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Interdependency in immigrant mother–daughter relationships
Journal of Aging Studies 15 (2001) 183 ± 199
Interdependency in immigrant mother±daughter relationships Paula M. Usita* Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, 1269 Fowler House, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1269, USA
Abstract Intergenerational interdependency involves coinvolvement in each other's life, including the care and concern that one generation expresses for the other, the root of the care and concern, and how each generation embodies the care and concern. Three factors may influence interdependency between immigrant mothers and their adult daughters: social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events. Twenty-two immigrant mothers and adult daughters participated in an in-depth individual interview about social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events in their mother ± daughter relationship. Eight mothers and daughters participated in a second in-depth individual interview about the same topics, a year later. Analyses of the data from the two data collection periods showed that social geography promoted interdependency, interdependency expectations shaped actual interdependency patterns, and life events, such as motherhood for daughters and spousal separation, altered interdependency patterns. The participants in this study expressed general satisfaction with the degree of involvement in each other's life. D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Mother-daughter relationships; Immigrant families; Interdependency
1. Introduction Interdependency is a key value promoted within Asian cultures (Yatabe, Koseki, & Braun, 1996). Within immigrant Asian families, interdependency is likely to be affected by social geography or the way a physical geography is peopled, the degree to which individual family members desire interdependent relationships, and significant changes in the lives of individual family members (Fischer, 1981; Ishii-Kuntz, 1997; Portes & Schauffler, 1996; Yanagisako, 1985; Yatabe et al., 1996). Although interdependency is a promoted construct * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-765-494-2966; fax: +1-765-494-0503. E-mail address: [email protected] (P.M. Usita) 0890-4065/01/$ ± see front matter D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 8 9 0 - 4 0 6 5 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 5 - 6
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within Asian culture and is likely to be affected by the aforementioned factors, minimal research has been done to understand the intricacies of immigrant Asian families' experiences with interdependency. What shape does interdependency take on within immigrant families? The present study examines the influence of social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events on immigrant families and it focuses on the experience of interdependency for immigrant Japanese mothers that intermarried with Americans and their adult daughters. The immigrant mother±daughter relationship is a prime candidate for research on this topic because cultural beliefs and practices are transmitted primarily through mothers (Barresi, 1990). Thus, both mother and daughter are likely to know about the valuing of interdependent relationships within the mother's culture, and that may shape the expression of interdependency in their relationship. Immigrant Japanese women who are intermarried and have intercultural children have chosen a unique life trajectory, and though Japanese culture may have primed them to desire interdependent relationships with their children, they may, in fact, choose to have a relationship trajectory that differs. To capture the intricacies of interdependency within the relationships of immigrant Japanese women that have intermarried with Americans and their adult daughters, the adoption of conceptual frameworks that value individual variation, intergenerational relationships, and understudied women's experiences are necessary. Life course and feminist frameworks have a respect for the nexus of individual and family pathways and diversity, and thus, were used to guide this study. 1.1. Conceptual frameworks The life course perspective assumes intra- and interindividual and family variation, continuity and change in individual and family life, and the intersection of individual and family lives (Allen, 1989; Barresi, 1987; Bengtson & Allen, 1993; Claussen, 1986). Family variation is illustrated in two ways in this study. First, the sample members consist of postWWII immigrant mothers that intermarried with Americans and their adult daughters. The majority of research on Japanese families is on the first generation of men and women that emigrated from Japan at the beginning of the 20th century (issei) and their second-generation (nisei) children. Social and historical conditions exert different effects on waves of immigrants of the same nationality (Rumbaut, 1997). Second, intermarriage was uncommon in Japan (Glenn, 1986). Intercultural families, as compared to monocultural families, may have to negotiate cultural values about interdependency. Continuity and change is illustrated in this study as well. As the sample members' stories unfold, it will become evident that daughter to mother interdependency is shaped by daughters' understanding of mothers' life histories, and that interdependency patterns change when daughters become mothers, and daughters and mothers separate from their spouse. In addition to these areas of the life course perspective, this study will incorporate an analysis of social geography. Social geography is an understudied, though important, domain of life course studies (Katz & Monk, 1993). Social geography refers to physical geography that is peopled (Frankenberg, 1993). Assumed within this perspective of social geography is that physical geography is ``constituted and perceived by means of social rather than natural processes'' (Frankenberg, 1993, p. 44). Frankenberg (1993) has paid deliberate attention to how women's social geography affects their personal and social identities. She concluded that
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women's self-definition and social interactions are related to the opportunities and constraints they experience in their physical geography. Other research punctuates the importance of social geography in women's lives. Research shows decisions made by women affect the opportunities and choices available to their granddaughters and great-granddaughters (Katz & Monk, 1993). Geography affects the types of employment available to women and their husbands, women's work both inside and outside of the family, and the relationships between women and their families and their community (Pratt & Hanson, 1993; Sachs, 1993). Studying social geography's influence on relationships between post-WWII immigrant Japanese mothers and their daughters is important because mothers moved to a country in which the language, cultural values, and availability of peer support differed in meaningful ways from what they were accustomed to in their homeland (Glenn, 1986). Feminist scholarship underscores women's experiences and female standpoints (Osmond & Thorne, 1993). Collins (1991) maintained that searching personal experiences to identify important themes validates marginalized persons' lived experiences and leads to the development of merited social science studies about and for their lives. I adopt feminist assumptions in this paper and address the limiting approach that has been taken to studying women and non-majority groups. I do so by collecting immigrant mothers' and daughters' relationship stories, in their own words, using qualitative methods that highlight the heterogeneity of people's lives and acknowledge how participants, themselves, perceive, define, and construct interdependency in mother±daughter relationships (Kaufman, 1994; Taylor & Bogdan, 1984). 1.2. Social geography and mother±daughter interdependency One approach to examining social geographies is to ask people how they conceptualize and relate to others in their physical geography (Frankenberg, 1993). With immigrant families, social geography may be examined by asking immigrant families to discuss the levels of support available to them from the host society and the degree of their involvement in their ethnic community. Immigrant families who settle in a community with existing human, community, and organizational cultural support have an easier time adjusting to the host society than immigrant families that relocate to communities where there are few people of the same ethnic background. Ethnic enclaves offer immigrant families social and emotional support (Ujimoto, 1987). When ethnic enclaves are not available, new immigrants feel dislocated and family disruption may ensue. Research with post-WWII immigrant Japanese women in California depicts how social geography can influence immigrant parents and parent±child interaction. Glenn (1986) reported that postWWII immigrant Japanese women lived isolated lives Ð their husbands did not speak Japanese and they had no larger kinship group or community to support their effort to transmit Japanese culture, including Japanese language, to their children. Post-WWII immigrant Japanese women were not fluent in English, though their children were, and the children became cultural liaisons for their mothers. Social geography can have an important influence on intercultural children's development. Intercultural children develop a positive self-identity when other people of similar interracial and bicultural background surround them (Johnson, 1992; Mass, 1992).
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1.3. Expectations about mother±daughter interdependency Mother±daughter disagreement about interdependency expectations may stem from their different cultural value orientations. Within immigrant Asian families, one cultural value that may influence expectations about interdependency is filial piety. Filial piety encompasses supporting parents emotionally and financially into old age, including expectations about care and later-life coresidence (Ishii-Kuntz, 1997; Osako & Liu, 1986). Generational positioning influences the strength of association that each generation has to filial piety expectations. Yanagisako (1985) reported that issei parents claimed they did not expect their children to care for them later in life or expect to coreside with their adult children Ð normative parent±child occurrences during issei parents' upbringing. Their nisei children reported otherwise. Nisei children reported that issei parents emphasized Japanese customs, such as a sense of indebtedness to elders. Other research offers additional evidence of the continuity and change of filial piety among Japanese families (Connor, 1974; Osako & Liu, 1986). Interestingly, continuity and change in values, such as filial piety values, positively serve immigrant families. Ishii-Kuntz's (1997) research with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese parents and children showed that filial piety was invoked to the extent needed by elderly parents. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean American adult children whose parents frequently interacted with friends and family gave less emotional support to parents than adult children whose parents had less frequent family and friend interaction (Ishii-Kuntz, 1997). In this study, daughters and mothers may offer support to each other only when they perceive the other to have a need. Changing values and its impact on mother±daughter interdependency between post-WWII immigrant Japanese women and their daughters is especially intriguing because of the changes in Japanese society witnessed by post-WWII immigrant Japanese women. Japanese women that lived through WWII saw and internalized changing Japanese values about education, work, and family (Iwao, 1993). Prior to WWII, they were socialized to believe that they should be educated enough to be marriageable (knowing sewing, arts, and cooking), that women's work focuses on the rearing of children, and that women help their husbands to achieve their goals (Iwao, 1993). After WWII, they observed the U.S. promotion of freedom and democracy and women's rights (Enloe, 1983). Exposure to a life of freedom, democratic processes, and women's rights may have contributed to their pursuit of a life course pathway (immigrating and intermarrying) that differed from most women in Japan. Women that chose to leave Japan after WWII had a strong character and were concerned about women's stifling position in Japanese society (Glenn, 1986; Life, 1995). Exposure to new views about human and women's rights may lead post-WWII immigrant Japanese women to adopt fluid cultural value stances, including their stance on interdependency. 1.4. Life events and mother±daughter interdependency Interdependency may be affected by significant events in mothers' and daughters' lives. Research on U.S. native mothers and daughters show that the acquisition and cessation of roles is associated with changes in desired closeness between mothers and adult daughters. Single daughters and their mothers, as compared to married daughters and their mothers, have
