Adjustment to the father-child relationship of newly arrived adolescents in Hong Kong

Abstract

The Chinese mainland is the major source of the immigrant population in Hong Kong. Between 1983 and 2004, over 860,000 mainland residents came to settle and join their families in Hong Kong under the One-way Permit Scheme (Security Bureau, 2004). In recent years, many studies of the newly arrived adolescents focus on their adjustment and acculturation problems in families, schools and society. Little research has examined their experiences of adjusting to the fatherchild relationship after long period of paternal separation. This study examines perceptions of father-child relationship among newly arrived adolescents who came from the mainland for family reunion in Hong Kong. It also explores their change in attitudes and behaviour, as well as the risk and resilience factors that influenced their adjustment to the relationship after reunion. A snowball sample of twenty-eight newly arrived adolescents was interviewed. Increase in the frequencies of contact and communication was viewed as the most significant changes in the father-child relationship after family reunion. Changes in their perceptions of father-child conflicts, father’s financial support, paternal styles, and emotional bond were varied. On the whole, the newly arrived adolescents could adjust to the change while reuniting with their father. Evidence shows that the adjustment to the father-child relationship of newly arrived adolescents was influenced by the presence of various risk and resilience factors. The needs for further investigation on father-child relationship and ways to promote intimate father-child relationship among newly arrived families from the Chinese mainland were proposed.