Asian American Studies

Running head: AMERICAN ASIAN MOTHERHOOD

American Asian Motherhood and Tiger mom Stereotype

American Asian women are known for their strict behavior on their children to pursue success in matter education and general life. This behavior, has been the reason for the stereotyping as “tiger moms”. Failure to understand the cultural aspects of the Asian American mom is largely to blame for this (Wang, 2013). The main question that lies in this controversy is whether happiness and the child’s desire to pursue their own dream should go against the parent’s method to pursue success. The problem herein is therefore whether the tiger mom stereotype is a factual construct, or a misunderstanding of Asian-American customs. The objective of the study shall be to explore the relationship between the tiger mom stereotype and the reality of Asian American parenting.

The methods to collect accurate data on this subject will involve interviewing Asian-American mothers and visiting areas with high Asian population to get sense of their daily lifestyles (observation). Other methods will include giving questionnaires to the general cosmopolitan urban public to help give views on the mattes of culture and its effects on Asian motherhood. Scholarly articles, books and museums will provide large volumes of the information needed in this study that shall act as secondary sources.

Studies have shown the first generation of Asian children responded well to the tiger mom stereotype than the second generation (Ibrahim, Ohnishi & Sandhu, 1997). Expanding the scope of study from the culture that other researchers have largely relied on will be a great improvement. We need to research on change of environment and civilization on the second generation of Asian children. As such, the study shall be essential in delineating the present relations of Asian-American parenting with the tiger mom stereotype.

In conclusion, the Asian parenting style of raising the child to respect social relationships is sharp contrast with the American style of parenting. The American style incorporates both the strictness and social support to the child. Studying to merge the two ways of parenting will be pivotal to ending the stereotype and creating a universal parenting method.

References

Wang, S. (2013). The “Tiger Mom”: Stereotypes of Chinese Parenting in the United States. OPUS: Applied Psychology.

Ibrahim, F., Ohnishi, H., & Sandhu, D. S. (1997). Asian American identity development: A culture specific model for South Asian Americans. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 25(1), 34-50.