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less contact, engage in less aid, and are less attached (Walker, Thompson, & Morgan, 1987). With marriage and first-time mothering, daughters desire greater closeness with their mothers (Fischer, 1981). Mothers and daughters who agree about contact patterns are unlikely to confront interdependency problems. However, mothers and daughters who disagree about contact and level of involvement in each other's lives may experience ambivalence about involvement in each other's life. For instance, older mothers with new life roles (e.g., volunteer, retiree), and who have relinquished responsibilities linked to previously occupied roles (e.g., offering advice to children), may have untoward feelings about their daughter's need for childcare advice. However, some mothers and daughters experience no significant change in contact and support across their lives in spite of role acquisitions (Black & Hill, 1984), perhaps, because they place primacy on the same roles, such as motherhood, throughout their lives (Chodorow, 1978; Hess & Waring, 1978). 2. The present study In this study, I conceptualize interdependence as coinvolvement in each other's life that includes the care and concern mothers and daughters have for the other's well-being, the root of the care and concern, and how they embody that care and concern in their relationship. Adult mother±daughter interdependency has been similarly conceptualized in past research (Blieszner, Usita, & Mancini, 1996; Walker et al., 1987). The present study is concerned with the following research question: how do social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events affect interdependency between immigrant post-WWII Japanese mothers and their daughters? 3. Method 3.1. Description of participants Members of a Japanese cultural association and other community members knowledgeable about the population of interest assisted with participant recruitment. The former placed an advertisement in its association newsletter, and the latter generated a list of potential participants. Only persons who met the sample parameters of being or having a mother reared in Japan and being or having an adult daughter reared primarily in the U.S. were asked to participate in the project. In most cases, mothers were contacted and if they had multiple daughters, they selected the participant daughter. All interviews were conducted in Hawaii. The Time 1 sample consisted of 22 mothers and daughters, 10 of which were mother± daughter dyads. All mothers and daughters resided in the community. Mothers ranged in age from 45 to 71 years, with a mean of 58. Mothers' education ranged from completion of junior high school to post-high school training, which is not atypical for women of this time period. Daughters ranged in age from 21 to 43 years, with an average age of 30. Daughters were all high school graduates and most had acquired college coursework, although only a few had completed degrees. The Time 2 sample consisted of four of the Time 1 mother±daughter
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dyads. These four dyads were obtained through convenience sampling. When the aim of the research is to explore a new topic rather than to generalize to other samples (Strong, 1984), small sample sizes may be sought in qualitative research. Other research on rarely studied women and ethnic minorities indicates that saturation can be achieved with a sample of 10 (Farnsworth & Allen, 1996; Strong, 1984). 3.2. Procedures The same procedures were followed for the Times 1 and 2 interviews. I used a semistructured interview that fostered discussion about mother±daughter relationships. Pilot interviews to assess the semistructured interview guide and interview format suggested that the questions were appropriate for the research, so long as I asked follow-up clarification and elaboration questions (McCracken, 1988). All interviews were audiotaped. In addition, I kept a detailed research journal. The purpose of the journal was to record an outline of the topics that were covered; notes about emerging themes, striking expressions, and nonverbal gestures; and memos concerning information participants shared outside of the semistructured interviews (Taylor & Bogdan, 1984). I reviewed the research journal throughout the course of conducting the interviews and analyzing the data. The Time 1 interviews ranged from 1.0 to 3.0 hours. The semistructured interview guide used for Time 1 interviews included questions about socioecological factors (perceptions of language and communication, minority group status, relationships among women kin, and ethnic community involvement) and their influence on mother±daughter ties. The semistructured interview guide for Time 2 interviews built on the findings that emerged from analyses of Time 1 interview data. It also included more life history questions and questions about others that played a pivotal role in the relationship. Time 2 interviews ranged from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. 3.3. Data analysis The data from this study are from a larger project that examines the influence of socioecological factors on mother±daughter relationships. The data were analyzed and compared with findings in the extant literature. Potential reasons for discrepancies between these data and the extant data were discussed with another researcher. The data from the audiotaped interviews were transcribed and thematic analyses were performed to identify mothers' and daughters' attitudes, values, or sentiments. The interview data were analyzed according to the method described by Taylor and Bogdan (1984) that included (a) reading and rereading the data; (b) making marginal notions of themes, hunches, interpretations, and ideas; and (c) looking for emergent themes. The eventual goal of this method is to identify a parsimonious set of categories that encompass the topics found in the transcripts. Data analyses also encompassed relating the interview data to documented historical processes, as suggested by Glenn (1986). The research journal served as another data source. I coded the research journal entries and compared the codes to the themes that emerged through thematic analysis to ensure accuracy of the interpretation of the data. Finally, all Time 1 participants were mailed a summary of the Time 1 findings and were asked to comment on
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the extent to which the summary reflected the ideas and opinions they shared during the interviews. Thirteen of the participants responded to questions about the content of the summary. All 13 participants indicated that the summary conveyed the ideas they shared in the interview and that the findings did not omit anything important from the interviews. Participants in the Time 2 interviews did not receive a summary of the Time 2 findings. The data for this study focus on themes that relate to social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events.
4. Findings Social geography promoted interdependency, interdependency patterns were shaped by expectations about interdependency, and life events altered interdependency patterns. 4.1. Social geography of Hawaii creates interdependency Hawaii has a rich display of Japanese culture because of its close proximity to Japan, the presence of Japanese-owned businesses, and the influx of Japanese tourists (Okamura, 1994). In fact, traditions that resemble both Japan and the U.S. are said to exist in greater abundance in Hawaii than in states on the continental U.S. (Kitano, 1993). The social geography of Hawaii appeared to promote mother±daughter interdependency in two ways: coassistance with language and daughters support of mothers. 4.1.1. Coassistance with language Both mothers and daughters were aware that comprehension of Japanese and English languages would benefit their employment. Understanding the Japanese language would help daughters who worked with Hawaii residents of Japanese descent or Japanese nationals. Likewise, mothers who understood the English language would be better able to communicate withtheir English-speaking customers orcoworkers.Several ofthe daughtersinthis study worked directly with Japanese nationals, and they looked to their mothers to help them with Japanese terms or customs. One example vividly illustrates how Hawaii's social geography promoted daughter to mother interdependency in the area of mutual assistance with language. Jane, a flight attendant for a Japanese airline, regularly interacts with Japanese nationals. She makes frequent trips to Japan and finds herself looking to her mother for help with pronouncing and understanding Japanese words. Jane:
I deal with a lot of Japanese customers also [Jane's mother works in the tourist industry as well]. So, its helped a lot for me 'cause she helps me out Ð trying to help me better with my pronunciation, or if I have questions about Japanese words, you know, she's able to help.
Just as daughters such as Jane called upon their mother for assistance with Japanese language, some mothers looked to daughters for assistance with the English language. Shana's mother works as a tour guide. Her mother calls her at work sometimes and asks her to explain the meaning of English words.
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Shana: She'll even call me at work and say, `What does this mean?' You know, she'll spell something or whatever . . . if she gets frustrated enough she will [call her]. That must be really tough. Thus, the social geography of Hawaii Ð Hawaii's tourism and business industry that brings Japanese nationals to the islands Ð creates a setting in which persons with different language abilities and knowledge about the U.S. and Japan can help each other. Indeed, mothers and daughters who interact with Japanese and U.S. nationals in their jobs rely on each other for language assistance. 4.1.2. Daughter support of mothers Mother ± daughter interdependency was promoted by Hawaii's social geography in an unexpected way in this study. It would appear that the large presence of Hawaii residents of Japanese descent would, as past research suggests, offer mothers significant opportunities for interaction and high levels of support from others of the same ethnic background (Ujimoto, 1987). However, according to daughters in this study, mothers did not have a comfortable social niche in which they could locate themselves. Daughters reported that mothers had a difficult time interacting with nisei men and women. Even though mothers in this study and nisei men and women were in the same middle stage of life, mothers' ``trials and tribulations,'' according to one daughter, were ``trials and tribulations'' that nisei men and women could not identify with. This daughter's and other daughters' reports suggested that two of the ``trials and tribulations'' were mothers' difficulties with the English language and a lack of shared experiences between mothers and nisei men and women. At Japanese cultural events, daughters observed mothers socializing with issei men and women rather than nisei men and women because mothers could speak to the former in their native language and mothers and issei men and women had a shared upbringing in Japan. Daughters expressed grave dissatisfaction with this predicament in which they saw mothers and they sought ways to include mothers more deeply in their lives. Daughters cared and showed concern for mothers by frequently interacting with mothers, calling mothers on the telephone on a regular basis, and including mothers in their family events. Thus, though the social geography of Hawaii would, at first glance, appear to buffer the negative effects of relocation, according to daughters in this study, the high proportion of residents of Japanese descent actually highlighted mothers' difference from nisei men and women. The following excerpts were taken from interviews with two daughters. In both excerpts, the daughter speaks about her mother's social isolation and personal discomfort at Japanese cultural events. In the second excerpt, the daughter also discussed how her mother's estrangement from her same-aged peers was evident within her family. Trudy: My mother, also being a issei Japanese and [they] being nisei Japanese is two different stories again [laughter], as you know, and they have their own trials and tribulations as an issei, where they [nisei] don't. It's real hard for them [issei] to interact with the niseis. And most of these cultural events that are happening in Hawaii were inviting nisei. And you know, so the issei, they don't feel in place with the nisei. So that's a whole different story, too. And my mother, she doesn't want to go because it's different. They're looked down upon or something. That's how she feels.
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Lisa:
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They [persons like her mother] go to those parties [sponsored by Japanese cultural societies] and they talk to the old people [issei men and women] 'cause they could relate to them and talk to them in Japanese. And all the young people are like nisei, they don't know, so people their age can't relate to. But, they talk to the older ones.
Lisa provided an intrafamily observation about different immigrant generation statuses affecting her mother's contact with peers. Lisa:
My husband's mother is like forty something and she's a nisei. So she doesn't really understand Japanese, she knows a few words. My mom and her is suppose to be equal, right? But, my mom talks to her mother, to my husband's grandmother more than she talks to my mother-in-law. So, in a way, you know that's awkward in itself for her, for my mother-in-law, for my grandmother, for my husband, and myself.
