ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dynamics of language brokering by adolescents for their mothers and fathers among immigrant Chinese families in Canada. Language brokering has primarily been measured by examining either the actual behaviors involved in language brokering or the attitudes associated with language brokering. Language brokering is a fairly common experience among children of Asian immigrants. Research has emphasized the importance of the contexts in which language brokering takes place as essential to understanding the links between language brokering and psychological adjustment. The results suggest that language brokering for fathers may present greater challenges than language brokering for mothers. Experiencing negative feelings about language brokering for fathers and mothers was linked to less positive adjustment. The prediction that autonomy-supportive contexts, as defined by Self-determination theory, would modify the relations between language brokering frequency and adjustment was largely unsupported. Additional research is needed to evaluate how the language brokering experience for mothers versus fathers is similar and different.
