ABSTRACT
In the United States, most children of Chinese immigrant parentage live in two-parent, nuclear families, with a smaller number in extended families and transnational families. In these various immigrant households, the Confucius values of filial piety, education, hard work, and discipline have been modified to serve as normative behavioral standards for socializing the younger generation. Many Chinese immigrant parents claim that they have sacrificed for their children’s better future in America. They would expect that their children achieve the highest level of education possible, help move the family up to middle-class status, and, most importantly, take care of the parents when they are old and frail. Deviation from these expectations is considered a shame, or a failure, on the part of the family and is thus sanctioned by the family and even the entire ethnic community.