Witnessing mothers' isolation motivated daughters to be deliberate about including mothers in their lives. Further, knowledge of mothers' physical distance from family in Japan appeared to influence the extent to which daughters included mothers in their lives. The overall tone of daughters' stories suggested that they wanted to involve their mothers in their lives. Mothers with few family and friends expressed their happiness at being involved in daughters' lives. 4.2. Interdependency expectations Two major interdependency expectations that were discussed by participants in this study and that influenced mother±daughter coinvolvement were mothers' sense of responsibility for their unwed daughters and expectations about mother to daughter dependency. Both mothers and daughters related their interdependency expectations to Japanese culture. Overall, the participants in this study discuss values about women and family that Iwao (1993) identified as pre-WWII values. 4.2.1. Mothers' sense of responsibility for their unwed daughters Mothers discussed the importance of creating family and mothering. According to mothers, daughters remain their responsibility until they marry, and after daughters marry, mothers expect to be less involved in their daughter's life. Mothers' beliefs about the significance of family and mothering stem from their upbringing in Japan. In the following excerpt, Kazuko, a 56-year-old mother of four children, expresses her thoughts on a mother's sense of responsibility for her children. Kazuko:
It's always mother's feeling to settle down, to have beautiful home, families. I guess that's parents' dream for any kid . . . like normal life, that's the dream. See, the parents feel [that if] anybody get married, release us, job is done. See, I have four kids, one more child is not done yet. So, it's always [in] my mind, I got one more to go. Even [though] she's independent, do herself, still, one more to go . . . Maybe it's not that important for them . . .
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see that's the part from Japan. Marry means you make one family and you off from parents' hand Ð that's how all culture is in my head too. My kids too Ð even marry, settle down, have family. That's what I want. Akiko's sentiments reinforce the comments made by Kazuko and other mothers about the importance of marriage and family. In the following excerpt, Akiko talks about the stance she expects to take with her daughter after her daughter marries. Currently, Akiko's daughter is a college student, and according to Akiko, she offers advice and support to her daughter on a regular basis. Akiko expects that she and her daughter's interdependency patterns will change after her daughter marries. Akiko:
I want to say, just, `I'm here.' And when she need me, I'm here. Instead I give her sort of like, not like setting her, pushing her, my help or my hand. Instead of doing that, I'm going to wait for her when she need help, when she need hand, I'm available. So, I intend to let her know that way. And she can come to me. But, I'm not going to her, give her hand, `okay take my hand,' not pushing, like just like selling your kindness, sometimes become annoying.
Daughters' stories supported the stories told by mothers. Below, one daughter vocalizes the importance of family that was impressed upon her. In her story, this daughter talked about the significance of family for her. She, herself, is committed to family, and keeps both her mother and father actively involved in her son's life. Her parents help her with work, childcare, and family life, in general. She helps her parents with planning their finances. Keri:
If I really had to think about it, there's a lot of things about my mother's culture that influenced me . . . when they talk about family values, you know, there's a strong sense of family in Japanese [culture], there's a strong sense of doing what's right, what's expected of you.
4.2.2. Expectations about mother to daughter dependency Both mothers and daughters in this study vocalized expectations about mothers' dependency on daughters. In addition to desiring involvement in their daughter's life because they cared about their daughter, some mothers sought or expected to be involved in their daughter's life because it made them feel needed. Mothers and daughters' reports suggested that expectations about mother to daughter dependency relate to values associated with Japanese culture. For instance, Reiko, 71 years of age, seeks involvement in her daughter's life because she believes it is something that her daughter should do Ð regardless of her daughter's other commitments. Reiko acknowledges that her daughter may think otherwise about mother ± daughter involvement because she and her daughter are of a different generation. Reiko: Nice to have pretty family life: father, mother, children. But, don't forget me. You have to include me too. But uh, I'm a different generation. According to daughters, they were more likely than their brothers to talk and visit with their mother and to make sure that their mother's needs were met. Daughters reported that they spoke to their father about some of their mother's needs and wants, for instance.
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According to one daughter, it is her mother's belief in the importance of women in families that may account for the deeper levels of involvement that she, rather than her brother, has in her mother's life and that her mother actively seeks. Shana: As far as she [mother] is concerned, if you are a family, you should and you must have a daughter. And that daughter will be the one that will Ð and I don't know if this is a Japanese thing or just something in her own mind Ð is what keeps everybody together. This daughter then reports on her mother's dependency on her, which she says she accepts. Shana: She has this connection that she doesn't have with the others [grandsons]. And even when they get older, I think that will remain the same. She will always lean toward the girls. Like she's leaned on me, you know. And in some ways, leaned on me, but not to the point where I've not liked it. She's my mother, so I have to do it and I don't mind doing it . . . This is kind of a duty, isn't it? Sounds almost Japanese [laughter]. It's my duty . . . I think if I wasn't around, I don't think he'd [brother] do that. And so she would have to cope on her own. 4.3. Life events and interdependency pattern changes Events in both mother's and daughter's life resulted in interdependency pattern changes. The participants in this study discussed two types of life events that had a major impact on mother±daughter interdependency: daughters' parenthood and spousal separation. 4.3.1. Daughters' parenthood From daughters' perspectives, mothers could transmit elements of Japanese culture to their children. Daughters viewed mothers as an important resource for their children, they saw mothers as being able to offer first-hand knowledge of Japanese culture to their children. The following account was typical of how daughter-mothers valued their mother's involvement in their child's life. Trudy: Well, my son, anything, I tell him . . . if there's something that he wants to know, he'll ask my mother, you know. And, we also are planning . . . we're hoping to . . . my mother plans to take all her grandchildren back to Japan to show them their culture or where . . . and she says while she can still walk and she's strong enough and she's, you know, she has enough mind to tell them and show them . . . and that is the best learning . . . my son doesn't want to listen or learn from me and I'm not an authority to teach him. I wouldn't know what I'm trying to teach him. So, I asked her and she's made an attempt at it. Mothers appeared to enjoy sharing Japanese childhood stories with their daughter's children. In addition to sharing Japanese culture with their children, mothers assisted their daughter-mothers with childcare. All mothers Ð retired mothers, stay-at-home mothers, mothers who worked outside of the home Ð offered and provided their daughter with childcare assistance. In addition to assisting their daughters with child care because they
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wanted to, caring for their grandchildren also gave mothers a sense of feeling needed, as described below by one mother. Kazuko:
I guess because with the son [daughter's son] we are attach each other. But, if she didn't have any kids, if she alone, I don't think we are that close because she don't need me. And, then, I don't have to help her.
4.3.2. Spousal separation Just as events, such as daughters' motherhood fostered mother±daughter interdependency, events, such as mother±father and daughter±husband separation changed mother±daughter interdependency patterns. Two examples illustrate the different effects that life events can have on mother±daughter interdependency. Trudy is divorced after being with her husband for over 15 years. Previously, Trudy devoted her life to her family and to her mother, and her mother and son saw each other regularly. Now in her 40s, Trudy has redefined herself Ð she asserts her wishes and is thinking about what she wants for herself. Her mother does not like Trudy's changed attitude and behavior Ð she does not like that she is no longer at the center of Trudy's world. Trudy: Because or after the divorce and everything, we've kind of had our differences in opinions. Where I feel . . . I'm past that the `I'm going to please you or I'm going to show' stage in my life. I'm like if you don't like it or you can't accept it, `oh well, that's your loss.' . . . And my mother didn't like this new, assertive me because she was used to the Ð what is this Ð submissive me. And that's how I was with my husband, and that's how I was with my mother. And was, oh, me and my mother were inseparable . . . I think she's hurt because after . . . she's very close to my son, that her favorite . . . and no wonder because we lived and we've seen each other three or four times a week, you know . . . and I always put my mother ahead of my husband, and you know, that could have been a thing in our relationship too, where my mother was always number one at first. So, I think when the divorce came, my mother thought, `Oh.' My father passed away, my mother has her place, maybe now daughter can live with the mother and everything will be fine. And then I find a boyfriend and it's like, `No, this wasn't in the plan!' So, she kind of rejects me, or she's hurt or something, so she's kind of turned away right now from me. But she has to realize . . . I do have a life and I try to explain to her, you know, I have to go on with my life, you know, I want to be happy and don't depend on me to make you happy. You got to go out there and look for your happiness too. You got to find out what you like or what makes you happy. Events in mothers' lives also created shifts in mother±daughter interdependency. Shana, whose mother and father separated when she was in her teens, says that her mother calls her ``Executive Secretary.'' Shana manages essentially all of her mother's records. In the following excerpt, Shana clearly describes why and how she became intricately involved in her mother's affairs.
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Shana: I know that our roles have changed a lot as I have gotten older because she's Japanese from Japan and I'm American. And she could never go and live back in Japan. She's American, up to a certain point herself. [Shana describes the situation leading up to her mother and father's separation.] So at that time, I mean, this is really difficult for her. She had no skills. She had never worked other than that little job she had in Japan before she left Japan. She had no skills. She had some money in her savings account . . . She didn't know how to write, so she wouldn't know how to get her ID card. She couldn't go to parent±teacher conferences because she couldn't understand what they were talking about in regards to my brother. So, I would always try to come back [from college on the mainland to Hawaii] and I would go to the parent±teacher conferences, and I'd go to open houses for him [brother] . . . and all the various legal paperwork, I filled that out from time to time. Basically, you know, anything Ð registration papers coming in, safety checks, all that kind of stuff. And, she needed me for those things. So, it was hard and I tried to do it. Although after a few years I gave it up and came back to Hawaii. I guess that might have been in '74. At that point, I just sort of took over everything . . . she calls me her `Executive Secretary.' I take care of all her banking, her taxes, her medical insurance, even her requests for vacation pay, for sick leave, for surgeries, I mean anything. Shana's story illustrates how her mother's circumstances Ð divorce and geographical location Ð led her to be intricately tied to her mother. Over time, that is, over the course of her life and because of events in her mother's life, Shana has become intimately involved in her mother's life.
