Values in Migrant Samoan Parenting

Abstract

In the United States, one in four children is raised with at least one immigrant parent (Migration Policy Institute, 2016). Children of immigrant families inhabit developmental niches and experience activity settings that are meaningfully different from their local and native peers (Gallimore, Goldenberg, & Weisner, 1993; García Coll & Marks, 2009; Super & Harkness, 1986). One feature underlying this difference is that of cultural values— trans-situational, affect-laden beliefs concerning desired goals that can motivate action (Schwartz, 2006). Little is understood regarding how children of immigrants develop a value system amid multiple, sometimes competing value systems. In this study, one large immigrant community to Hawai’i—families from Independent Sāmoa and American Sāmoa – are examined using ethnographic methods to understand the role migrant Sāmoan parents have in their children’s value development. The study sketched a thick description (Geertz, 1973) of the cultural values parents want their children to learn. Data came from participant observations in the field and four parent interviews revealing that migrant Sāmoan parents want their children to learn 1) how to be Sāmoan, 2) the primacy of family, and 3) the importance of looking to role models for learning. Interviewees reported that the value of being Sāmoan in a Hawai’i context was mainly organized around language use and participation in Sāmoan traditions. For interviewees, the central components of the value of family were family support, family time, and use of respect scripts in deference to family members. And finally, the value for role modeling was observed and then validated by confirmatory interviews.