultures are in accordance with each other, but sometimes their principles conflict with one another. According to the US Department of Education, Asian/ Pacific Islander students consistently achieved the highest GPA among all ethnicity from 1990 to 2005. However, there are scenes behind that glorious façade; due to cultural factors such as parental expectations and values, Asian-American students report higher level of stress.

Family is a substantial source of stress for Asian-American students. An outline by Shane Jimerson points out that Asian family structure is more extensive than American’s nuclear family structure. Asian families bond together and emotionally and materially help maintain the students’ grades. They assist the student with benevolent intentions, however, it sometimes backfires. For instance, since they contribute more, they expect higher results in return. Grades become not only a reflection to oneself, but of the whole family. The fear of disappointment establishes stress upon Asian-American students.

In contrast, Asian-American students are slightly different from the students in Eastern countries. In particular, United States’ students are more independent from their family (Dornbusch). Independency is emphasized in the Western ideals that were rooted by our founding brothers. This can be demonstrated in daily life, such as high school students working part-time job t...

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... Institute of Education Sciences U.S. Department of Education, 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. .

Seal, Kathy. "Do Asian-American Parents Push Their Kids?" Asian-American Parents: Pushy or Perfect? Miller-mccune, 18 Jan. 2011. Web. 21 Feb. 2012. .

Stevenson, Harold W. "Why Asian Students Still Outdistance Americans." Educational Leadership Feb. 1993: 63. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

Vora, Pooja. "How to Manage Student Stress Triggers; While Children May Undergo Tension and Anxiety Due to the Burden of over Expectations, Parents Can Help Them in Overcoming These Concerns so That They Focus on Studies without Getting Stressed out." DNA (Daily News & Analysis) 15 Nov. 2011. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

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