5. Discussion Life course and feminist tenets provided a framework for conceptualizing interdependency between post-WWII immigrant Japanese mothers and adult daughters. These frameworks were used to achieve an understanding of mother±daughter relationships from the point of view of women whose relations cut across uncommon and overlapping experiences of time, person, and place. The qualitative approach provided mothers and daughters the opportunity to discuss coinvolvement in each other's lives, their thoughts about the other, the root of their care and concern, and how they showed care and concern. The semistructured interview format provided women an opportunity to think and speak openly about their relationship experiences, something women may find empowering (Collins, 1991). Mothers' stories revealed enduring ties to Japanese values, a willingness to transmit Japanese culture to their grandchildren, and a persistent wanting of what is best for daughters. Through their stories, daughters expressed deep care and concern for their mother's wellbeing. They noticed mothers' social interaction difficulties at organized cultural events, involved mothers in their lives because mothers had a thin friend and family network, viewed mothers as a potential transmitter of Japanese culture to their children, and generally assisted
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mothers in whatever way possible. The mothers and daughters in this study expressed care and concern for the other and they described how they embodied that care and concern. The responses that I received from mothers and daughters during and after the interviews suggested that for some women, thinking and talking about their relationship was something they had not done enough of or had an audience for. Through careful attending to the preservation of their experiences, immigrant mothers and daughters, an understudied group, are helping to define social scientific knowledge, which has positive and significant implications (Collins, 1991). Hawaii's social geography created a uniquely interesting setting for the mothers and daughters. On the islands, they were surrounded by a larger abundance of Japanese culture and traditions than they could have expected had they lived on the continental US. Mothers and daughters could and did look to each other for assistance with the meaning and pronunciation of words. In this way, they were both dependent on each other. But, mothers were in a precarious situation, compared to daughters. By immigrating, mothers physically separated themselves from family and long-time friends in Japan. Mothers were no longer a neighborhood, city, or island away from people with whom they had a strong kinship or friendship bond. Mothers that were limited to within family contact faced a particularly difficult post-immigration adjustment period. Daughters played a key role in mothers' adjustment, particularly, daughters who witnessed mothers' disconnection from nisei men and women, and who invested themselves into assuring that mothers were involved in their life. Great value can be placed on daughters' behaviors, especially when considered in light of the importance of social relationships to the quality of older adults' well-being (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1995). Daughters of immigrant mothers may play a vital role in assuring that their mother's social needs are met. Mother and daughter expectations about interdependency were informed by Japanese values. Mothers talked about their how their mother±daughter relationship change or would change as a result of daughters' marriage and they explained that Japanese culture placed a high value on motherhood. Though cultural values are known to shift over time (Osako & Liu, 1986; Yanagisako, 1985), this study was not designed to detect the exact degree to which values had shifted. That mothers and daughters reported on values that they felt were associated with Japanese culture suggest that cultural values, in some form, continue to influence parent±child interaction. Life events prompted shifts in interdependency patterns between mothers and daughters. The results illustrated the ways in which daughters' motherhood brought mothers and daughters closer Ð mothers transmitted elements of Japanese culture to their grandchildren and they performed childcare. Interdependency pattern changes in the mother±daughter relationship among daughter-mothers supports previous research on role changes and intergenerational contact between women kin (Fisher, 1981; Walker et al., 1987). Thus, some of the interdependency changes seen in this study are not unique to immigrant mother± daughter relationships. The potential utility of the life course perspective in understanding immigrant family relationships was illustrated in this study. Daughters' keen observations of mothers at cultural organization events and their subsequent daughter to mother involvement speaks of change and continuity and its effects on individual and family lives. Change resulted when
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mothers immigrated to the U.S. Continuity in the mother±daughter relationship, in the form of sustained contact between the women, was propelled, in part, by the change. Thus, immigrant families' experiences with interdependency can be understood through the life course lens. When the life course lens, and its receptivity to variation is considered, the utility of the life course perspective is visible yet again. The sample members were women whose lives display individual variation from most women of their background (i.e., immigration and intermarriage) and their daughters. Researchers can use the life course perspective to understand unique samples. Perhaps most interestingly, with respect to the life course perspective, this research underscores the importance of social geography in understanding parent±child relationships. Most of the mothers and daughters in the sample enjoyed Hawaii's polyethnic culture. Yet, even Hawaii's polyethnic culture and its plentiful opportunities for cultural involvement did not lessen mothers' dislocation in Hawaii's broader Japanese American community, at least from daughters' perspectives. Because they observed and perceived mothers' difficulties with fitting into Hawaii's Japanese American community, daughters gave these factors consideration in involving themselves in mothers' lives. Hopefully, this research will stir greater interest in the study of social geography and its impact on family relationships. The research design was carefully crafted to access a marginalized group's experiences. Yet, the research could be improved in several ways, as suggested below. Qualitative in-depth interviews enabled me to explore mother±daughter relationships in detail. Though the data provided strikingly rich information because of its in-depth character, it limited the size of the sample that could be studied. The heterogeneity in the relationships between post-WWII immigrant Japanese mothers and daughters would be best captured with additional research with more women and additional research in a different locale. Because social geography influences individual and family experiences, we might expect that women who have migrated to other areas of the U.S. would have slightly different accounts of interdependency in their relationships. A study of the same population but in a different geographical locale would be useful for gaining a deeper understanding about the intricacies of interdependency in immigrant mother±daughter relationships. Another potential limitation of the study is the means through which the sample was obtained. I relied on a Japanese cultural organization, community contacts, and the snowball method to recruit participants. Recruiting participants from a broader audience (e.g., newspaper advertisement) might have yielded a sample of mothers and daughters who focused on other aspects of the effects of language acculturation on relationships. In conclusion, numerous scholars contend that a one-fits-all approach to families is simplistic and that attention to diversity among families along racial and ethnic lines is necessary. Studies of families of different racial or ethnic backgrounds should also consider the diversity of experiences between and within racial and ethnic groups. The triumphant experiences, saddening hardships, and neutral times experienced by immigrants from all time periods needs to be studied (Glenn, 1986). As this study illustrated, women choose life trajectories (e.g., immigration and intermarriage) that take them to new places, new experiences, and new hardships. The decisions they make for themselves influence their development and, also, their relationships with their daughters. Together, mothers and daughters chart new directions, helping each other, relying on each other, developing
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interdependent relationships, as needed. Within the mother±daughter relationships of the sample members, and all mother±daughter pairs, I would add, preserving the unique qualities of their interdependencies is important because their unique methods of helping and relating to one another reminds us of the larger diversity that exists within our society. Acknowledgments This research was supported by a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Graduate Research Development Project Grant and a Purdue Research Foundation Grant. The author expresses her deep appreciation to the women who participated in the study. References Allen, K. R. (1989). Single women/family ties. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (1995). Convoys of social relations: family and friendships within a life span context. In: R. Blieszner, & V. H. Bedford (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the family ( pp. 355 ± 371). Westport, CT: Greenwood. Barresi, C. M. (1987). Ethnic aging and the life course. In: D. E. Gelfand, & C. M. Barresi (Eds.), Ethnic dimensions of aging ( pp. 18 ± 34). New York: Springer. Barresi, C. M. (1990). Ethnogerontology: social aging in national, racial, and cultural groups. In: K. Ferraro (Ed.), Gerontology: perspectives and issues ( pp. 247 ± 265). New York: Springer. Bengtson, V. L., & Allen, K. R. (1993). The life course perspective applied to families over time. In: P. G. Boss, W. J. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W. R. Schumm, & S. K. Steinmetz (Eds.), Handbook of family theories and methods: a contextual approach ( pp. 469 ± 499). New York: Plenum. Black, S. M., & Hill, C. E. (1984). The psychological well-being of women in their middle years. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 8, 282 ± 292. Blieszner, R., Usita, P. M., & Mancini, J. A. (1996). Diversity and dynamics in late-life mother ± daughter relationships. Journal of Women & Aging, 8 (3/4), 5 ± 24. Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering: psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley: University of California Press. Claussen, J. A. (1986). The life course: a sociological perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Collins, P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought. New York: Routledge. Connor, J. W. (1974). Acculturation and family continuities in three generations of Japanese Americans. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 36, 159 ± 165. Enloe, C. H. (1983). Does khaki become you?: the militarisation of women's lives. Boston: South End Press. Farnsworth, E. B., & Allen, K. R. (1996). Mothers' bereavement: experiences of marginalization, stories of change. Family Relations, 45, 360 ± 367. Fischer, L. R. (1981). Transitions in the mother ± daughter relationship. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 43, 613 ± 622. Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: the social construction of whiteness. London: Routledge. Glenn, E. N. (1986). Issei, nisei, war bride. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Hess, B. B., & Waring, J. M. (1978). Parent and child in later life: rethinking the relationship. In: R. M. Lerner, & G. B. Spanier (Eds.), Child influences on marital and family interaction ( pp. 241 ± 273). New York: Academic Press. Ishii-Kuntz, M. (1997). Intergenerational relationships among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans. Family Relations, 46, 23 ± 32. Iwao, S. (1993). The Japanese woman: traditional image and changing reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Johnson, R. C. (1992). Offspring of cross-race and cross-ethnic marriages in Hawaii. In: M. P. P. Roots (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America ( pp. 239 ± 249). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Katz, C., & Monk, J. (1993). Full circles: geographies of women over the life course. New York: Routledge. Kaufman, S. R. (1994). In-depth interviewing. In: J. F. Gubrium, & A. Sankar (Eds.), Qualitative methods in aging research ( pp. 123 ± 136). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Kitano, H. H. L. (1993). Generations and identity: the Japanese American. Needham Heights, MA: Ginn Press. Life, T. R., Jr. (Producer) (1995). Doubles: Japan and American's intercultural children (videotape). Mass, A. I. (1992). Interracial Japanese Americans: the best of both worlds or the end of the Japanese American community? In: M. P. P. Roots (Ed.), Racially mixed people in America ( pp. 265 ± 279). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. McCracken, G. (1988). The long interview. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Okamura, J. Y. (1994). Why there are no Asian Americans in Hawaii: the continuing significance of local identity. Social Processes in Hawaii, 35, 161 ± 178. Osako, M. M., & Liu, W. T. (1986). Intergenerational relations and the aged among Japanese Americans. Research on Aging, 81, 128 ± 155. Osmond, M. W., & Thorne, B. (1993). Feminist theories: the social construction of gender in families. In: P. G. Boss, W. J. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W. R. Schumm, & S. K. Steinmetz (Eds.), Handbook of family theories and methods: a contextual approach ( pp. 591 ± 623). New York: Plenum. Portes, A., & Schauffler, R. (1996). Language and the second generation: bilingualism yesterday and today. In: A. Portes (Ed.), The second generation ( pp. 8 ± 29). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Pratt, G., & Hanson, S. (1993). Women and work across the life course: moving beyond essentialism. In: C. Katz, & J. Monk (Eds.), Full circles: geographies of women over the life course ( pp. 27 ± 54). New York: Routledge. Rumbaut, R. G. (1997). Paradoxes (and orthodoxies) of assimilation. Sociological Perspectives, 40, 483 ± 511. Sachs, P. (1993). Old ties: women, work, and ageing in a coal-mining community in West Virginia. In: C. Katz, & J. Monk (Eds.), Full circles: geographies of women over the life course ( pp. 156 ± 170). New York: Routledge. Strong, C. (1984). Stress and caring for elderly relatives: interpretations and coping strategies in an American Indian and White sample. Gerontologist, 25, 251 ± 256. Taylor, S. J., & Bogdan, R. (1984). Introduction to qualitative research methods (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Ujimoto, K. V. (1987). Organizational activities, cultural factors, and well-being of aged Japanese Canadians. In: D. E. Gelfand, & C. M. Barresi (Eds.), Ethnic dimensions of aging ( pp. 145 ± 160). New York: Springer. Walker, A. J., Thompson, L., & Morgan, C. S. (1987). Two generations of mothers and daughters: role position and interdependence. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11, 195 ± 208. Yanagisako, S. J. (1985). Transforming the past: tradition and kinship among Japanese Americans. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Yatabe, S., Koseki, L., & Braun, K. (1996). Asian and Pacific island elders: an educational training module. Center on Aging Publication Series Publication No. 3. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii, Center on Aging.
Interdependency in immigrant mother±daughter relationships Paula M. Usita* Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, 1269 Fowler House, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1269, USA
Abstract Intergenerational interdependency involves coinvolvement in each other's life, including the care and concern that one generation expresses for the other, the root of the care and concern, and how each generation embodies the care and concern. Three factors may influence interdependency between immigrant mothers and their adult daughters: social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events. Twenty-two immigrant mothers and adult daughters participated in an in-depth individual interview about social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events in their mother ± daughter relationship. Eight mothers and daughters participated in a second in-depth individual interview about the same topics, a year later. Analyses of the data from the two data collection periods showed that social geography promoted interdependency, interdependency expectations shaped actual interdependency patterns, and life events, such as motherhood for daughters and spousal separation, altered interdependency patterns. The participants in this study expressed general satisfaction with the degree of involvement in each other's life. D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Mother-daughter relationships; Immigrant families; Interdependency
1. Introduction Interdependency is a key value promoted within Asian cultures (Yatabe, Koseki, & Braun, 1996). Within immigrant Asian families, interdependency is likely to be affected by social geography or the way a physical geography is peopled, the degree to which individual family members desire interdependent relationships, and significant changes in the lives of individual family members (Fischer, 1981; Ishii-Kuntz, 1997; Portes & Schauffler, 1996; Yanagisako, 1985; Yatabe et al., 1996). Although interdependency is a promoted construct * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-765-494-2966; fax: +1-765-494-0503. E-mail address: [email protected] (P.M. Usita) 0890-4065/01/$ ± see front matter D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 8 9 0 - 4 0 6 5 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 5 - 6
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within Asian culture and is likely to be affected by the aforementioned factors, minimal research has been done to understand the intricacies of immigrant Asian families' experiences with interdependency. What shape does interdependency take on within immigrant families? The present study examines the influence of social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events on immigrant families and it focuses on the experience of interdependency for immigrant Japanese mothers that intermarried with Americans and their adult daughters. The immigrant mother±daughter relationship is a prime candidate for research on this topic because cultural beliefs and practices are transmitted primarily through mothers (Barresi, 1990). Thus, both mother and daughter are likely to know about the valuing of interdependent relationships within the mother's culture, and that may shape the expression of interdependency in their relationship. Immigrant Japanese women who are intermarried and have intercultural children have chosen a unique life trajectory, and though Japanese culture may have primed them to desire interdependent relationships with their children, they may, in fact, choose to have a relationship trajectory that differs. To capture the intricacies of interdependency within the relationships of immigrant Japanese women that have intermarried with Americans and their adult daughters, the adoption of conceptual frameworks that value individual variation, intergenerational relationships, and understudied women's experiences are necessary. Life course and feminist frameworks have a respect for the nexus of individual and family pathways and diversity, and thus, were used to guide this study. 1.1. Conceptual frameworks The life course perspective assumes intra- and interindividual and family variation, continuity and change in individual and family life, and the intersection of individual and family lives (Allen, 1989; Barresi, 1987; Bengtson & Allen, 1993; Claussen, 1986). Family variation is illustrated in two ways in this study. First, the sample members consist of postWWII immigrant mothers that intermarried with Americans and their adult daughters. The majority of research on Japanese families is on the first generation of men and women that emigrated from Japan at the beginning of the 20th century (issei) and their second-generation (nisei) children. Social and historical conditions exert different effects on waves of immigrants of the same nationality (Rumbaut, 1997). Second, intermarriage was uncommon in Japan (Glenn, 1986). Intercultural families, as compared to monocultural families, may have to negotiate cultural values about interdependency. Continuity and change is illustrated in this study as well. As the sample members' stories unfold, it will become evident that daughter to mother interdependency is shaped by daughters' understanding of mothers' life histories, and that interdependency patterns change when daughters become mothers, and daughters and mothers separate from their spouse. In addition to these areas of the life course perspective, this study will incorporate an analysis of social geography. Social geography is an understudied, though important, domain of life course studies (Katz & Monk, 1993). Social geography refers to physical geography that is peopled (Frankenberg, 1993). Assumed within this perspective of social geography is that physical geography is ``constituted and perceived by means of social rather than natural processes'' (Frankenberg, 1993, p. 44). Frankenberg (1993) has paid deliberate attention to how women's social geography affects their personal and social identities. She concluded that
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women's self-definition and social interactions are related to the opportunities and constraints they experience in their physical geography. Other research punctuates the importance of social geography in women's lives. Research shows decisions made by women affect the opportunities and choices available to their granddaughters and great-granddaughters (Katz & Monk, 1993). Geography affects the types of employment available to women and their husbands, women's work both inside and outside of the family, and the relationships between women and their families and their community (Pratt & Hanson, 1993; Sachs, 1993). Studying social geography's influence on relationships between post-WWII immigrant Japanese mothers and their daughters is important because mothers moved to a country in which the language, cultural values, and availability of peer support differed in meaningful ways from what they were accustomed to in their homeland (Glenn, 1986). Feminist scholarship underscores women's experiences and female standpoints (Osmond & Thorne, 1993). Collins (1991) maintained that searching personal experiences to identify important themes validates marginalized persons' lived experiences and leads to the development of merited social science studies about and for their lives. I adopt feminist assumptions in this paper and address the limiting approach that has been taken to studying women and non-majority groups. I do so by collecting immigrant mothers' and daughters' relationship stories, in their own words, using qualitative methods that highlight the heterogeneity of people's lives and acknowledge how participants, themselves, perceive, define, and construct interdependency in mother±daughter relationships (Kaufman, 1994; Taylor & Bogdan, 1984). 1.2. Social geography and mother±daughter interdependency One approach to examining social geographies is to ask people how they conceptualize and relate to others in their physical geography (Frankenberg, 1993). With immigrant families, social geography may be examined by asking immigrant families to discuss the levels of support available to them from the host society and the degree of their involvement in their ethnic community. Immigrant families who settle in a community with existing human, community, and organizational cultural support have an easier time adjusting to the host society than immigrant families that relocate to communities where there are few people of the same ethnic background. Ethnic enclaves offer immigrant families social and emotional support (Ujimoto, 1987). When ethnic enclaves are not available, new immigrants feel dislocated and family disruption may ensue. Research with post-WWII immigrant Japanese women in California depicts how social geography can influence immigrant parents and parent±child interaction. Glenn (1986) reported that postWWII immigrant Japanese women lived isolated lives Ð their husbands did not speak Japanese and they had no larger kinship group or community to support their effort to transmit Japanese culture, including Japanese language, to their children. Post-WWII immigrant Japanese women were not fluent in English, though their children were, and the children became cultural liaisons for their mothers. Social geography can have an important influence on intercultural children's development. Intercultural children develop a positive self-identity when other people of similar interracial and bicultural background surround them (Johnson, 1992; Mass, 1992).
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1.3. Expectations about mother±daughter interdependency Mother±daughter disagreement about interdependency expectations may stem from their different cultural value orientations. Within immigrant Asian families, one cultural value that may influence expectations about interdependency is filial piety. Filial piety encompasses supporting parents emotionally and financially into old age, including expectations about care and later-life coresidence (Ishii-Kuntz, 1997; Osako & Liu, 1986). Generational positioning influences the strength of association that each generation has to filial piety expectations. Yanagisako (1985) reported that issei parents claimed they did not expect their children to care for them later in life or expect to coreside with their adult children Ð normative parent±child occurrences during issei parents' upbringing. Their nisei children reported otherwise. Nisei children reported that issei parents emphasized Japanese customs, such as a sense of indebtedness to elders. Other research offers additional evidence of the continuity and change of filial piety among Japanese families (Connor, 1974; Osako & Liu, 1986). Interestingly, continuity and change in values, such as filial piety values, positively serve immigrant families. Ishii-Kuntz's (1997) research with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese parents and children showed that filial piety was invoked to the extent needed by elderly parents. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean American adult children whose parents frequently interacted with friends and family gave less emotional support to parents than adult children whose parents had less frequent family and friend interaction (Ishii-Kuntz, 1997). In this study, daughters and mothers may offer support to each other only when they perceive the other to have a need. Changing values and its impact on mother±daughter interdependency between post-WWII immigrant Japanese women and their daughters is especially intriguing because of the changes in Japanese society witnessed by post-WWII immigrant Japanese women. Japanese women that lived through WWII saw and internalized changing Japanese values about education, work, and family (Iwao, 1993). Prior to WWII, they were socialized to believe that they should be educated enough to be marriageable (knowing sewing, arts, and cooking), that women's work focuses on the rearing of children, and that women help their husbands to achieve their goals (Iwao, 1993). After WWII, they observed the U.S. promotion of freedom and democracy and women's rights (Enloe, 1983). Exposure to a life of freedom, democratic processes, and women's rights may have contributed to their pursuit of a life course pathway (immigrating and intermarrying) that differed from most women in Japan. Women that chose to leave Japan after WWII had a strong character and were concerned about women's stifling position in Japanese society (Glenn, 1986; Life, 1995). Exposure to new views about human and women's rights may lead post-WWII immigrant Japanese women to adopt fluid cultural value stances, including their stance on interdependency. 1.4. Life events and mother±daughter interdependency Interdependency may be affected by significant events in mothers' and daughters' lives. Research on U.S. native mothers and daughters show that the acquisition and cessation of roles is associated with changes in desired closeness between mothers and adult daughters. Single daughters and their mothers, as compared to married daughters and their mothers, have
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less contact, engage in less aid, and are less attached (Walker, Thompson, & Morgan, 1987). With marriage and first-time mothering, daughters desire greater closeness with their mothers (Fischer, 1981). Mothers and daughters who agree about contact patterns are unlikely to confront interdependency problems. However, mothers and daughters who disagree about contact and level of involvement in each other's lives may experience ambivalence about involvement in each other's life. For instance, older mothers with new life roles (e.g., volunteer, retiree), and who have relinquished responsibilities linked to previously occupied roles (e.g., offering advice to children), may have untoward feelings about their daughter's need for childcare advice. However, some mothers and daughters experience no significant change in contact and support across their lives in spite of role acquisitions (Black & Hill, 1984), perhaps, because they place primacy on the same roles, such as motherhood, throughout their lives (Chodorow, 1978; Hess & Waring, 1978). 2. The present study In this study, I conceptualize interdependence as coinvolvement in each other's life that includes the care and concern mothers and daughters have for the other's well-being, the root of the care and concern, and how they embody that care and concern in their relationship. Adult mother±daughter interdependency has been similarly conceptualized in past research (Blieszner, Usita, & Mancini, 1996; Walker et al., 1987). The present study is concerned with the following research question: how do social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events affect interdependency between immigrant post-WWII Japanese mothers and their daughters? 3. Method 3.1. Description of participants Members of a Japanese cultural association and other community members knowledgeable about the population of interest assisted with participant recruitment. The former placed an advertisement in its association newsletter, and the latter generated a list of potential participants. Only persons who met the sample parameters of being or having a mother reared in Japan and being or having an adult daughter reared primarily in the U.S. were asked to participate in the project. In most cases, mothers were contacted and if they had multiple daughters, they selected the participant daughter. All interviews were conducted in Hawaii. The Time 1 sample consisted of 22 mothers and daughters, 10 of which were mother± daughter dyads. All mothers and daughters resided in the community. Mothers ranged in age from 45 to 71 years, with a mean of 58. Mothers' education ranged from completion of junior high school to post-high school training, which is not atypical for women of this time period. Daughters ranged in age from 21 to 43 years, with an average age of 30. Daughters were all high school graduates and most had acquired college coursework, although only a few had completed degrees. The Time 2 sample consisted of four of the Time 1 mother±daughter
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dyads. These four dyads were obtained through convenience sampling. When the aim of the research is to explore a new topic rather than to generalize to other samples (Strong, 1984), small sample sizes may be sought in qualitative research. Other research on rarely studied women and ethnic minorities indicates that saturation can be achieved with a sample of 10 (Farnsworth & Allen, 1996; Strong, 1984). 3.2. Procedures The same procedures were followed for the Times 1 and 2 interviews. I used a semistructured interview that fostered discussion about mother±daughter relationships. Pilot interviews to assess the semistructured interview guide and interview format suggested that the questions were appropriate for the research, so long as I asked follow-up clarification and elaboration questions (McCracken, 1988). All interviews were audiotaped. In addition, I kept a detailed research journal. The purpose of the journal was to record an outline of the topics that were covered; notes about emerging themes, striking expressions, and nonverbal gestures; and memos concerning information participants shared outside of the semistructured interviews (Taylor & Bogdan, 1984). I reviewed the research journal throughout the course of conducting the interviews and analyzing the data. The Time 1 interviews ranged from 1.0 to 3.0 hours. The semistructured interview guide used for Time 1 interviews included questions about socioecological factors (perceptions of language and communication, minority group status, relationships among women kin, and ethnic community involvement) and their influence on mother±daughter ties. The semistructured interview guide for Time 2 interviews built on the findings that emerged from analyses of Time 1 interview data. It also included more life history questions and questions about others that played a pivotal role in the relationship. Time 2 interviews ranged from 1.5 to 2.5 hours. 3.3. Data analysis The data from this study are from a larger project that examines the influence of socioecological factors on mother±daughter relationships. The data were analyzed and compared with findings in the extant literature. Potential reasons for discrepancies between these data and the extant data were discussed with another researcher. The data from the audiotaped interviews were transcribed and thematic analyses were performed to identify mothers' and daughters' attitudes, values, or sentiments. The interview data were analyzed according to the method described by Taylor and Bogdan (1984) that included (a) reading and rereading the data; (b) making marginal notions of themes, hunches, interpretations, and ideas; and (c) looking for emergent themes. The eventual goal of this method is to identify a parsimonious set of categories that encompass the topics found in the transcripts. Data analyses also encompassed relating the interview data to documented historical processes, as suggested by Glenn (1986). The research journal served as another data source. I coded the research journal entries and compared the codes to the themes that emerged through thematic analysis to ensure accuracy of the interpretation of the data. Finally, all Time 1 participants were mailed a summary of the Time 1 findings and were asked to comment on
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the extent to which the summary reflected the ideas and opinions they shared during the interviews. Thirteen of the participants responded to questions about the content of the summary. All 13 participants indicated that the summary conveyed the ideas they shared in the interview and that the findings did not omit anything important from the interviews. Participants in the Time 2 interviews did not receive a summary of the Time 2 findings. The data for this study focus on themes that relate to social geography, interdependency expectations, and life events.
4. Findings Social geography promoted interdependency, interdependency patterns were shaped by expectations about interdependency, and life events altered interdependency patterns. 4.1. Social geography of Hawaii creates interdependency Hawaii has a rich display of Japanese culture because of its close proximity to Japan, the presence of Japanese-owned businesses, and the influx of Japanese tourists (Okamura, 1994). In fact, traditions that resemble both Japan and the U.S. are said to exist in greater abundance in Hawaii than in states on the continental U.S. (Kitano, 1993). The social geography of Hawaii appeared to promote mother±daughter interdependency in two ways: coassistance with language and daughters support of mothers. 4.1.1. Coassistance with language Both mothers and daughters were aware that comprehension of Japanese and English languages would benefit their employment. Understanding the Japanese language would help daughters who worked with Hawaii residents of Japanese descent or Japanese nationals. Likewise, mothers who understood the English language would be better able to communicate withtheir English-speaking customers orcoworkers.Several ofthe daughtersinthis study worked directly with Japanese nationals, and they looked to their mothers to help them with Japanese terms or customs. One example vividly illustrates how Hawaii's social geography promoted daughter to mother interdependency in the area of mutual assistance with language. Jane, a flight attendant for a Japanese airline, regularly interacts with Japanese nationals. She makes frequent trips to Japan and finds herself looking to her mother for help with pronouncing and understanding Japanese words. Jane:
I deal with a lot of Japanese customers also [Jane's mother works in the tourist industry as well]. So, its helped a lot for me 'cause she helps me out Ð trying to help me better with my pronunciation, or if I have questions about Japanese words, you know, she's able to help.
Just as daughters such as Jane called upon their mother for assistance with Japanese language, some mothers looked to daughters for assistance with the English language. Shana's mother works as a tour guide. Her mother calls her at work sometimes and asks her to explain the meaning of English words.
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Shana: She'll even call me at work and say, `What does this mean?' You know, she'll spell something or whatever . . . if she gets frustrated enough she will [call her]. That must be really tough. Thus, the social geography of Hawaii Ð Hawaii's tourism and business industry that brings Japanese nationals to the islands Ð creates a setting in which persons with different language abilities and knowledge about the U.S. and Japan can help each other. Indeed, mothers and daughters who interact with Japanese and U.S. nationals in their jobs rely on each other for language assistance. 4.1.2. Daughter support of mothers Mother ± daughter interdependency was promoted by Hawaii's social geography in an unexpected way in this study. It would appear that the large presence of Hawaii residents of Japanese descent would, as past research suggests, offer mothers significant opportunities for interaction and high levels of support from others of the same ethnic background (Ujimoto, 1987). However, according to daughters in this study, mothers did not have a comfortable social niche in which they could locate themselves. Daughters reported that mothers had a difficult time interacting with nisei men and women. Even though mothers in this study and nisei men and women were in the same middle stage of life, mothers' ``trials and tribulations,'' according to one daughter, were ``trials and tribulations'' that nisei men and women could not identify with. This daughter's and other daughters' reports suggested that two of the ``trials and tribulations'' were mothers' difficulties with the English language and a lack of shared experiences between mothers and nisei men and women. At Japanese cultural events, daughters observed mothers socializing with issei men and women rather than nisei men and women because mothers could speak to the former in their native language and mothers and issei men and women had a shared upbringing in Japan. Daughters expressed grave dissatisfaction with this predicament in which they saw mothers and they sought ways to include mothers more deeply in their lives. Daughters cared and showed concern for mothers by frequently interacting with mothers, calling mothers on the telephone on a regular basis, and including mothers in their family events. Thus, though the social geography of Hawaii would, at first glance, appear to buffer the negative effects of relocation, according to daughters in this study, the high proportion of residents of Japanese descent actually highlighted mothers' difference from nisei men and women. The following excerpts were taken from interviews with two daughters. In both excerpts, the daughter speaks about her mother's social isolation and personal discomfort at Japanese cultural events. In the second excerpt, the daughter also discussed how her mother's estrangement from her same-aged peers was evident within her family. Trudy: My mother, also being a issei Japanese and [they] being nisei Japanese is two different stories again [laughter], as you know, and they have their own trials and tribulations as an issei, where they [nisei] don't. It's real hard for them [issei] to interact with the niseis. And most of these cultural events that are happening in Hawaii were inviting nisei. And you know, so the issei, they don't feel in place with the nisei. So that's a whole different story, too. And my mother, she doesn't want to go because it's different. They're looked down upon or something. That's how she feels.
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Lisa:
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They [persons like her mother] go to those parties [sponsored by Japanese cultural societies] and they talk to the old people [issei men and women] 'cause they could relate to them and talk to them in Japanese. And all the young people are like nisei, they don't know, so people their age can't relate to. But, they talk to the older ones.
Lisa provided an intrafamily observation about different immigrant generation statuses affecting her mother's contact with peers. Lisa:
My husband's mother is like forty something and she's a nisei. So she doesn't really understand Japanese, she knows a few words. My mom and her is suppose to be equal, right? But, my mom talks to her mother, to my husband's grandmother more than she talks to my mother-in-law. So, in a way, you know that's awkward in itself for her, for my mother-in-law, for my grandmother, for my husband, and myself.
Witnessing mothers' isolation motivated daughters to be deliberate about including mothers in their lives. Further, knowledge of mothers' physical distance from family in Japan appeared to influence the extent to which daughters included mothers in their lives. The overall tone of daughters' stories suggested that they wanted to involve their mothers in their lives. Mothers with few family and friends expressed their happiness at being involved in daughters' lives. 4.2. Interdependency expectations Two major interdependency expectations that were discussed by participants in this study and that influenced mother±daughter coinvolvement were mothers' sense of responsibility for their unwed daughters and expectations about mother to daughter dependency. Both mothers and daughters related their interdependency expectations to Japanese culture. Overall, the participants in this study discuss values about women and family that Iwao (1993) identified as pre-WWII values. 4.2.1. Mothers' sense of responsibility for their unwed daughters Mothers discussed the importance of creating family and mothering. According to mothers, daughters remain their responsibility until they marry, and after daughters marry, mothers expect to be less involved in their daughter's life. Mothers' beliefs about the significance of family and mothering stem from their upbringing in Japan. In the following excerpt, Kazuko, a 56-year-old mother of four children, expresses her thoughts on a mother's sense of responsibility for her children. Kazuko:
It's always mother's feeling to settle down, to have beautiful home, families. I guess that's parents' dream for any kid . . . like normal life, that's the dream. See, the parents feel [that if] anybody get married, release us, job is done. See, I have four kids, one more child is not done yet. So, it's always [in] my mind, I got one more to go. Even [though] she's independent, do herself, still, one more to go . . . Maybe it's not that important for them . . .
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see that's the part from Japan. Marry means you make one family and you off from parents' hand Ð that's how all culture is in my head too. My kids too Ð even marry, settle down, have family. That's what I want. Akiko's sentiments reinforce the comments made by Kazuko and other mothers about the importance of marriage and family. In the following excerpt, Akiko talks about the stance she expects to take with her daughter after her daughter marries. Currently, Akiko's daughter is a college student, and according to Akiko, she offers advice and support to her daughter on a regular basis. Akiko expects that she and her daughter's interdependency patterns will change after her daughter marries. Akiko:
I want to say, just, `I'm here.' And when she need me, I'm here. Instead I give her sort of like, not like setting her, pushing her, my help or my hand. Instead of doing that, I'm going to wait for her when she need help, when she need hand, I'm available. So, I intend to let her know that way. And she can come to me. But, I'm not going to her, give her hand, `okay take my hand,' not pushing, like just like selling your kindness, sometimes become annoying.
Daughters' stories supported the stories told by mothers. Below, one daughter vocalizes the importance of family that was impressed upon her. In her story, this daughter talked about the significance of family for her. She, herself, is committed to family, and keeps both her mother and father actively involved in her son's life. Her parents help her with work, childcare, and family life, in general. She helps her parents with planning their finances. Keri:
If I really had to think about it, there's a lot of things about my mother's culture that influenced me . . . when they talk about family values, you know, there's a strong sense of family in Japanese [culture], there's a strong sense of doing what's right, what's expected of you.
4.2.2. Expectations about mother to daughter dependency Both mothers and daughters in this study vocalized expectations about mothers' dependency on daughters. In addition to desiring involvement in their daughter's life because they cared about their daughter, some mothers sought or expected to be involved in their daughter's life because it made them feel needed. Mothers and daughters' reports suggested that expectations about mother to daughter dependency relate to values associated with Japanese culture. For instance, Reiko, 71 years of age, seeks involvement in her daughter's life because she believes it is something that her daughter should do Ð regardless of her daughter's other commitments. Reiko acknowledges that her daughter may think otherwise about mother ± daughter involvement because she and her daughter are of a different generation. Reiko: Nice to have pretty family life: father, mother, children. But, don't forget me. You have to include me too. But uh, I'm a different generation. According to daughters, they were more likely than their brothers to talk and visit with their mother and to make sure that their mother's needs were met. Daughters reported that they spoke to their father about some of their mother's needs and wants, for instance.
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According to one daughter, it is her mother's belief in the importance of women in families that may account for the deeper levels of involvement that she, rather than her brother, has in her mother's life and that her mother actively seeks. Shana: As far as she [mother] is concerned, if you are a family, you should and you must have a daughter. And that daughter will be the one that will Ð and I don't know if this is a Japanese thing or just something in her own mind Ð is what keeps everybody together. This daughter then reports on her mother's dependency on her, which she says she accepts. Shana: She has this connection that she doesn't have with the others [grandsons]. And even when they get older, I think that will remain the same. She will always lean toward the girls. Like she's leaned on me, you know. And in some ways, leaned on me, but not to the point where I've not liked it. She's my mother, so I have to do it and I don't mind doing it . . . This is kind of a duty, isn't it? Sounds almost Japanese [laughter]. It's my duty . . . I think if I wasn't around, I don't think he'd [brother] do that. And so she would have to cope on her own. 4.3. Life events and interdependency pattern changes Events in both mother's and daughter's life resulted in interdependency pattern changes. The participants in this study discussed two types of life events that had a major impact on mother±daughter interdependency: daughters' parenthood and spousal separation. 4.3.1. Daughters' parenthood From daughters' perspectives, mothers could transmit elements of Japanese culture to their children. Daughters viewed mothers as an important resource for their children, they saw mothers as being able to offer first-hand knowledge of Japanese culture to their children. The following account was typical of how daughter-mothers valued their mother's involvement in their child's life. Trudy: Well, my son, anything, I tell him . . . if there's something that he wants to know, he'll ask my mother, you know. And, we also are planning . . . we're hoping to . . . my mother plans to take all her grandchildren back to Japan to show them their culture or where . . . and she says while she can still walk and she's strong enough and she's, you know, she has enough mind to tell them and show them . . . and that is the best learning . . . my son doesn't want to listen or learn from me and I'm not an authority to teach him. I wouldn't know what I'm trying to teach him. So, I asked her and she's made an attempt at it. Mothers appeared to enjoy sharing Japanese childhood stories with their daughter's children. In addition to sharing Japanese culture with their children, mothers assisted their daughter-mothers with childcare. All mothers Ð retired mothers, stay-at-home mothers, mothers who worked outside of the home Ð offered and provided their daughter with childcare assistance. In addition to assisting their daughters with child care because they
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wanted to, caring for their grandchildren also gave mothers a sense of feeling needed, as described below by one mother. Kazuko:
I guess because with the son [daughter's son] we are attach each other. But, if she didn't have any kids, if she alone, I don't think we are that close because she don't need me. And, then, I don't have to help her.
4.3.2. Spousal separation Just as events, such as daughters' motherhood fostered mother±daughter interdependency, events, such as mother±father and daughter±husband separation changed mother±daughter interdependency patterns. Two examples illustrate the different effects that life events can have on mother±daughter interdependency. Trudy is divorced after being with her husband for over 15 years. Previously, Trudy devoted her life to her family and to her mother, and her mother and son saw each other regularly. Now in her 40s, Trudy has redefined herself Ð she asserts her wishes and is thinking about what she wants for herself. Her mother does not like Trudy's changed attitude and behavior Ð she does not like that she is no longer at the center of Trudy's world. Trudy: Because or after the divorce and everything, we've kind of had our differences in opinions. Where I feel . . . I'm past that the `I'm going to please you or I'm going to show' stage in my life. I'm like if you don't like it or you can't accept it, `oh well, that's your loss.' . . . And my mother didn't like this new, assertive me because she was used to the Ð what is this Ð submissive me. And that's how I was with my husband, and that's how I was with my mother. And was, oh, me and my mother were inseparable . . . I think she's hurt because after . . . she's very close to my son, that her favorite . . . and no wonder because we lived and we've seen each other three or four times a week, you know . . . and I always put my mother ahead of my husband, and you know, that could have been a thing in our relationship too, where my mother was always number one at first. So, I think when the divorce came, my mother thought, `Oh.' My father passed away, my mother has her place, maybe now daughter can live with the mother and everything will be fine. And then I find a boyfriend and it's like, `No, this wasn't in the plan!' So, she kind of rejects me, or she's hurt or something, so she's kind of turned away right now from me. But she has to realize . . . I do have a life and I try to explain to her, you know, I have to go on with my life, you know, I want to be happy and don't depend on me to make you happy. You got to go out there and look for your happiness too. You got to find out what you like or what makes you happy. Events in mothers' lives also created shifts in mother±daughter interdependency. Shana, whose mother and father separated when she was in her teens, says that her mother calls her ``Executive Secretary.'' Shana manages essentially all of her mother's records. In the following excerpt, Shana clearly describes why and how she became intricately involved in her mother's affairs.
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Shana: I know that our roles have changed a lot as I have gotten older because she's Japanese from Japan and I'm American. And she could never go and live back in Japan. She's American, up to a certain point herself. [Shana describes the situation leading up to her mother and father's separation.] So at that time, I mean, this is really difficult for her. She had no skills. She had never worked other than that little job she had in Japan before she left Japan. She had no skills. She had some money in her savings account . . . She didn't know how to write, so she wouldn't know how to get her ID card. She couldn't go to parent±teacher conferences because she couldn't understand what they were talking about in regards to my brother. So, I would always try to come back [from college on the mainland to Hawaii] and I would go to the parent±teacher conferences, and I'd go to open houses for him [brother] . . . and all the various legal paperwork, I filled that out from time to time. Basically, you know, anything Ð registration papers coming in, safety checks, all that kind of stuff. And, she needed me for those things. So, it was hard and I tried to do it. Although after a few years I gave it up and came back to Hawaii. I guess that might have been in '74. At that point, I just sort of took over everything . . . she calls me her `Executive Secretary.' I take care of all her banking, her taxes, her medical insurance, even her requests for vacation pay, for sick leave, for surgeries, I mean anything. Shana's story illustrates how her mother's circumstances Ð divorce and geographical location Ð led her to be intricately tied to her mother. Over time, that is, over the course of her life and because of events in her mother's life, Shana has become intimately involved in her mother's life.
5. Discussion Life course and feminist tenets provided a framework for conceptualizing interdependency between post-WWII immigrant Japanese mothers and adult daughters. These frameworks were used to achieve an understanding of mother±daughter relationships from the point of view of women whose relations cut across uncommon and overlapping experiences of time, person, and place. The qualitative approach provided mothers and daughters the opportunity to discuss coinvolvement in each other's lives, their thoughts about the other, the root of their care and concern, and how they showed care and concern. The semistructured interview format provided women an opportunity to think and speak openly about their relationship experiences, something women may find empowering (Collins, 1991). Mothers' stories revealed enduring ties to Japanese values, a willingness to transmit Japanese culture to their grandchildren, and a persistent wanting of what is best for daughters. Through their stories, daughters expressed deep care and concern for their mother's wellbeing. They noticed mothers' social interaction difficulties at organized cultural events, involved mothers in their lives because mothers had a thin friend and family network, viewed mothers as a potential transmitter of Japanese culture to their children, and generally assisted
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mothers in whatever way possible. The mothers and daughters in this study expressed care and concern for the other and they described how they embodied that care and concern. The responses that I received from mothers and daughters during and after the interviews suggested that for some women, thinking and talking about their relationship was something they had not done enough of or had an audience for. Through careful attending to the preservation of their experiences, immigrant mothers and daughters, an understudied group, are helping to define social scientific knowledge, which has positive and significant implications (Collins, 1991). Hawaii's social geography created a uniquely interesting setting for the mothers and daughters. On the islands, they were surrounded by a larger abundance of Japanese culture and traditions than they could have expected had they lived on the continental US. Mothers and daughters could and did look to each other for assistance with the meaning and pronunciation of words. In this way, they were both dependent on each other. But, mothers were in a precarious situation, compared to daughters. By immigrating, mothers physically separated themselves from family and long-time friends in Japan. Mothers were no longer a neighborhood, city, or island away from people with whom they had a strong kinship or friendship bond. Mothers that were limited to within family contact faced a particularly difficult post-immigration adjustment period. Daughters played a key role in mothers' adjustment, particularly, daughters who witnessed mothers' disconnection from nisei men and women, and who invested themselves into assuring that mothers were involved in their life. Great value can be placed on daughters' behaviors, especially when considered in light of the importance of social relationships to the quality of older adults' well-being (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1995). Daughters of immigrant mothers may play a vital role in assuring that their mother's social needs are met. Mother and daughter expectations about interdependency were informed by Japanese values. Mothers talked about their how their mother±daughter relationship change or would change as a result of daughters' marriage and they explained that Japanese culture placed a high value on motherhood. Though cultural values are known to shift over time (Osako & Liu, 1986; Yanagisako, 1985), this study was not designed to detect the exact degree to which values had shifted. That mothers and daughters reported on values that they felt were associated with Japanese culture suggest that cultural values, in some form, continue to influence parent±child interaction. Life events prompted shifts in interdependency patterns between mothers and daughters. The results illustrated the ways in which daughters' motherhood brought mothers and daughters closer Ð mothers transmitted elements of Japanese culture to their grandchildren and they performed childcare. Interdependency pattern changes in the mother±daughter relationship among daughter-mothers supports previous research on role changes and intergenerational contact between women kin (Fisher, 1981; Walker et al., 1987). Thus, some of the interdependency changes seen in this study are not unique to immigrant mother± daughter relationships. The potential utility of the life course perspective in understanding immigrant family relationships was illustrated in this study. Daughters' keen observations of mothers at cultural organization events and their subsequent daughter to mother involvement speaks of change and continuity and its effects on individual and family lives. Change resulted when
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mothers immigrated to the U.S. Continuity in the mother±daughter relationship, in the form of sustained contact between the women, was propelled, in part, by the change. Thus, immigrant families' experiences with interdependency can be understood through the life course lens. When the life course lens, and its receptivity to variation is considered, the utility of the life course perspective is visible yet again. The sample members were women whose lives display individual variation from most women of their background (i.e., immigration and intermarriage) and their daughters. Researchers can use the life course perspective to understand unique samples. Perhaps most interestingly, with respect to the life course perspective, this research underscores the importance of social geography in understanding parent±child relationships. Most of the mothers and daughters in the sample enjoyed Hawaii's polyethnic culture. Yet, even Hawaii's polyethnic culture and its plentiful opportunities for cultural involvement did not lessen mothers' dislocation in Hawaii's broader Japanese American community, at least from daughters' perspectives. Because they observed and perceived mothers' difficulties with fitting into Hawaii's Japanese American community, daughters gave these factors consideration in involving themselves in mothers' lives. Hopefully, this research will stir greater interest in the study of social geography and its impact on family relationships. The research design was carefully crafted to access a marginalized group's experiences. Yet, the research could be improved in several ways, as suggested below. Qualitative in-depth interviews enabled me to explore mother±daughter relationships in detail. Though the data provided strikingly rich information because of its in-depth character, it limited the size of the sample that could be studied. The heterogeneity in the relationships between post-WWII immigrant Japanese mothers and daughters would be best captured with additional research with more women and additional research in a different locale. Because social geography influences individual and family experiences, we might expect that women who have migrated to other areas of the U.S. would have slightly different accounts of interdependency in their relationships. A study of the same population but in a different geographical locale would be useful for gaining a deeper understanding about the intricacies of interdependency in immigrant mother±daughter relationships. Another potential limitation of the study is the means through which the sample was obtained. I relied on a Japanese cultural organization, community contacts, and the snowball method to recruit participants. Recruiting participants from a broader audience (e.g., newspaper advertisement) might have yielded a sample of mothers and daughters who focused on other aspects of the effects of language acculturation on relationships. In conclusion, numerous scholars contend that a one-fits-all approach to families is simplistic and that attention to diversity among families along racial and ethnic lines is necessary. Studies of families of different racial or ethnic backgrounds should also consider the diversity of experiences between and within racial and ethnic groups. The triumphant experiences, saddening hardships, and neutral times experienced by immigrants from all time periods needs to be studied (Glenn, 1986). As this study illustrated, women choose life trajectories (e.g., immigration and intermarriage) that take them to new places, new experiences, and new hardships. The decisions they make for themselves influence their development and, also, their relationships with their daughters. Together, mothers and daughters chart new directions, helping each other, relying on each other, developing
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interdependent relationships, as needed. Within the mother±daughter relationships of the sample members, and all mother±daughter pairs, I would add, preserving the unique qualities of their interdependencies is important because their unique methods of helping and relating to one another reminds us of the larger diversity that exists within our society. Acknowledgments This research was supported by a Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Graduate Research Development Project Grant and a Purdue Research Foundation Grant. The author expresses her deep appreciation to the women who participated in the study. References Allen, K. R. (1989). Single women/family ties. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (1995). Convoys of social relations: family and friendships within a life span context. In: R. Blieszner, & V. H. Bedford (Eds.), Handbook of aging and the family ( pp. 355 ± 371). Westport, CT: Greenwood. Barresi, C. M. (1987). Ethnic aging and the life course. In: D. E. Gelfand, & C. M. Barresi (Eds.), Ethnic dimensions of aging ( pp. 18 ± 34). New York: Springer. Barresi, C. M. (1990). Ethnogerontology: social aging in national, racial, and cultural groups. In: K. Ferraro (Ed.), Gerontology: perspectives and issues ( pp. 247 ± 265). New York: Springer. Bengtson, V. L., & Allen, K. R. (1993). The life course perspective applied to families over time. In: P. G. Boss, W. J. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W. R. Schumm, & S. K. Steinmetz (Eds.), Handbook of family theories and methods: a contextual approach ( pp. 469 ± 499). New York: Plenum. Black, S. M., & Hill, C. E. (1984). The psychological well-being of women in their middle years. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 8, 282 ± 292. Blieszner, R., Usita, P. M., & Mancini, J. A. (1996). Diversity and dynamics in late-life mother ± daughter relationships. Journal of Women & Aging, 8 (3/4), 5 ± 24. Chodorow, N. (1978). The reproduction of mothering: psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender. Berkeley: University of California Press. Claussen, J. A. (1986). The life course: a sociological perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Collins, P. H. (1991). Black feminist thought. New York: Routledge. Connor, J. W. (1974). Acculturation and family continuities in three generations of Japanese Americans. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 36, 159 ± 165. Enloe, C. H. (1983). Does khaki become you?: the militarisation of women's lives. Boston: South End Press. Farnsworth, E. B., & Allen, K. R. (1996). Mothers' bereavement: experiences of marginalization, stories of change. Family Relations, 45, 360 ± 367. Fischer, L. R. (1981). Transitions in the mother ± daughter relationship. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 43, 613 ± 622. Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: the social construction of whiteness. London: Routledge. Glenn, E. N. (1986). Issei, nisei, war bride. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Hess, B. B., & Waring, J. M. (1978). Parent and child in later life: rethinking the relationship. In: R. M. Lerner, & G. B. Spanier (Eds.), Child influences on marital and family interaction ( pp. 241 ± 273). New York: Academic Press. Ishii-Kuntz, M. (1997). Intergenerational relationships among Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Americans. Family Relations, 46, 23 ± 32. Iwao, S. (1993). The Japanese woman: traditional image and changing reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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